How Much Storage Capacity Would You Opt for in a New Phone?

skido on 18/10/2020 - 12:48
Last edited 18/10/2020 - 13:02

Im Looking to grab a new phone but not sure if I should go for the 128GB or the larger and more expensive 256GB model. Do photos take up a lot of space in iOS? Currently have a phone with 128GB that's filled to the max BUT only because Ive downloaded a bunch of random apps, and a bunch of photos that I haven't been bothered to clean up.

Soo I know this varies amongst use cases however, if you were getting a new phone in 2020, which storage space would you opt for ?

You can classify yourself as a photographer (sorry couldn't find a better word) if you:

  • tend to take a lot of photos/videos - whether professional or not 😂
  • AND/OR do a lot of offline media consumption - i.e. storing videos and movies

Poll Options

  • 13
    64GB, non-photographer
  • 7
    64GB, photographer
  • 54
    128GB, non-photographer
  • 13
    128GB, photographer
  • 20
    256GB, non-photographer
  • 2
    256GB, photographer
  • 11
    512GB, non-photographer
  • 9
    512GB, photographer
Mobile

Comments

  • Willco88 on 18/10/2020 - 12:49

    Well iPhones don't have expandable do they?
    My new phone has 256gb plus expandable 128gb

    • skido on 18/10/2020 - 12:49

      nah they don't, which is unfortunate

      • saltypete on 19/10/2020 - 08:41

        Correction: planned

    • srhardy on 19/10/2020 - 09:54

      iPhone have the iCloud, so all my pics are auto synced and I pay $1.50 a month for 50gb and just keep my contacts and photos (not video) in the apple cloud. Its handy and I also sync it with my google drive images too, so I have a 2nd backup. Im a photographer and my mobile camera is what I have handy these days, the old nikon gear only get love at weddings or such these days. As good as mobiles are, and they are good now on all but the crappiest phones they are not as good as a dSLR and a flash/reflector for model photography, birthdays and the like…

    • HeWhoKnows on 19/10/2020 - 21:36

      And whats the point of that?
      Music and photo libraries should be stored somewhere secure such as a PC hard disk, portable hard drive and/or cloud storage.

      Remember that the average photo or song is only about 4MB.
      So for every 1GB thats 1,000 photos and/or 1,000 music tracks.
      10GB = 10,000 photos or 10,000 music tracks.

      Yes, yes videos run into the GBs. I know. But apply some discipline. You dont need all those videos on your phone either.

      Hence 32GB is more than enough for photos you need to have handy on your phone (to show other people) or music tracks you want to have on hand in case you want to listen to them. 64GB is plenty if you want to argue the point.

      Why on earth would you need to store more than that on any phone? Seriously.

      You should treat Phone storage is TEMPORARY storage only

  • coxjon on 18/10/2020 - 12:52

    I find it’s worth paying $5 per month for iCloud photos. My phone is 64gb and iPad is 32gb, and I can have my whole photo library on AppleTv too.

    • skido on 18/10/2020 - 12:56

      how much storage do you get for $5? also wouldn't that mean you'd have to be connected to the internet to view those photos?

      • coxjon on 18/10/2020 - 17:25
        +1

        200GB, and yes, but when are you not connected?

    • HeWhoKnows on 19/10/2020 - 21:43

      Google Drive offers 15GB or storage for free
      A few others offer 10GB free

      You could store music on one drive and photos on another all FREE

      We need to get disciplined with photos and videos and delete the 9 out of 10 useless ones.
      Most people never go back and look at them anyway so paying to store photos is not a smart idea.

  • AirbusA389 on 18/10/2020 - 13:00
    +2

    a phone with a microsd card slot… and decide the size of the microsd card later. 200gb for $80 perhaps?

    much much cheaper than opting for higher storage capacities on phones without microsd cards.

  • [Deactivated] on 18/10/2020 - 13:05

    I thought that 65gb would be fine when I got my iphone X. It's completely full now, and I don't even take that many pics. I constantly have to delete things (I don't even use that many apps). In my mind 128gb is ok for now, but really who knows in 2 years. I'm seriously thinking about getting a xiaomi and a 400gb SD card so I don't have to worry about it.

    • srhardy on 19/10/2020 - 09:56

      remove unused apps
      pay for iCloud and sync photos to the cloud
      I dont sync videos, if they are videos to keep then copy them off to a PC and burn to a DVD
      Same for documents, notes ect…

      try to keep 50% clear

  • kenzstar on 18/10/2020 - 13:06
    +1

    I would get 128gb minimum for iphones and android phones 64gb due to expandable storage.

    • kerfuffle on 18/10/2020 - 15:21

      Not all Android phones have expandable storage e.g. Pixel

  • bobbified on 18/10/2020 - 13:10
    +1

    It's good practice to regularly clean out your photos folder, otherwise it gets to a point where there's just so much rubbish in there that makes it take way too long to find anything. And of course, you have this problem wtih storage - every time you buy a phone, you'll need a higher capacity of storage than previous, which costs more $$.

