[Q] ZTE T81 / Telstra Frontier - Device unlock - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi Folks,
Trying to find details on device unlock and root for the ZTE T81 aka Telstra Frontier. This phone is pretty good value ($299AUD outright) considering the following specs:
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 (S4) Dual Core @ 1.5Ghz (Same as Nokia 920 / HTC OneS / Motorola Razr Maxx HD / Samsung ACTiV)
Display-Diagonal: 4.3 "
Display_Resolution: 540 x 960
RAM_capacity: 1 GiB
ROM-capacity: 3.7 GiB
Dimensions: 65 x 131 x 11 millimetres
Mass: 140 grams (battery included)
Cellular+Data+Links: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+, LTE
Review
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/mobile_phones/telstra/frontier_4g/442122
Since there is no dedicated forum for this, happy for this thread to be. Anyone with this device and experiences would be keen from hearing from you.
Cheers

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i just got one given to me today to try out.. put it this way ive retired my Defy for it.. and still playing around but its a good phone..

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Yes, this device is rootable.
Hey there, figured I'd give you the heads' up. This device is very easily rootable, and you can find the details at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1886460 (seriously, download it, follow the prompts, select 'Other' and ensure your phone is in either MTP or Charge Only mode when connected to USB), sitting on its stock 4.0.4.
Easy does it!
Cheers

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If anyone is interested in specs and benchmark for this phone you can find it in this link:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2011368
Sent from my XOOM 2 using xda premium

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Anyone know of a vanilla ROM for this device?
Sent from my XOOM 2 using xda premium

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increased nsteked
Is there a recovery that will work with this phone

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Rooting Frontier 4g
aneuryzm said:
Hey there, figured I'd give you the heads' up. This device is very easily rootable, and you can find the details at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1886460 (seriously, download it, follow the prompts, select 'Other' and ensure your phone is in either MTP or Charge Only mode when connected to USB), sitting on its stock 4.0.4.
Easy does it!
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
Has anyone tried this above method for rooting. Not to familar with rooting phones it so want to check it out as not sure if i can brick it doing this?

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is this phone worth getting?

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trueadischa
AZA5 said:
is this phone worth getting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For thr price i recon its a bargain. Its not a samsung s3, but with 1 gb ram 4 g on board i think it good.
Once you load it up it can be a pitty laggy at times, but hey i can cope with with that price, so iam happy with it.

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Root ZTE T81
Hi all, It seems that no root method including Bin4ry's and SuperOneClick, have worked on my Telstra ZTE T81 so far, and the bootloader is impossible to access through ADB using "adb reboot bootloader" as the phone seems to go into DFU mode(red light, black screen, no response till you pull the battery out).
Physically I only seem to be able to access recovery mode, FTM, and DFU with a combination of the power and volume keys. I have a suspicion that maybe ZTE, in their recent FOTA update that i naively installed may have something to do with my being completely unable to access the bootloader or root the phone.
Any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated
Device: Telstra ZTE T81
Android version: 4.0.4
Baseband version: T81_T01
Kernel version 3.0.8-perf-svn21987
Software version T81_M01

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ajt007 said:
Hi all, It seems that no root method including Bin4ry's and SuperOneClick, have worked on my Telstra ZTE T81 so far, and the bootloader is impossible to access through ADB using "adb reboot bootloader" as the phone seems to go into DFU mode(red light, black screen, no response till you pull the battery out).
Physically I only seem to be able to access recovery mode, FTM, and DFU with a combination of the power and volume keys. I have a suspicion that maybe ZTE, in their recent FOTA update that i naively installed may have something to do with my being completely unable to access the bootloader or root the phone.
Any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated
Device: Telstra ZTE T81
Android version: 4.0.4
Baseband version: T81_T01
Kernel version 3.0.8-perf-svn21987
Software version T81_M01
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have bought the phone and it is very good and have also tried rooting the phone aswell. I have done the exact same as you with Bin4ry's and superoneclick and also noticed there seems to be no bootloader. I would like to root my phone but for now I guess we can't

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Thanks for useful links.
Thanks for the benchmark link over there. Your links served too good. It was good visiting here. And if someone gets more about this device share it over here as I am looking forward for this phone.

