It’s been awhile since there was a good deal on no-contract Android smartphones. The last time we came across such a deal was late last year.

Well, a new offer is now available and the phone is bigger and better than the last one.

This is currently the cheapest android smartphone available in Australia. It will only set you back $44.50 but you will need to act before 13/05/2026 as this is when this 50% off promotion ends and the phone goes back to its normal $89 price tag.

The cheapest android smartphone currently available in Australia is the Alcatel Onetouch M’POP.

A bit of a funny name but a decent option if you want an Android 4 smartphone with a decent screen size and for a rock bottom price tag.

Here is a quick review of this phone from CNet

The main features of this phone are:

• 4 inch display
• Single core
• 5 Megapixel Camera but no flash or autofocus
• Android 4.1 operating system
• Capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, Size 480 x 800 pixels (~233 ppi pixel density)

For those of you who are a little bit more ‘techie’, you can read the full specs here.

This phone is on sale right now at your local Woolies store (hopefully they have stock) and is locked to the Vodafone network.

If you buy it with the right debit card, you will also score an instant 5% cash rebate, making the cost of this phone only $42.

The fact this phone is locked to the Vodafone network means officially that you can only use it with a Vodafone SIM card. However, we were able to determine that you can also use a SIM card from one of the virtual operators running on the Vodafone network, such as Hello Mobile or Lebara, without having to bother with unlocking.

If that doesn’t work for you and you need to unlock, you have two options: the ‘official’ and the ‘unofficial’ one

The ‘official’ unlocking method is to go the Vodafone website and follow the instructions there. Vodafone are known for sometimes giving their unlocking codes away for free so if that one worked for you, you can stop reading now

If they want to charge a fee (usually starting from $25), it is time to turn to the ‘unofficial’ method. Just to clarify though, this ‘unofficial’ method is still 100% legal. We don’t advocate breaking the law on this site

The ‘unofficial method’ involves buying the unlock code from an independent service provider which supplies them.

All they will need from you in order to supply you with the unlock code is the make and model of your phone (Alcatel Onetouch M’POP) and the IMEI number of your specific device.

All you need to do in order to get the IMEI is to ‘dial’ *#06# on your phone. It will then display a 15 digit number which is the IMEI number of your specific device. That’s it!

Just for the Alcatel phone you will need to also obtain the Provider’s ID (or PID) which is an 11 digit alpha numeric code located on the label inside the battery compartment (so where the battery goes).

The independent service providers will charge you anything between $8 to $25 for the unlock code.
However, as you would expect from your Spending Hackers, we have found for you the best deal on that as well.

This service provider is based in Australia and is very reliable. We have used him ourselves several times and are therefore happy to vouch for his reliability. His codes work! As simple as that. He is also an aussie which means you are supporting a local guy running a small business.

All you need to do in order to get the code for your phone is make a payment of $3.50 via PayPal to and include your phone’s make, model and IMEI number in the message you send him with your payment.

He will then email you the unlock code within 24 to 48 hours (usually much sooner but can also be slightly longer over weekends or public holidays).

You then enter the unlock code as per the process described in this clip and that’s it. You’re good to go!

Now if the fact this phone only has a single core CPU (so not as fast) and its camera has no flash or autofocus (important if you want to read QR codes) is a ‘deal breaker’ for you, there is an alternative which will cost you $79 at BigW.

The Huawei Ascend Y300 has essentially the same specs as the Alcatel piece except it is dual core and its camera has both flash and autofocus. The full specs can be found here.

For a video review, check out the video below

This phone comes as a Telstra prepaid phone which means it might also work with a SIM card from Aldi mobile or Lyca. If that doesn’t work for you, you will need to unlock the phone. For unlocking a Telstra prepaid phone, you only have the ‘unofficial method’ as Telstra never supply the unlock codes for free.

The process to obtain the unlock code is the same as described above (i.e. sending a PayPal payment to with your phone make, model and IMEI number) but this one will cost you $5.50 so slightly more.

Once you have your hands on the code, the process is the same as described above. Just enter a non-Telstra SIM card in the phone, power it up, punch in your code and voila…your phone is unlocked.

Enjoy and don’t forget the comment box below if you have any questions or comments on this deal.

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