Android Phone disk capacity?

whoever,heywhoever,hey Posts: 30,992
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So i've been looking at which android to get lately, and i was going to get the S3. Then the Nexus 4 is out in a couple of weeks but only at 16GB. But i cant decide if its large enough or whether i need an SD slot.

What are peoples usage like and where has your space gone?

I had a 16GB iphone, but did find i filled it before an update wiped my apps. Now i have a 4 GB of photos on it with a couple more gig of my biggest apps. I dont store music on it, so i wont be saving with the Google Play stream feature.

I guess i'm after ideas really rather than a solution obviously :).

Comments

  • Stuart_hStuart_h Posts: 5,311
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    So i've been looking at which android to get lately, and i was going to get the S3. Then the Nexus 4 is out in a couple of weeks but only at 16GB. But i cant decide if its large enough or whether i need an SD slot.

    What are peoples usage like and where has your space gone?

    I had a 16GB iphone, but did find i filled it before an update wiped my apps. Now i have a 4 GB of photos on it with a couple more gig of my biggest apps. I dont store music on it, so i wont be saving with the Google Play stream feature.

    I guess i'm after ideas really rather than a solution obviously :).

    I have a 16gb galaxy nexus. I'd love more space but I've got used to the limitations ..... I don't fill my phone with songs that I might fancy once a year for example...:)

    I bought a USB stick and an otg cable but to be honest I have never used it !
  • tealadytealady Posts: 26,262
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    Do you record videos?
    Do you want to back up apps etc to a card?
    Do you want to store any maps? Eg Co-Pilot or any offline stuff?
  • whoever,heywhoever,hey Posts: 30,992
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    tealady wrote: »
    Do you record videos?
    Well the photo figure i quoted will include my video usage too.
    Do you want to back up apps etc to a card?
    Probably not, but i honestly dont know because i couldn't on iphone anyway.
    Do you want to store any maps? Eg Co-Pilot or any offline stuff?
    Hopefully i dont need to. I've used googlemaps on my iphone on three network and have always had a signal peek to download where i am again, even in the deepest depths of the country.
  • swordmanswordman Posts: 6,679
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    apparently SD cards are too complicate to use according to Google :D idiots


    http://www.mobot.net/googles-matias-duarte-microsd-cards-confusing-nexus-consumers-49589
  • StigglesStiggles Posts: 9,618
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    I have the 16gb S2 with 68 apps installed now and have used 2.5gb.

    Al my pics get uploaded right away the second i take them to dropbox. I also have a 16gb SD card in which is just filled with videos i took while on holiday of the flight lol :D
  • tealadytealady Posts: 26,262
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    Probably not, but i honestly dont know because i couldn't on iphone anyway.
    If you updated an app, you could restore it easily from sd card in the event it introduced new features you didn't like or had a new bug in it.
    Also if you like multiple backups of data, then it's another facility.
  • Stuart_hStuart_h Posts: 5,311
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    232 apps :o (2.41gb)
    Pics and video 2.11gb
    Audio 3.24gb

    Still plenty of space left :)
  • paulbrockpaulbrock Posts: 16,632
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    Stuart_h wrote: »
    232 apps :o (2.41gb)

    how?! do you never uninstall, or is it all games, or actually lots of stuff that 'should' be on there?

    my phone
    675MB Apps
    200 mb pics/videos
    6gb music

    guess I'll be fine.
  • whoever,heywhoever,hey Posts: 30,992
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    Ok, i've realised i'm just going to make my own mind up somehow. I get lots of games and stuff which use up a lot of space.

    I've got loads of apps themselves that are over 675MB in size!
  • paulbrockpaulbrock Posts: 16,632
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    big games I tend to stick on my tablet rather than my phone. Any occasion when i'm going to have enough time to play a big game on my phone, I'll probably also have my tablet with me. Only ones on my phone are simple ones like cut the rope and cogs.
  • ÆnimaÆnima Posts: 38,548
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    So i've been looking at which android to get lately, and i was going to get the S3. Then the Nexus 4 is out in a couple of weeks but only at 16GB. But i cant decide if its large enough or whether i need an SD slot.

    What are peoples usage like and where has your space gone?

    I had a 16GB iphone, but did find i filled it before an update wiped my apps. Now i have a 4 GB of photos on it with a couple more gig of my biggest apps. I dont store music on it, so i wont be saving with the Google Play stream feature.

    I guess i'm after ideas really rather than a solution obviously :).

