Palm Centro combines touch screen, keyboard and ease of use

After recently announcing the sale of its one-millionth Palm Centro in the United States, Palm Inc. introduced its popular smartphone in the Philippines.

With voice, text, e-mail, Web, contact and calendar capabilities, a colorful touch screen and full keyboard, the glacier white Centro brings Palm simplicity and organization to users who want to stay connected with friends, family and co-workers.

“Centro is the perfect choice for anyone thinking about stepping up to a smartphone — it’s rich in features but also comes in a small, cool design,” said Olivier Rozay, Palm’s regional director for the Asia-Pacific.

“The combination of keyboard, touch screen and Palm’s trademark ease of use makes Centro ideal for staying in touch,” he said.

Centro is the smallest and lightest Palm phone to date, with a modern, stylish look that feels comfortable in the hand, and discreetly fits in a pocket or clutch.

Users can keep track of social engagements, check stock quotes and stay up-to-date on the date on the latest news — all in one small, fun compact phone.

Centro comes with Palm OS, which offers all of the great organizer functionality for which Palm is renowned, such as a detailed and integrated contacts list.

The calendar makes it easier to manage increasingly busy lives, whether it’s juggling business meetings or keeping track of drinks with friends.

Centro is also highly customizable, with thousands of applications available to help users with everything from maintaining a healthy eating plan to keeping track of golf handicaps or personal expenses.

Palm Centro’s additional features and benefits are the following:

• Superior phone — Centro’s color touch screen and full QWERTY keyboard, combined with the simplicity of Palm OS, make it easy to use, with key features such as one-touch speakerphone, conference calling, ignoring a call with text messaging, and Bluetooth connectivity.

• Easy messaging – Centro’s full keyboard makes typing complete messages fast and easy when sending text, pictures, audio and video clips. Plus, Centro keeps all conversations in a chat-style view, just like Instant Messaging, so users can see the entire conversation unfold.

• Personal and work e-mail — New users to the smartphone world now have an easy mobile e-mail solution. Personal e-mail such as Gmail and Yahoo! is simple to access right out of the box. And if users have to check their work e-mail, Microsoft Direct Push Technology gives them access to their corporate e-mail, as well as the ability to automatically update work calendars and accept or decline meeting invites, all on the go.

• Web browsing — The full keyboard and color touch screen provide quick access to online information and allow users to directly feed their personal blogs. The built-in Google Maps application offers fast access to maps, directions and local searches.

• Multimedia — Pocket Tunes on Centro lets users “sideload” songs and manage music, audio books and videos easily. Users can also shoot pictures or videos with the built-in digital camera and share them with friends.

The Palm Centro smartphone is available at a recommended retail price of P17,490 (inclusive of tax) at all major IT retailers.