512 GB Phones Are Here. How Much Storage Do You Actually Need?

Megalith

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
Huawei is reportedly releasing a smartphone that includes 512GB of internal storage, doubling the amount of space offered by today’s largest and most premium mobiles. This has spurred discussions as to whether anyone really needs that much space, and if cloud storage makes it redundant.

With cloud storage and streaming services becoming exceedingly popular, storing video, music, and photos directly on your phone may not be necessary. But there are definitely some benefits to storing data on your phone. As we have seen with the private celebrity photos leaked from iCloud, cloud storage is not secure enough to be trusted. Downloading data can be a pain as well.
 
I bought the 256GB iPhone X. That was a mistake. 64 was cutting it close with my previous phone and 128GB would have been enough.

Lol. I just checked my phone and since the iPhone X launch I am now at 33.7GB used out of 256. So yeah....

With all my pictures on iCloud and all my music on Spotify I don't use as much storage as I used to when I used to have to store all my stuff on MicroSD cards. So yeah I think next time I won't be getting more than 64GB if I stick with iPhones and 128GB if I move back to Android one day.
 
My 16 Gb internal works just fine. I think I still have at any given point 50% of it free. Then again, I don't install a bunch of shit on my phone and removing all of Verizon's garbage freed up a massive amount of space.
 
I just want external memory a whole lot more than internal. I've got way too many songs and pictures I've collected over the years on mine. I like being able to pull up old pics and videos and watch them or just hit shuffle on my music player and not have to worry about crappy songs coming up because they're all songs I bought. I guess if you've got phone with that much internal storage then I could just transfer all that stuff over but it sure is a whole lot easier and nicer to just slap in a microSD card and be done.
 
Snapdragon 845 is capable of recording 4k60 HDR. Exynos 8910 is capable of recording 4k120, with no HDR capabilities at any resolution. Samsung disabled these features in the S9 to enforce feature parity with across chipsets, settling on the lowest common denominator of 4k60 non-HDR. Even though they limit video recording on the Snapdragon chipset at 4k60 to 5 minutes, with no such such limit on their Exynos version. I'm bitter. But the storage options should scale linearly with the camera's maximum bitrate. Also, VR apps can be very large.
 
My phone holds 32GB and I use about half, so I would say 16GB. Unless you are storing tons of music, photos, and/or videos, 32GB should be enough for most people.
 
My Moto E4 only has 16GB. So I got a 64GB microSD card. Life is fine.
 
111091_giphy.gif

Excellent! More data capable of being sent back to China!

s\
 
Provided they have a SD slot, 32 and 64 Gb phones are fine for me at this time. (I have a 200Gb sd card in my Note 8 currently.) I can see 128-512 Gb phones being useful to me if they don't have SD slots. Though not having a SD slot is normally a no buy for me. My Nexus and One+2 taught me that not having a SD card interferes with how I use my phones.

Different people have different wants and needs though. If people want/need it, and are willing to pay for it, the market will respond accordingly.
 
As smartphone camera's get better and better, along with the rising mobile gimbal market, amateurs to professionals are using their smartphones for some nifty productions. So, in a day's worth of video shooting I can see hundreds of GB worth of footage filling up... now if we could get those battery life gains up there to keep up...
 
Too much storage!? Whoever thinks that needs a lobotomy.
I have a 16GB ROM w/ a U1 128GB and still need more space.
As long as they have a uSD slot and removable battery, I'm happy.
UFS still going, haven't heard much in the last 2-ish years
 
If you take video you'll need storage, with 4k it just gets worse.
 
It depends, is the phone powerful enough + compatible with hdmi out somehow to use as a portable emulator? If it is then 32 Gb+ microSD should be enough.

Snes emulation should be good enough for me most of the time.
 
I've tried way too hard to get my sd card to expand my android storage like advertised, but the mechanism behind it is fucking stupid and doesn't improve the situation at all. And I'm on Android 7. I'll take larger storage over the bullshit sd card shit in Android please.

Oh, and having larger capacity phones drives down prices of lower capacity options too!
 
My music alone takes up abotu 70-80gb, so 256gb seems like a good starting place, but I won't be buying a Huawei device. Didn't trust Huawei telecom equipment that my employer used a decade ago and don't trust them with the data on my phone.
 
I think this just depends on the person. I use my phone (Galaxy S8) as more a calls/messenging/internet device more than an actual computer so I don't really need super space...some people do though. Some people store all their music and movies and TV shows on their phones. Hell, in this case on my LG V10 (use it for music because of DAP) the 128GB MicroSD card I have is 95% full with music. It's easy to fill up when you need a lot of data on hand or do a lot.

I remember as a kid my uncle back in the 90's talking about how his 2GB hard drive would NEVER be full because of its immense size...lol.

