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View Full Version : Make the case for sticking with 16GB or spending $100 to get 32GB (iPhone 5)


psmith2.0
2012-09-16, 09:24
I've been all primed to fork out the extra $100 to double my capacity, but yesterday I was thinking more about it and now I'm not so sure. In two years, I never regretted having "just" 16GB on my iPhone (even though I was told by some that I may).

In a nutshell:

- I'm not an app hound. I used to be, but not now. In addition to the stock, built-in apps, I just have about 15 others on the second page, most in folders (I used to have four pages to scroll through), and only things I actually use on a consistent basis (Scrabble, Weather Channel, Fandango, a guitar tuner, etc.)

- For five years I've been managing my music and photos just fine. Not having my entire music library with me 24/7 has never been a real issue or hassle (I actually enjoy making playlists of my current interest/moods and putting them on, taking other ones off when I'm not in that sort of mood, etc.). That way, what's on my phone is just stuff I truly want to hear, and it's easier to poke around through 100-200 songs vs. 4,000+.

Right now I'm sitting at exactly 9.9GB of free space. It usually fluctuates between 8.5-10.5GB, depending on what apps or music/photos I might have onboard.

So, with a 16GB iPhone and with all the above in mind, my only real "unknown" is the camera in my iPhone 4 vs. the new 5. Specifically, the difference in file sizes going from a 5-megapixel camera to an 8-megapixel one (plus that panorama feature...how big do those files get, I wonder?). And then the difference between 720 and 1080 video shot on each device?

I never keep stuff on the iPhone. When I'm home after a day out where I've snapped some pics or video, I connect this thing and it all gets offloaded to the iMac and removed from the phone. So the phone is really just a temporary holding place.

What kind of file sizes am I looking at from the pics and video taken on an iPhone? I figure there are some folks here with the iPhone 4s (because the 5 has the same megapixels and 1080 video), so you might be in a position to give me an idea...

jdcfsu
2012-09-16, 12:39
I have always used a 16 GB I phone and that is always plenty of space. If you keep the pictures / videos rotating off your phone regularly, you should be fine. Especially with the iTunes Match (if you use it) keeps all of your music off which could be a huge savings.

The iPhone 5 has the same camera as the iPhone 4S (different lens, but that shouldn't make a difference for file size). The 3264 x 2448 files from the 4S run around 1.3 MB based on a quick Google search.