Nexus 4 8GB vs 16GB?

[Unicorn Rancher]

If you have to ask, wait for the 32

 

[gone down south]

I've been using my phone like crazy, lots of pictures and videos, and still have 3.2gb free. I don't have that many apps installed, of course.

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[jd914]

Stupid me I've been using a 8gig for 2 months and it was useless.

and I'm positive aside from a few apps you have practically nothing installed. But yeah it fits your needs which unfortunately isn't enough for the majority of smartphone users.

 

[gone down south]

and I'm positive aside from a few apps you have practically nothing installed. But yeah it fits your needs which unfortunately isn't enough for the majority of smartphone users.

I think you're confusing "people who hang out on android message boards" with "majority of smartphone users". Most smartphone users have Facebook and instagram and some coupon apps and not much else installed.

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[Mellimel22]

You get whichever one you want, but the problem with your logic is that if you buy the smaller one and you find that you need more space later, you don't have it and can't get it. If you buy the bigger one, and end up not needing the space, I doubt you'll feel any regret. Using the cloud is fine, but because of data connectivity and or data plan restrictions, there could easily be times when it would be more convenient to have a little more phone storage space. This basic premiss of more space is better than less is why you may have noticed that computer hard drives continue to get bigger and bigger every year. Smaller/less is not a storage trend, and never will be.

If 8gb works for you, that's great, but I like having more.

He is right. The only reason I use Google drive and g+ and music is because I have unlimited data. If I was getting throttled it would be a necessary for the 16gb but thankfully I have 32:beer:

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[jd914]

I think you're confusing "people who hang out on android message boards" with "majority of smartphone users". Most smartphone users have Facebook and instagram and some coupon apps and not much else installed.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

You're sadly mistaken. The majority of people I know who don't frequent message boards have tons of games, movies, music and pictures. I don't know where you got that from unless you're assuming. Then again there's apologists for everything that need to justify what they have including an 8gb device.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[yfan]

You're sadly mistaken. The majority of people I know who don't frequent message boards have tons of games, movies, music and pictures.

Majority of people you know may also not be representative of the average smartphone user. But that's beside the point. Here's a news flash: the majority of smart phone owners don't have a Nexus phone, let alone the Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 is made for people who use Google Services a lot, and is meant to push cloud storage. If you are the type of user who likes to fill up their phone with high definition games and photos and videos, then quite frankly, the Nexus 4 isn't for you, and 16 GB likely isn't enough storage either.

The wisdom of getting one Nexus 4 model or the other is not really related to what "the average smartphone user" uses. The phone is meant to somewhat change how people use their smartphones, not accommodate local storage hogging.

 

[doug9000]

and I'm positive aside from a few apps you have practically nothing installed. But yeah it fits your needs which unfortunately isn't enough for the majority of smartphone users.

Sorry I'm such a lightweight with 77 apps loaded 11000 songs in the cloud and only 2 movies on board. Sometimes I all so use it just as a phone to communicate with my dispatcher. Yes I have a job so don't have much time to impress myself with all the apps I can install.

 

[zerkms]

For $50, it's a no brainer to double your storage. It doesn't matter how you see your phone use today, tomorrow it could change. You might discover that you like audiobooks and start ripping your own instead of of using an online service. There are times when I have 5 or 6 gb of books on my phone. Who know what you might need a few extra gb for.

But honestly, and I apologize if this sounds harsh, if 50 bucks is a big deal to you at this point in your life, I'd just stick with whatever phone you have and wait til you've got more cash. If your reason is simply a question about storage space, ignore that previous comment...and buy the 16gb version.

I'm currently experiencing the same dilemma, and the thing is that $50 difference in original price becomes much larger expense in result.

Well, I live in New Zealand and we pay 15% taxes for everything that's bought overseas and costs over NZ$ 400 (~US$ 335). So, the 8gb is below this threshold, 16gb is over it. So you end up in paying +$50 for +$52.5 (actually a bit more - because the delivery price also counts as a total import price).

So the final result is an "overpayment" of over 30% or over US$100, which is not that few.

 

[planoman]

Majority of people you know may also not be representative of the average smartphone user. But that's beside the point. Here's a news flash: the majority of smart phone owners don't have a Nexus phone, let alone the Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 is made for people who use Google Services a lot, and is meant to push cloud storage. If you are the type of user who likes to fill up their phone with high definition games and photos and videos, then quite frankly, the Nexus 4 isn't for you, and 16 GB likely isn't enough storage either.

The wisdom of getting one Nexus 4 model or the other is not really related to what "the average smartphone user" uses. The phone is meant to somewhat change how people use their smartphones, not accommodate local storage hogging.