    • skido on 18/10/2020 - 13:22

      I thought 128gb was overkill when I got my current phone 2 years ago and there was so much space left (over 70%) so just kept filling and filling (i.e. downloading those free limited-time apps promoted on ozb and not using it at all 😂 just so it registers to my account and maybe I'll use it in the future)

      • bobbified on 18/10/2020 - 13:26

        haha it fills up pretty damn quickly!

  • Diverse on 18/10/2020 - 13:36

    My iPhone 8 is 64gb, have had it for 3.5 years and only used up 30gb. Just pre-ordered the 12 Pro base model (128gb), overkill for me but will last me years. My phone is usually for social media, reddit, music (spotify), and gps.

  • Randxyz123 on 18/10/2020 - 13:56

    I’d get the 256GB.

    I’ve downloaded entire tv series onto my phone for travelling before when i didn’t want to take my iPad.

    128GB is probably the happy medium for most people.

  • Godric on 18/10/2020 - 14:12

    Still have room on my one plus 7pro being 256GB

  • CecilTheChair on 18/10/2020 - 14:21
    +3

    iPhone I go for top available storage. Have the 7 now and 256gb has been enough to cover me for 4 years, I use about 150GB currently.

    Getting the 12 and will go for the 512GB. I don’t need it now but plan to keep phone for 4/5 years so better to have the peace of mind.

  • isaacisnotjonah on 18/10/2020 - 15:57
    +1

    Maybe I'm out of the loop, but I just stay on 32GB (used to be 16gb, but android has grown), and use a microSD card to upgrade the internal storage. No need to replace the phone when I need to upgrade storage.

    of course, the iPhone users among us don't have this option.

  • soggypotato on 18/10/2020 - 21:55

    I have 29.2/32GB for my iPhone 7 (11GB on system data, 1GB music, hardly any photos and rest for apps) . If I ever got a new phone, it would be the 12 mini 64 GB model. If I'm ever interested in photography, I would just store every photo/video on my computer or use my student Gmail account for unlimited google drive storage.

    • fishing on 19/10/2020 - 07:23

      There is a lot to be said for having Google photos on your phone syncing to the cloud and just deleting all photos on your phone from the iOS photos app

  • cheaplee on 18/10/2020 - 23:35
    +1

    The real question is why do apple even make a 64gb version? I'm sure it costs them just as much as the 128gb version so they really are just taking you for a ride…

  • Tigercjn on 19/10/2020 - 09:36

    Best to get one with a card slot so you can add storage.

    get the one that is double what you think you need as in a few years you will need it.

  • OzHunterNSW on 19/10/2020 - 10:23

    You seem to not elaborate whether your phone has external storage or not.
    Why are you maxing out your storage? Don't you conduct a cache clean? Is your phone slow and sluggish?
    Do you really need 5 thousand photos? Do you really need all those app (running)?

    • skido on 19/10/2020 - 10:58

      To answer your questions:

      No external storage and I'm on Android.

      Maxing out storage because I've never had issues/warning with insufficient space. It's never been slow and sluggish.

      I actually only have 3600 photos and videos with 1000 of them being screenshots, 800 taken from the camera, 300 videos (mostly short 15 second videos saved from online), rest are just photos from apps that android auto saves into gallery and all of this is taking up 60GB alone.

      I dont need all those apps and they're not always running at once. (50% of them have not been used in a while but yeh I do need to uninstall some)

  • Rockets84 on 19/10/2020 - 11:11

    I get a iPhone with 256GB storage so it can hold all my music library. When I had Android I'd use a micro SD for it. I'm not a big photo taker at all.

  • HeWhoKnows on 19/10/2020 - 21:21

    You dont need much storage capacity at all on any phone since your phone should NOT be used to store all your photos or music.
    Its a sure way to lose all your photos and music.

    Apple has tried to educate its users about this which is why they offer automatic icloud uploading and storage

    Precious photos and music should be downloaded onto a hard disk on a regular basis and/or uploaded to cloud for storage.

    You only need enough capacity to temporarily store all the photos you take on a holiday and 32GB is plenty for that.

    Much the same argument with music. Store your music library somewhere secure and only have a copy of your favourite 1,000 songs on your phone. Remember each song is about 4MB so thats 250 songs for every 1GB. How and when are you ever going to listen to that many songs? 4GB for music (1,000 songs) is more than enough. to have on your phone.

    • skido on 20/10/2020 - 10:21

      good point actually. might just stick to 128gb and use Google drives to backup photo (free 15tb) and then make copies of local backups on my ssd as well. and obviously clear up junk apps and photos. the 256gb is extra $200 so can't justify that when I got my 1tb ssd for only $189

      this was really helpful haha thanks!

  • narcoleptic-haze on 20/10/2020 - 13:21

    128GB is the sweet spot I find.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join