Comparing the Palm Treo 650 and Palm Centro
My trusty Treo 650 died last week, so it was time for a new phone.
I wanted to compare the Palm Centro and the Helio Ocean side by side. I was really interested in the Ocean, but alas - I could not find an actual working model to play with in any of the three Portland area stores carrying Helio devices that I visited. The non-working floor demo models gave me a good idea of the side of the keyboard of the Ocean, and I realized that it would be nearly impossible to type on the Ocean with just one hand, which is not an uncommon situation I find myself in.
So I ended up ordering the Centro, which was really the easier and less expensive option. The Centro feels like a whole new phone compared to my Treo 650. It is so much smaller than the Treo 650. After two and a half years with the 650, I had gotten used to it's size, and now the Centro feels tiny by comparison. It can even fit in the mobile phone pocket of my pants, something that the Treo 650 could never do. It's mobile phone sized, not smartphone sized. And that's a good thing.
While the keyboard and screen are both smaller, they still seem usable, and worth the tradeoff for smaller phone size. My one complaint so far (and I've only had it for less than 24 hours) is that the touchscreen seems less responsive than the touchscreen on the Treo 650. On the other hand, the surfing the web is much faster.
On the whole, it is an exciting improvement over my old Treo 650, even if the Palm OS hasn't had any major updates.
But I'm still watching OpenMoko with excitement. An open source phone? With a 640x480 resolution screen? Sounds sweet. I just hope they add-on a compact Palm-style keyboard in a slider design.
I wanted to compare the Palm Centro and the Helio Ocean side by side. I was really interested in the Ocean, but alas - I could not find an actual working model to play with in any of the three Portland area stores carrying Helio devices that I visited. The non-working floor demo models gave me a good idea of the side of the keyboard of the Ocean, and I realized that it would be nearly impossible to type on the Ocean with just one hand, which is not an uncommon situation I find myself in.
So I ended up ordering the Centro, which was really the easier and less expensive option. The Centro feels like a whole new phone compared to my Treo 650. It is so much smaller than the Treo 650. After two and a half years with the 650, I had gotten used to it's size, and now the Centro feels tiny by comparison. It can even fit in the mobile phone pocket of my pants, something that the Treo 650 could never do. It's mobile phone sized, not smartphone sized. And that's a good thing.
While the keyboard and screen are both smaller, they still seem usable, and worth the tradeoff for smaller phone size. My one complaint so far (and I've only had it for less than 24 hours) is that the touchscreen seems less responsive than the touchscreen on the Treo 650. On the other hand, the surfing the web is much faster.
On the whole, it is an exciting improvement over my old Treo 650, even if the Palm OS hasn't had any major updates.
But I'm still watching OpenMoko with excitement. An open source phone? With a 640x480 resolution screen? Sounds sweet. I just hope they add-on a compact Palm-style keyboard in a slider design.