Using Droid X without Voice or Data

[cabrown50]

I will soon have a new company supplied phone with voice and data that I can use for personal as well as work. The catch is that it will be a Blackberry.

I like a lot of my Droid X features. If I drop the phone number from it and no longer have Voice or Data, can I still do everything (but talk on the phone) if I use WiFi?

Will my device still be usable? Or, should I try to sell it?

 

[jdbower]

What you'll end up with is a 4.3" WiFi-only tablet. I went like this when I was overseas and it's still eminently usable with a little prep work. I don't know if you'll be able to get updates, but that's what custom ROMs are for

 

[cabrown50]

What you'll end up with is a 4.3" WiFi-only tablet. I went like this when I was overseas and it's still eminently usable with a little prep work. I don't know if you'll be able to get updates, but that's what custom ROMs are for

I'm expecting it to be like a 4.3" WiFi Tablet with GPS abilities. Shouldn't my Google Maps navigation still work if I have a mobile wifi with me?

And, things like Google night sky?

 

[jdbower]

Yep, GPS worked fine (although it may take longer to lock on without cell service - I was out of range but you just won't have authorization so that may not affect you). Just FYI, enabling airplane mode to save battery and shut off the radio will shut off GPS no matter what the toggle widget tells you - but there may be another hack for that floating around. And if you've got a WiFi hotspot everything should work fine while it's enabled.

BTW, by "updates" I meant OS updates (I expect a Gingerbread update as well as Ice Cream Sandwich eventually, after all the OG Droid is still getting fun stuff). Application updates work just fine over WiFi.

 

[SouthernSaltine]

Will the new company phone be on Verizon?

 

[hkklife]

FYI, just in case anyone cares, I tried this just now on my Droid X2 since I may very likely going overseas later in the year.

I turned Airplane mode ON and then turned ON wi-fi and GPS via the standard Android power bar toggles. Even indoors I got a good GPS signal and was able to do full GPS sat turn-by-turn directions in Gogle Maps. It DID take several minutes to get a satellite fix, however, likely due to no cell service as jdbower said.

That will be extremely while traveling, especially if I can basically use my X2 as a wi-fi PDA/GPS/web tablet even when overseas with some locally stored map data.

While I can't speak for the DX, this is good news and certainly worth a shot for those who care about such things.

 

[jdbower]

Nice to see they changed things for the DX2, that's a useful datapoint. With CM7 installed in airplane mode I still couldn't get any satellite locks on my X, but I haven't tried with stock Gingerbread (there may have been a GB kernel update that took care of this quirk and CM7 uses the Froyo kernel even though it's GB-based).

However, this shouldn't affect the OP much at all except that the CDMA radio needs to be on and sucking battery for the GPS to work. There are some settings that may help battery life (turning off data roaming may cause it not to try to connect as much, etc.) but those may need some experimentation with a device that sees VZW towers but isn't authorized to connect to them.

 

[jonathon1289]

@OP, over WiFi you can still make calls and send texts using different apps. Things like Skype, which is free to call other Skype accounts. Not sure how important to you that would be, but in all reality you do not have to lose any functionality by turning off carrier service to the phone.