Nexus 4 8GB - How Much Actual Useable Space ?

[Ziptied]

The first day you will run out of room on 8gb n4. 2days later you will be out of room on 16gb n4. So no matter what Google has screwed every one again. Best bet get a WiFi hard drive and carry it around. Really surprised AC hasn't done a story on those yet.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2

I've had my galaxy nexus since August of last year, I have a 16gig and I still have 7.85gig's free. There goes your argument.

 

[Winterfang]

Oh I see lol. I just check my pictures and they where like 780k each. Still I have like 2 gigs of pictures in my phone, I guess I can just look at them via a Skydrive app.

 

[rickydavis1051]

I have like 1500-2000 pictures alone lol

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Android Central Forums

 

[N8ter]

800MB? Could you imagine if each picture was that big? lmao

an 8MP JPEG will only be a couple MB. There's compression involved in shooting JPEG.

My 12MP RAW photos from my Micro 4/3 camera are about 14MB in size. But if I shoot in JPEG, the file sizes are multiple times smaller.

Don't worry about filling up your internal storage with photos from the phone's camera, you'd have to take thousands and thousands and never remove them.

A decent 8MP camera (i.e. Galaxy SII) will shoot full resolution pictures between 3 and 3.5MP each. That's pretty big. A camera that compresses the image more may be able to save some space. The 12 MP camera on the Sony Xperia ion I had tok pictures around the same size as my Skyrocket, but compression was higher. The Vivid's 8MP camera was on par with the Skyrocket for output image size. That's fairly large. No smartphone camera shoots RAW so that's not worth mentioning.

Available Space will be a little over 5GB, which is not a lot of space - borderline unusable amount of space unless you're on an unlimited data plan, don't go to any highly populous destinations (where HSPA+ falls flat on its face, making a mockery of "the cloud"), and almost barely use your phone. I went to the Zoo last month and the HSPA+ connection was so bogged down that I could barely load Google.com on my phone. I ended up putting it in Airplane mode, which renders the cloud inaccessible.

Add up your Pictures - both sideloaded and taken, Videos - both sideloaded and recorded (720p is heavy enough, 1080p can be something like 100MB or more per minute of footage in size), Apps, Games (some of which require significant download sizes to play them), Documents, Music - unless you want to hedge your bets on Google Music, however when the cloud is inaccessible/speeds are too slow you are going to be SoL (or have your battery destroyed while others put their phones in Airplane mode and use 10% of their battery in 2 hours of constant music playback).

The 5.x GB space becomes a huge drawback when you consider all of that.

Take it from me. I had an 8GB iPod Touch. You do not want a phone with only 8GB storage. I am not saying don't get the phone. I am saying save up another week or two and just get the 16GB variant and save yourself the potential (or eventual, in many cases people think it isn't a problem but they simply haven't fully evaluated their requirements and use cases) headache and/or buyers remorse (of that specific storage capacity N4).

 

[N8ter]

Oh I see lol. I just check my pictures and they where like 780k each. Still I have like 2 gigs of pictures in my phone, I guess I can just look at them via a Skydrive app.

SkyDrive Auto-Uploaded pictures from Windows Phone were compressed down. In WP8 they give an option to Sync full resolution, in WP 7/7.5 they were compressed with no choice from you. Google+ Instant Upload images are also compressed down if they are larger than 2048px on their longest side. None of that gives a true indication of what size the images are when the phone takes them. My HD7 took images that were 2-3MB in size (averaging somewhere in the middle) with a 5MP camera. My Vibrant took Pictures Mid 2-just under 3MB in size average with a 5MP camera. The 8MP camera on the Nexus 4 should give image output sizes on par with the GS2/3/HTC 8MP camera devices, which is close to 3-3.7 or so depending on lighting conditions, settings (Super Fine), etc. They'll be significantly larger than 780k each.

$50 for double the storage is worth it, even if you have to budget hard and wait 2 extra weeks to get the phone. As a Windows Phone user you know exactly how much of a PITA it was for those people who had no choice but to get an 8GB phone, and how many of them wished they had gotten a different device just for the higher storage capacity.

 

[KitN]

I have been considering the 8 gig version because I use my nexus 7 for games and music. The nexus 4 would only have communication apps on it which aren't big at all. The lack of an SD card doesn't bother me at all either. I lost a bunch of new born pics of my daughter due to a SD card going bad. Since then I always backed my pics up to my computer and cloud.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

100% agree x

I have a 16GB Nexus 7 so I'm thinking I can get away with a 8GB Nexus 4.

