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My 64 GB iPhone is enough. Only using around 20 GB of it. I literally DO NOT NEED MORE. This is why I have tons of external storage, for archiving all my content so I can remain at ~40 GB free.
What iOS do you use? For me, iOS 17 and system data make up 17GB.
 
128 GB is great IF you hardly use your phone. But add a good music collection, some of the most popular games (Genshin Impact alone will eat up dozens of GB 😵‍💫), and suddenly 128 feels awfully constraining.

Or just be like me and insist on taking 4K 60-frames-per-second videos of your cat so you can capture all of your little kitty's majestic adorableness... 128 GB will vanish in no time. 🙀

Subjective. I use my phone all day, and i'm only using 114GB, so 128GB would have been sufficient for my needs.
 
For me it is. But I upgrade my phone often enough it's kinda moot. Especially since Apple decided the Flagship model is now 256GB Base. But I'm currently only using about 61GB. And it's been that way for a long time. Each iteration of iphone I got I've only used about 50-60 GB's.
Honestly I don't see who needs that much except for photographer or video shooting. Or you install a ton of apps.
 
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@Artesia, what apps are you using? Looks quite minimalist to me so I am curious if you could share additional infos about your device usage.

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I recall asking myself the same question about 16GB storage when that was the norm. Heck, my first iPhone (3G) maxed out at 16 and it was enough to have a bunch of photos there, a couple of games and a good part of my music collection (that was before I went lossless). Note that this was way before music streaming services and iCloud came around.

Nowadays it wouldn't even be enough for the operating system.
 
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What businesses do that and are worth $2+ trillion?
That wasn’t the argument I was responding to, and there is no merit in having a valuation of trillions of dollars (which also is different from “worth”)..
 
It would be nice to have 256GB the base storage of all iPhones & iPads.

512GB be the base model of Mx Macs.

In 2024, that's ridiculous.

Right now, a 1TB NVME SSD costs $60 RETAIL. There's no way, at Apple's volume, that 1TB of SSD chips is more than $20.

A base iPhone should be 1TB. A base Mac should be 2TB.

We've seen a MASSIVE decrease in storage on Macs, despite SSD prices for the rest of the world dropping to the point where they're cheaper than hard drives in 2008 when a 250GB hard drive was the standard storage option on a 15" MacBook Pro. In 2012, a 1TB hard drive was in virtually every MacBook Pro, 500GB was a thing but was rare.

Apple is price gouging. They always have, but it mattered less when we could easily upgrade the storage on our computers.
 
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128 gigs here. Few Apps, around 60 gigs of music few pics. But to be honest - when apple knocks on the door with a IOS-update, i need to clean up before. It depends, what you do with the Phone. Next device will be 512+ again...
 
Typical "{size} isn't good enough for me so it isn't good enough for anyone" argument.

Buy the storage you need - period. iPhone, iPad, Mac - but the amount of storage that is right for you. Don't force those who would be fine with 8GB of RAM, or 128GB or 256GB of storage, to pay for more just because it's too small for you.
 
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I'm sure many who use cloud storage it's fine. I have about 127GB left of 256GB.

I may go with 512GB for this year though just to give more room
 
Regardless. What is never enough is customers' account balance, as well as Apple's greed. Customers just don't want to be treated as beggars by Apple.
 
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I still only use 44GB on my 15 Pro. I have never gotten close to maxing out even 64GB phones. At this point I would rather a phone that's a couple hundred dollars less in cost so I am not paying for storage I will likely never need.
You'd never see that savings because that 128GB doesn't cost Apple anywhere near $200, or $100 for that matter.

The issue with Apple's low relatively low base storage is that they dramatically overcharge for storage upgrades, so if you need more it gets very expensive, very fast.
 
128GB is fine for base level iPhone storage today. In 5 years from now, it won’t. But expect it to stay this way for several more years. And the 5GB iCloud is too small, but that’s the point. Apple wants you to pay and I don’t fault them for that. 5GB is more than Dropbox offers for free and I don’t hear anybody complaining about that.
 
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Silly thread. It’s obviously enough for some and not enough for others. It depends how you use your phone and if you understand how to manage the content.
 
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Curious do you notice the difference in audio quality playing the lossless out the iPhone's DAC in typical listening environments?

While I try to keep all my music as high fidelity as possible, I mostly listen to music from my iPhone at the gym. Where I am not sure I could tell the difference between AM and FM...
In order to hear the awesome quality of lossless audio you would need to hear it through high end speakers or headphones with a good DAC. I’m not saying mega million doller speakers but very good one’s. I have spent alot of time ripping all 1,160 of my CD’s to Apple Lossless. And I have them all on my iPhone in Lossless format. Its a preference thing for me, I enjoy straming my music collection from my iPhone to my Kef LS60 Wireless speakers and also using my Shure SE846 earphones with a Audio Quest Dragonfly DAC. This way I’m getting true CD Quality audio without the need to use the actual CD. And yes I can tell the difference in sound quality.

128GB is definitely not enough for me. I have 512 gigs with only 100GB available. And that wil be eaten up by future music, photos and videos.

Just the music alone is 400GB. The next iPhone I buy will be 1TB.
 
Like with their RAM decisions, 128gb is just laughable, completely insufficient and, thanks to Bean Counter Timmy, designed to upsell the consumer to a more expensive phone.
 


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.

iPhone-12-128GB-Feature.png

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?

icloud-plus-storage-tiers.jpg


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?
Sure is for many! For me I have like 70GB’s free. On my apple
Watch series 9 I have 54GB’s free.
 
For me it is. I'm only using 48GB on my iPhone so I have ~463GB left lol. At a push if I'm traveling I might download some music or a couple movies/tv episodes. That's only going to add maybe another 10GB.

I went with 512GB because I like to always go for as much storage as I can reasonably afford. It's there if I ever need it so there is no worrying and when it comes time to trade it in then it gets me a little bit extra value.

My MacBook Air is also 512GB and I'm only using 43GB on it.

I stream my music/movies/tv and iCloud deals with everything else. I'm paying for 50GB plan but I'm only using 700-800MB so the 5GB free tier would be enough but it's only 99p/month for 50GB and I get Hide My Email/Private Relay.
Reread the original post in this thread.
 
128 GB is great IF you hardly use your phone. But add a good music collection, some of the most popular games (Genshin Impact alone will eat up dozens of GB 😵‍💫), and suddenly 128 feels awfully constraining.

Or just be like me and insist on taking 4K 60-frames-per-second videos of your cat so you can capture all of your little kitty's majestic adorableness... 128 GB will vanish in no time. 🙀
I use my phone all the time and it’s plenty for me. I don’t play games….
 
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