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Cheapest 4G Phone - Telstra Frontier 4G / ZTE T81 @ JB for $99 (was $149)

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Probably the cheapest 4G LTE phone. But locked to Telstra, with $10 prepaid credit.

Found in Sydney Eastgarden JB Hi-Fi.

Related Stores

JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi

closed Comments

  • +4

    Ugh, I'm sworn off ZTE phones, this might make a decent modem however.

    • same when i had the zte urbane it did my head in. but i got this at OW 119 few weeks back as a temp phone. so far so good not much lags or freezes compared to the urbane. but the 4g on this isnt really noticeable compared to say like a S3 4G. good back up phone at least this time the LED can be a flashlight not like the urbane.

  • Can this be unlocked?

    • +1

      Probably for $100 directly from Telstra, apparently all Tesltra devices are now locked for 2-3 years.

    • +2

      I've never had trouble unlocking a phone by telling the carrier I'm going overseas for a period and need to use an international SIM,
      worth trying the same thing

      • I tried that a few months back on a near 2yo Telstra phone and they still wanted to charge me $27.50.
        I waited the full 2yrs and it was done for free.

  • Does it work with boost mobile?

    • +1

      It should be fine…. You won't get 4G/LTE though as Boost customers are not allowed on the LTE network.

  • +1
  • what's the cheapest price to unlock this phone?

    bagman can unlock this for ~$18, I don't know if this is the cheapest price around.

    • The real question is: do you need to unlock if you can root and CWM as above?

      • +2

        As far as I know - "Rooting" or "installing CWM" doesn't unlcok a phone
        However if you flash a 3rd party ROM, it "generally" unlocks the phone

        • Exactly. I installed a custom ROM after rooting and CWM on the Y201 and it became unlocked.

        • No, it doesn't… But if you can "Root" and "install CWM", then the phone is completely open and you'll be able to install a custom ROM.

          I guess next time I'll be sure to spell out every step of the process.

      • A better question is: Is your time worth more than $18 to unlock a phone?

        • Depends really. If you're loading a custom ROM, you'll also ditch Telstra's bloat and potentially speed the phone up and increase battery life.

          So it's potentially more than just a network unlock. On the flip side, some ROMs have issues, so it may increase your frustration levels whilst using the phone. :)

  • There is a guy on Whirlpool saying the phone is laggy when he tried it out at a Telstra shop. So before you buy it, better try it out at the shop first. I couldn't find any custom ROM for the phone so I will give it a miss. Very good price for a 4G phone nevertheless.

    • Probably is with the Telstra bloatware installed.
      When you install another rom such as CWM, it'll probably run quite nicely.

      I found the same with a HTC Wildfire, it still runs nicely as a game toy on CWM 7,
      the telstra rom was really really laggy.

      • exactly. Have you found a custom ROM for this phone by any chance?

      • it still runs nicely as a game toy on CWM 7

        CWM (ClockworkMod) is not a ROM, its a recomery tool
        Maybe you are referring to CM (cyanogenmod) ?

  • Does this work with Vaya service ?

  • Vaya 3g or 4G service, that is ?

    • its a Telstra phone you would need to unlock it and then it would work with anything

      • Would it not depend on whether you need 900mHz 3G which as far as I can tell this phone doesn't have.

        • I think Optus have 2100MHz in city areas, so you'll at least get that.
          4G will be fine.

        • yep you are correct sir.. but if your going to go with vaya and their less than pathetic customer service (im with them so i know) its only to get cheap access to 4G no other reason!… loll but yeh if it switches to 3g unless its 900 compatible (im not sure of) it will switch to 2100. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't have 900 and instead has 850 (voda and Telstra)

        • Yep this is the networks - so its 4G then 2100 3G
          Network: 3G: 850/2100 (MHz) GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 (MHz) 4G: 1800/2600 MHz

  • Thanks guys. do we have this in any officeworks around Souith East Melbourne? I cant seem to find any in the four stores that I checked.

    • -1

      there was one on Bourke st this morning then i cancelled it :P

  • +1

    I bought one from Officeworks a couple of weeks ago for $119. VERY impressed by it. Little to no Telstra bloatware. Have only noticed tiny spikes of lag and not very often. I'm thinking the ones in the Telstra shop that are laggy may have been running for a quite while without a restart. Have not played action games, but Simpsons Tapped Out runs fine! Not as nice a screen as a Galaxy S2, but for $119 I am cheering. Drop Juice Defender on it and I get about 60 hours normal use leaving 4g enabled. YMMV. Might pick up a spare at $99!

  • -1

    Coming out with some appealing new things the big T, but gonna take more than 1,1gb by ur 20mbit_4G: *used up in 8 min, to convince over ma wallet.

  • hi, I cant find it in any JB's in South East Melbourne. Anyone know a JB where this is available.?

  • we can unlock the phone for $22

    goto www.idroid.net.au

    goto unlocking and telstra unlocking

    • Any chance of a deal? Another member is doing it for $18

    • bullshit, you couldn't unlock my phone. probably you can only unlock monkeys! You're full of shit and a time waster! if I didn't resorted to a PayPal claim, I'm not going to get my money back. WARNING - DO NOT USE, I REPEAT, DO NOT USE www.idroid.net.au - THEY CANNOT UNLOCK THIS PHONE!!!

  • Bought one from OW Chadstone(VIC) yesterday.
    I must say it is very good 4g phone at this price.
    They had 3 in stock. 1 New, 1 Customer return(not suitable for customer), 1 display.
    After little bit of talking supervisor was happy to do either display one or customer returned one for 100. Bought customer returned one as this was like brand new just sealed was open.

  • Did anybody keep theirs on Telstra 4gnet. What approx latency are you getting ?

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