We knew the carrier: Telfonica-owned O2. We knew the time frame: before Christmas. Now we have the actual date and pricing for the UK release of Palm’s Pre smartphone, the company’s comeback device.

Set to go on sale on the 16th of October, the Pre will be “free” to customers signing up to a £34.26 per month, 24 month contract, or for those willing to move to the higher tariff of £44.05 or more on an 18 month contract. Otherwise the device will have an additional up front cost of £96.89. All of the tariffs feature varying inclusive minutes and texts, along with ‘unlimited’ data and WiFi hotspot access through The Cloud and BT Openzone.

See also: PlayBite: Hands-on with the UK/GSM Palm Pre

If the O2’s Pre offering sounds familiar that’s because it’s priced exactly the same as the original iPhone 3G, as apposed to the newer and more expensive iPhone 3GS. While the Pre has a beefier processor than the original 3G, it shares the same amount of non-expandable storage – 8GB – which presumably helped to dictate O2’s pricing. The early adopter and techie in me says that the Pre offers the better of the two deals, although neither is cheap. Just sayin’ 🙂

O2, Palm, Palm Pre