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iPhone 12 Pro [MAX] Who needs 512GB and who doesn't?

majordude

majordude

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 28, 2007
2,441
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Hootersville
I grew up with the belief to get as much memory as I can. BUT, I have an iPhone X with 256GB that only gets full when I copy over a lot of Apple Lossless music or, ahem, home videos.

I plan to make more movies than I have in the past because the Max Pro looks so good... but I wonder if I can save the $200 and just transfer the videos to my computer when I am back home or at the hotel.

Your thoughts?
 
Unless you’re shooting 4K 60fps for hours at a time between charges and not saving the data off, or shooting photos for weeks on end without syncing* then 512GB isn’t worth it IMO.

If you have quick access to a computer to sync frequently then anything beyond 256GB is excess unless you prefer to have a variety of options with you for movies, music as you said for long periods of time without a streaming service.

An inconvenient exception would be traveling abroad without your computer and your phone being the only place to store pictures and video. *


* bad ideas regardless since it’s always good practice to backup often
 
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ray737 said:
I have had 512GB last 2 phones and will continue to do so. I don’t like being limited by storage. To me it’s worth the extra few bucks for my own convenience.
Click to expand...

Understood (and respecting your position)

let me ask a hypothetical question, if the iPhone came in 100 GB per $100 and it went up to infinity storage, how much would you buy?
 
ray737 said:
I have had 512GB last 2 phones and will continue to do so. I don’t like being limited by storage. To me it’s worth the extra few bucks for my own convenience.
Click to expand...

You bought a 512GB even in prior iPhones? Why? Did you ever come close to filling it up? I am only concerned now because I have to think that 4K videos take up a lot of space. But I think there is a new standard (h.264 vs h.254?) that is smaller but holds the same information.
 
Other than people people who are big on 4K 60 videos, I think 512gb would be useful for someone who upgrades every 5 years+, it probably pays to have that peace of mind since you just don’t know how app sizes may change or what’ll happen in the future. If you upgrade every 1 or 2 years it’s easier to try and guesstimate how much storage you’ll realistically need. I’ve gone up like 20gb in the past 6 months and I do have stuff I could cut, so I know for myself 128gb could last me another 2ish years unless I started taking a lot more videos.
 
I am in the position of having nearly 200GB of music so I need to go with the extra storage of 512GB
 
majordude said:
You bought a 512GB even in prior iPhones? Why?
Click to expand...

4K videos on my 11 Pro Max run in the ~95 Mbs range. Let's call it 100 Mbs. That's 12.5 MB/s, 750 MB minute, 45 GB an hour, or 11 hours total for 512 GB. That's with no space for applications, or photos, or any other data. Since I also keep my iTunes library there, that's another 270 GB.

When traveling Internationally in a lot of locations an iPhone won't backup to iCloud due to a slow internet. Every night I back up to my 1 TB iPad.

I have been hoping for a 1 TB iPhone for several years now.
 
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I take plenty of 4k videos at 60fps that eat storage very quick 256gb is the sweet spot with 2TB icloud.....
 
I got 512GB on my 11 Pro Max because I like having a peace of mind on not having to worry or care about how much music/videos I have on my phone or ever having to really run out of space. Plus, I plan on keeping this phone for quite a while before I upgrade to a new one. I just like having the extra space and knowing it’s there when I need it and not have to pick and choose what goes on my phone. I like having everything I want on there.
 
Many like to store films on it but not sure why really...but many like never needing to worry about space

128GB is enough for me
 
512GB can be interesting if you travel for extended periods of time and use a DSLR at the same time. You can offload your DSLR images to the iphone and use it as a external storage for the duration of trip. Either as a backup or if your memory cards are small.

But when I think of it - with 5G you could instantly upload your DSRL images to the cloud from the Iphone. But I guess the abovementioned is good if you are travelling in a place with little to no internet connection.

Its also handy for you... sorry to say but lazy people... who wont offload a single picture during the next 4 years.
 
Even with my full music library I have plenty of buffer on my 128GB phones. So not worth spending more to me, even the $100 bump to 256GB (though I briefly thought about it).

I have an iPad Pro with 256GB, so if I want to carry movies to stream I can use that. Bigger screen anyway.
 
HDFan said:
4K videos on my 11 Pro Max run in the ~95 Mbs range. Let's call it 100 Mbs. That's 12.5 MB/s, 750 MB minute, 45 GB an hour, or 11 hours total for 512 GB. That's with no space for applications, or photos, or any other data. Since I also keep my iTunes library there, that's another 270 GB.

When traveling Internationally in a lot of locations an iPhone won't backup to iCloud due to a slow internet. Every night I back up to my 1 TB iPad.

I have been hoping for a 1 TB iPhone for several years now.
Click to expand...

I'm in the same camp, lots of content creation, sending high res Nikon Z7 jpeg files to the phone for final tweaks and then to clients via dropbox, tons of internal topographical maps. I was going to actually skip this phone since it did not have a 1TB storage option.
 
just because you buy 512 doesnt mean you’ll necessarily fill it ..... for me it simply means I exceed 256, which with music, photos, movies is not hard to do. I travel and/or I don’t always have access to decent Wifi so I keep everything on my iPhone.

everyone has different needs as this thread shows.
 
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Why do these conversations always involve the word 'need'?

Sure, some people may 'need' X. But if everyone always buys only what they need because they have to justify that for some stupid reason, no one will ever get what they want.

Screw that!

I buy what I want when I am ready to buy it and to hell with needing it or not. If it does meet a need, great, but otherwise I don't frickin' care. I got what I wanted and that's all that matters.
 
I have a 256 XS and this thread made me look at my usage, was shocked to see I still have 218gb free o_O

I have a lot of apps, with some that I haven't touched in years, thousands of photos, but I guess the key is that I have very few videos (about a dozen) and music is mostly streamed (Spotify). I guess 128GB would have been more than enough for me but IIRC I don't think the XS had 128 as an option. Glad they have 128 this time around.
 
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