Where do you get them for $5? Cheapest I can find is around £8 (11 USD), and it’s not clear if they have this chip.

haunter 20 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yeah you won't find them for $5 unless you buy in bulk on Alibaba

Aliexpress has this as the best selling one though the chipset is not confirmed https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006924641101.html

Well I take my gamble, wait 2 weeks and see what I'll get

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mrandish 19 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Just fyi, the device at that link is currently showing $9.62 for a single unit, once logged in and the one-time-only "Welcome deals" are eliminated. But AliExpress pricing can vary hour by hour based on seller, inventory, algorithm, RNG.

	▲	krackers 10 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I've noticed the wild fluctuations in price as well (by $10), is there some trick to timing the RNG right? I'm guessing it's intentional to get you to keep refreshing.
	▲	fivestones 12 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I just bought one for $1.07 US with free shipping. I was buying with a new account so I probably got that discount. But even so, before buying I got $2.99 the first time I loaded the page, then $9.89 or thereabouts, and finally $0.99 (which I bought, it had an additional $0.08 in fees for $1.07 total). We’ll see if it shows up and is hackable, but at that price it feels too good to pass up the chance.

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stavros 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Which one did you buy, the red one or the white one? I do want a device that runs openstick, but I don't want more ewaste if it's the wrong one.

EDIT: According to this post[1] above, this listing[2] should be the real thing, as the red variant does say SSID 4G-UFI-XX under the cap.

[1] https://wvthoog.nl/openstick/ [2] https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006860833351.html

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haunter 17 hours ago | parent [-]

Looks like both those are the same, judging by the review pictures too

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006924641101.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006860833351.html

	▲	SXX 15 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They basically all come in 4-6 designs, but only difference is how easy it to get to edl / adb. On some of them you just load debug webpage and on others you might need to ground some pins.

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SXX 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Well, I guess my post was slightly misguided on price because I bought them in South East Asia and they look a bit more pricey in EU / US now. Might be some tariff price changes played the role IDK.

As for the chip basically almost all USB+LTE+WIFI sticks on Chinese marketplaces using it. They all have slightly different way to get adb / edl and flash, but all seems somewhat open.