Darkswordz said:
I'd trade storage space for battery life.
Click to expand...

Right, because a little chip is going to give you enough space for more battery. I don't get why people complain about this stuff so frequently. Just get an extended battery/case for your device or buy one that supports it. Plus, even with my usage my S8 has NO issue getting me very comfortably through the day and my job is SLOW and I use it a ton.
 
Yes, many people their phone is their only device. Great, i have 1TB one drive storage, and as i slowly open items, or have pictures and videos ON my phone i need the space to store them would I not? or i can sit there on my crap-tastic canadian cell phone plan that gives me 1G a month for $80......

So yes, phones do need more local storage.
 
"I guess if you've got phone with that much internal storage" Than I guess you have a small overpriced expensive tablet with a sim slot in it. When are consumers going to admit as much and quit buying these little overpriced expensive tablet toys.
 
With 5g coming ... I can load up movies galore on my phone for my child and he won't be exposed to radiation from constant streaming. Yeah very useful to me.
 
I have a 6S+ 128gb and I havent filled that up and I dumped a pile of flac files onto it, when I say a pile I mean like 70 odd gig.

I see no need for huge storage capacity for phones as they are not meant to replace tablets, pc’s etc, I would think that 256gig is large enough for 99% of worlds cell phone users.

I am sure someone will disagree with my view, but thats how I see it, plus most users have access to the cloud for storage.
 
Darkswordz said:
I'd trade storage space for battery life.
Click to expand...

I'd trade it for a removable battery and memory card. For phones with no sd card ports like iphones, I'd get the most I can afford if using it for lots of media, photos, home videos. If just a phone, probably 32gb is the smallest size to go these days.
 
But...Why is the question about need? These kinds of questions always lead to political and rights issues. I.e....

Why does anyone need an gasoline car
Why does anyone need a big hous
Why does anyone need more money than others
Why does anyone need free speech
Why does anyone need guns
Why does anyone need privacy

And so forth.... instead of questioning why someone needs something from the perspective of "I know more than they" why not just make the thing and let the market naturally decide. Whether or not we need it shouldn't be relegated to a central authority of opinion. It should be innovated and released and dollars decide based on who buys what. I would love to have that kind of storage. I could use my phone as another off-site backup of my main gaming rig or whatever I wanted. And some board of popular opinion shouldn't be the dictatorial authority.
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
I have a 6S+ 128gb and I havent filled that up and I dumped a pile of flac files onto it, when I say a pile I mean like 70 odd gig.

I see no need for huge storage capacity for phones as they are not meant to replace tablets, pc’s etc, I would think that 256gig is large enough for 99% of worlds cell phone users.

I am sure someone will disagree with my view, but thats how I see it, plus most users have access to the cloud for storage.
Click to expand...
and if you have netflix you can download all those movies. The largest download was 360 megs for a movie, the average is 250 something.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Yes, many people their phone is their only device. Great, i have 1TB one drive storage, and as i slowly open items, or have pictures and videos ON my phone i need the space to store them would I not? or i can sit there on my crap-tastic canadian cell phone plan that gives me 1G a month for $80......

So yes, phones do need more local storage.
Click to expand...

A phone as your only device...sounds like poor personal choices for technology to me.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
A phone as your only device...sounds like poor personal choices for technology to me.
Click to expand...

Yeah your like what less than 1% of the population of Earth in your thinking? Sounds like a comment from pure inexperience or possibly ignorant shelter from reality. My grandfather doesn't have a need for this tech and certainly the human race would thrive just fine if we had no tech such as this.

I'm gonna disagree with your beyond unreal criticism.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
A phone as your only device...sounds like poor personal choices for technology to me.
Click to expand...
It probably the future for half the population, thin clients and just in general people don't need a ton of processing power to do most things. It's why part of the samsung dex crap makes sense. It makes sense but it doesn't quite reach expectations. Maybe in the future it will but not right now.
 
I don't worry too much about internal storage size since I won't buy a phone without microSD. I still ended up with a 64GB phone (Moto G5 Plus) just because the 64GB also comes with double the RAM versus the 32GB model. I admit I'm one of those weirdos who likes having local copies of music though, rather than paying huge data fees for streaming.
 
The NSA says please store everything on the cloud. The cops ask that you store everything on your phone. You can't win.
As to storage...I need enough to hold my contacts list. I do almost everything on my desktop, there I need lots and lots of storage.
 
Could easily use that with FLAC.
Will be getting a big microsd for the V10 when it's full.
 
Just bought a P 10 32G and it will take my 32G micro SD. Lots of space for my needs.
 
well, I thought I needed 256 but I'm barely breaking 40gigs.

So, not 512 lol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top