The ad says “Lots of storage FOR PHOTOS”, specifically.
If we assume that the typical iPhone photo is 4MB (they’re almost always less), and you use half your storage for photos, ((128/2)*1024)/4 is 16,384 photos.
I’d argue that’s quite a lot.
Idunno if technically correct is the best route to go here. But sure, if you wanna defend more bs marketting from a huge ass company, you go.
Lemme explainw hy the rest of us find this a little dumb to see. Iphone is famous for being the best phone in the world at recording video, which is not nearly as small, especially at high resolutions.
For context, a 4k60fps video is 400MB per minute, which would fill up the phone in less than 5 and a half hours. You can record less than four of your kids soccer games with that. If you go with 4k24fps (135MBpm), you can get 948 minutes of video which is 11 soccer games. You’ll probably get most of your kids soccer games, but you’ll have to dump the video if they get to the playoffs.
If you got noticably shitty quality at 720p30fps, (why would you do that on the phone camera with the arguable best video recordings in the world?!) you get 53 hours of video recording time.
Look, its a lot compared to vhs, which could do up to 240 minutes, or vhs-c, (the mobile vhs) which could do up to 60 minutes of video.
It’s a lot compared to phones from ten years ago, even. But it sure as fuck is not a lot when you compare it to literally any other phone from the same price bracket and age range. Thats the point. The storage is fucking average compared to competitors. If you use the phrase ‘a lot of storage’ you damn well better be doing at least twice what your competition is doing for me to agree with you.
Meanwhile Nokia’s cells have removable battery, audio jacks and a micro SD slot
Nokia. lol. No-buy-a.
It’s really your choice to buy the model you need and can afford. Apparently enough people do that they know exactly where to price their models.
They do have marketing people employed that are far more experts than you and me how to squeeze customers for maximum profit. If people weren’t buying low storage models, they wouldn’t make them.
Since they are, they’re obviously selling them. My parents regularly buy the lower storage models quite happily.
So I’m not sure what point you’re making? They should cut back on their profits because “some reasons” or for the good of the world? lol no.
128gb is average. That’s my point. iphone ads are getting shit on because they called 128gb ‘lots of storage’. It’s not ‘lots’. It’s average.
well, that, and it’s apple, and everyone loves to hate those guys.
I think it can be lots of storage for some.
It’s marketing after all. Manufactured angst just doesn’t sell. Sorry.
I can’t agree with you. If someone promises to give me ‘a lot’ of anything, and then gives me an average amount, i’m going to call them out on it.
If someone handed you a regular glass of water and told you it was ‘a lot’ of water, you’d think they were an idiot.
lol. Enjoy your echo chamber.
It’s the best phone to record video?
Nobody contests it’s top three, and a large chunk of people say it’s best in class for video.
First google result; https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/buying-guides/best-phone-for-video-recording
- iphone
Second google result; https://amateurphotographer.com/buying-advice/best-smartphones-for-video/
- pixel, then iphone
Third google result; https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-phones-for-video-recording/
- first result is the xperia i, second is xperia pro(sensing a trend?) and then the iphone.
It looks like it’s nuanced.
Not if youre a normal person who doesnt have a hobby of doing video stuff. Yeah, its got ups and downs, but the iphone really is the best, or near to it, for anybody who wants to record someyhing without knowing what iso or exposure is.
Who in God’s name sits down to watch a replay of their kid’s soccer game that they already saw live, and recorded in its entirety in stunning 4k for some reason?
I wish I had more stunning 4k videos of loved ones that passed away.
Who in God’s name sits down to watch a replay of their kid’s soccer game that they already saw live
lmao, soccer moms showing it off to their grandparents or adding one or two cuts into a graduation video, etc. Basic family shit. If I buy a phone with the best video camera possible, I want to be able to record jimmy’s birthday parties, jane’s soccer games, and whatever else theyre doing without having to stress about which kid is more important to show to grandma at the end of the month because i’m low on space.
You’ve missed the point though. The specific example is generic and not meant to be taken literally.
