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The fastest new processors, whiz bang features, and the boat anchor of 16GB starting memory. At this rate we'll still have new devices in 2020 that start with 1

The fastest new processors, whiz bang features, and the boat anchor of 16GB starting memory. At this rate we'll still have new devices in 2020 that start with 16GB. Yes I know it's a sale tactic to get you to "upgrade" to 64GB and recoup some nice profit margin, but 16 is too low for a lot of people, and 64 is a waste. Android suffers this a lot. Brand new high end model $650 phone, 8GB of usable space.

noarchy 12y ago
Many people who were sporting a 16GB Air model had to delete a fair bit of content and apps in order to free up the huge amount of space the iOS 8 upgrade required. And this was on Apple's then-latest and greatest tablet. So there are already technical issues with keeping 16GB as the baseline, at least if future upgrades will be like the most recent one.
- Tloewald 12y ago
  I had the same problem with my gen 4, until I plugged it into my Mac and it did the upgrade with no problems at all. It's not exactly a crippling issue (versus, for example, my three times and now permanently bricked Nexus 7, which needed to be reimaged using command line dev tools after borking itself with auto-updates).
IkmoIkmo 12y ago
Agreed. 16gb kind of sucks, especially with the OS growing and growing, yet 64 or 128 are completely beyond the way I use my tablet. 32gb is great. I really hope we'll see a 32gb minimum in 2015 next year. At the same time, there ARE people who don't store anything on their ipad. Like my grandpa. He uses it for mail, news etc on his couch. So it's a bit of a waste to hook up this segment of people with an additional 16gb they'll never touch. And having four different sizes (16,32,64,128) is problematic. At the end of the day though, my grandpa could use a cheap nexus 7 for that type of stuff. The iPad at the end of the day is a very high-end device, yet the entry-level product fills up with the OS, three movies and three large games. So I'm a bit split on this one. But I think next year the time's ripe for 32gb minimum, again we're talking about the premium-spectrum of tablets here that are replacing some of our laptop/desktop life. Of the 16gb you're usually left with 12-14gb...
- masklinn 12y ago
  The time is already ripe for 32GB base storage, the main reason iOS8 penetration is stagnating (47% after a month, by that point iOS7 had reached 71%) is that the OTA update requires 5GB of free space on the device, not even taking in account the size of the installed OS.
- mahyarm 12y ago
  Even those apps can have multi GB caches. Facebook alone is 500MB in extra data on my phone, iMessage has a 1.5GB, etc.
drzaiusapelord 12y ago
What high end android phone ships with 8? The only one I can think of is the old Nexus 4, but being a $299 phone it obviously had to cut corners somewhere. I wouldn't call it high-end either considering its weak battery and lack of LTE support. I find a lot of phones and tablets are stuck at 16gb, as you mentioned, regardless of OEM. End users don't seem to be making space a priority, instead they just want thinner and sexier, which has led to the problem of low battary capacities, bending issues, and screens that are easily cracked. I think think we're in the infancy of mobile and wearables. I suspect a big sturdy 6" phone will become the status quo soon enough with a smartwatch companion for notifications. I'm kinda doing this now with my N5 and my Moto 360 and its a great combo. Moving to the N6 with its massive battery and gorgeous screen is a no brainer. Also, constant 24/7 LTE or wifi makes storage much less of an issue, but I suspect it might be an issue for me as I migrate away from using a tablet to just using a phablet and then that 16gb limitation will be painful.
- post_break 12y ago
  Most Samsung devices are 16GB with 8GB left over for installable apps. And don't tell me "IT HAS AN SD CARD SLOT!!" because you can't install apps on them (especially big ones like games)
  - pja 12y ago
    Yes you can, even on stock Android. The developer has to set the option to allow it in the manifest when they submit the App however, which not all of them do sadly.
    - post_break 12y ago
      I forgot to put the world always, you can't always put apps on the SD card.
- masklinn 12y ago
  > What high end android phone ships with 8? None, but they usually ship with 16, sometimes upgradable to 32, and these days often no SD slot. The Nexus 9 is 16/32 with no SD, the Nexus 6 is 32/64 with no SD. The Air 2 and 6's are 16/64/128 (though the 16GB is a bloody sham, especially when the next OS will most likely require even more available space than iOS8's already humongous 5GB for OTA) (it was really funny seeing the proud 47%-a-month-in graph when iOS7 was at 71% a month in: http://fortune.com/2013/10/15/mixpanel-apples-ios-7-hit-71-penetration-in-27-days/ http://fortune.com/2013/10/15/mixpanel-apples-ios-7-hit-71-p...)
jmgrosen 12y ago
As a counterpoint, I have yet to run out of space on my 8GB total (less usable) Nexus 4, and I don't feel constrained by it. I'll take a cheaper model over more storage any day!
- k-mcgrady 12y ago
  Not sure how updates work on Android but even with delta updates iOS 8 required 5GB of free space. If you have an 8GB iPhone (with the OS already taking about 1GB) you are never getting that thing on there.
  - rimantas 12y ago
    5GB are only required for OTA upgrade, you can connect to iTunes and upgrede that way.
- quinndupont 12y ago
  I have an 8GB Nexus 7 tablet (although, soon won't...), and maybe it is just me, but despite the improvements on the last release, if you come anywhere near the storage maximum it slows WAY down. Or, maybe it is just bad bit rot, and all Nexus 7 tablets end up like this. Last time I had an iPad (years ago...) they didn't seem to suffer anywhere near as bad in terms of eventual slowdown.
  - theintern 12y ago
    2012? They were notorious for that kind of slow down. Something to do with the chips they used.
Tloewald 12y ago
16GB is fine for, say, schools and enterprise (it's effectively ~11GB usable if it's like my gen 4). It's hopeless if you want to use it to handle photographs, movies, or lots of games. The next step up (64GB) isn't even an option for the Google 9 (say).
Igglyboo 12y ago
Most (non-nexus) android phones have SD card slots though.

noarchy 12y ago

Many people who were sporting a 16GB Air model had to delete a fair bit of content and apps in order to free up the huge amount of space the iOS 8 upgrade required. And this was on Apple's then-latest and greatest tablet. So there are already technical issues with keeping 16GB as the baseline, at least if future upgrades will be like the most recent one.

