Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

32GB vs. 64GB iPhone 5S: Which Did You Buy and Why?

Thanks for all of the replies! It's interesting to see how other people evaluate the cost-to-storage ratio and what their own thought process is.

I'm still on the fence, but am leaning towards keeping the 32GB. Since I have another 8 days to make up my mind, I'll make my final decision in a few days.

After testing out Spotify Premium over unlimited LTE, I can pretty much say I don't need the extra space for storing music.

Now it really just comes down to trying to anticipate future app sizes when devs begin developing 32/64bit combos and determining truly how many photos/videos I'll be needing to take before backing them up.

As a side note, I like the discussion about resale value. I personally think that 16GB will have the worst resale value in 2 years because it's almost guaranteed Apple will increase the base to 32GB within that time (and most people will not be able to get by on it). There will be a small market for it leaving the 32/64GB models with the most demand.
 
32 giggers.... thats enough for me. I need a lot for music, IU run a lot, and there is nothing worster than being 4-5 miles into a 10-15 mile run ad lose your music!
 
I need 64 GB -mostly because of my music collection. I could probably get by with 32, but I'm too lazy to constantly be worrying about which albums to sync/not sync.
 
I went with 64. I am constantly running up against the 32 gigs of my iPad, and didn't want to go through with that on the phone. I won't have my comics on the phone obviously, but those are just replaced in space, and then some, by my music. So 64GB was the obvious choice for me.
 
I picked up a 64GB because of the high framerate video option, which means videos I take will be larger, and the burst and improved panorama modes for the camera, which mean that I will be taking more pictures. Previously I had a 32GB 5 and probably could have stayed the same but I wanted the extra space just in case.

Also I'm thinking of selling my iPad (in advance of the new one coming in a month or so) and since that's where I keep my video and audio I'll need an alternative method to have that with me in the interim.
 
phobos512 said:
I picked up a 64GB because of the high framerate video option, which means videos I take will be larger, and the burst and improved panorama modes for the camera, which mean that I will be taking more pictures. Previously I had a 32GB 5 and probably could have stayed the same but I wanted the extra space just in case.

Also I'm thinking of selling my iPad (in advance of the new one coming in a month or so) and since that's where I keep my video and audio I'll need an alternative method to have that with me in the interim.
Click to expand...

This is one of my concerns also with the 32GB. I didn't take too much video with my 4S, but I think I may end up using the camera a lot more on the 5S between the 120FPS 720p and burst ability.

Does anyone happen to know the approximate file size of a slow motion video (# MB/minute)?
 
zer06ame said:
This is one of my concerns also with the 32GB. I didn't take too much video with my 4S, but I think I may end up using the camera a lot more on the 5S between the 120FPS 720p and burst ability.

Does anyone happen to know the approximate file size of a slow motion video (# MB/minute)?
Click to expand...

This is hardly scientific and I haven't ripped these to my computer to check actual bit rates, so keep that in mind.

I had a two slow-mo videos and they were 209.3 MB/min and 156.6 MB/min respectively. Two normal speed videos I had taken previously on my iPhone 5 were 96 MB/min and 122.7 MB/min.

Something I hadn't previously realized is that the high speed (aka slow-mo) videos were 720P rather than 1080P as a normal video is. So that compensates for the bitrate. (It is not uncommon for high speed digital cameras to operate at lower resolution when you up the frame rate, as they can't refresh the entire sensor quickly enough at higher frame rates.)
 
I've usually done the 32GB, but it was getting tight on space. This time I went 64GB.

I also have a gut feeling that the iPhone 6 will *finally* be offered in 32GB/64GB/128GB models. At that point, my iPhone 5s will be sized in the middle for resale.
 
Is my 64gb the only one that didnt come with 64gb out of the box. I understand for the ios7 and what not but it says I have only 55.8 gb available? Where did the other 9gb go???
 
wickerman1893 said:
The 64GB was the only one availably on launch day. It was purely an impulse buy at the moment, however I WILL be able to find a use for all the space. I already have about half of it taken up. It will also have a higher resale value.
Click to expand...


+!

Wanted a 32 but they only had a 64. Kind of glad I bought the 64GB. It's like having another new feature that sets it apart from my old phone (which was 32GB). Too early to tell if I'll stay with 64 GB on future phones but I like having the extra space so far.
 