Yeah, that lost me
Typical 12mp heif image is ~1mb
Do you mean heic? That format is absolute wizardry as far as i’m concerned, achieving really small filesizes. The only downside IMO is it doesn’t seem to handle things like screenshots very well, with noticeable artifacting around text and sharp contrasty things
heif is correct, it is an image format derived from heic for video. It is pretty spectacular especially compared to the aging jpeg, but yes best to stick with uncompressed formats for non-natural imagery such as screenshots of digital UI and text etc.
Edit: Reading this, looks like HEIF is the container and HEIC is the codec. You’re right!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Image_File_Format?wprov=sfti1
My photo library is like 300GB (although I suppose I take a significant amount of video). I also have 30GB of downloaded music. 128GB is really not enough.
My photo/video library is 1.4tb but for most people (like my parents) 128 is plenty
but do you need all 1.4TB on your phone at all times?
No, that’s what iCloud photos is for :) not sure why I’m being downvoted, it was my intention to say 128 is enough for most - including me.
I’ll hazard a guess, because we are talking about physical storages on the phone and not cloud storage. In your case, 128 is not enough if you keep it in your phone.
I don’t need to keep it on my phone. The thumbnail cache is only about 20gb
As far as I can tell, the size is designed to make sure you buy iCloud space. Just another monthly charge for a company needing impossible infinite growth to keep investors happy.
Not so much for 4k60 video
I’d argue your counting is flawed. That storage is used for OS, updated applications, caching, system data, videos, music you listen to, etc. When you buy 128GB you never get more than 100, and it only keeps getting smaller the more you use it. And iPhone’s default video FPS is 60. See how many of those can fit on that storage.
It is a lot. I have now 48/64 GB storage used on my iPhone from 2020. Photos/apps are also offloaded to iCloud to save local storage, the system automatically helps you. I sat down once to delete big unused videos or multiple photos, but other than that I don’t actively manage it
I did the same thing, 64 GB, offloaded photos to iCloud, it worked for about 2 years, then it became a constant struggle for the next 2 years. Could not install updates unless I deleted a bunch of apps first. Let iOS manage which apps are installed? Great idea, flawed in execution. It would delete apps that I never open but are necessary for some Shortcuts to run. Also the apps themselves don’t use that much space, it’s the data they store. Now I have 256 GB. I think 128 might be fine but I thought the same thing with 64 GB back then.
The storage space on the phones themselves is not really a problem.
The default storage for iCloud is borderline criminal and should be targeted for regulation by the government.
The true problem is how hard to move your data out, or to able to choose your own cloud service
It was that very reason that I didn’t take regular backups of my iPhone 7+ at the time, and then the bastard thing just died completely, losing very precious photos and videos. Never an iPhone again after that. I love being able to just plug a USB flashdrive into my Pixel to easily transfer photos over to a more reliable medium, although in more recent times I now have a server for this.
To be fair, the 5gig is free, and you can still back up your phone via a windows or Mac computer.
The 5 gigs of storage is really only good enough for things like system and device setting, and keeping preferences unified across devices. It’s not really a great solve for media or file backups. For that you either need to pay Apple, pay another cloud backup company, or backup locally to a computer.
I was surprised how quickly it filled up without me even thinking about it that I ended up disabling it. I just wish syncthing equivalents were better supported, since my Android, Microsoft, Steam Deck, and MacOS sync files without me having to really think about it.
But, iOS and iPadOS due to file access restrictions don’t work well with it, so it’s like they try to push you into iCloud by making everything annoying when it comes to files sync even with just the base iCloud. Good thing though is I just use an iPad now, which I use more as a media consumption device. No need to deal with iPhone annoyances, which would be much more important in trying to sync and transfer files as a multi platform user.
Apple does have a setting for regular, automatic, local backups. Though I wish they could do that while also automatically backing up to iCloud. My iCloud backup is under 5 but that’s partly because lots of stuff is already stored in iCloud. I think the real issue for a lot of people is when they have multiple devices, like work and personal phones and/or iPad or two, that all want to backup to that 5 GB. I always thought a compromise like the first 5 GB of a devices iCloud backup doesn’t count towards the iCloud storage. This solves the multiple device backups issue and still keeps a modest base amount of storage so people with just one device still have an incentive to purchase additional storage.
