16GB - that really sucks... Does it?

[theriel]

Hi,
I have been wondering - why do people need over 16GB in a phone?
This is not Google Nexus 4 centric question - Nexus 4 just sparked my interest as this issue comes up here very often - it is more about "what do you really do with your smartphone, iphone, android-phone, whatever-phone".

Music: Yes, I have over 3TB of music in lossless formats (*.flac) and some in high quality ogg files, all connected to my home media system. I also have a portable mp3 player, 3x5cm, the best solution while jogging, rock-climbing, sailing etc., which carries my selection of mp3 files. It supports memory cards and all that jazz. I haven't ever used more than 4-5GB, which equals roughly 500 (1000 for all ya Amazon/iTune fans) songs - a nice handpicked selection for any situation and mood. I would add some songs or albums every now and then or delete those I haven't listened to for ages. Now, I understand that many of you need to constantly carry over 4000 songs as you manage to listen to all of them during your daily commute...

Videos: I know that Blu-ray disks take over 40GB. And I also know how disrespectful it is to take a great movie production and watch it on 4.7''. I realize that some people watch movies while commuting - and let's assume, arguendo, that I understand it. I just really feel bad for those hundreds of people who seem to have over 10h daily commute making it paramount to carry at least 3-5 movies at once. And if we are talking about flying - gentlemen, if you really have to - take your 10'' device and stop looking silly.

Games: I might be getting old, but I remember usually having 2-3 games installed on my computer - one I would generally play and the other I would switch to if I got frustrated with the first one. Why would you need to constantly carry 10-15 high-resolution games?

Books: I read relatively fast, but I yet have to see somebody going over millions of pages per hour.

E-mails, Calendar, ToDo tasks: My office blackberry, by now resembling some antique device from Mesopotamia, has been constantly managing to synchronize and compare the availability of 1000+ people and operate 5 mailboxes. I guess it didn't take more than a hundred MB.

Photos: I am sorry, but it is just sad. The quality of the lenses on the current phones is worse than in my 40y old Zenith camera. It might be fine to take some photos when you didn't expect to, but when you are traveling and sightseeing - do yourself a favour and invest in something which your grandparents wouldn't be ashamed of.

GPS: I understand that some of you are truck drivers who travel a lot. But why do most of the people want to constantly carry the maps of both Americas in high resolutions? I have been to some crazy parties but hey, I have never woken up on a different continent...

In summary: Reading these fora I feel like most of the people have really bad data management habits. Teenagers are used to 4TB drives and don't appreciate the importance of good data management which they will have to learn sooner or later. People do not really need, yet they do want to carry, their whole music collection for the sake of it - which usually means that it is either very unimpressive or in poor quality (even if taking dozens of GBs). The size of the phone storage acts mainly as ego-booster, a clearly comparable statistic, resembling 1990s when people would compare their RAM or HDD sizes which became a designation of their affluence and importance.

What do you think? How many GBs do people actually need in their phones? What are the special situations where you need more? What has changed in the last 5 years in the usage of smartphones that people are suddenly lacking space?

Discuss!

 

[Ticojpunk]

The advantage to carrying "everything", is so you eliminate the need to ever sit down and pick out what it is you might want during the course of your day, no matter how many hours you will spend listening/watching.

That said, I do think cloud storage and streaming services have taken care of this need. Most of the time, we have a data connection of one kind or another to fulfill this need for 100% access. I personally have no problem just keeping some local stuff on just in case there is data outages, or Wifi issues wherever I happen to be.

For me 8GB would be terrible. My wife has the 8GB 4th gen iPod touch and I need to constantly police what she has on there so it doesn't fill up.

But I do think 16GB is fine for the vast majority of folks.

But to each their own. Everyone's needs are different and people have the right to set a minimum storage standard for themselves. Fortunately, there's a lot of choices out there, and plenty with an SD card slot.

I may very well be buying the 16GB N4 eventually, but if it had an SD card slot it would be much more attractive to me specs-wise.

 

[siczek.p]

Agree completely. I used to carry around 120 gb of music and listened to maybe 1%. My current phone has a 32 gb SD card but I only use about 8 gb after streamlining my on the go collection. Same thing with photos. same thing with movies. There isn't much value in having an abyss of memory when you never retrieve anything from that abyss.

Sent from my MB855 using Android Central Forums

 

[masqueofhastur]

It's just a matter of experience. With a 32GB PlayBook I haven't had to bother managing my files, but in looking at my free memory, I would have had to delete some stuff on a 16GB model. So with 32GB I just wouldn't have to think about it. That said, I've got an 8GB iPod touch, an 8GB Lumia 710 and had an 8GB N95, and that worked fine too. So I could certainly just continue managing files, but it's also worth it to just pay a bit more up front and not have to worry.

