I use an iPhone and my wife uses a Blackberry, so I don't have any really current advice.
But I used to (a year ago) have fairly good luck with Outlook synchronization with a couple of different Samsung phones. Most specifically the Samsung Sync. They would have been GSM phones.
Samsung has a free software suite that handles syncing calendars & contacts (it's own address book/calendar, Outlook, or Palm Desktop, I think), uploading ringtones, up/downloading photos, etc. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good. It would occasionally do some really weird things with my calendar entries though, so I didn't sync all that often. I can only assume that it would work with a CDMA Samsung phone.
Going further back in time, I used to have a couple of Nokia phones. If I recall correctly, there was a Nokia software suite as well that would allow syncing to Outlook. I can't remember if it worked all that well, but it's been several years.
I would bet you dollars to donuts that the overall sync experience will be far superior using the Centro or the Q. Both of which were designed from the beginning to sync with your PC. Rather than the somewhat clumsy work-arounds that a 'dumb' phone will be.
And no, you shouldn't incur any sort of data charges if you're just syncing with your desktop PC via a USB cable (or whatever).
