As we reported recently, our very own TreoCentral forum member cheesehead007 had placed his order for a Verizon Centro over the phone. Well, cheesehead007's shiny new toy arrived on Wednesday! Here are a couple of his unboxing pics. Congrats cheesehead007!
Kind of funny that Verizon hasn't even officially announced a launch of the Centro and some people are already ordering and receiving one. ;-) I did just now read over at Reuters that the The Wall Street Journal reported early today that Palm will sell its $99 Centro smartphone through Verizon Wireless giving the smartphone maker access to Verizon's 67.2 million subscribers.
Plus forum member bulls96 posted this smallcapcenter.com link as "more proof that the Verizon Centro is coming Friday". When you click on the link, this is what you'll see:
Anyway, here are cheesehead007's first impressions:
JUST got started with the Centro... been a busy evening.
Different vs. 755p - PTunes is 'deluxe' edition... (I think 755p was 'basic' edition)... Astraware Sudoku was included & preinstalled, as was VoiceSignal voice dialing (2.0.55.0).
Did a BRIEF amount of browsing, and got a few proxy errors... odd. Also, when browsing to the Accuweather bookmark (preinstalled), it had a "Latest motoring news on your Centro/Gryphon" ad link at the top of the page.
In my highly unscientific, side-by-side RSSI testing, I can't discern a difference in signal strength between the two devices.
Now I'm off to install a bazillion apps and about 12 years worth of data. ;-)
Forum member eTard posted early this morning that he too has gotten his hands on a Verizon Centro. He walked into a local store and picked one up despite the Centro not being on the floor nor ready for sale until Friday the 13th. He said that he "just got the right store/cool people/manager." Sweet! Congrats to you too eTard!
eTard also provided some details:
NO, I repeat, NO 29.99 data plan. That is only for the Blackberry. This phone requires a 45.00 Plan. Period. So, I got that plan to get the $100 Data Credit, and will be canceling tomorrow
I got this deal.. $269.99 -$100 for Ne2 - $100 data credit = $69.99 BUT then they did the 70 rebate right there on the spot... did not have to send in. The rebate form shows it ends on June 15.. so I wanted to buy before then. so I walked out paying the 30 in taxes for the phone (required in CA) and that is all. nothing more! no rebate to send in!
It is a standard 1150mAh battery
Yes... it works with the Ford Sync system (except for text messaging)! Yippiee!!
My signal strength - in home office - seems about the same
System OS is Garnet 5.4.9, CENTRO-1.02-VZW, Hardware A
$30?! Now that's a sweet deal! Nice getting that rebate on the spot and not having to deal with the hassle of sending it in. I would guess that many people never bother with those rebate forms and just prefer to take a small loss to get the product then and there. I imagine that people will be spilling into the Verizon stores come Friday to be able to take advantage of getting such a deal. Everyone won't be able to get the great deal that eTard got though since it would depend on your current plan, like eTard's -$100 for Ne2 and -$100 for data credit.
So there you go. Some great news and nice details for those of you who are waiting to get your hands on the Centro from Verizon. I guess it's just one more day until it'll be "official" according to what we've heard and seen ;-).
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