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ZTE Update Unroots Your Device Too
AZA5 said:
I have bought the phone and it is very good and have also tried rooting the phone aswell. I have done the exact same as you with Bin4ry's and superoneclick and also noticed there seems to be no bootloader. I would like to root my phone but for now I guess we can't
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The recent update for the ZTE t81 will also un-root a previously rooted device! I rooted my t81 about 4 months ago with Root_with_Restore_by_Bin4ry_v31 and it worked perfectly, first time, no problems. However today, after I downloaded the new update, my device lost its root. I am currently in the process of attempting to re-root my device. I will let you know what kind of result I can get.

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Hey there, figured I'd give you the heads' up. This device is very easily rootable, and you can find the details at http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1886460 (seriously, download it, follow the prompts, select 'Other' and ensure your phone is in either MTP or Charge Only mode when connected to USB), sitting on its stock 4.0.4.
Easy does it!

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hoaluly said:
Hey there, figured I'd give you the heads' up. This device is very easily rootable, and you can find the details at http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1886460 (seriously, download it, follow the prompts, select 'Other' and ensure your phone is in either MTP or Charge Only mode when connected to USB), sitting on its stock 4.0.4.
Easy does it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried the above method and it does not work.
There is no "others" to select in the menu.
So have you acutally rooted on of these phones?

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I'm not sure if its applicable but this ZTE Avid 4G
{link to GSMArena I'm not allowed to post}
seems a similar specced ZTE phone, apart from the CDMA and FM radio.
If so, would the root method used here work on the T81?
{link to androidforums I'm not allowed to post}
GIYF
NB: androidforums also say that ROM Manager will permanently brick the Avid 4G

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ZTE 81
yodhe said:
I'm not sure if its applicable but this ZTE Avid 4G
{link to GSMArena I'm not allowed to post}
seems a similar specced ZTE phone, apart from the CDMA and FM radio.
If so, would the root method used here work on the T81?
{link to androidforums I'm not allowed to post}
GIYF
NB: androidforums also say that ROM Manager will permanently brick the Avid 4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, I've tried just about every method available and still no results, this device sure is a stubborn one.
I would advise anyone with this phone and wanting to root or keep their root not to update their firmware from the stock version otherwise the phone becomes unrootable. ZTE however, have assured me their update should not effect the rootability of the phone, this doesn't seem to be the case though

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ajt007 said:
Hmm, I've tried just about every method available and still no results, this device sure is a stubborn one.
I would advise anyone with this phone and wanting to root or keep their root not to update their firmware from the stock version otherwise the phone becomes unrootable. ZTE however, have assured me their update should not effect the rootability of the phone, this doesn't seem to be the case though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Too bad i did the update then. would be nice to re install orignal software, I suppose we need the factory rom from zte, I asked but they where not real helpful. Might try zte in australia.

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Successful Root on updated T81
yodhe said:
I'm not sure if its applicable but this ZTE Avid 4G
{link to GSMArena I'm not allowed to post}
seems a similar specced ZTE phone, apart from the CDMA and FM radio.
If so, would the root method used here work on the T81?
{link to androidforums I'm not allowed to post}
GIYF
NB: androidforums also say that ROM Manager will permanently brick the Avid 4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey guys, i've just tested it and this method works!!!!! just Google a root for the ZTE Avid 4G and you're away laughing, even with the update
Huge thanks to yodhe for this!!!!

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Yeah. Worked for me too. Reboots a couple of times and you need to ensure its rebooting into FTM mode.
Address is androidforums(dot)com/avid-4g-all-things-root/678268-successfully-rooted-zte-avid-4g-metropcs(dot)html