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16 gigs is fine for people that do not require lots of music,photos or video on their devices. I have owned 64gig, 32 gig and 16 gig phones and have never gone over 12 gigs on either of them. I have most of the items I need in google drive or one drive. On my note 3 (my phone before the 6+) I had a 32 gig and a 32 gig sd card and never went over 12 gigs as I have over 100 gigs of music, photos and videos (along with other stuff) in google or one drive. For the most part I sync my data with cloud services.
 
The iPhone 6 Plus was happening no matter what for me... I can't pass up that screen size.

In terms of 16GB vs 64GB I was having issues. Being on the Dave Ramsey plan and paying off debt as fast as possible I wanted to keep it as cheap as possible. When I got to thinking about it I had entirely too many times I had to delete pictures, videos, or apps in order to put something new on the phone. Doing the math, it costs just over $4 per month (for two years) for the extra space. But, that doesn't take into account the fact that it should sell for at least $40 more during resell (I sell my phones after I'm done). That would knock it down to $2.50/month for two years.

In the end, I figured I waited long enough to get a 6 Plus I might as well get a 64GB.
 
Guys, while I appreciate getting replies from anyone and everyone, I really don't need to hear that it's safer to move up to the 64GB. I get that. $100 more isn't a big deal, and I already went through that mental decision-making when I got my iPhone 6.

I'm really more interested in hearing from people that *did* go with a 16GB model, and want to hear how they're able to deal with it.

One of the reasons I'm thinking about the 16GB model, quite frankly, is because they seem to be easier to come by. I just checked the inventory today and saw that my local AT&T store had a 6+ 16GB. A few weeks back, I saw that there were some Targets that had 16GB models.

I have to think, too, that Apple wouldn't bother offering a 16GB model if it was totally impossible to live with only 16GB.

As I mentioned, I don't need on-board storage of music or videos, and I don't play graphic-rich games. So, I'm thinking that it's probably doable.

Another possible reason for going with 16GB: It used to be that Apple's products held their resale value really well. Now, it seems like a race to the bottom in terms of price. There are deals going around where you can "trade in" your iPad or iPhone at Best Buy or AT&T and they'll give xx dollars, and they don't seem to give you *ANY* extra money if you have a larger-capacity device. So the best bang-for-the-buck in resale value now seems to be to get the lowest-capacity device. Unfortunate, but true.

When we bought my wife her new phone we struggled with the same questions. We ended up going with the 16GB because we have a Match sub, so all our music is in the cloud, and with the new iCloud Photo Library all her photos get stored in the cloud (IOS saves a thumbnail on the phone and uploads the original to the cloud.)
 
An interesting observation: The latest round of Android phones all seem to start at 16GB and don't offer SD storage expansion. I asked a friend (anti-Apple guy) what that was all about and he said that the big thing is to put everything on the cloud now.

I think I already mentioned it, but I'll say it again...I can easily afford the extra $100 for the 64GB model, but I'd: a) Prefer not to waste money on something I don't need - if I can live comfortably with 16GB, I'd rather save that $100, b) The 16GB model is easier to find in stock (yes, I know this situation will improve).

There are lots of use cases that don't involve games or videos:
1) I do a lot of web browsing on my phone. The added resolution and information that will be displayed will be appreciated.
2) I use it as a GPS in the car, and will like the larger screen for that, too.
3) I play a lot of podcasts and streaming radio in the car, and will like having larger on-screen buttons to poke at while driving.
4) Photo viewing/editing.

All very good points and you've seemed to have built a very good use case for purchasing the 16GB iPhone 6plus.

I would have to point out, however, that it is only the low end Android smartphones that start out at 16GB with no SD card slot. Higher end phones either start out at 32GB or have an SD card slot.

Just to throw one other thing out for your consideration, you are going to save $100 on the initial outlay. But how much additional are you going to spend per month on additional data and could based storage costs?
 
I have the 16GB 6+. I upload my photos to Google Drive about once a week (I would do this anyway on a larger phone just to make sure I have them stored in a safe location) and don't have any music on it as I stream through Spotify. Currently, I have 7.19 GB left with 69 Apps installed. 16GB works perfectly for me.
 
This is just an opinion, so take it for what it is worth, but why bother with the 6+ if you aren't going to use it videos and games.