64GB. I have iTunes Match so no music, lots of apps, and lots of photos / videos. I sync TV shows or movies to it if I think I'm going to need them (me or kids getting bored somewhere). :) 32 is not enough for me but the wife has 32 GB.
 
phobos512 said:
This is hardly scientific and I haven't ripped these to my computer to check actual bit rates, so keep that in mind.

I had a two slow-mo videos and they were 209.3 MB/min and 156.6 MB/min respectively. Two normal speed videos I had taken previously on my iPhone 5 were 96 MB/min and 122.7 MB/min.

Something I hadn't previously realized is that the high speed (aka slow-mo) videos were 720P rather than 1080P as a normal video is. So that compensates for the bitrate. (It is not uncommon for high speed digital cameras to operate at lower resolution when you up the frame rate, as they can't refresh the entire sensor quickly enough at higher frame rates.)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info!

Now I'm starting to lean towards picking up the 64GB model considering it looks possible to burn through a GB of storage with 5 minutes of 120FPS 720p footage.
 
Gincoma said:
Is my 64gb the only one that didnt come with 64gb out of the box. I understand for the ios7 and what not but it says I have only 55.8 gb available? Where did the other 9gb go???
Click to expand...

I'm not 100% positive, but this could be because Apple is advertising 1000MB = 1GB (base 10) when it's technically 1024MB = 1GB (base 8) like many companies do.

It could also have to do with the formatting of the storage, which is required by any OS to utilize. This requires some of it to be used for stuff like tables.

So after converting to a base of 8 instead of 10, formatting, and loading the OS...55.8GB sounds pretty correct for usable space.
 
Picked up a 64GB 5s. Had a 64GB 4s and it was always pretty full with videos, apps, music,etc. Most of time it had only 2-4Gb free

So kept the same storage
 
I got the 64 because I wanted it for tons and tons of pictures, music and movies.
 
had a 16GB 5, upgraded to a 32GB 5S to compensate for more music and camera stuff. Kept hitting the limit on the 16GB, got tiresome.
 
I've gone 32 for all my iPhones (4s, 5 and 5S). Before the iTunes Match days, I was cutting it close to almost filling up my phone. I could go 64 but since I don't leave unused large apps and tons of pics on my phone, I'm happy.
 
64GB. I always go for the most storage space since I can't put a SD card in there. So go big or go home.
 
I went from a 32 5 to a 64 5s. I bought the 5s on launch day at Best Buy. I was going to get a 32 but all they had were 64s.
 
djc6 said:
My problem with the 32GB is that its the worst value. You pay $100 for another 16GB of ram, or $200 gets your 48GB more RAM from the base 16GB model.

So the additional RAM costs $6.25 per GB for the 32GB or $4.17 per GB with the 64GB model. But then $200 more is a lot of money, so I stick with the base 16GB model :)

My 16GB is basically empty anyways, I am using 5GB currently. I only have free apps installed - no games, no movies - I use my 64GB iPad for those. As for music, no music stored on my phone either - I use SiriusXM app, Pandora, Spotify. As for pictures, I consider taking pictures with a phone an abomination :) Always have a camera with me - currently a Sony RX100 Mark II. It has WiFi, so I can transfer pics wireless from the camera to my iPhone to share online if I don't want to wait till I get home.
Click to expand...
It's not RAM...
 
zer06ame said:
I'm not 100% positive, but this could be because Apple is advertising 1000MB = 1GB (base 10) when it's technically 1024MB = 1GB (base 8) like many companies do.

It could also have to do with the formatting of the storage, which is required by any OS to utilize. This requires some of it to be used for stuff like tables.

So after converting to a base of 8 instead of 10, formatting, and loading the OS...55.8GB sounds pretty correct for usable space.
Click to expand...

That makes sense, kind of weird they dont have a standard but people like myself think they got ripped. Thanks for the reply
 
Another 32gb 4s owner who went with the 64gb this time around for the 5s.

I wanted to have plenty of room for pics and video. Also I have a lot of newstand mags that take up a fair amount of space. There was a frequent space battle with the 4s.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back