New Shiny

I am a geek, but I am a cheap geek. I cannot afford to spend large amounts of money on toys. Even if I could, I am not sure I would spend $200+ on a smart phone/PDA phone.

My Palm Tungsten E (I am a Palm snob) is three plus years old and is under powered. My freebie cell phone from Cingular (now At&T) was acting up (dropping it on concrete a few times will do that) and the menus were a bit garbled. It was evident that I needed a new phone and a new PDA, so after careful examination of my available funds and my current needs, I decided on the Palm Centro (Electric Blue). It is a lot smaller than I thought. The CNET employee who reported on this must have tiny hands.

To be honest, it has a lot of things I will never use because I don't have a data account. What I really needed was a replacement for my failing Palm T|E and a phone in one unit so I would have less to keep up with. Oddly enough it was my wife who suggested it.

I got a refurbed Centro for $49. While not a stellar deal, I like what I see so far. I do not know how well the battery will last, but it is rated pretty well and according to CNET it exceeded expectations. Go Palm!

First impressions:

The Good - It is a tad faster than my T|E. Simple Palm navigation helps a lot. Being able to dial from my contacts list is nice. It appears to run all my old apps (paid and freeware). It feels solid. It is "pocket friendly". It is much louder than my T|E or my Samsung phone.

The Bad - The stylus is pretty flimsy...I much prefer the metal one on ny T|E. The screen and the keyboard are both small. It will take some getting used to.

I will post a review of it a little later when I have had time to play with it more. Hey, it has been less than 24 hours...cut me some slack!