 

[Fairclough]

I like your philosophy, I do the same, no music on the phone, 2-3 games at most, before it broke it was down to 1, photo's stored on the pc - family are photographers so a 8mp camera cannot match a Canon Mk 4?, GPS however i just stream. You did remind me to buy a new mp3.

 

[fabulas]

I don't have a problem with 16gb, but I'd much prefer 32gb. This will make me be a lot more efficient with my useage. Coming from the GNEX, I'll keep my music down to about 3gb(still not a fan of Google Music). I do rip bluray movies which are at max about 2gb, but most are about 1.5gb. I will keep my movies to 4gb. Photos will not be a problem. I only have certain ones I want with me always (1gb max). I also resize photos that were taken with my DSLR. For gaming, I'll keep it down to 2gb. For Google maps, caching the city of Memphis takes about 35mb. Since I'm getting the 32gb 3g Nexus 7, I will load games and photos on this.

 

[Droidintorrance]

I do get a sense that Google wants us to start renting movies from the play store instead of torrenting and downloading them the device... which is fine, but it does take a while for the movie cache to clear, even after flashing a new rom, Google music is much faster at clearing a few gigs of cache...

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[theriel]

Thank you for your thoughts!

I do get a sense that Google wants us to start renting movies from the play store instead of torrenting and downloading them the device... which is fine, but it does take a while for the movie cache to clear, even after flashing a new rom, Google music is much faster at clearing a few gigs of cache...

i am still failing to understand why would anyone rent and then subsequently download and then watch a movie on a phone. Taking into account the scarcity of unlimited Internet plans on 3G in Europe, I would avoid downloading any big files from the cloud. Taking into account my appreciation for good movies, I would avoid watching them on anything smaller than an airplane screens, i.e. 10''. And finally, taking into account my basic time management skills, I would know of a longer trip at least a few hours before, so that I could pack a tablet or a laptop, if I were planning to watch some movies...

Google doesn't want us to do anything as far as Nexus 4 is concerned. Your argument might make sense as regards 7'' or 10'' tablets, but that's a wholly different story outside of this thread...

 

[TomsAndroid]

I'm sorry but what you're saying is ridiculous! Just because you don't watch movies, play a lot of high-res games or take photos on your phone, doesn't mean that no-one else should!
You obviously have plenty of money, but some people can't afford to buy a better camera, a separate MP3 player, a larger tablet just for movies and a brand new GPS system. Also, I think it is a bit too judgmental to say you look ridiculous watching movies on your phone. Also, you mightn't game much but I, along with others, like to have a large choice of high-quality games. I play different games in different moods and that means filling space.
More on answering your question, I filled up my 16Gb Nexus 7 within a few weeks. I don't take pictures with it (or store them), I only have about 150mb of cached maps, I have next to no music and only have one movie on at a time. Yet I'm still running out of space.


Sent from my Nexus 7

 

[TvTechGuru]

You have an excellent point OP. I bought the Galaxy S2 Skyrocket in December 2011. It has 16GB on board and I bought a 32GB card for it thinking I was going to use all this space for music and other media. Well now nearly a year later and u find myself listening to music with radio apps instead of local music storage on my phone. Most of my used storage space is high resolution pictures and HD video from my camera. I have used 8GB on my 32GB card in almost a year and only 3GB of the 11.25GB of on board storage so it's not that bad. I could probably make it by with the estimated 12GB of free space on the N4, but there's no telling for sure.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727

 

[ChromeJob]

Hi,
I have been wondering - why do people need over 16GB in a phone? ..

Discuss!

Well ... you might ask over at XDA-developers forum. You might hear from developers and experienced ROM flashers who need to have full backups of their phones on the device. 16GB could be filled up rather quickly, particularly if you don't want to plug the phone into a computer over ADB ever day or so.

I can also tell you that my 8GB Nexus 7 started running short of space after installing DEAD TRIGGER, DARK MEADOW, and the Tegra GLOWBALL demo. For someone who's an avid developer, flashing ROMs, playing games, and listening to music, 16GB will fill up fast. It's not the content files that will do so, but the increasing size of apps, firmware (ROMs), etc.

IMHO 16GB is just enough for a power user. 8GB is probably all right for a soccer mom.

 

[theriel]

Thank you all for the responses!

I totally understand the concerns from developer's point of view. Although, having played quite a bit with ROMs on old HTC devices, I would rarely flash my phone away from PC, stable Internet connection etc...but I guess that while working with unstable ROM it is good to have a stable ROM as a backup to be able to make an emergency flash of the phone e.g. while away from home.

I'm sorry but what you're saying is ridiculous! Just because you don't watch movies, play a lot of high-res games or take photos on your phone, doesn't mean that no-one else should!

Have you noticed "I have been wondering", "what do you do", "What do you think", six other questions asked in the first thread etc.? Have I ever mentioned anything about how many games you *should* play on your phone? All I am asking is for explanation what YOU do with your phone, as I want to UNDERSTAND your concerns. But well...

