Help changing to a new phone - Quick question

[gjkiii]

Hello.....I am upgrading form a galaxy s4 yo a Note 5. Its gonna take a while to configure my new phone. Is it a bad idea to keep the sim card in my old phone and boot up the Note 5 without a sim and then connect it to wifi so I can download all the apps and configure them. Once completed then I can move the sim over.

 

[El Presidente]

That's what I normally do whenever I get a new phone.

The new device should function fine without the SIM Card so you can leave that in your other handset whilst you get setup.

 

[AZgl1500]

I totally agree.
When I bought my S5 new, I kept it on WiFi for almost 3 weeks until I had it all configured like I wanted it.

then I registered it with Verizon.

 

[Stuntman]

Not sure about the Note 5, but my Nexus 6P can automatically install most of the apps that were on my old phone (Galaxy S3). Other phone settings like notification ringtones, I had to manually set. There should be no issue using your new phone on WiFi only.

 

[Crashdamage]

I usually do setup with an activated SIM in the phone.. It doesn't matter except that the first thing a phone will do is start loading OS updates. When it does, I want it to load my carrier's special version. For example, a new Nexus 6 should load T-Mobile'z LYM28N, which enables WiFi calling. But it must have a T-Mobile SIM in it to know that it's supposed to.

No other reason to need a SIM in the phone though.