Blackberry Or Palm Centro?
June 8, 2008 · Print This Article
Considering a smart-phone? Two major competitors in this area are the Blackberry and Palm. One question I’ve been asked is “what is the difference between the two?” Aside from technical differences it might help to think of the devices as having different lineages that affect them.
The Palm was originally a PDA (personal data assistant). This means it was an attempt to replace your paper address book, calendar, notepad, and to-do list, with an electronic device. It didn’t have a phone or internet access. These were later additions.
The Blackberry was originally a strong email and phone device. It had an address book and other PDA software, but its software wasn’t as sophisticated as the Palm in that area.For example, one major difference between the two devices is that the Palm Centro has the Palm OS support for categories in the calendar and contacts. The Blackberry does not support this feature. If you make an appointment on your palm you could assign a color based on whether it is a personal versus a business appointment.The Blackberry, on the other hand, because of it’s longstanding support for email, is incredibly easy to configure for a new email account. The Blackberry OS also does little things that show how it has been refined over the years. If you are typing in an email address, you only need to type “name” space key “server” space key “com” to enter name@server.com because the software knows that a “@” goes after the name and a “.” goes between the server and com.So if comparing a Blackberry versus a Palm Centro, It might help to think about how these devices were originally conceived. Do you do live by email? Or does color coding your calendar excite you?.Update: Please consider visiting my new site at palmpre.digitalblade.com
I have a Blackberry 8700G, which smartphone do you use?
I have a number of phones, but my preferred device, particularly for e-mail has been, and still is, my unlocked BlackBerry 8700c. Started with it a few years ago on (then) Cingular, unlocked it, and ported the number to T-Mobile. I also have a BlackBerry Pearl, but it’s hard to beat the full, spacious keyboard on the 8700. I have been considering a move to Sprint and the Centro (for a number of reasons), but I think I’ll stick with what I have, and hope that nationwide 3G and the BlackBerry Thunder land on T-Mo in the not so distant future.
I think the first thing a person would have to do is ask themselves this vital question: “Do I want a phone… or do I want a device?”
A blackberry (pick a number) is a great phone. A stable, dependable phone.
The Centro, however, is a d e v i c e -not a “phone”. The Blackberry is a tricked-out mobile phone but the Centro -a mini computer system, with phone capabilities -as a side benefit.
In truth, a pain-in-the-neck though it can be, you can do things with the Palm Centro that you couldn’t begin to do, with a Blackberry anything or even most phones for that mattter -including the boastful iphone.
I believe the Blackberry to be a more stable phone, but there’s nothing you can put in it to make it able to take at least 5 pictures, layer them one on top of the other, cut away the parts you don’t want from each layer, adjust color, merge the pics together and then upload it to wherever you want. A mere phone can’t do that. You can’t install anything in a blackberry to make it able to do that. It’s a phone.
With a Centro running the right software, you can record a sound, take that sound and create different versions of it by adding effects redrawing it, cutting it, reversing it and so on, build a composition with it and then render that composition as a CD quality wave file to add to your playlist.
It’s just ridiculous what the Palm Centro can do in the right hands, with the right software. Software, that simply isn’t available, for a Blackberry.
You simply cannot compare a sports car, with a helicopter. No matter how much “better” the new sporty phones are, the old Palm based devices can take you places that most “phones”, simply cannot go.
This leads into the next big question: What exactly do you want to do with what you would get?
I think people who are looking for ease of use with a limited learning curve would do best with a Blackberry. People looking for a digital utility knife, would do better with a Centro.
Centro User