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Old news, Apple has been overly greedy on storage pricing forever. I will never get the base model again though. The experience buying a base model with future updates and offloading content is detrimental to the overall experience. Always buy the next step, even though you think you can manage it for busy people it’s just too time consuming and stressful. The base model is basically only good for seniors who aren’t tech savvy.

64GB of storage is just fine for me. I'm not a senior (yet) and I'm pretty tech savvy

what are you storing on your phone that you need to offload content? if you were more tech savvy maybe you wouldn't be storing so much stuff on your phone?
 
Local music, full resolution Photo library, podcasts, audiobooks, youtube downloads, sometimes a local plex download or two, some ROMs, loads of messages & attachments ...

It's a little odd to me that so many are saying "I don't need storage, I just constantly offload my phone all the time and subscribe to XYZ paid iCloud tier"

Like ... that sucks though.. lol
OK, I can see plex downloads, YouTube downloads and roms et.c. taking up a lot of space indeed.

Honestly, I think Spotify and Netflix saves me a ton of space. I have more than 12 000 photos and videos captured on my phone, plus all the apps I need, with room to spare. Still haven't had to offload anything. That's on a 128 GB base model... The only time I actually download something for offline viewing is when I'm going on a flight with no internet access, in which case I bring the iPad anyway so tend to download to that instead.

Don't get me wrong, money no object I would take a 1TB phone but I really haven't had much trouble with 128GB.
 
Does an average user (not your typical Macrumors poster) need more than 128gb? I would argue only if they aren't using iCloud for photo backups. Even a Pro user will likely be recording those hefty LOG files straight to an SSD if they're serious about things.


Also... one can back up their iPhone photos to their Mac with a USB cable, for free. No iCloud account necessary.
 
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I get why some people defend 128GB storage—it works for their needs. But what doesn’t make sense is Apple’s pricing. At the premium they charge, 256GB should be the starting point. Just because you don’t need more storage doesn’t mean Apple isn’t being greedy.

I’m not saying they should scrap 128GB entirely, but it should be reserved for entry-level models. They won’t do that, though—pushing people toward cloud storage subscriptions is too profitable.

Meanwhile, Apple is charging nearly $1 per GB for MacBook storage upgrades. MacOS took a hit in 2024, iOS is trending downward, and yet they’re still inflating storage prices instead of expanding their market. You can’t overcharge for something so basic and expect long-term growth.
 
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I think this still works with iTunes on Windows too
For Windows users, yes, iTunes for Windows is still available & still do backups.
But you still need a 3rd party app to transfer any other files off the iPhone to the PC, which is still unfortunately frustrating.

"backed-up information includes text messages, notes, call history, contact favourites, sound settings, widget settings and more. In addition, photos in Camera Roll or Saved Photos are also backed up. Other media files (such as songs, videos and some photos) aren’t backed up, but can be restored by syncing with iTunes."

 
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I'm all for more storage, but only if it doesn't bring a price increase. As plenty of others mentioned, the problem lies with the exorbitant prices Apple charges for upgrades. 128GB is plenty for anything I'm ever going to do on iOS, so I wouldn't want to be saddled with paying more because other people need more storage (like if, say, Apple eliminated the 128GB price tier, leaving the 256GB option as the new base). That said, I sympathize because I could always use more storage on macOS if it were priced reasonably.
 
I haven't had 128 GB of storage since the iPhone 7 was new. I've had 256 GB ever since. At one point in time, I had only about 40 GB remaining.

Game accounts and photos to upload to Instagram took much of the storage.
 
I'm noticing a trend

Lots of folks saying:

"I don't need more storage on my iPhone, I have XXX amount free still!"

...and then they tell us:

"but I do pay for iCloud Storage plan XYZ"

See the picture?

It's a plan, all along, to get everyone hooked on recurring subscription revenue

("Services Revenue Growth")

You DO need the storage.

You're just now subscribing to it as opposed to it being included (or even paid for extra, one time) on your very premium priced iPhone
Beautifully said and most don’t seem to notice or care.
 
How about lowering prices instead? Instead of starting at 256GB for the same price - make the 128GB models a little bit cheaper.

Except for reducing prices of the previous generation models by $100 a year for two years, Apple tends to rely on the carriers to do the price lowering/discounts. For example, you can get a new 128GB iPhone 16 Plus from AT&T right now for $395.64 ($10.99/month for 36 months). Yes, it requires an AT&T plan but that's how things were when the iPhone originally launched.

