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Is 16GB really that bad?

S

SweetApples

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 6, 2016
33
20
Philadelphia
Hi, I'm new to the forums and I've been lurking on here, since in a couple of months I want to purchase a iPhone 6s Plus in Rose Gold for cheaper when the iPhone 7 comes out. One thing I've been debating is whether or not to get the 16GB or the 64GB. I am working now but I am trying to save as much as I can on this purchase. I never bought something so expensive. I used to have a 32GB iPod Touch 5 and i didn't use that much space on it. I had a good amount of apps and music on it and social media sites and I don't believe I went over 16GB. I plan of having this phone for 2years + (yeah I know the phone is about a year old already, but idc I think the iPhone 6s is a solid phone that can last a good while and i love the design).

My question to you guys is, to whoever that has the 16GB iPhone 6 or 6s, is it really THAT bad? Like does it really not hold much on it? I'm not a big gamer or anything in not going to be downloading San Andreas or anything on it lol. I just want it for browsing the net, listen to music on Spotify, watching Youtube, talking, texting and have a couple social media apps and some random apps. Nothing too major. I also make pictures, but moderately.

Is the 16GB just useless and should I just cough up an extra 100 dollars for a 64 GB? I do want to make the right decision and I know you guys on here know what you are talking about. I'm not really super techy lol.

Should I just go for the 64GB just to be safe?

Thanks! :)
 
SweetApples said:
Hi, I'm new to the forums and I've been lurking on here, since in a couple of months I want to purchase a iPhone 6s Plus in Rose Gold for cheaper when the iPhone 7 comes out. One thing I've been debating is whether or not to get the 16GB or the 64GB. I am working now but I am trying to save as much as I can on this purchase. I never bought something so expensive. I used to have a 32GB iPod Touch 5 and i didn't use that much space on it. I had a good amount of apps and music on it and social media sites and I don't believe I went over 16GB. I plan of having this phone for 2years + (yeah I know the phone is about a year old already, but idc I think the iPhone 6s is a solid phone that can last a good while and i love the design).

My question to you guys is, to whoever that has the 16GB iPhone 6 or 6s, is it really THAT bad? Like does it really not hold much on it? I'm not a big gamer or anything in not going to be downloading San Andreas or anything on it lol. I just want it for browsing the net, listen to music on Spotify, watching Youtube, talking, texting and have a couple social media apps and some random apps. Nothing too major. I also make pictures, but moderately.

Is the 16GB just useless and should I just cough up an extra 100 dollars for a 64 GB? I do want to make the right decision and I know you guys on here know what you are talking about. I'm not really super techy lol.

Should I just go for the 64GB just to be safe?

Thanks! :)
Click to expand...

You'd be surprised how quickly you'd run out of space on a 16GB model. Things to take into consideration:

  • Messages take up space especially if there are attached pics
  • Apps may be small in size but their cache can quickly take up space. I've seen 32MB apps take up 500MB of space.
  • iOS updates can take up to 2GB of space just to install
 
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Yes it is.

Though if you don't use your phone for a lot you can probably survive. But just don't plan on the following:

- Shooting 4k video
- Taking lots of pictures or saving a lot of wallpapers
- Downloading more than a few games
- Saving music or movies for offline
- Having the piece of mind that you won't run out of space.
 
It can sneak up on you. It depends on what you use your device for.

For example, I had one 16GB iPad that was fine until I started using some cool photo and CAD software and storage started getting eaten up with files. (Oh how I wish iOS devices could use a plug-in storage card!)

Also, if you tend to keep all your iMessages and you belong to a group with lots of videos and photos being passed around, those can take up a ton of space. (Ask my daughter!)
 
kdarling said:
It can sneak up on you. It depends on what you use your device for.

For example, I had one 16GB iPad that was fine until I started using some cool photo and CAD software and storage started getting eaten up with files. (Oh how I wish iOS devices could use a plug-in storage card!)

Also, if you tend to keep all your iMessages and you belong to a group with lots of videos and photos being passed around, those can take up a ton of space. (Ask my daughter!)
Click to expand...

Wow you and everyone else are making a lot of good points. Why did Apple even make a 16 GB iPhone then. It's not fair that we have to pay 100 more just to have a functional phone.
 
Wait until September were almost guaranteed 32gb as our entry level it's all but confirmed as per several leaks which are quite good at this point. It seems they will be using 32/128/256 gb, but if they do not go as high as 256, at least the 32 gb option will be the entry level.
 
