Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
1st iPad purchase. 16GB or 32GB?
- Thread starter dcwebman
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yep this is my only hesitation on upgrading. Im not buying 64 gb, I was ok with 16 I know I dont need 64. With some increased retina app sizes Id like to go to 32 which would account for retina and still give me a nice boost in storage additionally, but it just feels like such a bad price for 16 gigs of memory....
It'd be nice if it got jailbroken quickly so I could read movies off a SD card again.
Based on this
http://www.cio.in/news/retina-display-ready-apps-and-coming-ipad-storage-crunch-236502012
64 is looking better to me.
Saw a comment about 24GB with only one backup movie. Well I don't know about the rest of you, but when traveling I certainly take more then one movie.
http://www.cio.in/news/retina-display-ready-apps-and-coming-ipad-storage-crunch-236502012
64 is looking better to me.
Saw a comment about 24GB with only one backup movie. Well I don't know about the rest of you, but when traveling I certainly take more then one movie.
I'm thinking the 24GB thing is for a 1:1 Bluray rip and not an additional conversion. Apple is using a new compression method for their 1080P movies that is much more efficient so a 4GB 720P movie is now only around 4.5GB in 1080P.
http://www.redmondpie.com/h.264-com...80p-videos-on-itunes-from-ballooning-in-size/
I'd still get the largest size iPad you can buy since you can't add storage to it after the fact but I don't think you'll have to worry too much about file sizes.
Floris
macrumors 68020
With the iPad2 I invested in only 16 GB because I was new to the apps market, and they were pretty small. I also knew that I could just keep an app in the app store, until I needed it. So only install what I use. The money I saved I used to invest in the 3g version so i had google maps with me when traveling, and it didn't become a "brick" when walking out of my apartment.
I also asked my telecom provider for a dual sim for my iPhone, so I could connect a second one to my account. No extra charge - so that' awesome. Since it's unlimited data, I just turn iPhone on airplane mode and turn on 3g on iPad and I don't need to pay for an extra account and have 3g with me when needed on the iPad.
Okay, modern day, the 3rd gen iPad era.
It's been a while since I got my iPad 2nd generation and the apps are growing in size. I am also finding out that I use more digital media such as podcasts in 720p and such to fill up the 16gb rather quickly. It's not out of space. But installing a big 1,5 gb game sometimes tells me I am almost out of space.
I also found out I didn't need the 3g on the iPad as much as I thought I would. Though it's still great to just have it - especially since I am not paying monthly.
I might not invest in the new iPad on 3g (or 4g) and instead go with 32gb.
This takes away the worry of running out of space perhaps, and gives me more space to play with. I can cary more media with me.
I still have 3g on the phone, or if it's really needed, I could bring the old iPad with me instead of the new one.
16 is kinda 'i can't afford more' option. And if you're anal about how many apps you MUSt have and how much media there MUSt be on the iPad, go invest the ridiculous extra $ for th 64gb one.
For me personally (and as you can tell, by My opinion) I think the 32gb is the sweetspot until we're perhaps yet again another generation ahead.
32 GB has my vote.
black white, wifi only or with 3g, that just depends on preference and how much it's worth it to you.
I also asked my telecom provider for a dual sim for my iPhone, so I could connect a second one to my account. No extra charge - so that' awesome. Since it's unlimited data, I just turn iPhone on airplane mode and turn on 3g on iPad and I don't need to pay for an extra account and have 3g with me when needed on the iPad.
Okay, modern day, the 3rd gen iPad era.
It's been a while since I got my iPad 2nd generation and the apps are growing in size. I am also finding out that I use more digital media such as podcasts in 720p and such to fill up the 16gb rather quickly. It's not out of space. But installing a big 1,5 gb game sometimes tells me I am almost out of space.
I also found out I didn't need the 3g on the iPad as much as I thought I would. Though it's still great to just have it - especially since I am not paying monthly.
I might not invest in the new iPad on 3g (or 4g) and instead go with 32gb.
This takes away the worry of running out of space perhaps, and gives me more space to play with. I can cary more media with me.
I still have 3g on the phone, or if it's really needed, I could bring the old iPad with me instead of the new one.
16 is kinda 'i can't afford more' option. And if you're anal about how many apps you MUSt have and how much media there MUSt be on the iPad, go invest the ridiculous extra $ for th 64gb one.
For me personally (and as you can tell, by My opinion) I think the 32gb is the sweetspot until we're perhaps yet again another generation ahead.
32 GB has my vote.
black white, wifi only or with 3g, that just depends on preference and how much it's worth it to you.
Honestly I'll throw some support behind a 16 gig one.
My iPhone is 16 gig, as is my iPad. What ends up happening in my case is I end up using my iPhone for some very specific things like listening to music at the gym or GPS. It's small and convenient.
My iPad isn't practical for walking around listening to music, so it doesn't get any music. I use Netflix a lot, which is a streaming service, and along with iCloud, a lot of digital movies are sitting there, and I end up redownloading when I need to.
