Pay as you go as wifi device?

[mrdyer84]

Here's what I'm looking for:

A device that can player mp3's and audio books that are also in mp3 format and keep those files separate. I considered an iPod Touch, but they are way too expansive, plus I'm not a big fan of iTunes and non-up-gradable storage. I've looked at standard mp3 players but the lack the sorting ability I'm looking for, I don't want to push "shuffle" and have to skip through audio book chapters while just wanting to listen to music. Really I'm looking for a Samsung Galaxy Player type of thing, but they've been discontinued for several years, and I've had bad luck buying used electronics online. "New" Galaxy Players on Amazon are just as expensive as iPods in spite of being several years old. Finally, I understand I could just get an Android smart phone, but I like the plan I have for my dumb phone, I pay $29 a month for unlimited talk and text.

This leads me to my question, could I just walk into Walmart and buy one of those pay as you go phones and never activate it? Just use it as a wifi device? I've seen them in the store for $20 with microSD slots, they might not be the hottest devices but to just play music it would be fine. Plus with Android I could name a folder ".Audiobooks" to make the media scan skip the file and keep it out of the music player. I've seen some post able this on some other websites, but most of them seem to be from Europe. I kind of feel like this is way to easy of a solution and there needs to be a catch.

Anyone have any advice or experience?

 

[Calculagator]

You can definitely use an android phone and just never activate it. You may need to remove the sim card and it may give warnings, but it will be fully functional for media consumption. I use some Motorola E's that I picked up for $10 each on black friday for my kids.

 

[mrdyer84]

I wanted to report back, so here is what I did.

I went to Walmart, bought the LG Lucky for $19.88, I think it's being discontinued so the price was cut though they did have a ton of them. The carrier is Straight Talk. I took it home, powered it up and it never once asked for any kind of activation. On the first screen of the set up you've given the option of mobile data or wifi, I clicked wifi connected to my network and after that it was like setting up a normal Android device. I signed into Google with no issues.

As far as performance, if you don't expect anything crazy like new 3d games or super clear HD video, though it streams Netflix really well, then this is really a great little media device. I use Shuffle Player for music, and Smart Books for audio books, MX Player for videos, each of those works great without any issue. The device can be a little sluggish, but for my needs, its perfect and for $20 I really can't complain. The box says it only supports 32gb microSD cards, but I put my 128gb in and it works fine. The internal storage is really low, 4gb and after updates and some software its almost full so you won't be able to go crazy with apps. So if you're looking for a portable media device and don't want to spend over $200 for an iPod Touch, this is a great way to go.

Only real downside for me is the view angle, it gets hard to see if you are just a little off center.