iPhone 5C costs just £30 on O2

O2 has revealed its first prices for the iPhone 5S and 5C -- and the colourful 5C can be yours for just £50. Update: O2 told us the wrong price -- the 5C is actually a bargain-tastic £30.

Despite being embarrassingly left out of Apple's presentation, O2 has offered up a couple of deals that will get you a new iPhone -- including a deal to nab you a 16GB iPhone 5C for £30 if you pay £32 per month.

That's a reasonable amount of money to fork out up-front -- for an iPhone, anyway; there are much cheaper phones and deals available away from Apple -- as long as you're happy with 750GB of 3G data and 600 minutes of talk-time every four weeks.

4G will of course cost a bit more. For £10 more per month and £100 upfront, you can take home a 5C with 5GB of 4G data and unlimited calls and texts each month.

A 16GB iPhone 5S will set you back £120 on a contract costing £37 per month for 1GB of 3G data. If you want to go 4G, O2 is asking the same amount up-front, followed by £47 per month for 5GB of data.

For comparison, if you buy a 16GB iPhone 5C without a contract it costs £469. A 16GB 5S, meanwhile, will set you back £549.

These deals are lengthy two-year contracts -- but they're examples of O2's Refresh deals, which split your bill so you pay for your calling and talking separately to paying for the phone. That means you can later swap for a new phone even when you're still partway through your contract.

If you do opt for a 4G deal, your new iPhone won't connect to the 4G network until Apple sends you special settings "in coming weeks" -- although that could be as late as November. To make up for a month or so stuck with slower data speeds, O2 will knock £5 off your first bill.  

The iPhone 5C is up for pre-order on 13 September ready for delivery on 20 September, but there's no pre-order for the 5S. If you want a 5S on day one, you'll need to schlep down to your nearest Apple Store or phone shop.

We'll keep you posted on the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C UK prices and release dates as we get more details from the networks, so keep it CNET. For the latest 4G prices and best deals on a variety of LTE phones including the iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S4 and more, check out our comparison of Vodafone, EE, and O2 4G deals, prices and data.

What do you think of O2's deals? Will you buy a new iPhone or is it still too expensive by half? Tell us your thoughts in the comments or get a good deal on our Facebook wall.