Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPad mini Should I go with 32 GB or 64 GB

B

bkribbs

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 15, 2012
1,178
0
I plan on using my iPad mini for school.

I'm going to get all my textbooks electronically, use pages, keynote, and numbers. I have some music, and quite a few apps.

Do you guys think I could use the 32 or a 64 gb iPad? I'm getting wifi only if it matters.

For reference, I have a 32 Gb (so what, 28.5 GB in reality?) iPhone and have 20 Gb used.
 
Last edited:
Since its a tablet, I'd definitely go for 64gb. With iPhone, most of the time 32gb will be enough but the jump from 32gb to 64gb is only $100. I myself am torn between 64gb and 128gb. Just go with what you think you may need. 32gb in most cases will do just fine.
 
You're the only one who can make that decision. Nobody else knows how many movies, songs or porn you're going to store.:rolleyes:
 
I'd go with the 32 gb. Usually my setup is my iphone at 16 gb and my ipad at 32 gb. I'm quite the powerhouse user when it comes to my ipad, having loads of apps, games, and what not. You just have to learn to utilize the cloud features more effectively, ie: iTunes Match and streaming your itunes videos rather than keeping a slew of them on the ipad; those are the really big space takers.
 
bkribbs said:
I plan on using my iPad mini for school.

I'm going to get all my textbooks electronically, use pages, keynote, and numbers. I have some music, and quite a few apps.

Do you guys think I could use the 32 or a 64 gb iPad? I'm getting wifi only if it matters.
Click to expand...

Buy what you can afford. If you can afford 64gb I don't think you'll regret it. You'll find a way to fill it up I'm sure.
 
iHale said:
I'd go with the 32 gb. Usually my setup is my iphone at 16 gb and my ipad at 32 gb. I'm quite the powerhouse user when it comes to my ipad, having loads of apps, games, and what not. You just have to learn to utilize the cloud features more effectively, ie: iTunes Match and streaming your itunes videos rather than keeping a slew of them on the ipad; those are the really big space takers.
Click to expand...

Well I'm not paying for iTunes match, I would rather pay extra for space than that service.

Can you give me a general idea of what all you have on yours?

I have a 32 GB iphone and have 20 or so of it filled.
 
I have the 32GB LTE iPad 4 currently but will be getting the iPad Air 64 GB now. I have had trouble getting enough TV-series/Movies on my iPad for business trips/vaccation after I already loaded it with all apps/music and such, therefore I am going for the bigger one this time.
 
Davidkoh said:
I have the 32GB LTE iPad 4 currently but will be getting the iPad Air 64 GB now. I have had trouble getting enough TV-series/Movies on my iPad for business trips/vaccation after I already loaded it with all apps/music and such, therefore I am going for the bigger one this time.
Click to expand...

Do you have lots of videos on there already? Or just a few with all the other stuff?
 
bkribbs said:
Do you have lots of videos on there already? Or just a few with all the other stuff?
Click to expand...

Not much video on there normally. I just don't always have the time or patience to convert the movies I already got stored to lower quality to fit the iPad. So sizes can vary between 5 and 12 GB per movie but most of them are around 6 GB. If it is half full from music/Apps and other things I'd only be able to fit 2-3 movies which would give me like 6 hours of material that might be enough for the plane back and forth but nothing to watch at night at the hotel in case the hotel WiFi is crap. Having 64 GB would enable me to bring 5-6 movies instead and still have about 16 GB left to use for TV-series or anything else I want to bring.

All in all, 32 GB has been enough for me when im sitting at home with my WiFi streaming from my network drives. But when traveling I found I have to plan too much what I want to bring because I cannot fit all I would want to bring.
 
hologram said:
You're the only one who can make that decision. Nobody else knows how many movies, songs or porn you're going to store.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Very hard for anyone here to know what you need now, or will need in the future.

Moves, more books, music, games.

There are people here that KNOW they are fine with 16 gb.... and others at 128.
 
bkribbs said:
Well I'm not paying for iTunes match, I would rather pay extra for space than that service.

Can you give me a general idea of what all you have on yours?

I have a 32 GB iphone and have 20 or so of it filled.
Click to expand...

iPads are different creatures than iPhones in the way my ecosystem works. My 16gb iPhone 4S never got maxed out. My 32gb iPad, when I sold it, only had about 9gbs available. Here's what I had on it...
1) Lots of work apps that took up space.
2) Usually kept a movie or two on it. (or a season or so of LOST when I was going back through the series.)
3) Not much music.
4) Books. Lots of books.
5) Games. I had a couple of games that were decent sizes.

My iPhone had none of that on it. (except for a few work apps and a couple of games) It mostly housed music and photos.
 
nostresshere said:
Very hard for anyone here to know what you need now, or will need in the future.

Moves, more books, music, games.

There are people here that KNOW they are fine with 16 gb.... and others at 128.
Click to expand...

Right. But I'm asking opinions not demanding to know the correct ones. And I attempted to share what all I anticipate using it for.

----------
Centris 650 said:
iPads are different creatures than iPhones in the way my ecosystem works. My 16gb iPhone 4S never got maxed out. My 32gb iPad, when I sold it, only had about 9gbs available. Here's what I had on it...
1) Lots of work apps that took up space.
2) Usually kept a movie or two on it. (or a season or so of LOST when I was going back through the series.)
3) Not much music.
4) Books. Lots of books.
5) Games. I had a couple of games that were decent sizes.

