Samsung responds to Galaxy S4 storage woes

[rushmore]

I just came back from Best Buy and played checked out the S4s on display... they all had 7.65 storage available... and they only had a few demo apps like angry birds and at most a few pics in the gallery. come on... 7.65 gb is a joke. Otherwise I really liked the S4... the screen to me was bright and vivid... the plastic didnt turn me off as much as i thought and the fake metal trim felt good. crazy slim and light. And the camera looked to be great.

That hover over feature is pretty cool lol... wonder if it took a gb of space to implement lol.

I really don't know what I will do when my contract runs out on the 7th.... but I certainly know, for me, I will not buy a 16gb variant of the S4 with around 8 gb of free space.

Update: This post should have been to ericsckanes post. Not sure what happened.



Catch is that unlike the S3 launch, there is no 32gb and not many if any signs the carriers will offer them. Both the carriers and Samsung actually think an sd card will fix all the storage issues. Stupid but true and a false sense of security that the 16gb is fine for everybody.

 

[bigrey81]

You put one RPG or race car game and you will go over....I don't get why they even made the 16 should've just gone 32 or 64

 

[Eric Kane]

Update: This post should have been to ericsckanes post. Not sure what happened.



Catch is that unlike the S3 launch, there is no 32gb and not many if any signs the carriers will offer them. Both the carriers and Samsung actually think an sd card will fix all the storage issues. Stupid but true and a false sense of security that the 16gb is fine for everybody.

Being upset that they haven't (or may never) release a higher capacity storage makes a lot more sense than getting irate over the loss of a few more GBs than normal on a 16GB phone that probably wouldn't have fit your needs anyways. Holy run-on sentence, Batman.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4

 

[anon(826501)]

At 56 years old the name of the game is FACTS. Hello there, my mobile phone carrier is AT&T. Former user of BlackBerry, my first android phone was HTC ONEX, my current android phone is HTC ONEX+( 64GB internal storage, Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core 1.7 GHz) . Next week I'am going to an official AT&T store to buy a new android phone, regular price- no two years contract upgrade cause I upgrade last December. My game is plain stock HTC, no Rooting, no ROMs, no hacks.

I really want to experience with other android phones besides of HTC. Two choices, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia ZL. But after a little search in Android Central an XDA I'am a sad old man. Galaxy S4 64GB is not at sale in AT&T stores, nobody knows if there would be a 64GB in store at AT&T. Sony Xperia ZL is 16GB. I got a lot of apps bought at Google Play Store, a lot of games. Right now some of them are running in my phone. There is a thread, not sure is at XDA, that said Next Launcher don't work at Galaxy S4. Next Launcher is my favorite launcher and one of the expensive ones with TSF SHELL and SPB SHELL 3D, I got the three of them. So facts are facts, my intention is not to fight with Samsung or Sony fans, just look at the photos. First one a current storage in my HTC ONEX+, second one a fast ball apps gallery with Next Launcher. The name of the game is FACTS, the name of the game is 64GB of internal storage.


Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2

 

[Eric Kane]

At 56 years old the name of the game is FACTS. Hello there, my mobile phone carrier is AT&T. Former user of BlackBerry, my first android phone was HTC ONEX, my current android phone is HTC ONEX+( 64GB internal storage, Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core 1.7 GHz) . Next week I'am going to an official AT&T store to buy a new android phone, regular price- no two years contract upgrade cause I upgrade last December. My game is plain stock HTC, no Rooting, no ROMs, no hacks.http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/05/e4abupar.jpg I really want to experience with other android phones besides of HTC. Two choices, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia ZL. But after a little search in Android Central an XDA I'am a sad old man. Galaxy S4 64GB is not at sale in AT&T stores, nobody knows if there would be a 64GB in store at AT&T. Sony Xperia ZL is 16GB. I got a lot of apps bought at Google Play Store, a lot of games. Right now some of them are running in my phone. There is a thread, not sure is at XDA, that said Next Launcher don't work at Galaxy S4. Next Launcher is my favorite launcher and one of the expensive ones with TSF SHELL and SPB SHELL 3D, I got the three of them. So facts are facts, my intention is not to fight with Samsung or Sony fans, just look at the photos. First one a current storage in my HTC ONEX+, second one a fast ball apps gallery with Next Launcher. The name of the game is FACTS, the name of the game is 64GB of internal storage.


Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2

You could use 5-6 GB for apps and get a 64 GB SD card for everything else on the S4. Unless you'll need another 3-4 GB in apps in addition to what you already have, in which case you could need more internal storage.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

The people that this affects (people who play a lot of games on their phones) probably wouldn't have bought the 16 GB version anyways. If you've bought a smartphone before, you'd know that you never get the full amount of space as they do tell you that the amount of formatted space is less on the box. It is a few more GBs than normal, but hardly anything to create this much vitriol.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4

That's a big assumption to make. That people that play a lot of games will automatically spring for more storage. I wonder how many people bought the Arcade version of the Xbox 360 vs the higher capacity simply due to cost. I wonder if the 16gb version of the S5 (or whatever they call it next year) will have even less storage available, and if you'll say the exact same thing that you're saying now when/if it does.

Being upset that they haven't (or may never) release a higher capacity storage makes a lot more sense than getting irate over the loss of a few more GBs than normal on a 16GB phone that probably wouldn't have fit your needs anyways. Holy run-on sentence, Batman.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4

I agree, that being this upset about it is kinda absurd, but at the same time, we haven't really seen any evidence of the larger capacities making it to the US carriers. Remember the 64gb S3 that was being released in Europe last year? Neither does anybody else, because it was never released.

Of course, the box does absolve them of any responsibility, since it does have that disclaimer....

 

[rushmore]

I agree with the general view that had the carriers also offered 32gb, or at least announce when they would be available, the complaints would mainly be isolated to the fact the large versions will be later. Samsung's dumba$$ response exacerbated the perception of the issue.

Carriers need to speak up.

 

[Eric Kane]

That's a big assumption to make. That people that play a lot of games will automatically spring for more storage. I wonder how many people bought the Arcade version of the Xbox 360 vs the higher capacity simply due to cost. I wonder if the 16gb version of the S5 (or whatever they call it next year) will have even less storage available, and if you'll say the exact same thing that you're saying now when/if it does.



I agree, that being this upset about it is kinda absurd, but at the same time, we haven't really seen any evidence of the larger capacities making it to the US carriers. Remember the 64gb S3 that was being released in Europe last year? Neither does anybody else, because it was never released.

Of course, the box does absolve them of any responsibility, since it does have that disclaimer....

I will say it again next year. I don't even come close to using 2 GB of app storage on my phone with a little over 100 apps. So I've got 64 GB SD storage and 50 GB Box storage for the cloud for everything else. I think I'm good no matter what they do.

Just like the XBox, additional storage can be added externally. I didn't assume anything, either. This does affect the people that play games as amassing 8-9 GB of just applications and not games would be a usage case in the minority.

That being said, I'm surprised they haven't released a higher storage capacity version in the US yet. Maybe it's their way of supporting Google and their choice to push people towards the cloud. Who knows.

The disclaimer on the box does cover them, too. Just like it does every other phone and the phones that preceded them. Maybe this development will hinder Samsung to only selling double or triple the amount of any other Android device instead of 10x or higher. Always have to find that silver lining.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4

 

[omniusovermind]

They are very handy though for users that value local content for media, rather than relying on cloud data, which eats more battery, kills data caps and depends on always being connected. This does not fit all people.

The solution below solves this for the vast majority of people

Simple answer was for Samsung to offer the 32gb at launch as well, so consumers can get the version that suits them. They did this with the S3 and it had 2gb more storage and the average app size for games and media centric social apps were smaller. Samsung went the wrong direction this time and are handling it terribly. Their response to the problem was ignorant to a bewildering level.

