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.
Debating whether I really need the 64GB...
- Thread starter InfiniteLoopy
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
For whatever it is worth, if you're willing to watch and wait a little bit, you might be able to get a 64GB iPhone for what you'd normally pay for a 32GB iPhone, if you're talking about off contract prices.
In other words, you might very well find somebody on eBay or Amazon who's letting his 64GB go for what you'd have to pay for a 32GB iPhone off contract.
I decided to buy off contract to preserve our ability to get future AT&T iPhone 5's if and when they ever come out.
I paid exactly the same price for an AT&T locked iPhone 4S 64GB and an unlocked AT&T Premier iPhone 4S 32GB.
For whatever that is worth to anybody.
In other words, you might very well find somebody on eBay or Amazon who's letting his 64GB go for what you'd have to pay for a 32GB iPhone off contract.
I decided to buy off contract to preserve our ability to get future AT&T iPhone 5's if and when they ever come out.
I paid exactly the same price for an AT&T locked iPhone 4S 64GB and an unlocked AT&T Premier iPhone 4S 32GB.
For whatever that is worth to anybody.
Me too... 256 kbps AAC would be my choice. With the 32GB I got all the music I care about into about 29GB at 128 kbps. Now I have 64GB to play with, I'd much rather have 256 kbps because listening with good headphones the difference is obvious. In the car, the difference isn't so obvious though. Hence why a selectable 128/256 option would be great as that would suit more people's different usage requirements. For playback through Apple TV, I only use Apple lossless, but I certainly don't need that on the phone.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)
Maybe I am missing something here, but why would you forego the upgrade now and buy off contract to save the upgrade for the next gen iPhone?
For one, AT&T has a tendency to open up launch iPhone adopters for an upgrade early. But even if they dont, why not just save the $$ now, earn some interest on it, and use that down the road to buy the i5?
George Knighton said:For whatever it is worth, if you're willing to watch and wait a little bit, you might be able to get a 64GB iPhone for what you'd normally pay for a 32GB iPhone, if you're talking about off contract prices.
In other words, you might very well find somebody on eBay or Amazon who's letting his 64GB go for what you'd have to pay for a 32GB iPhone off contract.
I decided to buy off contract to preserve our ability to get future AT&T iPhone 5's if and when they ever come out.
I paid exactly the same price for an AT&T locked iPhone 4S 64GB and an unlocked AT&T Premier iPhone 4S 32GB.
For whatever that is worth to anybody.
Maybe I am missing something here, but why would you forego the upgrade now and buy off contract to save the upgrade for the next gen iPhone?
For one, AT&T has a tendency to open up launch iPhone adopters for an upgrade early. But even if they dont, why not just save the $$ now, earn some interest on it, and use that down the road to buy the i5?
I decided to downgrade from 32GB iP4 to 16GB iP4S and I also purchased iTunes Match. So far couldn't be more happy.
I too have the majority of my music in lossless format, but my best system is at home. Being able to download my complete library as needed when on the go in Apple quality suits my fine. Even without iTunes Match, 1-2GB of lossless music would be more than enough to get me by for a day.
With music covered you'd be at about 11GB or so free.
You're not listening to 64GB, 32GB, or 16GB of lossless music in a day. Calculate what you think you'll use on a daily basis and go from there.
Right now with everything I need for the day, minus another album or two I'll pull down from the cloud I'm at 11.6GB available. The real test will be when we take the kids to Disney soon, but day to day this suits me.
If you have a decent GPS app on there you are looking at a couple of gigs. Not to mention HD porn. That's about 8 gigs alone on my iPhone. Determine your priorities and cash and buy what you want.
A 16GB is enough for all my needs haha. I only have the music that I currently listen to on there, I'm not really fussed about having my whole entire library with me when I'm unlikely to listen to it.
I also only have the Apps I'm currently playing on my iPhone, if I haven't used an App in a while, I'll just delete it. When I want to play it again, I'll just transfer it from iTunes.
As for the O.P, if you have the money, then go for the 64GB version. I personally couldn't afford it, but the more content you can have on your phone, the better really.
I also only have the Apps I'm currently playing on my iPhone, if I haven't used an App in a while, I'll just delete it. When I want to play it again, I'll just transfer it from iTunes.
As for the O.P, if you have the money, then go for the 64GB version.
