Million time question but... For an engineering student that won't be doing much music (besides pandora) and won't do much video storage (besides Netflix) should I even consider the 64bg iPad???
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32 vs 64
- Thread starter SuperMiguel
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jmpnop
macrumors 6502a
You'll probably be fine with the 32 Gig version. But as an engineering student you might want to explore how much technical information you may want to store on your iPad. I'm thinking of PDF's. I can't provide any guidance there but I have noticed over the 8 months or so that I've owned my iPad 2 that it's not the apps (for the most part) that take up space but the data objects accessed by those apps. (I have a mapping app, for example, that stores 3.2 Gig of highway maps.)
Storing prose text is not a killer, but you may find that engineering diagrams impose a greater storage burden so if possible you might want to look into the space consumed by digital textbooks and other material you want to keep on your iPad.
BTW, be careful about assuming "cloud" storage can bail you out on these issues. The "Box" app, for example, offers up to 50 Gig of "free storage." However, the "free" version cannot be used to store any single file of more than 100mb. Also consider the impact of large downloads/streaming on your data plan. You may find that you're exceeding your data plan limit if you store (and then access) large files stored "in the cloud." None of this should be construed as a deal breaker for cloud storage. Just some points to keep in mind.
Just some issues to keep in mind.
Storing prose text is not a killer, but you may find that engineering diagrams impose a greater storage burden so if possible you might want to look into the space consumed by digital textbooks and other material you want to keep on your iPad.
BTW, be careful about assuming "cloud" storage can bail you out on these issues. The "Box" app, for example, offers up to 50 Gig of "free storage." However, the "free" version cannot be used to store any single file of more than 100mb. Also consider the impact of large downloads/streaming on your data plan. You may find that you're exceeding your data plan limit if you store (and then access) large files stored "in the cloud." None of this should be construed as a deal breaker for cloud storage. Just some points to keep in mind.
Just some issues to keep in mind.
bufffilm
Suspended
netflix is streaming so there's nothing used as far as local storage.
32gb should be fine.
I have hundreds of PDFs, plus way too many apps, on my 16GB and haven't run out of space yet. I think video really is the big space hog.
I don't have "hundreds of PDF's" on my iPad so I can't contradict your comment. But I do work with PDF's of technical manuals on a regular basis and individual pdf's on my hard drive frequently top 1/2 a Gig in size. Even a substantial number of pdf's of 1-3 pages won't pose storage issues. But a technical manual of 300+ pages can be a major storage hog. Keep a half dozen of those on your iPad and you'll be monitoring your available space.
You're correct, of course, that video is the main culprit but for those who are accustomed to working on systems with hundreds of gigabytes of storage, common even on small laptops these days, there is sometimes a tendency to be unaware of just how large some of the files can be.
16GB would be plenty, it's plenty for me and I have music loaded and movies (not all of them but the most recent ones I want).
There's no one-size-fits-all answer to questions like this. You know your storage requirements better than anyone else and you're the best person to answer your own question. The next engineering student who doesn't do "much" music or "much" video storage may have an entirely different answer. What, exactly does "much" mean? It's a highly subjective word and can vary greatly from person to person.
32 BB is way more than enough! I have a 32gb 3G iPad 2 and the only way I was able to use up all the memory was to put in hd movies lol.