16GB is actually sufficient for some users. My mom, for example, who barely knows how to install an app on her phone gets by just fine with a 16GB phone.
 
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Keep in mind that if you are waiting for the 7 to launch, Apple traditionally stops selling the higher storage units. They keep selling the 16GB at $100 off. This is true for the US, anyway.

Edit: incorrect! Used to be this way, but no more! Very nice to see.
 
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16GB is fine. I can certainly afford more, but I don't understand what I'd do with the space.
  • I have every photo and video taken since the iPhone 3G stored locally.
  • I just counted and I have 81 applications. Seems like plenty, and I'm not being stingy.
  • I stream videos and music, so those don't need to be stored locally and a streaming library is far larger than even the biggest phone could hold.
OTOH, if you're not a streamer and you need to store everything locally, then 16GB is comically small.
 
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SweetApples said:
IOS updates take up to 2GB up omg...
Click to expand...
Full installers take that much space as far as what's needed to download them onto device if you are doing it OTA and it's not a delta update for some reason, but each update doesn't eat up that space, it's space that gets used to get the installer and then unpack and install the update, but then the space is released.
[doublepost=1469488280][/doublepost]
SweetApples said:
Wow you and everyone else are making a lot of good points. Why did Apple even make a 16 GB iPhone then. It's not fair that we have to pay 100 more just to have a functional phone.
Click to expand...
Well, for many typical users who don't really do that much not their phones (at least in the sense of having a bunch of apps or really large apps and having a bunch of music/videos/etc.) it's still mostly just fine. As another post mentions as well:
joeblow7777 said:
16GB is actually sufficient for some users. My mom, for example, who barely knows how to install an app on her phones gets by just fine with a 16GB phone.
Click to expand...
 
C DM said:
Full installers take that much space as far as what's needed to download them onto device if you are doing it OTA and it's not a delta update for some reason, but each update doesn't eat up that space, it's space that gets used to get the installer and then unpack and install the update, but then the space is released.
[doublepost=1469488280][/doublepost]Well, for many typical users who don't really do that much not their phones (at least in the sense of having a bunch of apps or really large apps and having a bunch of music/videos/etc.) it's still mostly just fine. As another post mentions as well:
Click to expand...

Yeah but majority of people with this phone do a lot with it.
 
SweetApples said:
Yeah but majority of people with this phone do a lot with it.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure about majority, given how many typical (as in fairly basic) iPhone users are out there. I'm not really sure of the numbers one way or another, but it's hard to say which group would really be the majority in it all. So for those that are doing more, 16 GB might not be enough and larger options exist, for those who are not doing more 16 GB can be and has been just fine. (None of this is to say that it wouldn't be good if the base storage was bumped up, simply to address the part about whether or not 16 GB could be fine.)
 
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SweetApples said:
Yeah but majority of people with this phone do a lot with it.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that. It seems to me like a lot of people just use their smartphones for texting, social media, music, and taking pictures. That doesn't necessarily take more than 16GB depending on how you manage your content.

Don't get me wrong. I would recommend springing for 64GB for just about anyone these days, but it's not impossible to get by with 16GB if you have a small media library or don't mind streaming or accessing content via the cloud.
 
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The OS upgrade doesn't take 2GB if you do it from iTunes. I always do it from iTunes anyway, because it makes a backup of the iPhone to the hard drive, which seems like a good idea to do at least once a year.
 
What phone are you using now and much storage is being used?

Most people will say buy as much as you can safely afford. Don't know if your needs will change in a year.

The 16gb may be hard to sell in 2 years. You may get your investment back by getting the 64gb.
 
I can end up filling up faster than you may initially think, especially as your usage of the phone changes over time. This is coming from someone that had an original 4GB iPhone for years ;)
 
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Theoretically, if the base storage of the iPhone 7 is 32GB (and they don't raise the base price) then shouldn't it cost the same as a 64GB 6s? Unless you're getting the 6s for less or don't like the 7 maybe you could consider that option as well.
 
Nobody can tell you how much storage you need, only you know that.

I have a 128gb and have 30 something open, that's me. No idea how much you need.
 
I get by just fine with 16GB as long as I have unlimited data. I stream all of my music and store all my pictures and videos in the cloud. I use Hangouts for texting, so only recent messages stay stored on my devices and don't take up multiple GBs like Messages used to.

Since I knew I wouldn't be using my iPhone SE much with an unlimited data line, I got the 64GB, but my iPhone 5s before it and my current iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4 are both cellular 16GB devices and they're fine for me.
 
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