Tloewald 12y ago
I had the same problem with my gen 4, until I plugged it into my Mac and it did the upgrade with no problems at all. It's not exactly a crippling issue (versus, for example, my three times and now permanently bricked Nexus 7, which needed to be reimaged using command line dev tools after borking itself with auto-updates).

IkmoIkmo 12y ago

Agreed. 16gb kind of sucks, especially with the OS growing and growing, yet 64 or 128 are completely beyond the way I use my tablet. 32gb is great. I really hope we'll see a 32gb minimum in 2015 next year. At the same time, there ARE people who don't store anything on their ipad. Like my grandpa. He uses it for mail, news etc on his couch. So it's a bit of a waste to hook up this segment of people with an additional 16gb they'll never touch. And having four different sizes (16,32,64,128) is problematic. At the end of the day though, my grandpa could use a cheap nexus 7 for that type of stuff. The iPad at the end of the day is a very high-end device, yet the entry-level product fills up with the OS, three movies and three large games. So I'm a bit split on this one. But I think next year the time's ripe for 32gb minimum, again we're talking about the premium-spectrum of tablets here that are replacing some of our laptop/desktop life. Of the 16gb you're usually left with 12-14gb...

masklinn 12y ago
The time is already ripe for 32GB base storage, the main reason iOS8 penetration is stagnating (47% after a month, by that point iOS7 had reached 71%) is that the OTA update requires 5GB of free space on the device, not even taking in account the size of the installed OS.
mahyarm 12y ago
Even those apps can have multi GB caches. Facebook alone is 500MB in extra data on my phone, iMessage has a 1.5GB, etc.

drzaiusapelord 12y ago

What high end android phone ships with 8? The only one I can think of is the old Nexus 4, but being a $299 phone it obviously had to cut corners somewhere. I wouldn't call it high-end either considering its weak battery and lack of LTE support. I find a lot of phones and tablets are stuck at 16gb, as you mentioned, regardless of OEM. End users don't seem to be making space a priority, instead they just want thinner and sexier, which has led to the problem of low battary capacities, bending issues, and screens that are easily cracked. I think think we're in the infancy of mobile and wearables. I suspect a big sturdy 6" phone will become the status quo soon enough with a smartwatch companion for notifications. I'm kinda doing this now with my N5 and my Moto 360 and its a great combo. Moving to the N6 with its massive battery and gorgeous screen is a no brainer. Also, constant 24/7 LTE or wifi makes storage much less of an issue, but I suspect it might be an issue for me as I migrate away from using a tablet to just using a phablet and then that 16gb limitation will be painful.

post_break 12y ago
Most Samsung devices are 16GB with 8GB left over for installable apps. And don't tell me "IT HAS AN SD CARD SLOT!!" because you can't install apps on them (especially big ones like games)
- pja 12y ago
  Yes you can, even on stock Android. The developer has to set the option to allow it in the manifest when they submit the App however, which not all of them do sadly.
  - post_break 12y ago
    I forgot to put the world always, you can't always put apps on the SD card.
masklinn 12y ago
> What high end android phone ships with 8? None, but they usually ship with 16, sometimes upgradable to 32, and these days often no SD slot. The Nexus 9 is 16/32 with no SD, the Nexus 6 is 32/64 with no SD. The Air 2 and 6's are 16/64/128 (though the 16GB is a bloody sham, especially when the next OS will most likely require even more available space than iOS8's already humongous 5GB for OTA) (it was really funny seeing the proud 47%-a-month-in graph when iOS7 was at 71% a month in: http://fortune.com/2013/10/15/mixpanel-apples-ios-7-hit-71-penetration-in-27-days/ http://fortune.com/2013/10/15/mixpanel-apples-ios-7-hit-71-p...)

jmgrosen 12y ago

As a counterpoint, I have yet to run out of space on my 8GB total (less usable) Nexus 4, and I don't feel constrained by it. I'll take a cheaper model over more storage any day!

k-mcgrady 12y ago
Not sure how updates work on Android but even with delta updates iOS 8 required 5GB of free space. If you have an 8GB iPhone (with the OS already taking about 1GB) you are never getting that thing on there.
- rimantas 12y ago
  5GB are only required for OTA upgrade, you can connect to iTunes and upgrede that way.
quinndupont 12y ago
I have an 8GB Nexus 7 tablet (although, soon won't...), and maybe it is just me, but despite the improvements on the last release, if you come anywhere near the storage maximum it slows WAY down. Or, maybe it is just bad bit rot, and all Nexus 7 tablets end up like this. Last time I had an iPad (years ago...) they didn't seem to suffer anywhere near as bad in terms of eventual slowdown.
- theintern 12y ago
  2012? They were notorious for that kind of slow down. Something to do with the chips they used.

Tloewald 12y ago

16GB is fine for, say, schools and enterprise (it's effectively ~11GB usable if it's like my gen 4). It's hopeless if you want to use it to handle photographs, movies, or lots of games. The next step up (64GB) isn't even an option for the Google 9 (say).

Igglyboo 12y ago

Most (non-nexus) android phones have SD card slots though.