Can I use a Samsung Galaxy S 3 for WIFI only without activating it?

[rtdroid72]

There is an upcoming Black Friday sale for this phone at Best Buy. It is advertised as a Sprint Prepaid for only $80. I would like to get this for my kids to play games on and watch movies and such. Can I buy this phone new and just not activate it? Simply use the wifi to access the Play store, youtube, etc...?

 

[Akashymon The Viola Penguin]

You would have to buy it unlocked. It would be $80 on a committed contract. If you want just YouTube and games, with mobile data capability, I recommend a tablet with LTE capability or just a plain WiFi tablet.

Posted From my LG G3 Cat. 6

 

[Rukbat]

1) You can't unlock a Sprint S3 - because it can't be locked.

2) For wifi only, locked or unlocked (on phones that CAN be locked) is irrelevant. And LTE is redundant if you're not going to activate it - you're just paying for a capability that you're not going to use.

3) The price sounds good. You could buy a tablet for that price but it wouldn't be a very well-made one. Any phone with wifi capability (which means any phone made since Android came about) will work on wifi without activation. I use a few that way myself. (One that's "locked to" Sprint, too. [IOW, it's a Sprint phone that hasn't been activated in over a year, but still works fine on wifi.])

 

[rtdroid72]

This is a prepaid phone so no contract to commit to. My worry was that it would require a SIM card for activation before I could use the device through WIFI only. This is for my little kids to play games on and for the price, it beats any 6-7 inch tablets. My old Verizon Galaxy Nexus still works on WIFI even though I don't have Verizon anymore, but I thought maybe because it had already been activated and used.

 

[Rukbat]

No. The wifi radio works out of the box. It doesn't need to be activated, have a SIM or be near a cellphone tower. It becomes a small wifi tablet with a radio that's bot being used (the cellphone one). To save battery, run it in Airplane mode, then turn wifi on.

 

[rtdroid72]

That's what I thought, thanks!