Weird question about buying android smartphones

alucard10

Baseband Member
Messages
89
Location
usa
Is it possible to buy an android smartphone from walmart without signing up for anything ,for the purposes of obtaining just the physical smartphone itself?

I ask this because I still want to keep using my old nonsmart-phone for talking and texting but I need a pocket sized android device for when I'm on the go or out of town. Then maybe I would activate it as a phone way later or perhaps never.

(tablets are too big to fit in a pocket and there doesn't seem to many 4 inch screen tablets on the market or at least not in stores.)

I was thinking of geting the "LG K7" for 50$ or If they dont let me do that then I would get the "prepaid LG sunrise" for 10$.

So,is it possible to put down a wad of cash and walk out with an android smartphone?
or will they be all like "not so fast show us some I.D. ,you must sign up for a plan ,were do you live? whats your mothers maiden name?" and so on and so forth? (and give me dirty looks. LOL)

P.S.
I was at walmart today and a guy from electronics told me you can't go on wifi unless the phone is activated.LOL.
I swear that's not the case?,I know people with drawers full of old smartphones with no service and in some cases maybe even no sim cards and they go on wifi just fine.
He did say I could buy the 20$ smartphone "but without minutes it would be useless".
Is he right or wrong?
I think the guy didn't know what he was talking about or he was trained to not let you buy a prepaid phone unless you sign up for minutes or something?
I'm I crazy? I'm pretty sure as long as you have the physical android smartphone you can go on wifi and also do stuff like view offline media like songs and video?
 
Apologies, I have no idea whether the functionality of the rest of the phone is preserved when you don't have a SIM card in it.

Assuming it isn't: Buy a phone and stick a "pay-as-you-go" sim card in it. Then disable the mobile data etc. Problem solved! ;)
 
An unactivated phone will still work in all other ways. And the dude at Walmart is an idiot.

Walmart does sell unlocked phones but only through their website. You would do better buying through Amazon or swappa.com (used phones).
 
Yup. I have used my no longer used smartphones for doing things such as camera, video/music player, GPS navigation, flashlight, calculator, etc... Everything works except for the phone portion.

Using VOIP, you can even make/take phone calls over wifi. You don't need a sim card.
 
Aha ,I knew it. an unactivated smartphone is a mini tablet.

I had a chance to buy a LG K7 from somone ,with no sim card or whatever for next to no $.
but the headphone jack was broken and did not work.
It was a deal breaker.

Out of curiosity would it be possible or worth it to get the headphone jack repaired? would it cost alot?
 
If you're able to do the repair yourself it might be worth it but if you have to pay someone else to do it, probably not.
 
Back
Top Bottom