Using as a PDA with no data plan?

[JeffinCA]

I have a PDA and a prepaid cell phone. The PDA is ancient and annoying, so I am looking to replace it with an Android device.

I do not need, or even want, a phone/data plan that costs ~$50 per month. I am quite satisfied with the cell phone costing me only $15 every 90 days.

The PDA functions I need are Outlook sync for Contacts & Calendar, GPS for my CoPilot nav software (it pre-loads map data in memory), video for TV shows or movies I watch while traveling and occasional WiFi.

There are many Android smartphones for sale on eBay that state "Bad ESN" and warn that the phone can only be activated by flashing to MetroPCS or Cricket.

Will all the other features of these phones work without being activated? If it depends on the phone, I am considering the Droid X2 and the HTC EVO or Thunderbolt.

Thanks in advance,

Jeff

 

[sitlet]

There are many Android smartphones for sale on eBay that state "Bad ESN" and warn that the phone can only be activated by flashing to MetroPCS or Cricket.

Will all the other features of these phones work without being activated?

They should. Usually when a carrier flags a device with a bad esn, it just means you can't activate on their network. Everything else should still work, besides the phone and texting, and everything data wise can be done with wifi.

 

[JeffinCA]

Thanks. That's pretty much what I thought, but I have read some (slightly confusing) warnings in some of the postings.

I would appreciate any specifics from people who have been burned (or at least annoyed) by this in the past.

 

[SeekerOfTheWay]

Have you considered getting a wifi only tab? I'm thinking of getting one, with a pre paid cell when data costs on smartphone rise.

 

[zuben el genub]

If you pay full price or bring your own phone to TMO - you can avoid a data plan and use wifi only.
I use the min. data plan just in case, but use less than 1M each month. I'm waiting until we go out of town on a vacation.

My rooted SGS4G is a glorified PDA! I rooted to get rid of the social stuff.

 

[EcoOne]

Find a GSM android on craigslist, and problem solved. If it requires a sim, just get a dummy sim or buy a $20 prepaid one.

 

[takeshi]

The PDA functions I need are Outlook sync for Contacts & Calendar

Don't count on that out-of-the-box. As always with Outlook sync, check out SyncDroid.

 

[kendrid]

I use a Galaxy S Vibrant with T-Mobile prepaid and the main use of the phone is as a PDA. I used to carry an iPod Touch and prepaid flip phone and condensed that down to just the Vibrant. I've been happy with it.

 

[JeffinCA]

Have you considered getting a wifi only tab? I'm thinking of getting one, with a pre paid cell when data costs on smartphone rise.

That is similar to what I plan. I already have a pre-paid cell, but the tablets I have seen are too large (I want something that will fit in a pocket).

Jeff

 

[JeffinCA]

If you pay full price or bring your own phone to TMO - you can avoid a data plan and use wifi only.
I use the min. data plan just in case, but use less than 1M each month. I'm waiting until we go out of town on a vacation.

T-Mobile's cheapest Prepaid plan is $10 per month (at $0.33 per minute). Boost Mobile is a minimum of $10 every 90 days, and $0.10 per minute.

Their $1.49 data plan is quite nice, however (if it only charges that on days that you use data).

 

[zuben el genub]

I'm postpaid EM+. I had 4 lines when I switched to TM, and they had the best family plans at the time. Now I have 3 lines, and probably will go to 2.

Biggest problem - I do use talk, text and web, and the other user is phone only. I could let him use the Galaxy 3 (unlocked from Amazon) w/o a data and text plan. He could still use our wifi to go online with no charge. He is using a phone which originally qualified for the 5.99 internet plan.

 

[daveybaby]

When i got my first android phone (HTC hero) my ancient SIM card was, for some reason, incompatible with it. For the couple of days before i got around to getting a new one the hero worked just fine without any SIM in it at all (apart from not being able to make phone calls or use 3G data, of course).

 

[JeffinCA]

I bought an EVO 4G on eBay last week. I've been too busy to do anything more than play with it a little (I do have Facebook and Gmail working). Today, I got a Notification from Sprint about signing up for one service plan or another.

The next time I checked, I didn't see any Notifications.

Puzzling.

Jeff

 

[jeffthemartin]

I have an HTC Droid Incredible that I bought on eBay. I agree, data plans are outrageously expensive, so I have not activated it on any cell network. A lot of people will try to tell you that some functions will not work without a data network, but they are WRONG. All functions that require my droid to connect to a data network (email, calendar sync, android market, etc, etc.) work perfectly as long as (obviously) I am connected to wi-fi.

GPS also works, because (best-kept secret that the phone companies don't want you do know!) GPS works via radio signal--completely separate from any cell networks. (Make sure the device you buy is GPS capable--not all smart phones are.) The only thing to be careful of with GPS is you need to be connected to wi-fi to load your map (I use google maps/navigation). Once you leave your wi-fi network, the device can still guide you along your selected route using GPS, but it can't make any alterations to your route, or load any live traffic info or anything like that.

As far as phones with a bad ESN, yes it should still work as a wi-fi device, and yes, you should be able to flash it to another network. But 2 things to consider:
1) A phone with a bad ESN may have been stolen.
2) The shady characters who sell bad ESN phones usually charge just as much as people selling phones with good ESNs.

--Jeff in Indiana

 

[daveybaby]

(best-kept secret that the phone companies don't want you do know!)

Erm. What?

 

[Deleted User]

Erm. What?

Flerm. Eh?