Higher internal storage costs more than SD cards. But you get what you pay for. Internal storage is faster and more efficient. That's why I commented that SD cards are a 2011 solution.


Sent from my (fill in the blank) phone using (fill in the blank software)

 

[rexxman]

Call Samsung and let them know.

Memory
Internal Memory 2 GB RAM, 16 GB ROM
External Memory/microSD? Capacity
External Memory: Up to 64GB

Oh ok. Please respond with their number.

Blue 32gb Galaxy S3

 

[CehowardNote7]

Who needs more than 10gb storage only for apps?

Sent from my HTCONE using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2

"Nobody will ever need more than 640k RAM!" -- Bill Gates, 1981

 

[JHBThree]

"Nobody will ever need more than 640k RAM!" -- Bill Gates, 1981

Some people do. They're a minority though.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[omniusovermind]

"Nobody will ever need more than 640k RAM!" -- Bill Gates, 1981

Not a relevant response. We're talking about the present situation and current app code which isn't going to noticeably change for the next few years.

Sent from my (fill in the blank) phone using (fill in the blank software)

 

[jhill110]

You can disagree, but in a respectful and courteous way, you are wrong. Storage is "memory".. Always have been, and always will.. lol.. ;the 2gb is pirmary, and the 16gb is secondary.. Look it up!! LOL

Well obviously your not old enough to know what your talking about. It may be referred to that now but before cell phones (in the days of 120 meg hard drives) there were 3 distinct things... Storage, NEVER referred to as memory. Ram, always referred to as memory and ROM, like "CD roms".
Now it can be argued it's a matter of semantics but it has NOT (to put it your way), "always have been".
Learn something new or just remain ignorant of historical fact (respectfully).

Sent From spectfuMy SPH-L710 VIA Subspace

 

[jhill110]

Call Samsung and let them know.

Memory
Internal Memory 2 GB RAM, 16 GB ROM
External Memory/microSD? Capacity
External Memory: Up to 64GB

Sheesh, why is this concept so difficult to understand?
The internal 16gb IS NOT, I repeat not ROM! Data stored there CAN and is constantly being modified. It is not "read only memory"

Sent From My SPH-L710 VIA Subspace

 

[rushmore]

Tidbits:

The manufacturers of phones and tablets miss ID flash as ROM on a regular basis in their specs. Heck, even Samsung does not know sd cards can not be used anymore with apps. Kind of bad considering their core competencies.

Bill Gates in 1993 also said the internet was for hackers and would not catch on to mass consumers. He changed his tune when Netscape became huge and the internet exploded overnight. Microsoft was afraid Netscape could be used like a Windows. Thus was born Internet Explorer as part of the package of, Windows 95- for obvious reasons.

 

[rexxman]

I seriously doubt that Samsung doesn't know that SD cards can't be used for apps. The Samsung engineers and programmers would have very detailed knowledge of Android.

Blue 32gb Galaxy S3

 

[rushmore]

Probably, but their spokesperson defending the low storage did not know and was speaking on behalf of Samsung.

 

[rexxman]

Not a relevant response. We're talking about the present situation and current app code which isn't going to noticeably change for the next few years.

Sent from my (fill in the blank) phone using (fill in the blank software)

I think it a very relevant response. And, ironically, your second sentence sounds like more of the same. We are seeing larger and larger apps and that will inevitably accelerate as the hardware improves.

It's sad that mfgs/carriers are crippling these magnificent pocket computers with low storage.

Blue 32gb Galaxy S3

 

[Wilbur]

The S4 was advertised as having three available storage sizes; 16Gb, 32Gb and 64Gb. Why is everybody ONLY getting the 16Gb models? WHO is getting the other two more desirable model configurations? And if nobody ... then WHY was the S4 advertised has having them? Is it a money issue? Why not sell the 32Gb and 64Gb models as special order non-stock items? This line of bull that the S3 32Gb and 64Gb models didn't sell well is OLD news. IF thats the case then why offer them in the first place???