I personally couldn't afford it, but the more content you can have on your phone, the better really. with the icloud and soon to come itunes match, i don't see the need for anything more than a 16gb phone. that's just me tho
Not everyone wants to burn through their battery accessing the "cloud" all day and prefer to have their stuff with them even when they don't have access to the cloud. When I travel overseas, I turn off data.
Thanks everyone for the updates. As I expected, I'm getting people advising me to get any of the three sizes.
A few things:
- iTunes Match is not something I'm going to do.
- I have quite a long commute, but sometimes listen to podcasts.
- In a weird kind of way, I quite like the idea of "picking and choosing albums to listen to". Sometimes I want to listen to my best rated songs, but sometimes, listening to a whole album is good too.
- I don't usually sell used gear so discussion of "resale value" isn't really worth it.
Basically, I need to decide whether:
a) I want to carry all my music.
b) If so, is 128kbps acceptable?
c) Guess what my usage will be for the next two years.
d) It's true that $100 over 24 months is not worth arguing about ... but if I don't need it, why pay for it ... ?
A few things:
- iTunes Match is not something I'm going to do.
- I have quite a long commute, but sometimes listen to podcasts.
- In a weird kind of way, I quite like the idea of "picking and choosing albums to listen to". Sometimes I want to listen to my best rated songs, but sometimes, listening to a whole album is good too.
- I don't usually sell used gear so discussion of "resale value" isn't really worth it.
Basically, I need to decide whether:
a) I want to carry all my music.
b) If so, is 128kbps acceptable?
c) Guess what my usage will be for the next two years.
d) It's true that $100 over 24 months is not worth arguing about ... but if I don't need it, why pay for it ... ?
What?
In a forum where a lot of us paid a cool $600 for the first iPhone with 8GB storage, 8 apps, and no 3G data that statement seems laughable.
You double your memory for $100 going from the 16-32 so you pay $100 for 16GB. You also double it going from 32-64 so you pay $100 for 32GB on the 64. That's amazing in my opinion - I honestly expected more.
The 64 GB is almost exactly 1/2 the cost per GB of the 16GB.
16 - $12.50/GB
32 - $9.38/GB
64 - $6.25/GB
i look at it this way. if i have unlimited space in the cloud for my itunes music. and any music i upload to it. why would i spend another $100 for more space when that same $100 can be put towards buying apps and music. i got the 32gb model because i plan on taking lots of HD videos and full resolution pictures. and loading full length movies for flights and such.
right now i have 10.1gb used 18.1 free
7.4gb of music.
240mb of music video
the reset apps
i have at least 14gb of music total. but i don't listen to it very much. so i keep it on in the cloud
right now i have 10.1gb used 18.1 free
7.4gb of music.
240mb of music video
the reset apps
i have at least 14gb of music total. but i don't listen to it very much. so i keep it on in the cloud
Maybe I missed something here, but I thought the iTunes Match service was only a way to download your music to your iOS device, and that you can't stream music from it. If that's still true than you still need as much storage as you can afford I would think.
I honestly think that 32Gb is the minimum for heavy media users. I have a good number of songs on my phone along with maybe 20 pics and a ton of games (70 or so) and I have maybe 2 or so gigs of storage left.
If you're going to be putting a ton of music on the phone along with a lot of applications and games, you might benefit from it.
If you're going to be putting a ton of music on the phone along with a lot of applications and games, you might benefit from it.
I am not sure and don't really care. I'd rather have my music on the device. It's more reliable, it won't eat my battery like streaming and won't eat up my data plan.
my policy has always been to buy the highest capacity model. Why? Because I have over 80 gigs of music, tons of HD movies, and many more apps. Sure, I don't listen to or watch all of them at the same time but I don't like syncing. I like having everything accessible right there. If I can only afford a 16GB iPhone 4S, then I simply will not buy an iPhone 4S. I will wait until I can afford a 64GB 4S with the AppleCare+. Same deal with iPad, I always buy the 3G one with the highest capacity. If I can't afford that one, I simply don't buy one.
Just did more research on this, and it certainly looks like storing your music in iCloud is just that: external storage, and there isn't any streaming allowed. It's just so that people who are away from their computer can download songs from their library to their iOS device to listen to.
I wonder how many people are getting a device with less storage based on the (seemingly) mistaken belief that they will be able to stream their library from iCloud?
I wonder how many people are getting a device with less storage based on the (seemingly) mistaken belief that they will be able to stream their library from iCloud?
