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8 GB or 16GB?

L

lyew

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 2, 2008
28
0
Dear all

I'm just considering getting an iPhone but being pretty new at cellphones that do more than just placing calls and sending text messages, I'm somewhat puzzled that this tiny handheld Mac runs with either 8 or 16 GB. Basically my question is this: is 16 GB model worth the added cost? Is the additional storage space really necessary?
 
do you think 8GB of space is not enough for all your media contents? if yes - then go with 16GB.
 
It's definitely worth the cost. Even though you've only used a phone as a phone in the past--with very little other content--the iphone is different. You'll want to put applications on it with music and movies etc.

The only thing better than the 16gb iphone is the rumored 32gb iphone. Will it be out soon? I'm not sayin I'm just sayin. :)
 
I would definitely go bigger personally, especially if you would want to put some shows or something on them for on the go. I have around 15 gb of music anyway, so the 16 would be a must. The 32 GB that is rumored to come out would be incredible.
 
The 16GB is worth it imo. 8GB can fill up pretty easily, especially after you start to get used to downloading apps and music/videos.
 
I was wondering the same thing when I went in to buy mine. I didn't think I would need the 16gb, but the more I thought about it.. I figured I might as well get the bigger one. That way a few months down the road I wouldn't look back and wish that I would have.
Since I've gotten my 16gb iphone, I have pretty much constantly had between 8-9 gb worth of stuff on it. (go figure huh? LOL)
I barely went over the 8gb, but I am sure glad I went with the bigger one.
So my opinion is....... If you can afford to go the extra $100, might as well do it, so you don't regret it a few months down the road. If you really can't afford the extra $$, just stick with the 8 gb model. You can still fit alot of stuff in 8 gb.
I keep alot of full length movies on mine, so it takes up quite a bit of space, But I have ever went over 10 gb used.
 
It depends what you plan to use your phone for. If it's going to be your main iPod, then get the 16GB model. However, there are enough programs like Simplify Media, that if in Wi-Fi you can stream all of your music to your phone, so in that case you might not need 16GB. Personally, I'm quite happy with my 8GB phone, but that might be because I have a 180GB iPod that I use to hold my music library - and only keep a small amount of music rotating on my iPhone.
 
I'd say get the 16. Based on the experience of an 8G owner. This is coming from somone who even keeps my phone to a minimum. I carefully select music to put on with playlists and carefully chose which apps i really need and use. With the camera, i'm always snapping pics, i like a couple podcasts too. I wish i had 16G. It would allow for more play. My budget only allowed for the 8G though. If you can swing the 16G, get it. It's $100 more for twice the memory.
 
I'd argue that few people need more than 8GB.

An 8GB holds a hell of a lot. Even allowing for half of it for the OS, photos, apps and the like, 4GB is still likely to be something like a 1,000 songs - at three minutes a piece that's 50 hours of music. Realistically who actually regularly listens to that much music? Most people will have, say, a few favourite albums or bands that they listen to regularly and along with a few new albums that will form the majority of their listening - nothing like 50 hours in total.

When I moved from a 60GB iPod with all my music on it to my original 8GB iPhone I set up a few smart playlists. One was all the music I'd imported or bought in the last few months, one had all my top-rated music, another had a random selection from the whole library, and so on. This rotated the music with every sync and, ironically, because I had the smart playlists I started listening to a wider range of music and found some real gems that I'd somehow forgotten.

I'm know some people will say they cannot possibly go out for the evening without their 3TB music collection, and I'm sure some people do need more storage space. I actually went for a 16GB when I upgraded, so I'm also a hypocrite. But I would guess that since the OP needed to ask the question it indicates he'll probably be OK with 8GB.
 
Thanks for all your replies. I have a 60GB iPod too, so a 8 or 16GB iPhone seems like a backward step for some. But I guess we can't be lugging mini-hard drives around with us all the time.

By the way, how does the iPhone fare as a cellphone? I mean how is the quality, signal receptivity, call connections? I say this because compared to companies like Nokia and Motorola that have been in this business for much longer, Apple is a new kid on the block. And many of these have lots of proprietary technology on enhancing voice clarity, background noise filtering, etc. Is the iPhone good in these respects? In other words, does it have any phone features that compares or betters the phones made by other companies?
 
I have a 16GB, the way I see it is that if you're signing up for a two year agreement, it makes sense to get the larger capacity. A year from now you will wish that you had.
As far as quality, I had an LG cell phone before this on Verizon and the reception and quality of the call is WAY better for me and I was a little hesitant switching from Verizon after being there for 4 years....
 
To me it was totally worth it. This needs to last me for at least a couple of years so I wanted as much space as I could possible get. As it is I have two movies and a bunch of music on there and I have 4 GB left. That space will definitely get eaten up pretty quickly over the next 2 years.
 
I'd always max out any in-built storage drive within reason, just makes life easier not having to worry about continual rotation of content.
 
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