"Phone activation required before use"??? (prepaid smartphone phones)

[alucard10]

Questions-
1-When buying a prepaid smartphone, what does "phone activation required before use" mean?
2-What is the process you would go through when buying this smartphone?
3-Will you have to give an email address or sync it with your gmail or anything like that?

I ask this because after im done using the prepaid phone I want to rip the sim card out and use it as a wifi,and media pocket tablet for youtube,games,mp3 songs ,camera and more.
I was wondering if this "phone activation required before use" thing would threaten my ability to do that when I rip out the sim card and do a factory reset. (so I can use it as a wifi,and media pocket tablet).

Here an examples of a phone ad that say "phone activation required before use" https://www.bestbuy.com/site/total-...paid-cell-phone-black/5859400.p?skuId=5859400 (scroll down to "Product Features" to see).

About 10 months ago I bought a samsung at&t prepaid phone from bestbuy and it didnot require activation. I just paid for it,took it home ripped open the box and was able to immediately play with it with out putting in the sim card.I cant remember if it forced me to give a Gmail account to go forward ,but if it did I probably just skiped the Gmail setup or made one up just to go forward into the device (like I did with the amazon tablet lol).

However I know some one who has a draw full of old phones without sim cards ,all of them would work fine ,except one android phone that was factory reset and would not let you go into the phone at all and needed the origanal Gmail acount or something. You could not even get in to use wifi or put on a mp3 file.
This is what i'm worried about when buying prepaid smartphone that say "phone activation required before use".

(also in the draw there is a LG K7 android phone that I have factory reset many time and it works fine, I use it for broadcasting mp3 songs to a bluetooth speaker all the time and go on youtube)

 

[Cortb]

I think that means that you need to pay for service for X number of months before it'll go past the "welcome to whatever carrier screen". Also, if you do activate it, don't remove the sim card, just leave it in after you let the service expire after the first month. I've had phones that, once you removed the sim card, it popped up with 'no sim card' messages regularly, AND a message/icon that takes up half the status bar at the top.

 

[alucard10]

@cortb.
I see ,thats what im afraid of.
I must do more reserch before I buy.

 

[Cortb]

The carrier's website might be the best place to look for rules regarding prepaid smartphones.

 

[Trotter]

If you are just going to use it for wifi then you don't have to bother with service or activating it on their services. The "phone activation required before use" sounds like them telling you that you have to activate/purchase service before you can use the network. My nephew and granddaughters have phones w/o service that they use on wifi, no problem.

 

[alucard10]

About a year ago I bought a samsung at&t prepaid smartphone for 50$ but they would not let you buy it without getting at least one 30 day prepaid ticket,wich cost about 30$, but I did not have to do the "activation" thing I just walked out with the phone and the ticket.I paid with cash ,no credit cards or email addresses or contracts. That's what I like about prepaid phones even if they do make you buy at least one 30$ ticket with the purchase.
I would Lie and promise them I will buy hours for the phone latter but they said there manager will not let them. LOL.

This "phone activation required before use" thing is something I did not encounter when buying the at&t samsung prepaid phone. Some prepaid phones require it and some don't, I am just wondering what it means and if it will threaten my access to the device in the future if I ever have to do a factory reset.

P.S.
Back in the primitive days of android samsung had a device called the "galaxy player" but it was discontinued. It was there answer to the iPod touch, basically a samsung android iPod touch.

The only pocket sized tablet out there is the iPod touch but
I like android devices better than iPod touches and iPhones because unlike apple devices with most androids you can play mp4 files,you don't need iTunes to sync everything and of course you can inexpensively expand storage with sd cards.