The Centro and I got to know each other very well over the festive season. It walked down the high street with me, came on holiday, organised my pre-Xmas parties for me and wished my friends and family a Happy Xmas and a Merry New Year. All this as my Nokia decided to die on me a week before Christmas. The Palm Centro served me very well during this period though I'm fairly sure it's not going to dim my yearning for the new N97.

The first thing Alex said was to ask me to read the instructions and to her utter surprise, I did!  This was originally because I didn't want to be carrying the instruction booklet while on holiday, however I was very glad I did read it. There are a lot of tips in the booklet that aren't necessarily apparent while using the phone, plus I found more user tips online. The Centro is packed with shortcuts and menu instructions to make life easier.  I was quite impressed with the instruction booklet for other reasons as well.  It is obviously aimed at people like myself, ie: people who still think phones are for calling people. All the instructions are very clear, very easy to follow and come with diagrams. I was happy.

The Centro is a QWERTY keypad Smartphone. Not being used to a QWERTY it took me a few days to get the hang of it. This wasn't helped by the Centro's tiny rounded buttons. The instructions suggest to hold the phone with two hands and to use both thumbs. After a week of trying I eventually concluded that this really was the best idea. This isn't a keypad to use while running for the bus, or if distracted by something else. It really does need your attention. If that sounds too much for you, there is also a touchpad keyboard available as well. As I discovered (in the instructions - go me!), pressing [menu] [k] brings a tiny little keyboard up on screen, which is best used with the stylus.  Dialling in numbers is a much easier task.  Not only can you use the keypad, but the touch screen number pad is a lot bigger and can be dialled using fingers alone.

Apparently the Centro is quite small for a Palm phone, yet in the hand it's much the same size as my now deceased Nokia. Being black and silver in colour it has a smaller screen than what you'd expect, blissfully large Dial and Applications buttons, a 5-way navigator for getting around the screen and a mute button at the top of the phone.

Inside the phone it has all the usual applications like Calendar, Google Maps, Camera (1.3mp) and Web access. It also has 9 different Calculators, Pre-installed MS Documents, a Voice Recorder and World Maps. The Centro also has the ability to turn the phone off while leaving the organisational functions still running, like the calendar. This would be very useful in planes or if you're just trying to avoid calls.

If you intend to use the Centro just for making calls, texting your friends and keeping a calendar then this would be a good phone for that too. The Calendar is easily accessed from the front panel of the phone, the Contacts page is very user-friendly, and the messages in your inbox are kept in a 'chat' format.

For ease of use I would give the Centro quite a high score, particularly if you're new to Smartphones. If you're the sort who spends their life sending out text messages at high speed then you want to try out the Centro's keypad before you purchase this phone. All in all, quite a good phone for your average user.

The Centro retails at £199.00 SIM free, and is available from Palm