AT A LONDON event this week Palm launched the sub £200 contract-free Centro – a touch screen, full keyboard, Palm OS based Smartphone.

It’s aimed at "individuals and traditional mobile phone users looking for a better way to manage their social and professional lives" – or so the marketing blurb reads.

This is the smallest Palm Smartphone today being just 107.2 x 53.5 x 18.6mm. Its features list runs with the offerings of voice, text, email, web, contact and calendar, together with a full-colour 320x320-pixel touch screen and full qwerty keyboard.

Other features on the phone are quote as being quad band, but only 2.5G, up to 4 hrs talk time/ 300 hours standby and a 1.3 megapixel on-board camera.

"Consumers who are thinking about stepping up to use a Smartphone will find Centro the perfect first choice, offering so many ways to keep in touch – it’s rich in features in a small, cool design," oozed Roy Bedlow, Palm's EMEA veep.

The phone was first launched in the US back in October on the Sprint network, but there’s currently no network associated with it the UK and only one in mainland Europe.

The only European network offering this phone so far is L'Orange en France, with a white shell instead of the black seen in the regular models.

At the launch event, we were all given a sample model [I'll have that when you're finished with it - Ed] to review, together with an Orange gift bag – so perhaps the future is bright in the UK. [One more joke that feeble and you're fired - Ed]. µ

L’Inq
euro.palm.com