My iPhone had none of that on it. (except for a few work apps and a couple of games) It mostly housed music and photos.
Click to expand...

Hm. That sounds moderately similar for what I want in my iPad. I do have music though and maybe more movies too.
 
I also would suggest you consider 128GB. If you don't have the money, I understand. However, if you want to future proof yourself as much as possible, go with the larger size. Granted I have a bunch of videos and 3D games on mine which take up the room but even textbooks are like 2GB through apple's iBooks.
 
jim2011 said:
I also would suggest you consider 128GB. If you don't have the money, I understand. However, if you want to future proof yourself as much as possible, go with the larger size. Granted I have a bunch of videos and 3D games on mine which take up the room but even textbooks are like 2GB through apple's iBooks.
Click to expand...

Yeah I wasn't really kidding too much, 128 would require a donation. 64 I may be able to manage but I'll have to see.

----------
GoCubsGo said:
32 GB would be the bare minimum these days, at least for me.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm not considering less.
 
bkribbs said:
I plan on using my iPad mini for school.

I'm going to get all my textbooks electronically, use pages, keynote, and numbers. I have some music, and quite a few apps.

Do you guys think I could use the 32 or a 64 gb iPad? I'm getting wifi only if it matters.

For reference, I have a 32 Gb (so what, 28.5 GB in reality?) iPhone and have 20 Gb used.
Click to expand...
16 GB or 32 GB.

The amount of space on your phone isn't a good indicator of what you'll be doing with the iPad. For example, my iPhone is a 32 GB version and I'm using approximately 25 GB. I have 7 GB of music on there, 3 GB in photos, and a lot of app data (although I routinely go through and attempt to shuffle off older music, recorded videos, and unused apps). By comparison, my iPad is a more specialized device; I have 500 MB of music (what's the point of putting music on there when I have it on my phone, and my phone is always with me?) and 500 MB of photos (I use my phone for photos and videos, the iPad is a bit unwieldy for such things). I have a number of textbooks and articles, but those don't take up much space. My iPad is a 16 GB model.

If you're going to be using your iPad as an entertainment device, then things get a bit different. I don't store movies on my iPad, for example; instead, if I use my iPad to watch things, I stream them from my computer. Games tend to take up some of the most space, but I don't use my iPad as a gaming device - if you would, then that's another reason for going with more space. Lastly, you should consider your habits and expectations. Some people want to load everything onto the device and not think about managing how much space they have. Others (like me) are OK with occasionally evaluating what's on the device and then clearing up space. While the latter is more money-efficient, neither is superior to the other; you should determine what type of person you are and try to choose accordingly.

For what it's worth, I am out of the classroom setting but use my iPad with Numbers, Keynote, Notability (taking hand-written notes and occasionally audio recording as well), and I read textbooks. The iPad is used fairly strictly for those purposes, and 16 GB is fine for them.
 
Apps on a tablet are going to use more space than on a phone, because of their larger UI/graphical assets. A larger screen is also more suitable to certain activities, and no less suitable than a phone for activities suitable on a phone, so expect to be using more content/apps on a tablet, in general. I think you'd be most comfortable on the 64 GB, especially long-term.
 
bkribbs said:
Hm. That sounds moderately similar for what I want in my iPad. I do have music though and maybe more movies too.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking about the 64gb if I can swing the money because I'd like to have more music on it. I'm like you though, a 128gb model would be great but donations would be needed! Going back to my original comment though, buy what you can afford.
 
As much as you can afford. If you can afford to spend the extra $100 then definitely go for 64GB!
 
If you plan on reselling the device in a year to upgrade, you will take the least financial loss on a 16gb. If it is more important to have the newest device each year, this is the way to go.

If however, you plan on having the device for several years and are more interested in having lots of content on it at all times, then the larger capacity device is the way to go.

If you have the money to spare and are still upgrading in a year and want larger capacity then get the more expensive device.

Since Apple didn't upgrade the base memory on this year's model, my bet would be that they will on next year because as performance of iPads increase, the size of apps increase to accommodate higher graphics. Thus, a 32gb iPad that costs $600 this year, will probably only fetch $400 next year when a 32gb iPad air 2 costs $500 resulting in a $200 loss before taxes are considered.

A 16gb iPad air will probably fetch $350-$375 next year resulting in a $125 to $150 loss. If, however, next year still has 16gb iPads, then a 16gb iPad will probably fetch $400 next year and a 32gb will probably fetch $400 also because people don't tend to pay more for more memory on used models.
 
Why do people ask such dumbass questions? Do you need 32 or 64? That's really all there is to it.
 
macguy360 said:
Since Apple didn't upgrade the base memory on this year's model, my bet would be that they will on next year because as performance of iPads increase, the size of apps increase to accommodate higher graphics. Thus, a 32gb iPad that costs $600 this year, will probably only fetch $400 next year when a 32gb iPad air 2 costs $500 resulting in a $200 loss before taxes are considered.
Click to expand...

I said this last year :( but I was wrong, I really do hope you're right though!!! :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back