Palm’s Centro has been advertised as being especially small(for a smartphone). So far, going teeny-tiny was not Palm’s special strength(look, e.g., at some Asus devices over at TamsPPC) - did they manage to shrink competitively?
Next to a Treo 680, the Centro indeed is a bit less wide. However, one immediately sees that Palm made the rim around the screen significantly wider - not a good sign:
The screen of a Palm TX alone is almost as big as the entire Centro…but the TX is a nice bit slimmer:
GSPDA’s M70 still is a tiny bit smaller from the front, but is a bit thicker and ‘blockier’:
Both of my fliphones(Nokia N71 and QTek 8500) are a bit smaller - but the thickness score is different. N71 is fatter, Qtek’s 8500 aka the’Anti-RAZR’ is (much) slimmer.
Last but not least, the Centro was also put head-to-head with a rx4240 and an iPod touch:
In the end, Palm’s designers indeed managed to make the unit yet another bit smaller(not too much though) - but for what price? Tune in soon to find out what compromises the boys had to make, as the next part of our Centro review is coming soon!
