There's a new story doing the rounds that Apple will launch an iPhone 13 Pro with 1TB of storage, apparently in the third week of September. I'm fine with the September part — that makes sense. But 1TB of storage? That, right there, is insanity.
Let me tell you why.
Before I go any further, I'll remind you that this isn't the first time I've written about my perhaps controversial thoughts on iPhone storage. Almost two years have passed since I wrote about why 64GB is plenty fo storage and my thoughts have barely changed. Right now I have a 128GB iPhone 12 Pro and use just 63.1GB of it. I could just end this little editorial there, but I'm told these things need to be more than three paragraphs in length. So let's continue, shall we?
Ignoring for a moment the fact that I have a 4GB game on there, as well as a couple of 2GB games and a whole 2.02GB of my soring — SnoreLab, inc ase you wondered — I just have a lot of apps installed. I use a lot of apps and I test even more, as you might imagine. But just because I can live inside 64GB of storage doesn't necessarily mean everyone can, so again, let's continue.
The real reason people don't need 1TB of storage in an iPhone is Apple's software smarts. Like, say, iCloud Photos and the way it can download low-resolution versions of everything until you need it. My photo library has 22,000 photos and almost a thousand videos in it. And it takes up 5.9GB on my iPhone. It's voodoo, and it's voodoo that works.
Next, we have Apple's upcoming iOS 15 feature that will let you install them with almost no storage available. And there's more — Apple Music can also do something similar to iCloud Photos and manage saved songs so things don't get out of hand. The Optomize Storage feature really is pretty sweet if you ask me. And you're reading this so, really, you kind of did.
Next, we have 5G. It's really quick, see. And with iPhone 13 it's going to get quicker for a ton of people when mmWave makes its way beyond the United States. That'll make streaming everything easier and we'll be able to re-download apps, movies, photos, home videos, and everything else in a jiffy. Does it all really need to be on our devices all of the time? I don't think it does.
There is, however, a caveat to add to the mix — iPhone 13 Pro and ProRes video. It's a rumor that's relatively new and suggests that Apple is set to add ProRes support to at least some of its iPhone 13 lineup. That's a big deal for iPhone videographers and it could mean ballooning file sizes. I'd expect that to be managed by iCloud Photos pretty easily, but those using third-party apps and data stores might not have the benefit of that. They might need the space given to them by a 1TB iPhone, but they're outliers. People living on the bleeding edge, doing things 99% of people won't be doing. Don't expect TikTok influencers to be recording in ProRes, for example.
So I still stand by my assertion that 1TB in an iPhone is insane. Unless you're part of the 1%, that is. Maybe. I'm sure that iPhone 13 will be the best iPhone ever, even if it has just 128GB of storage.