Other carriers may have "better" deals. Boost Mobile offers a new 128GB iPhone 16 Pro for $0.00 with an Infinite Access plan.
 
LMAO. 128 GB is more than enough for most users.

However, there is nothing stopping Apple from giving users more than that other than pure greed. It costs them nothing to add more storage, but allows them to price gouge users for the upgrade.
 
I'm noticing a trend

Lots of folks saying:

"I don't need more storage on my iPhone, I have XXX amount free still!"

...and then they tell us:

"but I do pay for iCloud Storage plan XYZ"

See the picture?

It's a plan, all along, to get everyone hooked on recurring subscription revenue

("Services Revenue Growth")

You DO need the storage.

You're just now subscribing to it as opposed to it being included (or even paid for extra, one time) on your very premium priced iPhone
I don't need more storage. I want my valuable data stored in the cloud, not just on a device that could be lost, stolen, or broken at any moment. iPhone is just a viewfinder for my data, amongst many.
 
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100% agree!!

Bravo MR --- We need more people shouting this from the rooftops

No, this is easily solved by paying more money or changing brand.

I don't need a lot of local storage and I would prefer a small amount of storage instead of Apple increasing both prices and storage.
 
Local music, full resolution Photo library, podcasts, audiobooks, youtube downloads, sometimes a local plex download or two, some ROMs, loads of messages & attachments, often times locally stored iCloud documents ... while still comfortably leaving lots of room for anything that might come up and iOS updates

It's a little odd to me that so many are saying "I don't need storage, I just constantly offload my phone all the time and subscribe to XYZ paid iCloud tier"

A. that sucks.. lol

B. that means you DO need storage, you're just having to shuffle stuff around all the time to where you have some room

I store everything at home, not the cloud

why would anybody walk around with a full resolution photo library in their pocket?
 
I get why some people defend 128GB storage—it works for their needs. But what doesn’t make sense is Apple’s pricing. At the premium they charge, 256GB should be the starting point. Just because you don’t need more storage doesn’t mean Apple isn’t being greedy.

I’m not saying they should scrap 128GB entirely, but it should be reserved for entry-level models. They won’t do that, though—pushing people toward cloud storage subscriptions is too profitable.
The 128 GB iPhone Pro is the perfect example of this. It can’t even use one of the flagship “pro” features (ProRes video recording).
 
I’m using about 90GB of my 256, and yes I do subscribe to the top tier iCloud storage, but having more storage on my phone wouldn’t change that. The iCloud storage is what synchronizes all my devices and lets me access files anywhere. Storing everything on my phone wouldn’t help that at all.

Now if I shot video, then yeah, the more storage the better. But that’s really the only use case I would see. The only reason that I have 256 is because that’s the base for the Pro Max phones. I could easily recover tens of gigs by offloading unused apps, reviewing large attachments, and deleting old iMessage threads, etc, but I’m lazy and don’t care 🤷‍♂️

I dunno, I think it’s going to vary widely by user, and honestly everything should have more storage, wether it gets used or not
 
From where I'm sitting as a Mac user in 2025: 64 gigabytes of iPhone storage, and 5 gigabytes of free iCloud storage, are still totally serviceable.
 
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But should they? Do you know with how many things can people easily get by in life?

Yes, they should.

Companies should bundle as little as possible and charge for extras and services unless the cost is minuscule.

The reason is that's by bundling you put the pricing mechanism of the free market out of work.
 
People who are "fine" with 128gb are sort of missing the point

Storage is so incredibly dirt cheap "nothing" for Apple on these and it would enormously benefit a lot of users to have 256 across the board ... and make those phones have a lot more longevity and a better experience with more of their files on device (locally stored full res photos, music, podcasts, books, etc)

I think you're missing the point of capitalism and a free market.

If something "would enormously benefit a lot of users" those users should pay enormously to get that benefit. But they're lucky, since Apple only charges a few hundred dollars. And the competitors charge even less.
 
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I'd be curious to see some stats of who uses how much, etc. Obviously those that need more are going to be the loudest responders here. But me and my whole family (including 3 teens) all have 128gb of space, and none of us are even over 100gb after years on iOS. Anecdotal for sure, but that's why it would be cool to see some stats around this. To me, 128gb still seems reasonable as a base level storage option. 🤷‍♂️

I'm using less than 50Gb.

If you use iCloud Photo Library and iCloud Drive, most regular users don't need a huge amount of local storage.

All these people want is to save money. That's not Apple's job.
 
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