I'm sure you love the way your Centro or Treo looks. If not, you probably wouldn't have bothered buying it. But sometimes it's fun to spiff up our devices and make them look different. Before I got my Black AT&T Palm Centro, TreoCentral had sent me a White Centro to check out. At the time, White was the only color available. I've mentioned before that I'm just not one who is crazy over White gadgets, although I was surprised at how good the White Centro actually looked. Those green number keys really set it off too.
I had been reading in the TreoCentral forums a few months ago when the Centro first came out and saw an interesting thread about Skinit. I knew of Skinit because my sister had gotten one for her Palm Zire 72 a few years ago and she just loved it. I was impressed with the Skinit and had checked out their website. Boyhowdy, do they ever have a crapload of designs to choose from! Seeing the cool pics of forum member Kg6bki's Centro with the Simpons Skinit reignited my interest in Skinits. So, I figured that while I had the White Centro in my possession, I'd check out the Skinit website and see what designs might look good.
After much browsing through the incredible number of designs, I found the perfect Skinit; a Green and Black Butterfly. Once I saw that butterfly skin, I knew my search was over.
Design
Skinit makes thousands of designs for thousands of devices. Skinit's home page states that their skins will fit perfectly over 1,500 different wireless handsets, PDAs, iPods, notebook computers, gaming consoles and other devices.
Skinit offers the highest quality and most durable product in the market place. The Scotchprint Graphics 3M logo assures photo quality imaging, residue free removal and air bubble free application. Treo and Centro skins are vinyl skins with adhesive backing. Skinit material contours and is easy to apply and remove.
Skinits not only look great, they also protect your device from nicks and scratches since they provide a thin, photo quality protective membrane.
Application
I found the application process to be fairly easy. The first thing you've got to do is clean the entire surface of your device. You want your device to be as clean as possible. I just used a cleaning cloth and wiped my Centro down and that worked well.
Next, you just peel the different Skinit sections from the backing. Do this slowly and carefully as you'll want to avoid strectching the skin. Start at the corner and gradually peel off a small area at a time.
I started with the front of my Centro. I carefully peeled off the section that would go around my screen. I pulled the vinyl skin slowly so as to not stretch it. I figured that this screen border section would be the easiest of all the sections to accidentally stretch. I had no problems though and applying the skin to my Centro was simple. I just had to carefully line up the edges with the edges around the screen. And I lined up the tiny cutouts for the LED light and the ear speaker. Once those were lined up, I began pressing down on the skin. I carefully smoothed all that out and then pressed down on the side tabs, which were easy.
Next I peeled off the section that goes around the keys on the keypad. This is another section that could easily be stretched if you're not careful.
The keyboard section has a border that goes around the keyboard and sections that go in between each row of keys. This section makes the keyboard on the Centro stand out and looks really nice. And the green in the front section of the Green and Black Butterfly Skinit looks just perfect with the green number keys on the White Centro!
I had no problems applying the keyboard section either and lining up the sections with the keyboard rows was pretty easy.
So the front was all done and I started on the back. The back was the easiest to do because three of the sections were solid and easy to line up. I started with the little section that has the cutouts for the camera lens, portrait mirror, speaker grill, and the word Palm. This was pretty easy to line up as well and the application went quickly. Then I just had to put on the big Butterfly section and the two pieces that go to the left and right of the camera. Piece of cake! I had no problems with any bubbles or anything.
I think the end result is great! I was really pleased with how the Green and Black Butterfly Skinit looked on the White Centro! The Centro sure turned a lot of heads with that Skinit on it. I got lots of compliments on how nice it looked.
Before I sent the White Centro back to Dieter, I took the Skinit sections off and put them on my Black Centro. Hey, that doesn't look too bad either, huh? Nice! I left off the section on the back that goes on the camera and speaker grill. I think that silver part of the Centro looks great with Black so didn't see a reason to cover that up. And I also didn't see a need to put the small sections that go to the left and right of the camera on either since they're Black like that part of the Centro.
Conclusion
I highly recommend Skinit skins! Skinits are such a fun and easy way to dress up your Treo or Centro. There are a number of designs to choose from, plus you can create your own designs. I've already got my eye on some other Skinit designs that I'll probably buy soon for my Treo 750.
Skinits are priced at $14.95 and that's a fair price for creating a whole new look for your device. Plus Skinits protect your device from nicks and scratches. What's not to like? Go check out Skinit and see if you can find your skin. ;-)
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| Pros |
Cool designs
Many choices
Includes keyboard area skin
Not too hard to put on
Protects device from scratches
Residue free removal
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| Cons |
| (Design your own Skinit) instructions a little complicated |
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