Seidio Announces New Centro Extended Battery

Posted By: Kris Keilhack Thursday, June 5, 2008 10:01:52 AM

One of the biggest compromises entailed by the Centro's relatively small size relative to its Treo brethren is the reduced battery life. With only a small 1150mAh stock battery, the Centro offers the smallest stock battery of any Palm smartphone yet, less than the 1200mAh of the older Treo 680 and 750. Palm did briefly announce, release, and then almost immediately EOL their own branded extended battery earlier this year.

Fortunately, longtime Palm accessory specialist Seidio, suspiciously silent on the Centro battery front, has just announced an extended battery designed exclusively for the Palm Centro. While this new offering from Seidio unfortunately doesn't fit under the stock battery door, it does offer a whopping 2600mAh of power (an increase of almost 40%) while remaining the same approximately physical size as Palm's 1800 mAh battery. For comparison purposes, 2600mAh is the capacity of the largest Seidio battery that fits the stock battery cover of the Treo 650 and 700p/w/wx.

Seidio Centro Extended Battery

The new Seidio Centro battery does extend the thickness of the Centro by ~5mm and requires the included "rumpshaker" replacement battery door to be installed. The replacement door is, for the time being, offered only in black. It is fully compatible with Seidio's rubberized holster. Seidio has the battery in stock and available for purchase now for $49.95 plus shipping.

Unconfirmed reports online have offered speculation that Seidio has somehow been "locked out" of making an OEM-size extended battery for the Centro and new Treos (800w & 850). So Palm may conceivably be working their own branded higher-capacity OEM-sized battery for the Centro and the upcoming 800w and 850.

Article Comments

 (4 comments)

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.

Start a new Comment Down

I'll wait for an extended that fits in stock cover

JackG @ 6/6/2008 10:29:07 AM # Q
While I appreciate the efforts of Seidio here, a bumpy back cover like that just totally defeats a major draw of the Centro: size and appearance. That cover just looks ugly. I can see the biggest power users being interested, but I will stay with the option I chose of an extra battery with a charger that has a battery charging slot. When Seidio (or Palm) issues an extended battery that fits inside the stock cover, I'm all over it (providing they don't have an unreasonable price attached).

RE: I'll wait for an extended that fits in stock cover
hkklife @ 6/6/2008 11:13:09 AM # Q
I am absolutely flabbergasted that no one (Seidio, Palm etc) has maanged to get a mildly boosted OEM-size Centro battery on the market. Even a mild bump up to 1300 or 1400 mAh would make for a considerable improvement. If it is indeed imposslbe for anyone to engineer a higher-capacity, same-size battery for the Centro, then Palm either made the device too small for serious usage and/or dropped the ball in regards to their miniaturization efforts.

Palm's already lowered the bar in regards to shrinking keyboard sizes (since the 680/750/755) & diminised screen sizes (since the Centro) and less usable SD card formats (since the 750/755). Now we can look forward to constantly declining battery life with Palm's new 1150mAh "default" battery attached to increasingly more powerful hardware.

Go get 'em, Palm!

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

Reply to this comment

No Way

tekhnogod @ 6/11/2008 9:36:18 AM # Q
Centro = perfect size, Centro + Seidio Extended Battery = Treo 650 (way too big). Thats exactly how I feel about this "rumpshaker". If the battery offered at least 25% more capacity and fit under the OEM battery cover, I would definitely buy it!.

RE: No Way
hkklife @ 6/11/2008 10:49:42 AM # Q
The Palm apologists will of course tar & feather me for saying this, but I think the Centro's lack of an OEM-sized high capacity battery is COMPLETELY artifical.

One theory has Palm "locking out" Seidio & others from making an OEM-sized aftermarket battery. This is entirely possible and wouldn't surprise me that much. But then it begs the question why Palm won't release their own Palm-branded OEM-size extended capacity battery?

I personally think that it CAN be done (if small Seidio can do it for the 750 & 680 then certainly Palm can do it for the Centro) but Palm's not wanting to do it so as to maintain more reasons for the various Treos to remain viable and on the market.

Let's face it, I'd take a 755p over a Centro as I am a power user and want the biggest possible screen/keyboard/battery.....but is the 755p worth 3-4x as much as the Centro w/ contract or ~$200 more at full retail pricing? Doubtful.

I also think Palm is intentionally keeping the Centro "semi-crippled" (no ROM updates, no Google Maps functionality, no extended capacity small size battery etc) in order to make the new 800w & 850 and, if Colligan's not blowing smokes up our arses, any future FrankenGarnet-based Centro successors more appealing.



Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

Reply to this comment
Start a New Comment Thread Top

Account

Register Register | Login Log in
user:
pass: