Dish's new low-cost Boost Mobile 5G phone comes with a year of free unlimited service (for some)

UPDATE: If the introductory Celero 5G offer felt a little too good to be true, it turns out that it's really not that simple to score the handset alongside one entire year of complimentary service. As noticed by an eagle-eyed reader (thanks for the tip, JC2M), Boost's website hides a very important detail at the home page's bottom, where it's clearly stated that the killer deal is limited to the "first 250 customers."

Everyone else will apparently have to settle for just three months of unlimited talk, text, and (5G) data, which is still worth a decent $150 all in all. But it definitely feels misleading for Dish to have initially left out this key piece of information, and it's also not cool that prospective Celero 5G buyers have no way to know if the phone has surpassed 250 pre-orders already.

That seems like a pretty good guess, of course, but on the bright side, the handset itself is currently available for $49.99 instead of its $279.99 MSRP as part of a surprise online-only promotion expiring October 31. That's probably when the phone is scheduled to start shipping, so you still have plenty of time to consider these offers. Our original story follows below.

We've seen everyone from T-Mobile to AT&T and even Verizon launch some impressively affordable 5G handsets in recent months, but Dish Network is taking things to a whole new level today with the introduction of an "exclusive device optimized for 5G."

The (very slowly) growing fourth player of the US wireless industry is still not ready to roll out its own 5G network, mind you, so the 6.5-inch Celero 5G is up for pre-order from Boost Mobile's official website.

Priced at $279, the mid-range device is technically costlier than something like T-Mobile's jumbo-sized 6.8-inch REVVL V+ 5G, but new and existing Boost customers will get an outstanding deal sweetener through October 31. Without having to trade anything in or port in a number from a different carrier, everyone is looking at 12 full months of unlimited talk, text, and data at no extra charge.

Pre-order the Celero 5G right here

Said "unlimited" service, of course, does come with certain restrictions, caps, and well, limitations, with data speeds reduced after using 35 gigs during a monthly billing cycle, for instance, but the value of this truly unique freebie in today's US wireless landscape is still an absolute knockout, exceeding the actual value (and price) of the Celero 5G phone.

The lowest you can currently get unlimited talk, text, and data from Boost Mobile outside of this incredible promotion is for $40 a month when you bring your own phone, so if you decide to pre-order Dish's "exclusive" new 5G handset, you can save a whopping $480 or so on the cost of the service alone.

The device, meanwhile, doesn't look like a pushover on paper either, packing a large 4,000mAh battery supposedly capable of keeping the lights on for up to 36 hours on a single charge, as well as a grand total of four cameras. The 4,000mAh cell also comes with respectable 15W charging support, while the three imaging sensors on the back of the Celero 5G and the single front-facing shooter are unfortunately undetailed for the time being.

In fact, the only other confirmed specs are a 4GB RAM count paired with 64 gigs of internal storage space, which doesn't feel particularly encouraging for things like processing power, screen resolution, or photographic prowess. But even if the device will not crack our list of the best budget 5G phones by the end of the year, it's hard to argue with its literally unrivaled value proposition. Unfortunately, the exact release date is another key detail that Dish continues to keep under wraps.