Hello,
I just bought a used t-Mobile samsung galaxy vibrant T959
for my 11 year old to use as primarily a gaming device (his previous device was stolen)..
It is running firmware version 2.1 update 1 after a hard reset.
I have come to discover that the sim was removed, which makes sense now. However, I can not easily find replacement Sim cards on-line for this phone.
Right now, I am not concerned about having talk/text service on the phone. I'd like to simply get it going, log into my google account and download games like angry birds, plants vs. zombies, etc. for him to use on 16 hour trips. When I originally booted up the phone, added my google account and then went to the play store, non of those games came up as downloadable on the device. That doesn't seem right. I've now spent a couple of hours trying to research all this. After the reset, it also can not obtain an ip address from my router (I didn't recall this being an issue before the reset, but it may have been).
How much is affected by the sim card?
What do those control/allow?
After looking at things, would the t-mobile pre-paid sim card thing work?
The blessing in that may be that it gives me the option of giving him phone service a couple of months from now without having to have him on a plan, and if the phone gets lost or stolen, it's not an expensive deal.
FWIW, the previous (stolen device) was a droid 3. I had taken my old sim card out of it and put it in the one I got him (my phone had crapped out and since I had three spare batteries (those also ended up stolen along with the phone) it made sense to get him a D3 for 30 bucks and plenty of run time). This is why I chose the samsung... you can switch the batteries. I currently have the S3 and like it, so thought the Vibrant would be a good option. Batteries are cheap... but sim cards seem to be a bit of a challange.
Could I get some other card and use it in the vibrant?
The $10 pre-paid from the t-mobile site is a good and easy solution if it does what I need it to as described above. I don't really want to be forced (or talked into) buying some $50 thing to go along with it just to be able to use the wi-fi and download some games... again, the talk service is unimportant right now. That is why I have asked this forum; I'd like some outside, objective thoughts.
Should I go find a droid 3 and get a sim for it or would I have the same problems?
Then I could try to resell this Vibrant I have now.
Thanks so much for any help.
-Jon
I just bought a used t-Mobile samsung galaxy vibrant T959
for my 11 year old to use as primarily a gaming device (his previous device was stolen)..
It is running firmware version 2.1 update 1 after a hard reset.
I have come to discover that the sim was removed, which makes sense now. However, I can not easily find replacement Sim cards on-line for this phone.
Right now, I am not concerned about having talk/text service on the phone. I'd like to simply get it going, log into my google account and download games like angry birds, plants vs. zombies, etc. for him to use on 16 hour trips. When I originally booted up the phone, added my google account and then went to the play store, non of those games came up as downloadable on the device. That doesn't seem right. I've now spent a couple of hours trying to research all this. After the reset, it also can not obtain an ip address from my router (I didn't recall this being an issue before the reset, but it may have been).
How much is affected by the sim card?
What do those control/allow?
After looking at things, would the t-mobile pre-paid sim card thing work?
The blessing in that may be that it gives me the option of giving him phone service a couple of months from now without having to have him on a plan, and if the phone gets lost or stolen, it's not an expensive deal.
FWIW, the previous (stolen device) was a droid 3. I had taken my old sim card out of it and put it in the one I got him (my phone had crapped out and since I had three spare batteries (those also ended up stolen along with the phone) it made sense to get him a D3 for 30 bucks and plenty of run time). This is why I chose the samsung... you can switch the batteries. I currently have the S3 and like it, so thought the Vibrant would be a good option. Batteries are cheap... but sim cards seem to be a bit of a challange.
Could I get some other card and use it in the vibrant?
The $10 pre-paid from the t-mobile site is a good and easy solution if it does what I need it to as described above. I don't really want to be forced (or talked into) buying some $50 thing to go along with it just to be able to use the wi-fi and download some games... again, the talk service is unimportant right now. That is why I have asked this forum; I'd like some outside, objective thoughts.
Should I go find a droid 3 and get a sim for it or would I have the same problems?
Then I could try to resell this Vibrant I have now.
Thanks so much for any help.
-Jon
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram