Launched today, AT&T are describing their white Palm Centro as ideal for an entire spectrum of users, from the “plain mobile phoner” and on up from there. More specifically, I think that this is totally the ideal device for the user who is just now moving up from the standard mobile phone into the smartphone realm. The Centro also claims to be the smallest and lightest GSM smartphone of all, which basically wraps all that device into standard mobile phone size dimensions.

Users will find that the Centro, as a cellphone, has all the features of a standard phone as well as advanced features such as conference calling and Push to Talk. Saving contacts is really simple and there is a function (which can be turned on and off) to let the user set up a contact directly after ending a call with a dialed number. The contacts screen is a lot more in depth than other devices, but surprisingly easy to navigate through when doing initial contact saving. The Centro includes a full QWERTY keyboard for messaging, emailing, chatting, etc. It also has threaded-chat text messaging, instant messaging on Yahoo!, AIM, and Windows Live Messenger all at once, and MMS support.

A big feature of the Centro is a side button dedicated to the Push to Talk system. AT&T boasts the largest Push to Talk network coverage area in America, and you can use the phone as a walkie-talkie and talk to as many as 29 people at one time. ID status icons indicate the availability of family and friends before you call.

Email and web browsing are made simple as well, with connectivity to all popular email services such as Gmail, Yahoo!, AOL, etc., not to mention contact and calendar syncing with Outlook. You can navigate the web to get a weather report or check movie times as well as read the news and play on MySpace. Navigation is either via the touch screen or the five way navigator pad above the keyboard. The Centro even comes with parental controls, in case your own little gadget-lover gets their hands on your new toy.

It’s a good thing, as some of the toys the Centro packs are pretty sweet, too. From the get-go you can share songs with Napster and Yahoo!, and there’s a music ID application for holding the phone up to a speaker and identifying which song is playing (It surprisingly identified some pretty unique music – I had to go pretty deep to trick it). Photos (from the 1.3 megapixel camera) can be shared via MMS or email, saved in a digital album on the Centro itself, or uploaded to a web-based gallery. The Centro comes with an XM Satellite Radio application straight out of the box. Furthermore, users can visit the AT&T Mall and shop for ringtones, wallpapers, graphics and more. The TeleNav GPS system is there for directions, maps and points of interest.

The Palm Centro really has very few drawbacks for me. The buttons are pretty small, even for a baby. I seemed to get around this by using the touch screen as much as possible. The screen itself is a little recessed which caused a little bit of dust build up within a day (this drives me nuts). I read some previews of people complaining about the green keyboard, but I personally like it as it separates the number pad from the full keyboard on such tiny little buttons. The battery life, however, was surprisingly good. I really like the phone, and the price ($99 after rebates) is definitely competitive.

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