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I just don't understand why these manufacturers are always claiming inaccurate storage amounts. It's easy to fix: Storage = physical_storage_capacity - storage

I just don't understand why these manufacturers are always claiming inaccurate storage amounts. It's easy to fix: Storage = physical_storage_capacity - storage_used_by_stock_OS Doesn't the Surface Pro have some ludicrous claim of storage size too?

Samuel_Michon 13y ago
From Microsoft’s site: The 64 GB Surface Pro has approximately 30 GB storage available for user content The 128 GB Surface Pro has approximately 89 GB storage available for user content http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/storage http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/storage (Note that this information is not given on the Surface Pro specs page.)
- autotravis 13y ago
  Then sell it as a "Surface Pro 30 GB (tablet only)", not "Surface Pro 64 GB (tablet only)": http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/productID.275287300?icid=SurfaceProReferral&WT.mc_id=USHH http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/productI...
  - baddox 13y ago
    This isn't standard. In fact, I don't know of a single device manufacturer that does this. Every iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows desktop, Windows laptop, Microsoft tablet, and Android tablets I am aware of states the total storage space as the primary indicator of storage. Do you have any counterexamples?
    - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
      A 64GB iPad has 57GB available storage space, that’s 10% less than the name suggests. A 64GB Surface Pro has 30GB available storage space, that’s less than half of what’s advertised. When shopping for tablets, consumers should compare the 64GB Surface Pro with the 32GB iPad.
      - baddox 13y ago
        But that's a different argument. You're arguing that there is some line that can't be crossed, like perhaps manufacturers can be up to 10% off in their advertised storage space. That's a reasonable argument in itself (although where to draw that line is tricky), but it's a much different argument than "all manufacturers should advertise only the available storage space."
  - gburt 13y ago
    But... that's dishonest. The hardware is a 64GB SSD. I would be very confused if they did that. I am looking at this from a modder/techie perspective, where the hardware is more important to me than the software. In a fully closed appliance, it may be different.
abhinavk 13y ago
Well, you can reclaim disk space quite easily.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  We can, but will most consumers? Will they even know a ‘64GB tablet’ doesn’t have 64GB of storage space? Do they know that their OS choice influences how much free space their tablet will have?
smackfu 13y ago
Because it's never been done that way, so why should they advertise a lower amount? Most people don't care.

Samuel_Michon 13y ago

From Microsoft’s site: The 64 GB Surface Pro has approximately 30 GB storage available for user content The 128 GB Surface Pro has approximately 89 GB storage available for user content http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/storage http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/storage (Note that this information is not given on the Surface Pro specs page.)

autotravis 13y ago
Then sell it as a "Surface Pro 30 GB (tablet only)", not "Surface Pro 64 GB (tablet only)": http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/productID.275287300?icid=SurfaceProReferral&WT.mc_id=USHH http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/productI...
- baddox 13y ago
  This isn't standard. In fact, I don't know of a single device manufacturer that does this. Every iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows desktop, Windows laptop, Microsoft tablet, and Android tablets I am aware of states the total storage space as the primary indicator of storage. Do you have any counterexamples?
  - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
    A 64GB iPad has 57GB available storage space, that’s 10% less than the name suggests. A 64GB Surface Pro has 30GB available storage space, that’s less than half of what’s advertised. When shopping for tablets, consumers should compare the 64GB Surface Pro with the 32GB iPad.
    - baddox 13y ago
      But that's a different argument. You're arguing that there is some line that can't be crossed, like perhaps manufacturers can be up to 10% off in their advertised storage space. That's a reasonable argument in itself (although where to draw that line is tricky), but it's a much different argument than "all manufacturers should advertise only the available storage space."
- gburt 13y ago
  But... that's dishonest. The hardware is a 64GB SSD. I would be very confused if they did that. I am looking at this from a modder/techie perspective, where the hardware is more important to me than the software. In a fully closed appliance, it may be different.

abhinavk 13y ago

Well, you can reclaim disk space quite easily.

Samuel_Michon 13y ago
We can, but will most consumers? Will they even know a ‘64GB tablet’ doesn’t have 64GB of storage space? Do they know that their OS choice influences how much free space their tablet will have?

smackfu 13y ago

Because it's never been done that way, so why should they advertise a lower amount? Most people don't care.