I do a lot of reading on my phone during breaks and lunch hour at work I have a iPad mini at home which I also use as an ereader. The jump from the 5s to the 6 plus screen for me was huge. I read during the day, then sync to my iPad mini when I get home. Not many apps, don't play many games, but the added space is filled with tons of music. I went with the 128.
 
Apple should have ditched the 16GB model for a 32GB flavor. I need more than 16GB but certainly will never use 64GB.
 
To the OP, you can also create a free Dropbox account which I believe gives you 3.5gb of storage for free. That is usually what I do since even though I don't take a ton of pics, it's nice to offload some pics to free up space on my phone.

That being said, I did end up purchasing the 64gb 6 for peace of mind and so I can store some of my Spotify playlists locally on my phone. However, I was able to get by for quite awhile on 16gb iPhone's.
 
I have a 32 GB 5s, but can easily cut down to 16 GB if I wanted. The big chunk of storage with my other devices was always music. But, with iTunes Match, I don't need anything stored locally most of the time.

I have the iWork suite on my phone, but hardly ever use it. Deleting it would free up 1.3 GB. I also have more than a year's worth of photos and videos that take up 1.6 GB. And I have some games installed that use up more than 0.5 GB, along with a bunch of apps of the week that I tried out but don't use very much.

If I had less storage, I could easily manage. But, having the extra space means that I don't really have to think about the capacity, and which photos or apps I need to delete to free up more storage. That, and being able to load up songs and playlists whenever I travel or know I'll be passing through areas with data coverage gaps.
 
Just wanted to post back with an update...

One thing I don't think I mentioned was that I was also on the fence about switching to Android to see what life was like on the other side of the fence. The more open environment, my distaste for what Ive has done with the UI since iOS7, the fact that I could buy a cheap Android watch ($99) if I wanted (even though I don't think I'd really use any of these smart watches anyway), and just the matter of having never tried Android, all had me thinking hard about it.

I was disappointed in the new Nexus phone, since it was no longer an affordable unlocked phone, but I really wanted to try the latest and greatest version of Android (Lollipop), so that had me waiting some more. Then I heard some reports that users are experiencing their fair share of bugs so, like iOS8, it sounds like the latest release may have been rushed out the door to meet the holiday deadlines.

This morning, for reasons I can't even remember, I did an inventory search and discovered that one of my local Apple stores (about 30 mins away) had a Space Gray iPhone 6+ 64GB, which was the 6+ model I originally wanted, and I made an online impulse buy. Picked up the phone at the store and spent the afternoon getting it configured for my use and reconfiguring my iPhone 6 for my wife.

My initial impressions are not positive, though. I'm thinking it may be too big for me. I really like using my phone one-handed and even the regular iPhone 6 was a step down for one-handed use, and no I'm not shocked that the 6+ is a step down from the 6, in that regard. But I was thinking that the larger screen size might wow me enough to overcome that. I'm going to give it a couple of weeks (or however long I think I need to decide) and go from there. If I can decide real soon that I don't like it and also determine that my wife doesn't like it, I could always return it. Or, I can give it to my wife who indicated previously that she might like the 6+ and she claims that she never uses her phone one-handed.

By now, some of you are wondering what any of this has to do with the 16GB vs 64GB debate. Well, of course, it doesn't have anything to do with that. But I did end up holding off on the 16GB and went with the 64GB partially because I knew there was a possibility that I wouldn't end up liking the larger size of the 6+ and might give it to my wife. She's old-fashioned and doesn't use the cloud services as much as me and likes to keep her music stored on the phone itself, so I figured that if I was going to get a 6+ and might hand it over to my wife, that I should probably pay the extra coin and make sure she has enough storage so that she doesn't complain to me about running out of space.
 
Just wanted to post back with an update...

One thing I don't think I mentioned was that I was also on the fence about switching to Android to see what life was like on the other side of the fence. The more open environment, my distaste for what Ive has done with the UI since iOS7, the fact that I could buy a cheap Android watch ($99) if I wanted (even though I don't think I'd really use any of these smart watches anyway), and just the matter of having never tried Android, all had me thinking hard about it.

