But they don't want to help a ton of people, they are a business. They want to make a ton of money.
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Is 128GB Enough iPhone Storage?
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My iPhone 15 is the base model 128 GB and because I’m new to the iPhone, I don’t have nearly as many apps as I had before on Android. Maybe once I subscribe to Apple Arcade, I’ll download more apps/games. 128 GB is plenty (I still have 85 GB free storage.) especially paired with the 100 GB Google One cloud storage plan. I refuse to subscribe to any iCloud services.
Absolutely disgusting Apple charges that much for this plan.
This is lock in and why Apple is getting sued.
Ever try to download photos from the cloud? It’s challenging
For me it is more than enough, at least on the iPhone. On the iPad Pro, however, I think 256GB should be the minimum.
Even the fastest solid-state storage costs only $100 per TB at best, or $10 per 100 GB. Don’t fall for Apple’s artificial storage pricing.
Non sequitur. There are businesses that want to help people and merely want to break even.
(I’m not a photographer so excuse me if this is a dumb question.)
Could you use HEIF Max instead?
The iPhone 15 offers "lots of storage for lots of photos," or at least that's what Apple boasts in its latest ad. Whether that rings true for you depends on what you do with your iPhone, and which storage option you choose. But before you open your wallet, here are some things to consider.
The entry-level storage tier for the iPhone 15 is 128GB. That's a notable increase from the 64GB baseline that persisted until the iPhone 13 in 2021. When you consider that 2018's iPhone X came with as little as 64GB, the base storage option for Apple's latest device might even begin to sound generous.
However, this generational upward shift simply reflects the growing demand for more storage space as our digital habits broaden to encompass everything from high-resolution photography and multi-gigabyte triple-A games to extensive app libraries.
With the iPhone 15's camera capabilities now including 48-megapixel photos and 4K video recording, the space required for these high-resolution files is substantial. These advancements undoubtedly enhance the quality of content captured, but they also eat up local storage capacity, rendering what once seemed like ample space insufficient for the needs of many users.
iCloud to the Rescue?
Apple's iCloud service presents a solution to device storage limitations, offering a range of plans that extend beyond the meager 5GB of free storage – which, frankly, is insufficient for most users. Apple's paid iCloud+ storage subscription plans offer 50GB, 200GB, and 2TB. All the plans include additional features like iCloud Private Relay, Hide My Email, and Custom Email Domains. Currently, subscribers pay $0.99 per month for 50GB of cloud storage, $2.99 per month for 200GB, and $9.99 per month for 2 TB.
Recently, Apple also added options for 6TB and 12TB of storage, addressing the needs of users with extensive storage requirements. However, these come at a cost, both financially and in terms of the reliance on an internet connection for access to your files. The 6TB iCloud+ plan is priced at $29.99 per month and the 12TB plan costs $59.99 per month. (For comparison, Google's 5TB and 10TB cloud storage plans cost $24.99 and $49.99 per month.)
iPhone Storage vs. iCloud
While the standard iPhone 15 models and the iPhone 15 Pro models start with 128GB of storage, Apple offers 256GB and 512GB upgrade options, with an additional 1TB option for the iPhone 15 Pro. (The iPhone 15 Pro Max models start with double the storage at 256GB, with 512GB and 1TB available when upgrading.)
By offering a maximum capacity of 1TB for the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple is catering to users who prioritize having vast amounts of storage directly on their device. However, this option costs $1,499, which is $700 more expensive than the base model. Therefore it's worth thinking about whether opting for a lower capacity model and supplementing it with additional iCloud storage might be a more economical and practical choice. For example, five years of 2TB iCloud storage would cost $500 – that's $200 cheaper than a 1TB iPhone 15, and could well outlast the lifetime of your device.
Whatever your decision, it will depend on your usage patterns and the value you place on having immediate, offline access to your files versus the flexibility and potential cost savings of cloud storage.
The Future of iPhone Storage
Given the current trajectory, it seems only reasonable that Apple increases the starting capacity of all its iPhone models to 256GB in future generations. Hopefully it also reassesses the paltry 5GB of free iCloud storage it offers – a more generous allocation that reflects the reality of modern digital consumption patterns is surely overdue.
Article Link: Is 128GB Enough iPhone Storage?
32GB works for me. My iPhone SE (2016) makes me happy so that is what I use.
