It may or may not come as a surprise to you to learn that last year was the first year that Apple officially killed off the entry-level 16GB iPhone. While most other manufacturers – when it comes to flagships, anyway – had long since moved on to offering 32GB in their entry-level devices, Apple kept insisting on offering 16GB iPhones, despite bumping up the next two tiers to 64 and 128GB of storage. This gave off the illusion that buyers would be getting a “really good deal” by spending $100 more on the middle and top tier models, which was true. It was a good deal compared to the stunted base 16GB model.
But that’s in the past. Apple finally moved beyond that last year with 32, 128, and 256GB of storage offered in the iPhone 7. With the next generation iPhone on the horizon, I started to wonder: Will Apple stick with 32GB this year, or will they bump it up to 64GB instead?
To me, it seems equally as unlikely as it is likely. As much as I like Apple products, the company isn’t exactly known for being keen on change, and they already made a change last year to internal storage. That doesn’t happen very often. On the other hand, the next iPhone is said to make some radical design changes anyway, so it also doesn’t seem too outlandish to think that perhaps Apple might be willing to bump up the base storage as well.
It isn’t just about Apple, though. More manufacturers appear to be bumping up their base storage to 64GB, including the OnePlus 5 and the new Nokia 8. However, finding a 64GB base is still a rarity. Is it time to put the pressure on manufacturers to raise the bar once again? I think so.
Personally, I still have a hard time using up 32GB of storage. Throughout most of 2016 I used 32GB models of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, and never had a need to use the microSD card that it supported. However, I only owned those phones for a little over a year. Had I held on to them for as long as they would last, or even if I just used one instead of switching, I would have eventually had to utilize the microSD card. Admittedly, I was cutting it close with the Edge.
I would say that phones without microSD card support – like the iPhone, which has never supported them – have a dire need to raise the entry-level storage to 64GB. At least with the Galaxy S7 I had the option to use microSD, so I never felt pressured regarding my phone’s dwindling storage space because there was a simple solution to expand it. Not only that, but most people don’t upgrade as often as I do, so using up 32GB of storage would be nothing over the course of a couple of years. Back when I realized that I was stretching 16GB too thin too quickly, it was inconvenient to offload all of my photos on my computer or into the cloud just to make more room for photos or music or whatever. I have no doubt that this will soon be (if not already) the case for 32GB of storage.
With so many apps, high quality cameras, and continuously growing number of reasons to use our smartphones, the only direction to go is up. Raising the base to 64GB of storage is bound to happen sooner or later, of course, but it would be nice for it to be the former.
Readers, what are your thoughts on storage for entry-level smartphones? Is 32GB still sufficient enough for your needs, or do you think it’s time to raise the bar? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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