Maybe I’m weird, but I feel entitled to significant storage (options) on my device, but I don’t feel entitled to free cloud storage (of significant size)
Totally agree. I’m not entitled to free anything, but I feel like I shouldn’t be paying ridiculous markups for internal storage and should be given the option to use MicroSD cards (spoiler alert: I’ve used MicroSD cards extensively in my last 4 phones). I’m also making use of both my M.2 slots on my laptop, for a total of 3TB.
This guy gets it.
I really enjoy my Apple devices, but to call 128GB a lot is ridiculous. Storage has absolutely stagnated. It’s 2024, these phones should be coming with 256 or 512GB for the insane price they cost. iPhones shoot 4K60 HDR video now, that space is hardly enough. Good for getting you onto an iCloud plan, though.
They even disable recording in prores on lower storage phones.
Uh, I still find that lots
I don’t think it is when cheap thumb drives are well above this and the phones are north of $1k.
The solid state storage in your average iPhone or high end android phone is a LITTLE BIT different from a shitty thumbdrive
Not really. Slightly faster? Sure. Hundreds of dollars faster? Absolutely not. You can get fast thumb drives for only a slight premium over the cheapest ones, which aren’t even that slow these days. They’re all solid state storage, dunno why you made that distinction.
A cheap off-brand SATA SSD is infinitely better than any USB flash drive. Storage in phones is insanely better than standard SATA SSDs. What are you even talking about?!
Right? My Pixel is also 128GB. I’ve got like 5 or 6 thousand Spotify songs, 3 gigs in my pocket casts cache, about 10 gigs of emulated games and dozens of apps and games. If you’re struggling with 128 gigs on your phone, clean some shit off there. I’ve still got 30 gigs free.
It’s lots until you realize they are upcharging you over 1000% on the higher storage trims
128 GB has been more than enough for me for over 8years ? I haven’t gotten a phone with more than that… I am currently at 72GB/128GB storage and most of that is Apps. I do go and archive photos and videos off my phone from time to time however.
If you NEVER delete anything, sure, you will run out. Or if you are super heavy into photos and video maybe but it is still A LOT of storage on a phone.
All I have is photos and music and I’m struggling to stay within 256gb
I’d say you’re probably a minority nowadays with music stored locally. More and more people have moved to some kind of streaming platform.
To be fair, I only moved to streaming service because my phone has less storage for my musics.
I know, but so much of the music I enjoy is not found on streaming services, and I already had 1000+ albums in my collection by the time they came out, all rated and organized. Plus I travel a lot and don’t always have data, so streaming services don’t really work for me. I pay one for the family but hardly use it myself.
One hour of 360 video is roughly 60GB. Process that video and export it and you get a lot of data as well. I would not call it being super heavy on video to have one hour of source material on your phone, which you could not do right now.
360 photos are roughly 150MB each.
Storage is cheap, but sold at a very high mark-up.
If only there was some kind of expandable storage slot that I could add a terabyte for like 50 bucks. One u just pop in and pop out that’s like the size of a fingernail…Maybe we’ll make some kind of technology like that one day. I’m sure the good folks at Apple aren’t just scamming every fart smelling consumer by telling them the storage they pay extra for is reasonably priced.
I know you’re being facetious but not gonna lie, the progression from a 5.25" 1.2MB floppy to a modern micro SD card with a practically infinitely bigger amount of storage is one of the things that blows my mind most about how much technology has evolved
And to think the physical bits on that floppy still would’ve been invisible to the naked human eye.
Well, they don’t want to because fans will gladly pay 200$ or more for extra 128GB and call them revolutionary.
128gb is plenty unless you’re storing a lot of photos on device. If you’re storing > 100GB of photos on your phone and they’re not backed up somewhere else, you’re really setting yourself up for disaster
It’s those moving pictures that really get you. And our phones now have very high grade cameras on them, so it’s very easy to exceed. Cloud storage fills quickly, or butchers the resolution.
Cloud storage fills quickly
Apple provides up to six terabytes of cloud storage (for a monthly fee, obviously). And if you have a family account, individual members of the family can pay for even more storage (by default though, the entire family has a shared pool of storage).