I was disappointed in the new Nexus phone, since it was no longer an affordable unlocked phone, but I really wanted to try the latest and greatest version of Android (Lollipop), so that had me waiting some more. Then I heard some reports that users are experiencing their fair share of bugs so, like iOS8, it sounds like the latest release may have been rushed out the door to meet the holiday deadlines.

This morning, for reasons I can't even remember, I did an inventory search and discovered that one of my local Apple stores (about 30 mins away) had a Space Gray iPhone 6+ 64GB, which was the 6+ model I originally wanted, and I made an online impulse buy. Picked up the phone at the store and spent the afternoon getting it configured for my use and reconfiguring my iPhone 6 for my wife.

My initial impressions are not positive, though. I'm thinking it may be too big for me. I really like using my phone one-handed and even the regular iPhone 6 was a step down for one-handed use, and no I'm not shocked that the 6+ is a step down from the 6, in that regard. But I was thinking that the larger screen size might wow me enough to overcome that. I'm going to give it a couple of weeks (or however long I think I need to decide) and go from there. If I can decide real soon that I don't like it and also determine that my wife doesn't like it, I could always return it. Or, I can give it to my wife who indicated previously that she might like the 6+ and she claims that she never uses her phone one-handed.

By now, some of you are wondering what any of this has to do with the 16GB vs 64GB debate. Well, of course, it doesn't have anything to do with that. But I did end up holding off on the 16GB and went with the 64GB partially because I knew there was a possibility that I wouldn't end up liking the larger size of the 6+ and might give it to my wife. She's old-fashioned and doesn't use the cloud services as much as me and likes to keep her music stored on the phone itself, so I figured that if I was going to get a 6+ and might hand it over to my wife, that I should probably pay the extra coin and make sure she has enough storage so that she doesn't complain to me about running out of space.

This is really quite a bizarre thread. Say you make $10/hr. And you spend roughly 10 hours over the course of owning your phone doing 'leg work' to manage space on your device. You could just pay that $100 upfront and not worry about it. I use Spotify, Dropbox, Box, iCloud, and Google Drive. But I still have a 128GB phone because:

a) apps are becoming larger in size
b) I like to cache music offline for when I have no connection
c) I like to keep local copies of photos/videos
d) I don't want to waste time solving a problem that's already been solved (storage space)

The difference in price, relative to the cost of the phone, is minimal. It feels like this thread is a justification for making a decision that probably isn't a good decision.
 
Op, you can backup photos to google+ or if you have Amazon Prime, you can backup unlimited photos to Amazon Cloud. All you need to do is download the Amazon Cloud app.
 
I'm definitely getting by with 16GB on my silver 5S with 0 issues. Currently have over 8GB and have all the apps I ever use installed (about 20-25) and some music (about 5 albums). iPhone storage capacity is a personal preference. Bigger does not equal better for every user!
 
If future proofing is important than one should skip the 16GB. If iOS 8 required 5GB for OTA install, imagine what iOS 9 will require. If you are someone that replaces their phone every year, then 16GB is probably good enough if you can make it fit.
 
I got the iPhone 6 on release day but really wanted the 6+. I got the 64GB, because my 16GB iPhone 5 was tight on space and I couldn't upgrade the OS without freeing up space (but see below). I took a good number of photos which were the main usage hog. Anyway, my plan was to give the 6 to my wife and get a 6+ 64GB, but now I'm wondering if maybe I really could get by with just 16GB. Here's what I'm thinking:

- I don't store music or videos on my phone. For music, I stream.
- I don't play games very often, and when I do, it's usually puzzle games.
- I could probably free up some extra space by not bothering with the Apple's Office-style apps (Pages, Numbers, etc.), since I don't think I've ever used them.
- I used to think that I needed to free up space in order to upgrade the iOS, but I later discovered that I could upgrade regardless of space by doing the upgrade via tethering the iPhone to my MacBook and doing the upgrade via iTunes.

There's just one space issue I'm really concerned about: Photos and Videos. Now, I don't often take videos (and certainly not long ones), so I won't worry too much about that. For Photos, what do the rest of you 16GB folks do to get by? I suppose I should just get in the habit of letting iCloud do its thing, and then downloading them (permanently) to my MacBook from the cloud, right?

What about other photo cloud options? Is the Flickr app (or other alternatives) good in terms of being able to set it up to auto-upload your photos frequently?

