iPhone 11 Pro Do I really need 256 GB upgrade on iPhone 11 Pro?

[neilw]

I really want the size and camera of the iPhone 11 Pro (vs. the plain old 11) but I'm stumped on whether I need the 256 GB upgrade. I'm having trouble getting over mentally the idea of another $150 on top of a $1000 phone for an option that I may not really need.

Presently I have a 3-year old iPhone 7 with 128 GB (the ideal number, IMHO) and am using 43 GB. I use iCloud Photo Library, so photo storage requirements are modest. My largest item is my 15 GB music library; that's not growing very fast and I could probably delete quite a bit of it if needed as well.

Overall I could probably delete at least a few gigs worth of apps and not miss them.

What would be likely to cause me to overflow a 64 GB phone? On the one hand I hate to play it too close, but on the other I'll also be quite annoyed to pay the $150 and then never crack 50 GB....

 

[rui no onna]

To me, 43GB used seems too close for comfort if you're getting the 64GB.

My mom has a 64GB iPhone and she ran out of storage recording videos while on an overseas trip (crappy, crappy wifi so couldn't really sync and offload to iCloud). Good thing I brought my laptop so I was able to offload new photos and videos from her phone.

 

[Arcontia]

If you plan to upgrade to next years iPhone, just get the 64GB as its the minimum and whether or not you run out of space, you'll be moving on from it anyway.

If you plan to hold onto it for at least more than that, preferably 2+ years - 256gb to be safe.

I've got 256GB and love that I can comfortably store all my camera photos since 2014 on there and still have well over half the capacity left over for whatever I wish.

 

[Cole Slaw]

In your situation I'd go for the 256 but boy I wish Apple would offer 128.
But I guess they know a lot of customers will pony up and pay the extra cash when the choices go from 64 to 256 with that 128 sweet spot missing.

 

[chanerz]

256 is a sweet spot. For 11 Pro Max.

 

[tonybarnaby]

Having to delete things to make room is a pain that I am not willing to endure. Yeah it's a huge upsell but that's how it is. Very few people will ever fill 256gb, but most people will fill 64gb within 2-3 years.

 

[aakshey]

Just get the 256 GB and upgrade again next year.

 

[bigjnyc]

at 43gb used you are too close for comfort. a few HD videos here and there and you are deleting stuff and messing around..... just get the 256 then set it and forget it....... Apple is good at making money, they know 128gb would be the sweet spot but they jump to 256gb and slap an extra $50-$70 on it knowing 64gb is not enough for most people.

 

[Skika]

Get the 256gb. You wont regret it. 64gb is a bad limiter for such a great device.

 

[DevinNj]

I use between 20-30gb, so for me 64 is fine. I would say in your case OP, you're borderline, so unless there's anything you don't need and you can delete it, I'd bite the bullet and go 256. Agreed with most, 128 would be ideal, but apparently Apple thinks differently...

 

[Elitegate]

It depends on your usage. If you store a lot of local files on your phone and you don't use iCloud, 256 GB is a must i'd say. If not, 64 GB is fine.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I run my iPhone X on 64 GB, with 40 GB used. iCloud Photo Library, iCloud Messages (130 GB stored in iCloud). I'm an Apple Music subscriber, and have Optimize Storage selected for the Music app as well.

The way I look at it is that iCloud storage can be cheaper than buying physical Flash. It all depends, though - if you have to upgrade from the 200 GB plan to 2 TB in order to run on a smaller-capacity iPhone... buying Flash will be somewhat cheaper.

Taxes aside, in the US 24 months of the 200 GB storage plan is $71.76, while 24 months of the 2 TB plan is $239.76 - a $168 difference. Meantime, there's a $150 difference between the 64 GB and 256 GB iPhones. In terms of "bang for buck" I think the 200 GB plan is a no-brainer. The 2 TB plan... clearly, if you have a huge Photos library, it's still a no-brainer - you can't get a 1 TB iPhone (yet). Further, if you share that plan with several family members (Family Sharing), even 2 TB can be a no-brainer.

Still, there are those who are only comfortable when they have all their data stored on-device. For them, that peace-of-mind will likely outweigh small dollar differences.

 

[Damon2]

I'm in a similar dilema.

Wish Apple would have just offered 128GB and that would have resolved it.

256GB is overkill, I too had 7 128GB and have kept it for 3 years.
I've been over 64GB but have brought it under around 43GB also.

10GB by Spotify I could chop this down to at least half, as the music I downloaded was for the sake of it and I dont even listen to it anymore.

But still 64GB still feels limiting and I'm probably the perfect customer for Apple as I feel like I'm forced into 256 knowing full well I wont even use half of it.

 

[Puppuccino]

If you have 128GB and want a Pro I’d suggest going for the 256GB. Going down in storage might be a pain for you.

Its up to you though, do whatever is best for you. I go for the lowest storage because for 79p a month I get 50GB iCloud storage so I don’t really notice it.

 

[John dosh]

Plain old 11? How can it be plain and old? When it comes in a variety of different colours and it’s one of the newest in the line up.

 

[rui no onna]

Still, there are those who are only comfortable when they have all their data stored on-device. For them, that peace-of-mind will likely outweigh small dollar differences.

Yeah, I pay for both local and 200GB iCloud storage.

3-2-1 backup rule. The phone is one of my local copies (NAS is the other). iCloud is my offsite backup.

 

[neilw]

Thanks for all the replies.

My mom has a 64GB iPhone and she ran out of storage recording videos while on an overseas trip (crappy, crappy wifi so couldn't really sync and offload to iCloud). Good thing I brought my laptop so I was able to offload new photos and videos from her phone.

That's really the most worrisome scenario for me, although historically I don't take a lot of video. But with such a great camera, maybe I'll want to take more, who knows.

I expect I'll be keeping this phone for 3 years. Based on responses it sounds like it's hard to justify cheaping out on the storage.

I do have the 2 TB iCloud plan, but there's not all that much I can relocate out there since I already have iCloud Photos. Right now I have 15 GB of music, 3.6 GB of Photos, 1.69 GB of Twitter (jeez, and I am only a light Twitter user), and 1.34 GB of Google Maps, since I store some local maps on the phone (love that feature). Every other app is < 1 GB. So deleting unneeded music is really the single biggest thing I could do to actually reduce my usage, and I could recover a few more GB by deleting unneeded apps. Is that all worth it to save $150 over 3 years? Probably not.