Let me begin by saying I have fought this, tooth and nail, for the past 3 years. I didn't want to be carrying around something that was bulky, had a lot of technical demands, and was in short, a self important display of arrogance. It's not like my life is so full of appointments and contacts that I truly needed all the "bells and whistles". I've been chugging along rather nicely with just the basic phone.
Times change - and it was becoming increasingly important to me to be able to check my e-mail, and not spend 25 minutes scrolling through the "forwards" the replies, and other things that just are a part of e-mail, and not really such a hassle on a "real" computer. I wanted a decent camera on my phone, and I didn't want to be hauling around something the size of a paperback book. So, when Sprint released the Centro; I gathered my courage and took a look.
For such a compact phone, it is surprisingly hefty. I was expecting something that would feel flimsy, or go flying out of my pocket. Instead, I've got something that is comfortable in my hand, and has enough weight to it, that I know if I've forgotten it at home. I love the screen, being able to see things, instead of just squinting, or even worse, scrolling and mentally piecing things together; I get the full picture. The keypad is awesome; the keys are big enough for someone to use, raised enough to be identifiable, and fairly logical in it's layout of symbols and options. It took me a few days to adapt to the QWERTY keyboard from utilizing the old text format, but I really do prefer not having to hit the same key 4 times to get the letter I want. Texts are formatted into a "chat" and there doesn't seem to be a limit, so if I've made plans with someone, I'm not texting them back and repeating a question, I can scroll up to where the pertinent data was. It's not a big deal, but it's handy.
The call signal is fantastic. I've lived in the same place for 3 years now, and this has got to be the clearest connection I've gotten with Sprint. I'm a little disappointed in the speed of the network, but since I don't live in a high speed area, I don't hold the carrier accountable on that. The network will update when it's available.
Features - I cannot believe I was living without being able to load contacts from my computer to my phone. It's so easy! And, if my phone gets lost, I haven't lost everything. As I said, I don't have a LOT of contacts, but I hate entering them by hand, and hoping I haven't transposed digits. Scheduling is a breeze; getting the settings to my liking was easy; it is in fact, a very user friendly device. Pictures are easy to sort; the contacts have a lot of options, so I can weed out who I'm looking to call; there's a world clock which is darn convenient for trying to figure out what time it is when my son calls from overseas. I haven't yet gotten the MicroSD card, but I know that when I do, there will be a lot more room for my pictures, music and any videos I might take.
My biggest beef with the Centro, and I freely admit, this is a lame one; is that the status light doesn't blink if you miss a call or text. So, if I'm in the shower, unless I actually pick up the phone and wake it up, I don't know what I've missed. Since only 1 phone I've had in the past (out of 7) had this feature, I know I can adapt. The other issue I have, and I'm not sure if it's the transmission or the encoding or what, but when I e-mail certain symbols, the text that appears on the web is a little funky. No doubt there's a fix for that, I haven't looked.
As an entry level PDA, this is fantastic. It's simple, it's effective and it's affordable. Even a technophobe like me can utilize the software, and feel a little less intimidated by the amount of work one handheld device can accomplish.
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