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Is 128GB Enough iPhone Storage?
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I'm a light (and budget, ho ho) user: I wish I'd not spent the extra £50 back in 2020 to get 128GB on my SE as opposed to the base 64GB, cos I'm never going to get close to filling it up.
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?
(Tnough ironically, I might end up using it to store files my 64GB iPad 9 has no more room to keep...)
Yeah they need to add an option to let you select what kind of files get uploaded and maybe have a cap on file size. i wouldn't mind videos being uploaded if they were say <2GB but if Apple is letting you shoot 4K 60FPS HDR ProRes Log (or whatever the name is) then they should let you NOT upload that. 1. The file sizes are huge 2. for a lot of people, myself included, we don't have great upload speeds. I tested out 4K Log videos and it took forever to upload to iCloud. I guess they expect people to transfer them to a laptop/desktop so why not have an option to not sync them to iCloud.
Have we learned nothing over the last 20+ years of consuming computers?
No matter how much storage you think you need, you’ll eventually need more. Is 128gig “enough”? No. In the digital world there’s no such thing as “enough” storage space.
No matter how much storage you think you need, you’ll eventually need more. Is 128gig “enough”? No. In the digital world there’s no such thing as “enough” storage space.
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My usage is currently the following:
- 512Gb storage on iPhone, about half used;
- 512Gb storage on iPad, a bit less than half used;
- 1Tb storage on MacBook Pro, a bit more than half used
- 2Tb family shared iCloud plan with 4 members, 1.8Tb already used.
- 512Gb storage on iPhone, about half used;
- 512Gb storage on iPad, a bit less than half used;
- 1Tb storage on MacBook Pro, a bit more than half used
- 2Tb family shared iCloud plan with 4 members, 1.8Tb already used.
It is enough if you re-encode your videos with ffmpeg h265 and only keep images what you really need, everything else is moved to PC
Looking forward to when 256GB is available on the standard model. Or at least the normal pro, not just the max.
No. System Data often eats up a huge chunk of that. 256 should be the base.
The 7th generation iPad 10.2" was the entry-level iPad early 2020. A10 processor and came standard with 32GB. And yes at barely 4 years old it still gets updates.
Ah that's why its always interesting to see other people's configurations. I have the opposite -- my speakers are driven from my desktop where I keep my "masters". My iPhone is just a portable subset of that. If my phone was my streaming source I would definitely do what you are doing.
I’m impressed how little apps and storage you use. I just checked my 13 mini again and also cleaned up some stuff. Still using 26.2 GB out of 128 GB. Will need to go through it again and get rid of some apps and local data.
The biggest problem I see with going with the base storage on the iPhone, or any of Apple products, has to do with ease of resale. Even if your needs are light, you will be limiting the number of people that might consider your hardware in the used market with a base configuration.
If you are the type of user that keeps hardware so long it no longer has much value, then it is of no consideration. But if you sell your devices to recover some money after an upgrade, then I would stay away from the base storage amount regardless of what your needs are. The upgrade you pay for initially will make your old hardware easier to sell and you will get some of that upgrade money back.
-kp
If you are the type of user that keeps hardware so long it no longer has much value, then it is of no consideration. But if you sell your devices to recover some money after an upgrade, then I would stay away from the base storage amount regardless of what your needs are. The upgrade you pay for initially will make your old hardware easier to sell and you will get some of that upgrade money back.
-kp
I had a 386 SX 25 MHz with 240 MEGABYTES HDD….those were the days.
We’re forgetting longevity here. I might get along fine with 246GB for two 2 years no problems. But I might change my phone year 3, so 512GB would be overkill.
Off course, if money was no object, I’d get a 1TB phone no sweat.
You needed 256GB on the Pro models to record 4k ProRes videos so Apple finally dumped the 128 model. The 256GB should be base in standard models and 512GB on the Pro without a huge price increase.
I only have those installed that I truly need, and If I can do something through Safari (like watch Twitch and YouTube) then I dont need seperate app for those. I even listen to music through Safari and use Wipr to block ads on YouTube, this saves me $12 a month for having Apple Music sub. If I didnt have an Apple Watch then I wouldve uninstall Health, Fitness and Watch apps as well. And if I wasnt unemployed I wouldve uninstall Pages app. Those ones wouldve save me like another 1,5GB. And my Safari is always in incognito mode so that browsing history wont get saved to fill my phone with stupid cookies.
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But you need to record to external storage when using ProRes video recording, I have 256GB model and I cant enable ProRes option without external storage.
I don't hoard photos, videos or other media on my iPhone, so I'm mostly fine with 128 gigs of storage.
But I do wish Apple brought back a service similar to Photo Stream. I have no desire to store my whole Photos library in any cloud, not even Apple's. Importing media locally into Photos.app works, but a more elegant workflow would make me really happy. I'm afraid, though, that Apple is now so focused on selling iCloud subscriptions that they won't even consider reviving Photo Stream because $$$.
But I do wish Apple brought back a service similar to Photo Stream. I have no desire to store my whole Photos library in any cloud, not even Apple's. Importing media locally into Photos.app works, but a more elegant workflow would make me really happy. I'm afraid, though, that Apple is now so focused on selling iCloud subscriptions that they won't even consider reviving Photo Stream because $$$.
The key storage service is different than iCloud Drive. Apps can still function.
And even in that case 5GB is still too small to be practical since it instantly fills anyway so you can get bugged with notifications to upgrade storage.
So in the end it’s the same effect unless you pay.
5GB of filled space is functionally equivalent to 0GB of free space. 5GB is only enough to become instantly full so you can start seeing the upsell notifications.
No idea, until this moment I had never heard of it.
I just notice there’s a lot more dynamic range and some more detail in RAW shots.
I generally convert them to HEIF for sharing.
I’ll look into this. I’m no photographer either, just a data quality snob sometimes.
Quick edit: no I cannot because I am using iPhone 13 Pro so ProRAW is my only option. HEIF Max requires 14 or higher.
Not everything is for everyone.
After getting my iPhone 15 Pro Max when it came out, I'm currently using about 100GB out of 256.
I'd have got 256 anyway, but I can guarantee a lot of people would never fill 128GB.
I have 80 free out of 128. I store all photos and videos I wish to keep to Amazon. For ease of sharing, I always save photos as jpeg.
Given the current cost of NAND chips, I hope they can lower the price of models with higher storage.