In my case, if I end up watching a movie, it's usually a blu-ray on a huge TV. I know that might not help for VOD users, but I do use my AppleTV in my bedroom (sorry, but Apple quality encodes just look like crap on my home theater).
Now if you're using your iPad as a possible laptop replacement, then go 64 gigs.
Also depends on your financial situation. If going to 32 gigs is good for you, then by all means, but if you go to 64 and stuck on a noodle diet, then might need to think about things.
Oh BTW: I'm a developer, and my last app which was graphics heavy, did increase in size for retina, but it didn't double. We were just smart how we sliced the graphics. In fact, we did a little trick that I can't mention that only ballooned the size slightly. In fact we started testing it on the original version of the app.
Of course not not every developer will do what we did, so sizes could vary. Sadly most of us don't even take advantage of the dual cores.
My iPhone is 16 gig, as is my iPad. What ends up happening in my case is I end up using my iPhone for some very specific things like listening to music at the gym or GPS. It's small and convenient.
My iPad isn't practical for walking around listening to music, so it doesn't get any music. I use Netflix a lot, which is a streaming service, and along with iCloud, a lot of digital movies are sitting there, and I end up redownloading when I need to.
In my case, if I end up watching a movie, it's usually a blu-ray on a huge TV. I know that might not help for VOD users, but I do use my AppleTV in my bedroom (sorry, but Apple quality encodes just look like crap on my home theater).
Now if you're using your iPad as a possible laptop replacement, then go 64 gigs.
Also depends on your financial situation. If going to 32 gigs is good for you, then by all means, but if you go to 64 and stuck on a noodle diet, then might need to think about things.
Oh BTW: I'm a developer, and my last app which was graphics heavy, did increase in size for retina, but it didn't double. We were just smart how we sliced the graphics. In fact, we did a little trick that I can't mention that only ballooned the size slightly. In fact we started testing it on the original version of the app.
Of course not not every developer will do what we did, so sizes could vary. Sadly most of us don't even take advantage of the dual cores.
murdercitydevil
macrumors 68000
I agree about 32GB being the crappy value; if I were to go for more space, I would have gotten a 64GB. But that would have been entirely contingent on my totally changing my usage habits, iPhone included. Right now I have most of my music on my phone, the rest on a networked storage drive. I don't plan in listening to music on my iPad, nor do I plan on storing movies - that's what Air Video is for. So 16GB should be fine for just apps, my only concern is that I'm able to fit everything I want. Media should be streamed as far as I'm concerned though...I think it will work just fine.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)
I'm going 32gb since apps, system images etc will fill a 16gb up insanely quick.
I'm going 32gb since apps, system images etc will fill a 16gb up insanely quick.
There is no right answer to this question. It depends on your usage. Think about how you will use it.
I had the 32GB iPad 2 but went with the 16GB this time.
I have tons of music but that's why I opted for a 32GB iPhone. I like to have my music on the go which I can use like an iPod. Therefore I don't foresee the need to store much music on the iPad as I always have my iPhone on me.
In regards to video content, I mostly stream content from YouTube or Video Apps such as Hulu...Again not much storage needed.
If you look at how Apple is moving anyways (or industry in general), everything will be in the cloud eventually and local storage is not a premium.
Sooner or later you won't even need to store music locally, see Spotify.
I had the 32GB iPad 2 but went with the 16GB this time.
I have tons of music but that's why I opted for a 32GB iPhone. I like to have my music on the go which I can use like an iPod. Therefore I don't foresee the need to store much music on the iPad as I always have my iPhone on me.
In regards to video content, I mostly stream content from YouTube or Video Apps such as Hulu...Again not much storage needed.
If you look at how Apple is moving anyways (or industry in general), everything will be in the cloud eventually and local storage is not a premium.
Sooner or later you won't even need to store music locally, see Spotify.
That's "super size it" thinking. It makes sense only if you are considering the per GB cost. But if you only ever use 16 GB and you buy the 64 GB model, you paid $200 extra for nothing. I think the same can be said of the WiFi vs. LTE debate.
People should consider what they think their actual usage will be and buy accordingly. FWIW, I got the 32 GB WiFi model, because that's what will suit my needs best and because I didn't want to drop all that extra money on things I don't need.
I went with the 64. I usually get the best of something that I can afford and than keep it for a long time. I've never said, "I wish my computer wasn't so fast, or I wish my TV wasn't so big, or my iPhone has too much storage".
You are right about the "super-size" mentality.
Because of the retina display apps will be 3 times larger. So the old 16GB would translate to 48 GB. 😱
I don't know the technical details but I don't believe the retina display will inflate a typical application x3. Did this occur when Retina was introduced on the iPhone?
Secondly if this were to be the case, I don't see how Apple would even consider releasing a 16GB model. If anything they would have left the 16GB with the iPad2 as you saw them do with the 1st gen 8GB iPod Touch.
This is true, except if you plan on selling your iPad yearly, in which case, it is almost impossible not to loose money on the last $100 you spend to go from 32GB->64GB because of the general rule that it is harder to find people willing to buy a product the more expensive it is.
