If you're tired of your aging and bulky smartphone, but don't wish to compromise on the convenience it offers by opting for a more compact model, it’s time to rejoice. The newly introduced Palm Centro could be just the phone for you. If you are a loyal fan of Palm phones and the Palm OS, look no further – the Centro is tailormade for you.

Form Factor

The Palm Centro measures 4.22 × 2.11 × 0.73mm. It's the smallest smartphone offered by Palm till date, and weighs just about 119g. The phone's compact size is one of its major advantages and will attract both men and women, since it's small and slim enough to fit into a trouser pocket or a small purse with equal ease. It definitely beats the bulky Treo, and is pretty compact considering that it is equipped with a transflective 2.4-inch 320x320 colour touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard.

The 5-way navigation button offers the main browse functionality. 'Talk' and 'End' buttons, shortcuts to the Calendar, Inbox, Phone, and Home Page are very well spaced out, and are easy to use. As far as shortcomings are concerned, the keyboard is cramped and feels as if it's designed for users with either long nails or small fingers. But that's the price one pays for compactness.

A volume leveler can be found on the left side of the handset, while a push-to-talk button, an infrared port and a microSD expansion slot are placed on the right. We were happy to see that the microSD slot is protected by an attached cover, but our glee faded a bit on realising that one cannot open it unless one removes the back cover. To add to the annoyance, the SIM card can be inserted only if the stylus is removed. They could simply have allotted more space for the card holder, which would have made the process of inserting and removing the SIM card much easier.

A slide button on the top lets you switch the phone between mute and ring mode; no longer do you have to unlock the keypad and move through complicated menus. On the bottom of the handset are a 2.5mm headset jack and multi-connector ports. At the back you'd find the camera lens, a self-portrait mirror and the speaker. The camera is not exposed, which will help to keep the lens clean.