About a year ago I acquired my Dell Axim x51v through some dramatic last-second bidding on eBay and officially joined the mobile community. While I was happily tapping along with my fabulous WinMo PDA, I was also lugging around a series of forgettable feature phones. And a pager. And a stethoscope. And a reflex hammer. And scissors, tape, bandages, suture kits, a tuning fork, half a pack of pens, a penlight, keys, wallet, logbooks, and God only knows what else. I’m not in the hospital any more, but my shoulders ache thinking about it. Let’s just say I was starting to get jealous of the people with converged gadgets — even if everyone said their Mogul was a headache, and the Treo was uglier than a naked mole rat.

Last week, out of the blue, I got a call from Sprint, the carrier for those forgettable feature phones. Who knows why — maybe my "corporate" discount through school, maybe my "customer loyalty" while Sprint is hemorrhaging clients. Anyway, the woman put on her Marlon Brando and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Sprint has an okay upgrade program, but to get a decent deal you have to keep a phone for two years. I was getting tired of my phone but I’d upgraded ten months ago, so I wasn’t remotely close to being eligible. Technically. The Sprint rep offered me anything in their lineup for what they charge brand new customers.

Hmmm.

"A smartphone might be nice," I mused. I’ve been coveting the Touch ever since it came to Sprint… Oooh. My wallet can’t take that kind of dent. "But the Centro is a great phone," the rep said. There happened to be one lying about two feet from me — a review unit on loan from Palm PR — but I didn’t mention that. Me: "Yeah, I’ve heard good things." And I like my review unit. Rep: "I can get you one for $99.99." That’s more like it. Yes, I know AT&T has been offering lower prices, but I’m not on AT&T. Besides, we’re talking what is officially a $400 phone, here. Me: "I want the pink one."

So, within 24 hours, I went from my awesome but discontinued standalone PDA running an outdated OS (although, um, hopefully not for long) plus a dinky feature phone to an adorably cute converged device that nicely handles calls, email, texting, media, etc. and, ironically, also runs an outdated OS. Which happens to be Palm. Well, you can’t have everything.

Not that I’m abandoning the Axim, or Windows Mobile. How could you think that? For one thing, the Ax has a GPS package. Plus I have it loaded up with programs, and it has those gorgeous graphics and a lot more raw power. I’ll just be managing my calendar/tasks/contacts, email on the go, and portable Office documents with the Centro, so the Axim will get eased down from "don’t leave home without it" status. The poor thing will probably appreciate the lighter duties.

If you start hearing the Imperial March and respirator breathing when I talk about my Palm, don’t panic. The Dark Side really isn’t so bad.