In the title really, is it possible to use a ‘hand me down’ phone as my sole DRONE PHONE.
No SIM, just linked to drone?
Ta!
Yes of course , might need WiFi to bind it to your account but that’s it
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Depends a bit on which drone apps you use and why those apps need mobile internet access in the first place.
If it’s an old or lower spec phone it won’t run the DJI Fly app for example.
You might need data for background maps or as Chris said, for auth’ing your account. Again, depends on which apps you use but there’s usually a work around for most.
A lot of people here use permanently-offline devices.
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Cheers both.
Samsung S8, DJI Fly and Litchi.
Dont see it being an issue, but thought I’d ask 
Need some sort of connection of you want to load planned missions in the field
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I’ll have litchi on my ‘main’ phone too. To be honest I rarely use it.
As long as I can use DJI Fly I’ll be good
It’s a lot less bloatware than the DJI offerings and runs a lot better on a variety of older phones.
Many of use it as our go to
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My Drone Phone has never had a SIM or been connected to internet for about 5 years.
For Litchi, and missions created from my laptop, I use BlueTooth to send the mission file from my main phone (that also has Litchi - tho never used with the drone) to my drone phone.
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Incidentally - the mission files (on Android) are found in …
\Android\data\com.aryuthere.visionplus\files\missions\ __users\xxxx
… where xxxx is your user ID. (You don’t need to know your user ID - it’s the only folder in “__users”.)
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I use a Samsung S7, no SIM card, with my Mini 1, have not had a problem using DJI Fly, i just make sure its had any updates before I go fly, mind you haven’t flown that one for a couple of months since getting the mini 3 pro. I just random fly at the moment to practice but planning on some serious flying in the new year. Have fun and enjoy.
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I use a tablet that has no cellular, so no sim
Use Wifi at home or you can tether to another phone when out in the field if you need data
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My regular phone on Android 12 always crashed as soon as Go Fly opened, but appears stable on one with Android 13.
I now mostly use an 10" Fire tablet & just hotspot it to my mobile if I need to update a Litchi waypoint etc
Yes, I hotspot my normal phone and use my previous smartphone as drone phone. Distance probably less then 1mtr as the hotspot phone will be in my pocket. Just make sure that if you do use phones to tether to each other you allow unlimited data, this way it won’t cut connection once a certain amount of Mb of data has passed.
The DJI Fly App opens up Google Maps on the phone. What is the source for the Gmaps, is it from the App on the phone? If you’re flying with no SIM and beyond WiFi, what happens to the map updating?
I’m guessing you could just fly with the Compass view and you don’t strictly need the Map. Haven’t been able to try yet, because weather.
I’d personally prefer to fly with the spare phone I’ve got that has no SIM, then I can use my main phone as a phone without having to disentangle from the Controller.
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It won’t update
What you can do is download the maps before you set off. Connect your drone phone to home wifi and scroll around the area you are flying in DJIGO and it will cache the maps for use later.
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Or I guess I could use my main phone as a hotspot, and download the maps to the dronephone. In case of opportunistic flying not planned before leaving home.
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That’d work, I did read on here back in the summer somewhere, that a phone or tablet that has the option for a SIM card, if you put a pay as you go sim in it ( apparently you don’t have to top it either ), something to do with the gps then the maps are available without hot spot or anything else than just putting a SIM card in, I’ll try and find the post.
Edit : found the post it’s below 
Never used - never needed. I know where I and I know where my drone is.