Biggest issues are iOS bloat (now >7GB not counting Other System Data) and unexplained space utilization. Right now Photos says >2GB of space used but I haven't taken one picture since a DFU reset and restore (and there were 0 pictures in any Albums when I made the backup). On the flip side System Data now says it is only using 100MB though it normally says 2-5GB...
The iOS bloat is annoying as honesetly I am not sure I depend on any feature new since iOS 5 but today's iOS wouldn't even fit on an 8GB iPhone not to mention leaving room for user data and 3rd-party apps. But whatyagonnado?
Nonetheless, I have >12GB of music sync'd and still 5GB free and this works for me. Of course my configuration wouldn't work for people taking photos @ max resolution on their Pro models and/or lots of videos. Or lots of games or dozens of other usage patterns foreign to me. I will probably go with 64GB on my next phone just because Messages keep growing...
At some point though Apple has to bump the entry-level storage on new phones because it will cost them more to scrounge for lower specs parts as the industry moves forward...
Or even do well by doing good...
Or even take a margin hit in the short-term on a better product to make a lot of money in the long-term.
I used to need the higer storage capacities for my (ripped) music. But with streaming that hasn't really kept climbing. 128 GB is fine for me. I would say if you use non-gaming apps, take HEIC photos and have a lot of music 128 GB is fine. If you take or store lots of videos (4K) of play high end games, then consider a higher capacity.
Yes.
It’s entry level. At that level people aren’t demanding high storage levels.
With iCloud and streaming, high storage not needed but it’s good to have.
It’s entry level. At that level people aren’t demanding high storage levels.
With iCloud and streaming, high storage not needed but it’s good to have.
That’s not lock in. Considering you can use iCloud or google photos or onedrive.
😂😂
Only 256 GB in the future? I'm sure in 10 years we'll see some phones over 2 TB.
I'm using 57 GB as of today. I'm not going to pay extra for additional storage that I will never, ever use. We all want unlimited resources, but the reality is that most people don't use those resources.
My car can drive 250 km/hr, but in reality I rarely drive more than 120 km/hr and have never exceeded 140 km/hr. That extra 160 km/hr gives me absolutely no additional useful speed, but the driving magazines actually publish and discuss these numbers as if it mattered.
128GB is unusable. 256 is the minimum I can work with.
I can only speak for myself. But, as others have already posted, I am nowhere near using the 128GB of storage in my iPhone 15 Plus. I’m using about 30GB. If I ever reach the point of needing to purchase cloud storage, it’ll be time to delete a lot of material - not spend money on iCloud capacity.
128 GB is enough base storage for iPhone. Base iPad storage is 64 GB, because greed. For MBA and MBP 8 GB of RAM is a scam though.
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I wouldn't call it lock-in to only have modest storage on the phone and/or make it easy to keep in the cloud.
I would call it lock-in to make it hard/tedious to export pictures from a device/cloud in bulk and/or original quality.
I have 256gb 15pm and have 240gb empty, and I have used zero kb of my free 5gb icloud space.
I would probably survive with 32gb iPhone lol, heck I would even survive without cameras.
I would probably survive with 32gb iPhone lol, heck I would even survive without cameras.
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It's not enough for me, but I have over 6,000 songs downloaded on my phone, many of them lossless.
Is 128 enough?
Yes. Fore some people.
And no for others.
It all depends on what your needs are.
For me personally its not. 256 GB is good for me now.
Yes. Fore some people.
And no for others.
It all depends on what your needs are.
For me personally its not. 256 GB is good for me now.
I have several family members which use their iPad as a simple content consumption device. A small, light viewer into the web is all they need. I bought one of them as a gift. I wouldn't have wanted to spend even $25 more for an extra 64GB of storage.
64 GB is more than enough for my phone needs.
However, if Apple has a standard model and a "Pro" model of something like a phone and the differentiating factor is say a higher resolution camera then it would make sense for the base memory/storage on the "Pro" model to be more than the standard model. That seems logical from an engineering perspective as far as aligning the product design with its intended use case.
So it's disgusting how much Google charges too, right? right? They charge the same amount for a 2TB plan. In fact, they don't even offer more than 2TB like Apple does.
It depends on what you do, it really does, if you need space you get more space when buying.
If you have lots of video, well obviously you need more space.
If you use it only for messages and texts and basic email… well the storage requirement is tiny.
