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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.