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All iPads Did I make a mistake buying 16G iPads?

C

Clint1583

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 4, 2011
155
9
Thought I would beat the Christmas rush and purchased two 16G iPad mini's with Retina display for both my wife and college age daughter for Christmas but now I'm seconding guessing myself on if they might be to small at only 16G. For the most part they will be using them 90% for surfing the internet and watching a movie here and there on a plane. Photos would be the only other big use I'm guessing.

Having spent almost $1,000 including smart covers, I hate the thought of having to return them for a 32G model at $200. more. Any thoughts or advise?
 
Chupa Chupa

Chupa Chupa

macrumors G5
Jul 16, 2002
14,835
7,396
16GB is fine. I have a 16GB mini myself. No regrets. (Disclaimer: I also have a 64GB iPad Air). Photos take up less space than you think & worse case they keep some of their pics on their computer or in the cloud.
 
deaglecat

deaglecat

macrumors 6502a
Mar 9, 2012
586
676
Apps keep getting bigger.

16Gb ok if you can be a bit tidy, don't game too much and don't store a large movie collection.

In 2 years time though... who knows ?
 
S

shortcut3d

macrumors 65816
Aug 24, 2011
1,112
15
1080p HD movies will take up at least 4GB each meaning you may be able to fit 3 movies. I have a couple action movies which don't compress well that are upwards of 10GB at 1080p. Either way, storage and movie management will have to be done if you're watching movies even on 128GB iPad. I can't even fit my entire movie collection on my rMBP with 512GB. Hence, I use a Synology 1813+ 32TB NAS to stream from.
 
V

Vertigo1

macrumors regular
Oct 5, 2013
113
0
Do it. 20% extra cash for 100% extra space.

Apps are only getting bigger and will get larger still as 64-bit support is added to them.
 
E

everydayCARD

macrumors member
Nov 16, 2013
34
0
Clint1583 said:
Thought I would beat the Christmas rush and purchased two 16G iPad mini's with Retina display for both my wife and college age daughter for Christmas but now I'm seconding guessing myself on if they might be to small at only 16G. For the most part they will be using them 90% for surfing the internet and watching a movie here and there on a plane. Photos would be the only other big use I'm guessing.

Having spent almost $1,000 including smart covers, I hate the thought of having to return them for a 32G model at $200. more. Any thoughts or advise?
Click to expand...

Speaking from a college student's perspective, i mostly use my iPad Air to check e-mails, surf the web, stream movies / videos online and view PDF files as most of my class materials are in PDF format. I currently own a wifi/cellular air 16gb, but havent yet felt any need for extra storage.

If they have smartphones, they would be fine with 16gb. But if they dont and if they are planning on using the ipad as the main "entertainment" device, then it may be an entirely different story.
 
V

vanz

macrumors newbie
Mar 20, 2012
26
1
I bought a 16gb 3rd gen....and it kept getting filled up with home videos recorded with the ipad. Toddler and newborn videos....and lots and lots of pictures.

So this year, I picked up a 32gb air...at least I can load more than a couple of movies for plane rides and road trips.

Did the exact same thing for my iphones. 16gb was pitiful when the OS already took up a couple of gigs.
 
Tjosansa

Tjosansa

macrumors regular
Jul 27, 2013
177
16
I go all 16GB. Ipads and iphones.
Sure i have to unload some stuff sometimes. But 100 bucks for extra 16 ram. Thx but no thx.
 
H

herdnerfer

macrumors 6502
Feb 12, 2011
345
11
Saint louis, MO
TWO2SEVEN said:
Based on what?
Click to expand...

Based on Craigslist/eBay sales

----------
shortcut3d said:
1080p HD movies will take up at least 4GB each meaning you may be able to fit 3 movies. I have a couple action movies which don't compress well that are upwards of 10GB at 1080p. Either way, storage and movie management will have to be done if you're watching movies even on 128GB iPad. I can't even fit my entire movie collection on my rMBP with 512GB. Hence, I use a Synology 1813+ 32TB NAS to stream from.
Click to expand...

You must be really anal retentive when it comes to your movie compressions, I have 100s of 1080p movies I stream to my AppleTV and not a single one is more than 2gb, even the extended editions of LOTR.
 
S

shortcut3d

macrumors 65816
Aug 24, 2011
1,112
15
TWO2SEVEN said:
Based on what?
Click to expand...

The base iPad price is set by the 16GB WiFi only model in the resale market. After that the storage and cellular are less than 50 cents on the dollar. That's why some think 16GB is best for resell. However, if the base price of the iPad falls more than 50% then the higher end models tend to perform better because the storage and cellular tend to hold fairly stable at 50% loss.

----------
herdnerfer said:
Based on Craigslist/eBay sales

----------



You must be really anal retentive when it comes to your movie compressions, I have 100s of 1080p movies I stream to my AppleTV and not a single one is more than 2gb, even the extended editions of LOTR.
Click to expand...

I use Apple TV3 preset in Handbrake .99 from Blu-ray folder structure. I have sub 2GB 720P files but definitely not 1080p. Granted the Apple TV3 preset looks really close to the original Blu-ray.
 
s2mikey

s2mikey

Suspended
Sep 23, 2013
2,490
4,255
Upstate, NY
You didn't make a mistake, you will just have to manage the space more attentively than someone with more storage would. It's very doable. Just takes a little more creativity.

Music and movies start chewing up space fairly quickly. Apps are getting bigger. But, there are always a bunch of apps that you can nuke for a while and then just get them back some other time. Easy done.
 
Z

ZipZap

macrumors 603
Dec 14, 2007
6,076
1,448
16GB is always a mistake. Those that profess to get by on it either have another device or do use it much beyond browsing.
 
Chupa Chupa

Chupa Chupa

macrumors G5
Jul 16, 2002
14,835
7,396
ZipZap said:
16GB is always a mistake. Those that profess to get by on it either have another device or do use it much beyond browsing.
Click to expand...

Yes but then it's not always a mistake then is? It depends on ones use just as some are fine w/ a Smart Car & others need an SUV. ;)
 
Ladybug

Ladybug

macrumors 68000
Apr 13, 2006
1,874
1,013
I personally think your wife and daughter will be fine with 16 gb if 90% will be internet related. Just have them delete things they no longer need periodically and they should be fine. Furthermore they will be delighted when they see what you bought for them. Also, there is always the option of buying a wifi drive later on if it becomes necessary. Not as convenient but doable.
 
J

jrs22

macrumors 6502
Aug 1, 2012
355
59
I gave my son my 16G iPad2 when I upgraded to a 64g iPad3 due to frustration with lack of space. I was carrying around a lot of books, including pdfs of art books, and videos and had to keep deleting media and apps. He's living abroad and regularly takes a 4 hour bus ride to the nearest large city, and was having difficulty loading enough videos to watch during the trip. I ended up trading with him and after that he never had a space problem. I think he could have managed on 32g to do what he wanted, but not 16g.

How long are these plane rides? You can't stream video up there.

The happy ending, for me, is that I skipped the iPad4 and bought an iPad air the day it was released. Now we're both happy campers.
 
Last edited:
EDH667

EDH667

macrumors 65816
Nov 25, 2009
1,035
278
Northern California
I have purchased each generation iPad and have progressively purchased larger and larger iPads until the Air and rMini. Now I purchase the 16GB versions and keep all of my media on a Kingston MobileLite Wireless drive, and also use DropBox. Much easier storing my media on 64GB SDHC cards that all of my devices have access to instead of purchasing the larger sized IOS devices. This works well for me although I know others prefer to have their media on their device.
 
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