I'll be using the N4 primarily for calls, text, data tethering for my N 7 and taking photos whenever the mood strikes me so I don't need much space. Any photos and videos I take will be uploaded to the Cloud and deleted off my N4 fairly quickly. I'll have access to them with unlimited data or Wi-Fi. I don't carry my life around on my phones!

So 8 GB is looking better and better to me every passing day... We shall see...

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[KitN]

$50 for double the storage is worth it, even if you have to budget hard and wait 2 extra weeks to get the phone.

I agree and that's the reason why I paid the extra $50 on my Nexus 7, but I have nearly 12 GBs of storage still unused on my N7!

So I'm thinking it'll be a waste of $50 + tax of my very hard-earned cash to get a 16 GB Nexus 4...

Anyway, was thinking that for any reason I decided I want/need the extra space, within 15 days, I can return it, get a full refund and buy the 16GB one.



Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[gollum18]

Or upload whatever massive files you carry around on your phone to the cloud B-)

Agreed the only reason for the low internal storage/no external storage is that Google is pushing cloud storage.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ardrid]

To more directly answer the question: an 8GB device has 7.45GB of useable/logical storage space (8,000,000,000 bytes as advertised / 1024^3 actual logical bytes). I would imagine JB to take up anywhere from 1-1.5GB of storage space, leaving you with anywhere from 5.95GB to 6.45GB of actual storage space for your apps, photos, music, etc.

I'm personally leaning towards the 8GB model myself. I currently have a 16GB Captivate and I'm only using approximately 3.3GB, the majority of which is some music I've decided to store locally and apps I haven't touched in months, as well as carrier bloat. If we assume my usage will go down to 3GB after pushing out the fluff, and potentially lower if I go completely cloud based, 8GB is more than enough. We'll see though. I'm not hurting for the extra $50 so I might grab the 16GB just for the peace of mind over the next 2+ years.

 

[masqueofhastur]

Total space a little under 7 Gb
Available space a little over 5 Gb.

So, both of you are right.

Shouldn't total space be 7.45GB?

 

[wahoo25]

Shouldn't total space be 7.45GB?

He/she is taking into account the firmware.

 

[Winterfang]

I can't really afford that, so I'll have to take some sacrifices sadly. It can't be that bad I hope.

 

[anon(847090)]

Shouldn't total space be 7.45GB?

how did you come at 7.45 Gb??? 8 Gb memory will have a little less than 7 Gb and Android use a bit of space so available will be like 5.5 or something.

 

[wahoo25]

To more directly answer the question: an 8GB device has 7.45GB of useable/logical storage space (8,000,000,000 bytes as advertised / 1024^3 actual logical bytes). I would imagine JB to take up anywhere from 1-1.5GB of storage space, leaving you with anywhere from 5.95GB to 6.45GB of actual storage space for your apps, photos, music, etc.

I'm personally leaning towards the 8GB model myself. I currently have a 16GB Captivate and I'm only using approximately 3.3GB, the majority of which is some music I've decided to store locally and apps I haven't touched in months, as well as carrier bloat. If we assume my usage will go down to 3GB after pushing out the fluff, and potentially lower if I go completely cloud based, 8GB is more than enough. We'll see though. I'm not hurting for the extra $50 so I might grab the 16GB just for the peace of mind over the next 2+ years.

Everything you said is bang on what I'm thinking except for the last part. I'm hurting for cash and that is conflicting with the 2yr peace of mind. I do like to put on lots of music (lots of variety for a weekend extravaganza) and the occasional movie when I'm on the road for a while. An 8gb will test my ability to manage my media at multiple points in time.


On the return policy, who pays the return shipping?

 

[masqueofhastur]

how did you come at 7.45 Gb??? 8 Gb memory will have a little less than 7 Gb and Android use a bit of space so available will be like 5.5 or something.

8 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 = 7.45.

 

[ajonesma]

I'll be getting a 8GB Nexus 4, and a 32GB Nexus 7. My Nexus 4 will mostly be for Apps and a few pictures, since those auto-upload to Dropbox. I use Google Music for my music. And I'll have unlimited unthrottled data.

I also barely use 2.5GB on my Galaxy Nexus (toroplus) now.

 

[squadz]

Can anyone who has received one answer this now?

 

[pceasar]

Am I happy with the sizes of storage google gives for the N4? Ahh no!! however, here's reality the more space you have the more most people tend to use for crap they dont need on their phone, I did the same thing with my GNex until I got stuck only getting the 8GB N4, then I realized I had lots of CWM backups etc on there and pictures of stuff I already have in the cloud and dont look at everyday. I'm sure we'll get by with 8 but I plan to get 16 soon.

 

[squadz]

So, actual storage space on an 8GB? by someone who got it?