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storage capacity 16 vs 32 gig???

N

nursekori

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 1, 2009
2
0
I'm apologizing in advance for my "ignorance" in regards to this issue, but can someone give me an idea in layman's terms on the difference between 16 and 32 gig of storage? Like, how many songs,movies, music could I put on each? :confused: When you go to buy an ipod, it says under each one how many songs or videos that model holds. Any help is appreciated!
 
steve knight

steve knight

macrumors 68030
Jan 28, 2009
2,735
7,180
those ratings are worthless. they tell you how many of each of the lowest quality will fit. if all your music is the lowest quality mp3 then they would be valid. a typical movie from itunes tends to be about 1.2 gigs.
 
SXR

SXR

macrumors 6502a
Nov 20, 2007
995
7
Netherlands
I have thw 16 gig and its enough. Im used to the 8gig touch so double the capacity is great for me , if you have an extra 100 bux, go for the 32. But 16 is fine.
 
T

The General

macrumors 601
Jul 7, 2006
4,825
1
Well, Apple's website says the iPod touch holds this:

Capacity
32GB or 64GB flash drive2
Holds up to 7,000 or 14,000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format3
Holds up to 40,000 or 90,000 iPod-viewable photos4
Holds up to 40 hours or 80 hours of video5

So take the 32GB numbers and divide by 2 to get the 16GB numbers.
 
kimnkk

kimnkk

macrumors member
Jan 22, 2007
75
21
Me!bourne, Australia
I went with the 32GB even though i dont have much music at all (about 1000 songs, or 6GB) and to date i have about 8GB of stuff on my iPhone, glad i went with the 32GB over the 16GB because i think i could fill the other 8GB if i tried.
 
S

synagence

macrumors 6502a
Jul 23, 2008
879
0
Think about how much you're spending over the life of the contract in comparison to the extra amount you need to spend to get the 32Gb version
 
ucfgrad93

ucfgrad93

macrumors Core
Aug 17, 2007
19,532
10,820
Colorado
How much content do you have OP? If you have close to 16GB, I would recommend getting the 32GB, if not then get the 16GB.
 
Interstella5555

Interstella5555

macrumors 603
Jun 30, 2008
5,219
13
32GB=16GB(x2)

Seriously though... For this I'll usually go with each song being ~4MB, videos from ~50 (low quality show) to 700MB (movie). Not sure about pictures. I currently have 2162 songs, zero movies and 906 pictures @ 14.3 GB.
 
H

hsk

macrumors regular
Jan 17, 2009
206
0
Austin, TX
My 1753 songs is 11.46GB. This coupled with 90 apps and lots of photos got to be tight on a 16GB 3GS if I wanted to add a movie. So I cut my music library down to the music I like to have on me. 1/3 of my music is stuff I rarely listen too. I now wish I had gotten the 32gb one just so I would not have to think about what to sync!
 
thelatinist

thelatinist

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2009
5,937
51
Connecticut, USA
You should also take into account that you won't get the full 16 GB of storage (or the full 32GB).

When discussing the size of the flash memory, they use the definition of 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 Bytes. This is not the definition of GB used when discussing file sizes (1 GB = 1,073,741,824 Bytes). This means that your 16 GB iPhone has only 14.9 GB of storage space. Since your system partition is 500 MB, you actually end up with about 14.4 GB of usable space on a fresh 16GB 3GS. On the 32GB, you have 29.8, of which about 29.3 is usable.

To recap:

"16 GB" = 14.4 GB
"32 GB" = 29.3 GB
 
N

nursekori

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 1, 2009
2
0
Thanks for all the info! My folks are wanting to get me the 3Gs for Christmas, but wanted to know which one I wanted. They both have the 3G from last year and love theirs. They didn't know what the difference was in the newer phones- and truthfully, I didn't know anything other than what the website says!
It seems like 16gig would be plenty for me so long as I can sync up often and "offload" some pics/videos, etc...
 
powerbook911

powerbook911

macrumors 68040
Mar 15, 2005
3,999
379
The 16 is really a pretty good spot.

I do have the 32 phone and try to put most of my stuff besides only select videos on it. I am nearly fulling it with my current configuration though so I'll have to start removing some more videos.

Tom Tom app took 1.5 GB or something.

16 is very livable though. There are diminishing returns, you pay $100 for the 32, and do you get $100 in value? That depends on the purchaser as obviously you get all the features with the 16.
 
uncleSmurf

uncleSmurf

macrumors regular
Jan 19, 2008
117
0
16 is good if you only are going to use a select few apps or don't carry a lot of music or videos around with you.

32 is good for all out especially if your a big time power user, I have my entire library on it ( only about 1400 songs), a few movies, and lots of apps it basically replaced my old ipod.
 
nehunte

nehunte

macrumors 6502
Apr 30, 2009
331
0
Just throwing my two cents out there, but I have well over 32GB of movies, music, and photos of media in iTunes. But why the hell would I ever want to carry that around all the time? Beside the fact that I have an iPod that carries that in my car at all times (minus photos), it seems a little crazy to carry all that content all the time. Maybe it's just me (coincidence), but when I used to max out the capacity on my iPhone, it was painfully slow.

