Other Low Storage Capacity iPhone + iCloud storage

[jcorbin]

So I recently got a 64GB SE3 and every review video I watch says “if you got a 64GB model go back and exchange for more storage”
Is that really necessary if you have iCloud storage? I spend the $30/mo for Apple One Premier so my entire family can use Apple services, which includes 2TB of storage. Would this effectively negate the concern with a measly 64GB onboard?

 

[ian87w]

Depends. 64GB can still be plenty for many. It depends on how many apps you install on the phone. If you don't install many apps, then I think it will be fine since photos and videos can be taken care off by iCloud Photo Library with optimize storage.

But if you install a lot of apps, then I would get at least 128GB. In my experience, more and more apps are getting bloated, reaching 300-500MB+ per app size, even for simple apps. Apps cannot be offloaded to the cloud. iOS can remove them temporarily, but having to re-download and re-install them on the go can be frustrating. Another issue is if you use messaging service like Whatsapp. Whatsapp maintain all the stuff (photos, videos, documents, etc) internally, so it can take a lot of storage if you rely on it as your main file sharing app.

Games can also take a lot of storage space.

If I were you, I would count how many 3rd party apps that I use. If you only use a handful of 3rd party apps and don't do games (maybe just one or so), then 64GB would be fine.

Take any video reviews with a grain of salt. Most of those youtubers get free review units, so they never think budget as part of their recommendation since it's always "free" for them. Real life people like us have to use money to buy our stuff. Really do the homework first to make the decision.

 

[Howyalikdemapls]

I have a 128gb iPhone and loads of iCloud storage but it’s still super annoying if I want to try to make some space to download a few shows or audio books or whatevs for a flight. Also every once in a while I want to download a big app and need to delete a bunch of other stuff. I had it turned to automatically remove unused apps to make space but it deletes stuff that I use all the time so I had to turn that off.

Naturally everyone’s use is different but I will never be buying a phone with less than 256gb despite my iCloud storage.

 

[antiprotest]

Get more storage if you can afford it. Cloud means almost nothing in some cases.

You can use iCloud for photos and videos, and then choose to store only thumbnails on your phone. But guess what? iOS is stupid and will use all of your available storage anyway.

If you want to download a couple of games, cloud will not help you with that. Apps usually take less storage, but apps will use storage to store their data. You can "offload" apps, but for many apps, most of the storage is taken by the data they store, not the app itself, and those don't get offloaded.

Then when you think you have 10GB left, iOS will sometimes use it up in an instant for no apparent reason, leaving you with nothing.

Then you think, well, I need to download this app, so I will delete this other app I haven't been using. But the moment you delete that app, iOS might take up the remaining storage instantly. So you end up deleting one app and unable to install the other.

This does not happen every time, but it happens very often, and you don't know when it is going to happen and how much storage iOS will take from you when you least expect it.

 

[jcorbin]

Thanks for the feedback. I don’t use a whole lot of apps and I don’t game on my phone. I use websites in lieu of apps whenever possible. Mainly I use iMessage, and safari for my personal stuff. For work I need some authentication apps and a messenger client. Beyond that I don’t download much. My thought was if I eventually filled this up with photos/videos (which is unlikely since I don’t take many pictures and if I shoot video it’s in 1080) then iCloud should remedy the lack of local storage.

 

[ian87w]

Thanks for the feedback. I don’t use a whole lot of apps and I don’t game on my phone. I use websites in lieu of apps whenever possible. Mainly I use iMessage, and safari for my personal stuff. For work I need some authentication apps and a messenger client. Beyond that I don’t download much. My thought was if I eventually filled this up with photos/videos (which is unlikely since I don’t take many pictures and if I shoot video it’s in 1080) then iCloud should remedy the lack of local storage.

What's the storage being used by your current phone and how long have you been using it? That should give you a good projection on how you will use your new phone x years from now.

Yes, iCloud will take care of your photos and videos with optimize storage. Just make sure to enable iCloud Photos and optimize storage.

 

[ian87w]

Get more storage if you can afford it. Cloud means almost nothing in some cases.

You can use iCloud for photos and videos, and then choose to store only thumbnails on your phone. But guess what? iOS is stupid and will use all of your available storage anyway.

I don't observe that behavior on my iPhone. On my iPhone, locally stored photos/videos are only around 20% of the actual photo library size in iCloud. I think it does its job.

 

[jcorbin]

Just got the phone but I had a phone with 128 for ~6mo before this and still was using under 40GB. Currently I’m using 23.6GB and most of it is apps. There are some apps I have to have like my for my home security system or my work chat and there are some apps I choose to have like some restaurant/food delivery apps and the weather channel (because I already paid for premium and that doesn’t seem to translate to no ads on their site). And then there are apps I’ve decided to forgo like IMDB (cuz…come on), my banking apps, and shopping apps like Amazon and target. All in all I think the app storage is under control. And I don’t take very many pictures/videos. BUT if I do (have some family trips planned) iCloud should have my back. Thanks all

 

[Mark Stone]

Just got the phone but I had a phone with 128 for ~6mo before this and still was using under 40GB. Currently I’m using 23.6GB and most of it is apps. There are some apps I have to have like my for my home security system or my work chat and there are some apps I choose to have like some restaurant/food delivery apps and the weather channel (because I already paid for premium and that doesn’t seem to translate to no ads on their site). And then there are apps I’ve decided to forgo like IMDB (cuz…come on), my banking apps, and shopping apps like Amazon and target. All in all I think the app storage is under control. And I don’t take very many pictures/videos. BUT if I do (have some family trips planned) iCloud should have my back. Thanks all

Good decision to stick with 64.

 

[MajorFubar]

64GB iDevices work fine for me. Won't work for you if you have an absolute ton of large apps you want to keep on your device at all times. For example I don't ever recommend it to iOS GarageBand users who want to be able to download all the soundpacks and loops to their iPhone or iPad.

 

[compwiz1202]

64GB could be a little tight, and at least it's $50 instead of $100 to go from 64 to 128 vs 128 to 256

 

[lostPod]

I use Google Photos -- after they are backed up you can delete them from your phone.

 

[jcorbin]

I’ve tried to get away from google as much as I can. And since I pay for the 2TB I don’t want to pay for more storage in google too