Me personally I started with 3G at 16GB, then decided to go 32GB with the 3GS, and even with the better camera and video on the 4 stuck with 32GB as I do not like to keep all that junk on my phone all the time, i also rotate all my music every 2-3 weeks, also my total iTunes library it nearly 2-3TB between Music, TV Shows, Movies etc, so no way I could keep it all.
I just got the 4S and decided to stick with the 32GB and even more so with the better camera and large photos and videos, I am still fine.
The way I look at the 64GB is good if you will hardly be near your computer to sync it, otherwise, if I am near my pc all the time I prefer smaller, and sync more often, but if you do not have that luxury, then 64GB might play out better.
I just got the 4S and decided to stick with the 32GB and even more so with the better camera and large photos and videos, I am still fine.
The way I look at the 64GB is good if you will hardly be near your computer to sync it, otherwise, if I am near my pc all the time I prefer smaller, and sync more often, but if you do not have that luxury, then 64GB might play out better.
Youre missing the point; you can have access to all of your music, anywhere. Anybody with 320kbs, AIFF, or WAV rips knows how troublesome that can be.
But for the data, that's what wifi is for. As for power? That's what plugs are for. Seeing that this is mainly to be used as a spur of the moment thing or when you're out for a long time, like vacation or something, it makes sense to me.
I had the same dilemma regarding 16GB vs. 32GB. I have a pretty large music library (over 40GB) and that took up around 15GB in my 32GB 3GS. Ultimately, I could not justify spending another $100 for double the space, so this is what I'm doing:
1. I am syncing only the absolute essential songs to my iPhone. These are the ones I know I'll listen to a lot and wouldn't be able to do without. When I went through my library and did this, I ended up with around 693 songs. I'll revise this as I find new songs I want on there.
2. I have all my music uploaded to Google Music Beta. For those who don't know, it's a free cloud music streaming service that is by invite only (I happen to have 5 free invites, so if anyone wants those, PM me). With the gMusic app from the App store, I have access to my whole 40+ GB library from my iPhone as long as I'm on 3G or WiFi. Unfortunately, Google does not have an official app for the iPhone for Google Music, but gMusic seems to work decently enough.
3. I am using Picasa to upload photos regularly from my iPhone. Again, there's no official app from Google for this, but the Picasa Web Albums app seems to work decently enough. The plan is to delete photos after uploading so as to conserve space whenever I get to the point where I'm out of space. I'm big into photography, and I take a lot of photos with my iPhone so it's essential that I have space to take photos and a place to upload them to (I purchased additional storage from Picasa for $5 per year to accommodate my large photo library). The nice thing about Picasa is that I have access to all my photos from my iPhone, including those that were uploaded and taken with other cameras.
Now, by doing these three things, with 125 applications installed (quite a few of them being games), 693 songs (in 192 quality or higher), and 124 photos, I have 3.4GB of available space. That's more than enough to take a lot of photos, and should be sufficient for videos (unless they're long, in which case I can just upload those photos and clear out space). So far, this is working quite well for me.
1. I am syncing only the absolute essential songs to my iPhone. These are the ones I know I'll listen to a lot and wouldn't be able to do without. When I went through my library and did this, I ended up with around 693 songs. I'll revise this as I find new songs I want on there.
2. I have all my music uploaded to Google Music Beta. For those who don't know, it's a free cloud music streaming service that is by invite only (I happen to have 5 free invites, so if anyone wants those, PM me). With the gMusic app from the App store, I have access to my whole 40+ GB library from my iPhone as long as I'm on 3G or WiFi. Unfortunately, Google does not have an official app for the iPhone for Google Music, but gMusic seems to work decently enough.
3. I am using Picasa to upload photos regularly from my iPhone. Again, there's no official app from Google for this, but the Picasa Web Albums app seems to work decently enough. The plan is to delete photos after uploading so as to conserve space whenever I get to the point where I'm out of space. I'm big into photography, and I take a lot of photos with my iPhone so it's essential that I have space to take photos and a place to upload them to (I purchased additional storage from Picasa for $5 per year to accommodate my large photo library). The nice thing about Picasa is that I have access to all my photos from my iPhone, including those that were uploaded and taken with other cameras.
Now, by doing these three things, with 125 applications installed (quite a few of them being games), 693 songs (in 192 quality or higher), and 124 photos, I have 3.4GB of available space. That's more than enough to take a lot of photos, and should be sufficient for videos (unless they're long, in which case I can just upload those photos and clear out space). So far, this is working quite well for me.