I personally discount the 16GB version on the new iPad because it's too small if you install a modest number of apps. Retina graphics increase the size of apps buy 300% (since apps still need to store non-Retina graphics in addition to Retina graphics in the same app). An app that is 10MB will now be 30MB.
I had a 16GB iPad 2 and that worked out fine, so I went ahead with a 16GB again.
... but since last Wednesday I've decided I'm going to swap it out for a 32GB. The longer I had my iPad 2 the more things I started using it for and I think that'll continue, especially with the high resolution screen. Definitely will keep more pictures on it.
... but since last Wednesday I've decided I'm going to swap it out for a 32GB. The longer I had my iPad 2 the more things I started using it for and I think that'll continue, especially with the high resolution screen. Definitely will keep more pictures on it.
Last edited:
16GB....
I ordered the black 16gb with LTE, why? Because I would rather have the option to use internet everywhere than the extra 16gb storage. I already have a 16gb iphone, and an ipod nano.
Storage space is moving away from mobile devices as Apple and other manufacturers try to move to the cloud, thus internet connection > storage.
I ordered the black 16gb with LTE, why? Because I would rather have the option to use internet everywhere than the extra 16gb storage. I already have a 16gb iphone, and an ipod nano.
Storage space is moving away from mobile devices as Apple and other manufacturers try to move to the cloud, thus internet connection > storage.
darkfiber
macrumors 6502a
I had a 32GB iPad 2 for the past year and based on my usage I decided to order a 64GB 3rd Gen iPad. For me at least I wasn't even considering the impact having a display that is 4x the resolution of the previous model would have on storage space. Many apps for the iPad such as games are in the hundreds of MB and some even 1GB in size which takes up a lot of space. I use my iPad to show my photography that I take with a 16MP Nikon D7000 DSLR and those photos take a lot of room. I also like to shoot video with both my iPhone 4S (which as you know is 1080p) and the D7000 and video eats up space really quick. I don't usually put music on my iPad since I have a 64GB iPhone 4S for that. Sure, there are a number of apps that I don't use often that I could remove (and I do from time to time) but that gets to be a pain in the ass. So I went with the 64GB model mostly so I didn't constantly have to delete stuff to make room for other things.
It just all depends on what you intend to do with it. Although you won't truly know until you have used it. If you love apps, videos, photos, pictures etc... you will be surprised how fast you will run out of space.
If you really plan on getting a lot of use out of it, and can swing the extra $100, I would suggest going for the 32GB model.
It just all depends on what you intend to do with it. Although you won't truly know until you have used it. If you love apps, videos, photos, pictures etc... you will be surprised how fast you will run out of space.
If you really plan on getting a lot of use out of it, and can swing the extra $100, I would suggest going for the 32GB model.
32 GB..I wanted to have enough room to load a few movies/tv shows/books etc for traveling, having something to entertain me at work etc without having to constantly use the cloud
I see so many arguments for streaming and iCloud and I guess if you are constantly around WiFi then 16GB makes more sense, but if you are not then it comes down to extra GB vs 4G data and I think the $200 upfront is a better deal than the data charges you'd wrack up over the year.
As many people say, it boils down to how you will use it.
As many people say, it boils down to how you will use it.
This is my first iPad, and I ordered the 32GB. I was on the fence like you trying to decide which size to get. If you can afford the extra $100.00 I say get the 32GB, I rather have extra storage then too little storage.
NiKeZz
macrumors 6502
I went ahead and just pre-ordered the 16GB. It's my first iPad as well. I at the time of order only was worried about pre-ordering it and guaranteeing product before I really gave thought to the size. Since I've ordered it I'm going to just test it and see if it will work for me. If not, I can return it and get it back to my card and in a month, go buy the 32GB. I don't think it's that big of an issue to really fret about it. If you get it and it you start loading up content and you really see it's not going to benefit you, take it back. You might have to wait a few weeks to get the new one, but at least you have peace of mind in what you need. Just my thoughts.
SirithX
macrumors 6502
Got the 32 GB, my iPad 2 was 16 and it was always filled to the brim. I agree that it's the sweet spot, despite logic telling us 16 or the 64 are the cheapest in terms of value.
I also have a 32 iPhone filled to the brim with all my pictures, music and a ton of apps, my 16 iPad 2 was filled through apps and a portion of my picture library. With 32, I think Ill transfer all my photos to the iPad and keep just the more recent ones on the iPhone, clearing up space on the iPhone and I should still have space on the iPad for more apps and HD movies, at least that's the plan. 64 GB on either would help, but isn't really necessary.... yet.
I also have a 32 iPhone filled to the brim with all my pictures, music and a ton of apps, my 16 iPad 2 was filled through apps and a portion of my picture library. With 32, I think Ill transfer all my photos to the iPad and keep just the more recent ones on the iPhone, clearing up space on the iPhone and I should still have space on the iPad for more apps and HD movies, at least that's the plan. 64 GB on either would help, but isn't really necessary.... yet.