Upcoming Best Buy Sale Has $49 Centro

Posted By: Kris Keilhack Friday, December 14, 2007 9:55:39 AM

With the final surge of holiday sales prior to Christmas about to commence, good deals are to be had for both conventional PDAs as well as smartphones from a variety of retailers, especially the big brick & mortar chains. The popular new Palm Centro, available exclusively with Sprint for the time being, is about to conclude its first three months on market and discounts on the device are finally starting to appear. A leaked image from the upcoming Best Buy sales circular, dated December 16th-22nd, shows an in-store offer for the Sprint Centro for just a rock-bottom $50 "out the door" price with 2 year contract.

The Best Buy ad mentions the Centro’s full MSRP as $519.99 and a $419.99 instant discount is immediately given and $50 of additional savings sweetens the offer. Previously, the Centro sold from Sprint corporate stores with a $100 mail-in rebate tied to the level of monthly data charges agreed to by the purchaser. The main-in rebate requirement disappeared last month to roughly coincide with the arrival of the Ruby Red Centro in Sprint stores.

This $50 offer from Best Buy is the most attractive deal yet on the Centro. Palm's recent announcement that they will be offering an update at some point in the future to enable Google Maps location-finder capabilities on the Centro makes the device an even more appealing prospect.

Pricing on the Sprint webstore reveals both that the black and red versions priced at their usual $99.99, so the nod definitely goes to Best Buy for those wanting to nab a Centro in the coming week.

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Outrageously expensive!

SeldomVisitor @ 12/14/2007 1:32:48 PM #

Why pay $50 for what "they" will GIVE you $50 to take!?

-- http://www.letstalk.com/product/product.htm?prId=33379

RE: Outrageously expensive!

hkklife @ 12/14/2007 5:24:59 PM #

Many, MANY folks----young'uns and curmudgeons alike---absolutely REFUSE to make any kind of "major" purchase such as signing over 2 years of their life to a telco without being able to walk in the store and fondle the device first. Add to that the (perceived?) security of buying from an established brick & mortar retailer and/or the easy returns and the BB RewardZone cashback system and it's still a fairly compelling deal.

Remember, the Centro is a TINY-SCREENED, TINY KEYBOARD device. It would definitely be in one's best interest to fondle it prior to plunking down $ and signing the line on a contract.

P.S. Letstalk.com seems to have had their site's design heavily influenced by Amazon. A mere coincidence?

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

RE: Outrageously expensive!

SeldomVisitor @ 12/17/2007 7:04:39 AM #

> Many, MANY folks----young'uns and curmudgeons alike---absolutely
> REFUSE to make any kind of "major" purchase such as signing over
> 2 years of their life to a telco without being able to walk in
> the store and fondle the device first...

My apologies for not responding to this earlier - this article and comment thread was sorta a "Make a remark and promptly forget the whole thing" to me since I really couldn't care less how much the Centro costs where...

However...

Before using Letstalk to buy those two phones I actually HAD fondled the same phone from a (now former) collegue - and he was the one who suggested Letstalk to me.

Centro

PalmBerry @ 12/14/2007 1:39:38 PM #

If you're looking to Switch, this the time. The Centro is my 5th or 6th Palm and it's awesome... If you like small, this is it. Some people may not like the tiny keys, I had a treo for years and I don't mind the smaller keys.

Listening the Press Reports about Palm's demise, I (Stupidly) switched to a Sprint Mogul & Windows Mobile. Journalists are idi*ts! The Mogul was the worst phone I've ever owned in every respect. The Phone was terrible, Windows Mobile is a joke. I've never had a worse experience... Windows 95 was better.

Enough about that, I ordered my "replacement" phone after 3 long, painful months. I was going to go back to the Treo (which looked tons better after the Mogul), but read the reviews and played with the Centro in the store.

I don't look at it as cheap replacement for a Treo. I look at it as an upgrade. I love the smaller size.... and believe it or not, it's Faster!

With internet service, I now sync my Avantgo (w/PalmInfoCenter) over the air now. I only need to manually sync my contact list once or twice a month now.

My advice if you on the fence.... GO FOR IT! .... YOU CAN DO IT! (I'm not the RA RA kind of guy, but after the Mogul, it's like a get out jail free card!)

RE: Centro

rpa @ 12/15/2007 6:15:50 AM #

Thx for the positive feedback. Now waiting for the unlocked GSM version as I am in Hong Kong.

rpa
Palm Pilot >> Palm Tungsten E user

Great Deal!

bulls96 @ 12/14/2007 1:47:20 PM #

WOW! i do hope this enlarges the Palm community a little bit so developers won't leave us.

Thats one hell of a deal!!! Was starting to wonder when the centro was going to show up at Best Buy.

RE: Great Deal!

joad @ 12/14/2007 2:58:48 PM #

...it'll show up at Worst Buy as soon as they figure out how to sell you their mandatory "extended warranty" and/or have their "receipt checkers" (or managers) assault you after buying it. Horrible company in my experience, many employees appear to be trained straight out of Chappelle's "Popcopy" video. They must hold their recruiting fairs at prison release gates - I've NEVER visited a chain that was so aggressively violent toward their *paying* customers (observed at several stores, so it's consistent).

Seriously - even though it's nice to see Palm expanding their product presence at retail locations, spend your money anywhere but BB even if you need to pay the entire $99.

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**Another vote for a >100MB RAM Treo**

Details?

pempey @ 12/14/2007 2:45:22 PM #

Link to image or reference?

- Will it require in-store activation? (ie. can you buy it for a gift and activate it after x-mas?)
- Black only? Or will they get red?

RE: Details?

Ryan @ 12/14/2007 3:50:04 PM #

We just added a rough scan of the ad, a better one will come soon...

http://www.palminfocenter.com/ss.asp?f=bb-centro-sale-l.jpg

RE: Details?

SeldomVisitor @ 12/14/2007 3:54:49 PM #

A full hundred bucks more expensive than that very reliable site mentioned in the first comment.

Why?

[ob-disclosure - I am a quite satisfied customer of Letstalk, if you can call someone who got two phones free from there a customer...]

RE: Details?

Nau @ 12/16/2007 9:38:51 PM #

> I am a quite satisfied customer of Letstalk

I had never heard of Letstalk until you mentioned them, but resellerratings.com says their average satisfaction rating is very low.

Now-OT: RE: Details?

SeldomVisitor @ 12/17/2007 6:59:36 AM #

While that complaint site is interesting, my personal experience with Letstalk was superlative - I online surfed over to LetsTalk, ordered, and received exactly what I ordered (2 new SE520As) within a very short period of time (like days?). The phones worked, the phone numbers worked, I was and remain a Happy Camper still almost two years after the event.

That is to say, =my= experience with Letstalk.com has been exactly as I would want with any online website.

[BTW - note that Best Buy, the store mentioned in this PIC article, was rated much worse than Letstalk...and, as noted in my comment above, sells the Centro for a full hundred bucks more than Letstalk]