+1. Giving you a plus one on that! Have always has galaxy or phones with SD slot with a high capacity card. Currently have a 64 GB in my note 2 and another one that I had in my sgsIII before I sold it.

The nexus has changed the way I view storage. Since getting the N4, I have signed up for google drive, transferred all of my songs to google play music and signed up for the 50GB offer from Box.com. Still wish I had 32GB storage locally, but we will see how this works out. I currently have an LTE unlimited plan on Att and have never used over 2.5 gigs in a month.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317

 

[Unicorn Rancher]

For only $50 more you get $5 more storage.

 

[return_0]

For only $50 more you get $5 more storage.

Better than Apple's $100.

 

[PaulMilander]

I bought the 8 cause money is tight, brought over all the apps,music, pics from my old phone and I still have 5 gigs left.

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[PaulMilander]

You're sadly mistaken. The majority of people I know who don't frequent message boards have tons of games, movies, music and pictures. I don't know where you got that from unless you're assuming. Then again there's apologists for everything that need to justify what they have including an 8gb device.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

I work with college students and I can tell you that allot of the students do not have tons of apps, I know alot who have the 8g IPhone and have tons of room. Most use FBook, Instagram, and Tumblr and messenger apps.

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[codeda]

I would love to have more space but I am usually the person that buys the bottom storage amount. My gs3 I bought the 16. If my next phone was available in 32 and 64, I'd buy the 32. I don't use much. More of a want than need. On my 8 gig nexus I have only used 1.9 gigs. The only thing I do when I have more storage is download everything my friends suggest and only get to check out like a third of those apps and never delete them because I don't need to. It's like a giant purse compared to a small one for me. Just more room for crap I don't really need.

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[minnemike]

It all depends on what you're using it for. If you use your N4 for music (well plan on it) then go for the 16gb. I don't use it for that purpose and truth is most apps really don't take up a whole lot of space so I got the 8gb and I'm perfectly fine with it. I disagree with the guy above me, if you don't need the space why waste 50 bucks? I recommend looking at your old phone and seeing what you've used.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

Yep - you have to learn to set everything up with the cloud - which you can for free if you research it enough. 50GB box account is a good start. I really don't envision a need to clutter up my device with so many apps to fill a 8GB N4.

 

[Johnbibbs]

But honestly, and I apologize if this sounds harsh, if 50 bucks is a big deal to you at this point in your life, I'd just stick with whatever phone you have and wait til you've got more cash. If your reason is simply a question about storage space, ignore that previous comment...and buy the 16gb version.

Sort of a jerk thing to say. Every wealthy person I know is very careful with the money they spend and don't just spend an extra $50 on something when the cheaper version will work just as well. They are meticulous as to where every dime goes.

I've seen more examples of people who are broke with the mentality of "spend the extra money now you may need it one day" instead of the other way around.

Maybe people just understand their needs and don't waste financial resources on things they truly don't need. I bought the 8GB Nexus 4 because I keep my memory intensive apps and other things on my Nexus 7.... So explain to me why I need an extra 8 gigs of memory on my phone when I'm only using 2.5 gigs now on my Galaxy Nexus???

 

[fredwardnelson]

I have the 8gb model. I have about 103 apps and plenty of storage left. I'm not a big picture taker but with instant upload feature all my pics are saved to a private album in the cloud. Unless you play games or you're one of the mp3 collection,/movie collection hoarders we have around here you don't need the 16.

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[PaulMilander]

For $50, it's a no brainer to double your storage. It doesn't matter how you see your phone use today, tomorrow it could change. You might discover that you like audiobooks and start ripping your own instead of of using an online service. There are times when I have 5 or 6 gb of books on my phone. Who know what you might need a few extra gb for.

But honestly, and I apologize if this sounds harsh, if 50 bucks is a big deal to you at this point in your life, I'd just stick with whatever phone you have and wait til you've got more cash.

Maybe some don't need all of that space. Here is my phone with all the apps that I need.


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[kalocin]

I bought the 16gb for two reasons, first I wanted the storage and second the shipping time was lower than 8gb.

I have to say I'm a little disappointed with the way Android seems to want to store everything in the cloud.

Some of the time I'm outside of the 4g data network and without a wifi network to connect to. In that circumstance I would rather take my data with me in the onboard flash.

I also don't like the idea of shuttling data back and forth over the data network when I'm going to get throttled if I transfer too much data.

I would rather use my data for new downloads, maps, etc.

I think a 64gb model would be perfect, as long as you did a little housekeeping and don't try to store your entire movie collection on the phone, you would have a hard time running out of space and you would be able to keep all the data that you would otherwise access from cloud accounts on your phone.

I've got nothing against cloud storage, it's great for backups and synching devices but I don't want to access it with a slow, capped or throttled connection and I want offline copies so I am not totally cut off from my data when I have no connection.