You seem to be frustrated but I am afraid I will not respond in your tone. I will just address your issues one by one:
-> "some people cannot afford to buy a better camera" - please. I can buy a great camera and a phone for the price of e.g. the most popular iPhone. You don't need top quality Nikon for $10k to take better photos. People were buying cameras and mobile phones at the same time long before the smartphone hype.
-> "a separate mp3 player" - A good source mp3 player costs 26GBP (sansa clip+) - the top-quality open-source firmware for it (I have yet to come across a better firmware on any portable device) is free.
- a brand new gps system - now you are just being silly. I have never condemned using a phone as GPS (suggestion: re-reading my post). I have just noticed that a set of maps which you actually need does not take much space. And numerous people above seem to agree with that minor point.

Now, after you have attacked me ad personam, you decided to reply to my question. Thank you. It is a pity you didn't want to elaborate on how you fill 16GB tablet with one movie (given the other things you say). That could actually add something to our discourse.

Let my clarify, because I am afraid you will read once again what you want -> I am asking because I want to KNOW. Pure curiosity, willingness to expand knowledge and improve my understanding of your position to have a better grasp of the arguments made by various people. What I wrote is an EXAMPLE serving to SHOW you how I PERCEIVE the topic so that YOU can better ADDRESS IT. I don't know how I can express myself simpler.

I apologise TomsAndroid if you felt offended but I can guarantee you - it was never my intention, as that would be quite a waste of time which I value in my life highly.

 

[yfan]

I'm sorry but what you're saying is ridiculous! Just because you don't watch movies, play a lot of high-res games or take photos on your phone, doesn't mean that no-one else should!
You obviously have plenty of money, but some people can't afford to buy a better camera, a separate MP3 player, a larger tablet just for movies and a brand new GPS system. Also, I think it is a bit too judgmental to say you look ridiculous watching movies on your phone. Also, you mightn't game much but I, along with others, like to have a large choice of high-quality games. I play different games in different moods and that means filling space.
More on answering your question, I filled up my 16Gb Nexus 7 within a few weeks. I don't take pictures with it (or store them), I only have about 150mb of cached maps, I have next to no music and only have one movie on at a time. Yet I'm still running out of space.

It's not just a matter of not being able to afford separate devices. Sometimes, you don't want to carry around 4 devices - a phone, a camera, an MP 3 player and maybe even a game player - when one will do.

That being said, if a great amount of local storage is important to you, this is not the phone for you. This phone isn't for everyone, and it won't fit everyone's needs. That's just how it is. There are other phones that will meet your requirements, I'm sure.

 

[Rayzaa]

Because i do NOT prefer to stream my music. Even if we all got true unlimited data and that wasnt an issue, i would prefer not to stream but at least with true unlimtied data, i wouldnt have to worry if im over my limit and would do it more often.

When they give us that (our US carriers suck), memory space will seem to be an issue even though it is real cheap to add 32GB.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

I wish they offered a 4GB version for $259. I must be a "soccer mom" lol.

 

[Fleury14]

I'm still trying to talk myself into the 16gig. I store absolutely no music on my phone and have 4 "time killer" games.
I think the thing taking up the most memory is a rom backup from the last time I flashed cyanogen m-2.
My Nexus S 4G has 396mb internal & 10.51GB usb storage available.
MAYBE it helps that I also have the nexus 7 & a xoom but my 8 gig nexus still has half of it's space used and my Xoom is loaded and STILL has a load of space.
I guess I just got ussd to living in the cloud.
That being said I'll probably get the 16 but for resale value next year.

 

[Ricky2009]

still not sure what i'm going with either. I plan on streaming my music and i don't really put any big games on my phones and only 1-2 at a time. Ill also be getting a N7 after xmas so im thinking that could help too. But $50 to double the memory is hard to turn down...

 

[anon(847090)]

its a phone. if you need terabytes of data buy a computer... oh wait u already have it.
how about adding your 3 Tb of music to your cars audio system? that sounds stupid doesnt it?

 

[onevivip]

Streaming music and videos is just not a realistic option for people in many countries such as Australia. On a $29 plan, you get about 200MB of data per month. On a $49 cap, you get about 1GB of data per month. Even on the $80 plan, you only get about 2GB per month.

Another issue is battery life. Since you're constantly downloading data while streaming music, you'll waste more battery, as compared to just playing songs locally.

 

[Fairclough]

Because i do NOT prefer to stream my music. Even if we all got true unlimited data and that wasnt an issue, i would prefer not to stream but at least with true unlimtied data, i wouldnt have to worry if im over my limit and would do it more often.

When they give us that (our US carriers suck), memory space will seem to be an issue even though it is real cheap to add 32GB.

Even if it was in an app where it looked like a normal play list?