But yeah — I’m pretty sure Apple ProRes RAW video can be hundreds of gigabytes per minute of footage. If you’re choosing that then yeah, you’re going to have to find another cloud provider. And it’s going to be very expensive. Most people don’t shoot video in ProRes RAW though.
At a glance, that looks like $30/mo. Or $160/year, which they’re hoping you never cancel because it becomes a huge task to download and purge before you can cancel your plan.
Or we could do something silly, like have a modern amount of internal storage and a microsd slot, so we can store lots of pictures and videos, and transfer them off the device quickly and easily.
Storage is cheap. Don’t let these pricing models fool you otherwise.
I use the iCloud Photo Library, and seems worthwhile to me, though my photo library isn’t huge and has lots of stupid work pics. Frees up my phone storage, still have access anywhere I’ve got internet access. Big thing to me though is backups, iCloud is my really essential data, e-mails, contacts, family photos. That gets automatically synced up to iCloud, back down to my iMac, and that iMac gets backed up to my UnRaid server and a Time Capsule. So without any input from me, all my photos get backed up independently, with redundancy and versioning as well as to the cloud. That’s a pretty neat system to me.
My 4-5 year old OnePlus 8T phone has 256GB storage… Are you fucking kidding me, Apple? Can you at least try?
OnePlus had 128gb as their base config until the 12 was released a few months ago. The specs for the OP 7 through 11 all had a base 128gb config.
A lot of phone manufacturers still have 128 as the base config (like Google). That said, they don’t charge $1000 for that base config. They’re usually $150 to $200 cheaper.
Yeah, but if this is apple, and today, then well… It’s actually on par for apple, pay twice the amount of money for twice lower specs, lower quality, harder (near impossible) to repair, it just looks nice and shiny, is all.
That said, my main point was that their storage configs are pretty inline with the rest of the industry. Hardware prices are inflated, but that’s been true for Apple since the 80’s.
I’m only using 92 GB, and am not careful about storage other than deleting pictures I don’t want. I don’t mind them starting at 128 GB.
That said, as cheap as memory is, going to 1 TB should not cost hundreds.
Especially since other flagship phones are $150 to $200 less with that storage option.
yea it is. I’m chilling at 42gb, and 10 of that is just downloaded music
20gb of downloaded music for me, and I’m surprised it’s that little.
yeah I used to have more, like all my albums, mut nów its just my playlist (30hrs)
It’s plenty for me.
I don’t have an iPhone but I just wanted to say that 128 is not enough, at least for me.
I had to delete so much stuff.
On my iPhone it’s more like:
- 5GB downloaded podcasts
- 4GB offline maps
- 2GB photos
- 2GB music
- 1GB health data
- 1GB messages
- The core operating system uses about 10GB
- About 10GB of or so of other stuff.
In total, I’m using a bit over 30GB.
I had to delete so much stuff.
The thing is, an iPhone does that for you.
My full photo library is huge — terabytes, and i have a bunch of large apps (especially games) on my phone that I never play - it automatically removes them but leaves the icon in the launcher. It’ll simply re-download them if you do tap the game. And if the game is well designed, it won’t be a single download - it’ll be a minimal download for the game then within the game each level or area of the game will be downloaded separately as you play.
I have a 64GB phone, and the storage management makes sure I have 20GB or more of free plenty space for large video recordings, software updates, etc etc. If I had a 2TB iPhone, I’d probably have the same 20GB or so of free space since my photo library is that big.
I guess it would be nice to be able to look at a photo I took six years ago and not have to wait a tenth of a second for it to download. But I’m not willing to pay for that. Even if more storage cost 10 bucks, I wouldn’t be willing to pay.
My 13 Mini is 128gb. I’ve had it a year and it still has 20gb of free storage.
128gb would suck ass in a MacBook, but in a phone it’s fine for most users.
If they make the storage small on the phone then people are more likely to subscribe to their cloud storage solution and pay more money!!
My Android device has 128GB of internal storage, and I still could not imagine not having a MicroSD slot for additional storage.
