Replying to Smartphone question

I can't justify spending the extra 30 bucks monthly to use a smartphone. With a laptop and shitty phone, I can do almost everything I need to. I use my phone as a camera and mp3 player, but now cell carriers aren't offering many phones in between absolute basic and smartphone (monthly charges). I was thinking about getting an ipod touch to fill the void and help give me some new capabilities (like wifi). I just had a random thought, however. Phones like the HTC EVO have an 8mp camera, 32GB music space, and wifi.... can't I simply not activate it with phone service and use that as an ipod touch-type music/wifi device with a camera? If that works, I would think its better and cheaper than an ipod touch, and would be nice coupled with a crappy phone. Anyone know the answer?