Originally Posted by
mtnbud
I also only have a simple pay as you go plan. My phone costs me $20 every 3 months, so $6.33 a month. I was thinking about doing what you're doing and buying a smart phone with GPS, but not activating it. I was wondering if there's any problems with doing this? Does a phone need a sim card for the WiFi to work? How about the GPS? I've toured for over 20 years without using GPS, but the idea of having GPS with downloaded maps is very appealing.
I found a smart phone on Amazon for $99 with free shipping. It says it's got an Android 4.2 operating system. WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, with a MTK 6572 processor . (2G only)
Just jump in there get a phone and start playing with it. That's what I did. I've learned a lot.
These smartphones are amazing little devices even if you don't want to make calls with it.
I'm new to the smartphone-as-no-service-device thing but I don't think you need to have a SIM card to make it work on wifi/gps, etc. I haven't checked but I don't think my LG Marquee has a sim card in it. It does not have cell service but it was still looking for cell towers, showing bars. I put it in airplane mode so it would stop doing that as it drains the battery. I only turn wifi on when I'm going to use it as well. In general it seems that battery life in smartphones is not great, compared to the simple flip phones. If you use your smartphone moderately during that day you'll probably have to charge it at night.
I do favor the phones that have replaceable batteries. Not all smartphones do. I got two new batteries for my LG Marquee ($5 each on ebay). The ZTE Flash I just ordered has a replaceable battery. And not all have a microSD card slot. The Flash will take up to 64gb. That's a lot of images and background maps!
I know I'm such a newbie: when I started taking pictures with my LG Marquee I noticed that when I put the phone on wifi at home (or where ever) afterwards that it automatically sent the photos to my Dropbox and to my Picasa (google pictures album). The pictures are on the camera too, but it's a nice automatic backup. It's a settings in the camera and i suppose it could be set to send them where ever you want. Nifty.