The only other thing I worry about, is how do I know for sure that a photo is safe to delete from my phone? I suppose I should be safe by just deleting the older ones, since those *should* have been uploaded to the cloud.

I could also sync my iPhone to my MacBook more frequently and make sure the photos get backed up that way.

Any of you who are using a 16GB iPhone 6 or 6+ (or even an older iPhone running iOS8), please chime in with your thoughts.

No not at all. Got the 16 thinking the same thing- especially with streaming music through iTunes Match and streaming movies over wifi through the videos app.

Biggest problem is the way iOS 8 caches data. iTunes Match caches the songs you play and there is no way to clear it. Maybe turning match on and off will do it but that's been hit or miss. With videos the only way to clear the cached data is to either wipe your phone completely or back and restore through iTunes (again hit or miss. Took me 2 tries to get the cached data gone). Also the only way to see this cached data is to plug into iTunes. It shows up as other.

Totally killing the experience for me.
 
One thing that's caught a few people out that I know with 16gb iPhones is their photo library.

A lot of people keep all of their photos on their phone, they back up their previous iPhone and restore to their new phone so their photos for the previous 2+ years go with it.

I have 10gb of photos on my phone which goes back to my iPhone 4, then 5 and now 6!

I know this can be managed via a PC but many people just keep everything on there so people I know are dismissing the 16gb next time round.
 
Crap

I think iPhone 16 GB is just a piece of crap. This is just a piece of joke, nothing else. iPhone can do many many things which required some space and only 16 GB is not near enough. Should be at least 32 GB, at least. But they release 16 GB (!) only then a jump and 64 GB, meaningless.
 
I think iPhone 16 GB is just a piece of crap. This is just a piece of joke, nothing else. iPhone can do many many things which required some space and only 16 GB is not near enough. Should be at least 32 GB, at least. But they release 16 GB (!) only then a jump and 64 GB, meaningless.
It might be that for you (and various others), but it's not that for many others.

As for the whole 32 GB thing, it was more of a marketing move. I guess they could have made the lowest level to be 32 GB and then make it something like $50 more expensive--guess how many threads we'd have about the phone being more expensive and why there isn't a cheaper 16 GB version. ;)
 
I think iPhone 16 GB is just a piece of crap. This is just a piece of joke, nothing else. iPhone can do many many things which required some space and only 16 GB is not near enough. Should be at least 32 GB, at least. But they release 16 GB (!) only then a jump and 64 GB, meaningless.

It's definitely a very poor move. 16 GB is on the knife's edge. Apple is counting on threads like these where people ponder whether 16 GB will be enough with ever growing apps and more high-quality pictures/videos that take up more and more space. It's difficult to to know this advance. Four years ago I would have preferred 16 GB in a heartbeat, now I'm not so sure.

The $100 extra makes the 64 GB a sweet deal, but you obviously end up spending more than you originally intended for something you might not need. It's like carriers offering deals for midrange plans even though a lesser plan would be sufficient for you. You are getting more value, but you are still spending more than you have to.

On topic: here are my two reasons for sticking with 16 GB:
  1. I use iTunes Wi-Fi sync and it's working great. It doesn't block any functionality anymore and happens silently in the background, so keeping it synced is a piece of cake. This will also ensure that you have a backup on your PC at all times (I certainly don't want to upload all my data to iCloud).
  2. Less space will compel you to think about all the stuff you put on your phone. You can easily forget what's on there and if someone ever gets access to it, they will have access to a whole lot more. Keeping your footprint small on devices that are easier to lose is not a bad thing to consider.
 
This is really quite a bizarre thread. Say you make $10/hr. And you spend roughly 10 hours over the course of owning your phone doing 'leg work' to manage space on your device. You could just pay that $100 upfront and not worry about it. I use Spotify, Dropbox, Box, iCloud, and Google Drive. But I still have a 128GB phone because:

a) apps are becoming larger in size
b) I like to cache music offline for when I have no connection
c) I like to keep local copies of photos/videos
d) I don't want to waste time solving a problem that's already been solved (storage space)

The difference in price, relative to the cost of the phone, is minimal. It feels like this thread is a justification for making a decision that probably isn't a good decision.

That works if the OP is being paid 24x7. Most of us aren't. Otherwise, no one has to do any chores since there is always someone available to hire at minimum wage to beat your own wages for the same time.
 
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