Anyway, my point is that while you may have a ridiculous amount of media content, are you really going to carry it all around with you all the time? If so, then go with the larger. If you're like me, and only carry around about 100 of your most recent and most listenable songs, then go small. Pandora and Slacker Radio are invaluable to me. After about a week of working with either one of them, they'll pretty much only play the kind of music you like, and they're both free. Best of luck with your decision and Merry Christmas. An iPhone Christmas is always a good Christmas.
 
greygray

greygray

macrumors 68000
Oct 22, 2009
1,848
1
OP: See your iTunes library and see if you have the need for a bigger capacity iPhone. If you have a huge media library, the 32GB is better for you. If not, save the $100 and buy a 16GB.
 
spacemnspiff

spacemnspiff

macrumors 6502a
Feb 11, 2009
929
746
MD
nehunte said:
Just throwing my two cents out there, but I have well over 32GB of movies, music, and photos of media in iTunes. But why the hell would I ever want to carry that around all the time? Beside the fact that I have an iPod that carries that in my car at all times (minus photos), it seems a little crazy to carry all that content all the time. Maybe it's just me (coincidence), but when I used to max out the capacity on my iPhone, it was painfully slow.

Anyway, my point is that while you may have a ridiculous amount of media content, are you really going to carry it all around with you all the time? If so, then go with the larger. If you're like me, and only carry around about 100 of your most recent and most listenable songs, then go small. Pandora and Slacker Radio are invaluable to me. After about a week of working with either one of them, they'll pretty much only play the kind of music you like, and they're both free. Best of luck with your decision and Merry Christmas. An iPhone Christmas is always a good Christmas.
Click to expand...

Well said, applies very much to me. I dont carry all the music on the iPhone. Listening to music is one of the infrequent things that I do on the iPhone. I listen to podcasts, Pandora and NPR more than the music.

For me iPod functions in the iPhone is just one of the many things I use it for. Filling it up with music isnt a necessity. I use it for many other things.
 
SXR

SXR

macrumors 6502a
Nov 20, 2007
995
7
Netherlands
uncleSmurf said:
16 is good if you only are going to use a select few apps or don't carry a lot of music or videos around with you.

32 is good for all out especially if your a big time power user, I have my entire library on it ( only about 1400 songs), a few movies, and lots of apps it basically replaced my old ipod.
Click to expand...

You can be a power user if you have the 16gb aswell , carrying lots of songs with you doesnt make you a big time power user :p

I could carry all my songs, but i choose not to, its just confusing and i dont listen to them anyway, so yeah.

You dont carry 5 pair of shoes while you just wear 1 or 2 pairs a day.
Thats just my 16 cents.
 
maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,470
43,395
Personally I went with the 32gig because I plan on keeping my iPhone for the full 2 years. If you don't think you'll fill up the 16gig or may choose to upgrade the phone every year then the 16gig may suit you.

FWIW, I've barely scratched the surface on using the storage on my iPhone
 
Alvi

Alvi

macrumors 65816
Oct 31, 2008
1,208
310
Mars
Get the 32GB one!

Even if you think you will use 5GB, get the 32GB one, it's just 100$ more and you get twice as much! When i first got an iPod Touch it was the 8GB one and i thought i'd use less than 3GB
Now i have:
-3GB Apps
-4GB Music
22GB Podcasts (inc. video podcasts)
-8GB Movies

So in all cases i would like to have the apps i use the most, all my music, some podcasts and maybe a movie

That probably fills a 16GB one, so it's always good to have more because with time you become a power user and some day 32GB won't be enough

Especialy because with the 3GS you record vids, take photos and more so the memory will get full soon
 
D

djrobsd

macrumors 6502a
May 2, 2008
824
25
If you're using Simplify media and leave your computer on all the time at home, get the 16 gig. If you don't have a media streamer, definitely get the 32..
 
ToroidalZeus

ToroidalZeus

macrumors 68020
Dec 8, 2009
2,301
875
thelatinist said:
You should also take into account that you won't get the full 16 GB of storage (or the full 32GB).

When discussing the size of the flash memory, they use the definition of 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 Bytes. This is not the definition of GB used when discussing file sizes (1 GB = 1,073,741,824 Bytes). This means that your 16 GB iPhone has only 14.9 GB of storage space. Since your system partition is 500 MB, you actually end up with about 14.4 GB of usable space on a fresh 16GB 3GS. On the 32GB, you have 29.8, of which about 29.3 is usable.

To recap:

"16 GB" = 14.4 GB
"32 GB" = 29.3 GB
Click to expand...
true except OS X 10.6 reports 1GB = 1 billion byte.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2419

IMO get the 16gb. The 32gb isnt neccessary since you wont listen to every song thats on the ipod.
 
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