This post is something I've been thinking about on and off for a few weeks now. But seeing Joe Maring pose the question of whether 64GB is enough for a phone in 2019, I figured I wasn't the only one thinking along these lines. So here we are.
In that post, Joe shares the thoughts of some of the Android Central forum family, and to my surprise, the consensus was that 64GB is, generally at least, plenty. Maybe the only people who complain about 64GB starting points from Apple and Google are those who tend to complain at anything and everything. And, of course, those who think specs are more important than user experience. "Moar storage, more processors, moar everything" I hear them cry. But who really needs more than 64GB of storage in an iPhone?
I've never bought an iPhone with more than 64GB of storage. I've always tended to buy the one with the lowest storage available, too. It just isn't something I struggle with. Which is odd, because you'd imagine if anyone was going to need globs of space it would be someone who writes about phones and apps for a living. But here I am with my 64GB iPhone 11 Pro with 20GB free. If anyone's wondering, I have a 64GB iPad Pro with 20GB free, too.
My iPhone storage currently looks like this. I have all of my years of photos and videos on there, plus a healthy collection of games and of course more apps than most. Yet I'm fine. How?
Two main reasons:
- First, I let iCloud Photo Library handle its storage needs. It keeps only the most recent shots as full resolution images. Everything else is available as a thumbnail and then iOS downloads it as needed. When you have more than 100GB of photos, that comes in handy on a 64GB iPhone.
- Second, I let iOS offload apps. That way, I still have all of the apps that I use regularly but all of the ones I don't, get offloaded. They're still visible on my Home screen and can be downloaded when tapped. I have fast internet, so that isn't an issue – your mileage may vary, there – and all saved data is exactly that, saved. It's like magic, but with science behind it.
These two things mean that I just don't run out of space. Sure, if Apple's 2020 flagship iPhone starts at 128GB that's what I'll get. And sure, it'll probably be almost full because iOS is handling the housekeeping for me. But if 64GB is an option you can be sure that's what I'll buy.
Now, I'm sure there will be people who need more storage. There are always edge cases. Always people who want to download TV shows and movies for offline playback. There will always be people who want to have more than 64GB of music available even when outside of cell signal. And there will even be some who just want to download the entire Apple Arcade catalog just because. But this is one of those situations where the words most people are important. Most people don't need more than 64GB of storage. At least, that's what I think anyway.
But enough about me. I want to know what you're using and whether it's sufficient. I've attached a handy dandy pole for the purpose as well. And you know where the comments are, too!
