Seidio Announces New Centro Extended Battery
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.
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.
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RE: I'll wait for an extended that fits in stock cover
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
No Way
RE: No Way
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
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I'll wait for an extended that fits in stock cover