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As promised, Palm and Sprint started shipping the entry-level Centro smartphone this week. Although the Palm OS-run Centro sports the Treo's hallmark touch screen and QWERTY thumb-keyboard, it is the first Palm smartphone since the Tungsten W without Treo branding.

At only 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches and 4.2 ounces, Centro is Palm's smallest and lightest smartphone ever. It is also, at $99.99 with a two-year contract, Palm's least costly model yet.

With Centro Palm is targeting the mainstream and the young for the first time with one of its smartphones; or, to put it another way, 95 percent - the vast majority - of mobile phone users.

Centro, which uses CDMA cellular technology for Sprint's wireless network, supports that carrier's high-speed cellular-broadband EV-DO data network. It'll do the same for Verizon Wireless when that carrier starts offering Centro. This will likely happen early in 2008, at the conclusion of Sprint's 90-day exclusivity period.

Additional features include dial-up-networking via Bluetooth, so you can use Centro as a modem to access the Web or corporate network. You can also use Bluetooth to connect to various peripherals, including hands-free kits, wireless headsets, and GPS devices.

The smartphone's 2.2-inch touch screen supports a 320 x 320 pixel resolution and 65,000 colors. That screen is powered by a 1150mAh removable battery Palm promises will supply up to 3.5 hours talk and 3 days standby time.

Centro’s got 64M of internal storage and a microSD slot for up to 4GB additional memory in a single expansion card.

Take picture and video with Centro's 1.3 megapixel 2x digital zoom digital camera. Bundled Pocket Tunes Deluxe software allows you to listen to DRM-protected audio out of the box for the first time with a Palm OS Palm device.

Centro may be small and inexpensive but Palm and Sprint do not skimp when it comes to messaging options. In addition to support for Microsoft Direct Push e-mail through the smartphone's VersaMail application, you can access AOL, MSN, Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo! accounts.

There's also Palm's threaded SMS messaging client, in addition to support for multimedia messaging and AIM, Yahoo, and Windows Live instant messaging.

In addition to the usual array of native Palm OS applications and bundled software from Palm, including the Blazer Web browser and DataViz' Documents to Go Professional 10 mobile office suite, Centro will allow you to access MySpace, YouTube, SprintTV for live and on-demand video, Yelp and Google Maps!; all of which should perform smoothly over Sprint's EV-DO network.

To take advantage of all of Centro's capabilities you must sign up for a data plan, which Sprint calls Sprint Power Vision packs. They range from $15 to $30 per month. The $30 a month plan includes unlimited text messaging, data access, Web browsing, e-mail, Sprint Picture Mail/Video Mail, On Demand, NFL Mobile, Sprint TV and Active Sync.

Although Centro is entry-level, it sports the same number of features as any of Palm's other Palm-platform smartphones.