More than 130 people were seen queuing at Toa Payoh Hub on Thursday morning, some from as early as 10.30pm the night before, drawn by a store's cut-price Motorola smartphone deal.

The promotion by phone shop Comms Equipment allowed the first 50 customers in line to purchase the new Moto G XT1033 for $99 without contract, a fraction of the usual $318. Subsequent customers received a 20 per cent discount off the marked price, till 3pm.

Word of the promotion had spread like wildfire on online forum Hardwarezone late last week, said IT executive JY Young, 25, who joined the queue at 4am and was 30th in line.

The queue had stretched to 50 by about 6.30am, said student Chin Guo Qiang, 24, the first in line. The new phone is a "mid-range, good value" smartphone that attracted mainly youths and young professionals to the queue, he added.