    You might as well get an sd card, it's so cheap 16gb wouldn't be enough for me either, I've got 29gb of music. Having my entire itunes library with me where ever I go is just invaluable to me, I can play it in any car with a cheap fm transmitter and you can get a 64gb card for £40 or a 32gb one for £20 on amazon. Kind of funny when you look at how much more phone companies try to charge you just for having say, a 64gb iphone5 over a 16gb one
  • Stuart_hStuart_h Posts: 5,311
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    paulbrock wrote: »
    how?! do you never uninstall, or is it all games, or actually lots of stuff that 'should' be on there?

    my phone
    675MB Apps
    200 mb pics/videos
    6gb music

    guess I'll be fine.

    not that many games. mostly apps and tools. i should really have a declutter at some point :p

    there are some big games included in that list though.
  • whoever,heywhoever,hey Posts: 30,992
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    I've decided 16GB is just way too small for me now, for the future with no possibility to expand. I'll probably get an S3 still, and the largest capacity at that because internal is so much faster than external.
    Ænima wrote: »
    You might as well get an sd card, it's so cheap 16gb wouldn't be enough for me either, I've got 29gb of music. Having my entire itunes library with me where ever I go is just invaluable to me, I can play it in any car with a cheap fm transmitter and you can get a 64gb card for £40 or a 32gb one for £20 on amazon. Kind of funny when you look at how much more phone companies try to charge you just for having say, a 64gb iphone5 over a 16gb one

    My question wasn't whether to get an SD card! It was whether i should get a phone that doesn't have an SD card slot! Price doesn't come into it at all.
  • c4rvc4rv Posts: 29,538
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    Ok, i've realised i'm just going to make my own mind up somehow. I get lots of games and stuff which use up a lot of space.

    I've got loads of apps themselves that are over 675MB in size!

    Just remember that with higher resolution camera and video that file sizes will increase. Biggest apps are HD games which you may be interested in once you have a phone that can cope with them. Also with phtotos, you can sync them to cloud storage are you take them so you don't need to store them on the phone. It all depends on how organised you are.
  • Mark in EssexMark in Essex Posts: 3,836
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    I have the 16GB S3 with a 64gb SD card and could not do with less than 64gb (in total) due to the number of photos, videos, music and pod casts I have on my phone as think I have less than 5gb left.

    A couple of friends that have even 32gb are juggling with what they put of their phones (deleting music to put a film on it) and I could not do with that.

    Also cloud storage is not an option as you need to have at least 3G reception.
  • Mark in EssexMark in Essex Posts: 3,836
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    I've decided 16GB is just way too small for me now, for the future with no possibility to expand. I'll probably get an S3 still, and the largest capacity at that because internal is so much faster than external.



    My question wasn't whether to get an SD card! It was whether i should get a phone that doesn't have an SD card slot! Price doesn't come into it at all.

    Just wondering if internal memory is actually faster than the SD car as I know the speed of the faster SD cards is more than fast enough to stream HD video?

    I went for a 64gb U1 SanDisk card (it was about £40 a few months back).
  • c4rvc4rv Posts: 29,538
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    I have the 16GB S3 with a 64gb SD card and could not do with less than 64gb (in total) due to the number of photos, videos, music and pod casts I have on my phone as think I have less than 5gb left.

    A couple of friends that have even 32gb are juggling with what they put of their phones (deleting music to put a film on it) and I could not do with that.

    Also cloud storage is not an option as you need to have at least 3G reception.

    Do you downsize your films ? Unless you are connecting the phone to a large display unit I don't see much point in having films that are GB in size.
  • Mark in EssexMark in Essex Posts: 3,836
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    c4rv wrote: »
    Do you downsize your films ? Unless you are connecting the phone to a large display unit I don't see much point in having films that are GB in size.

    I only have 3/4 films on there (believe they are in AVI format) .

    Most of its over 30gb of music, over 20gb of photos and getting on for 10gb of Pod casts.

    Add to that the apps, loads of compressed videos off the kids DVD's and it all adds up.
  • finbaarfinbaar Posts: 4,818
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    I only have 3/4 films on there (believe they are in AVI format) .

    Most of its over 30gb of music, over 20gb of photos and getting on for 10gb of Pod casts.

    Add to that the apps, loads of compressed videos off the kids DVD's and it all adds up.

    I am not being confrontational here but why do you need 10 gig of pod casts? I have mine set up to auto delete after they have been played. Also why do you need 20 gig of photos with you as well? I have a couple of hundred on my phone but mainly I have them saved on my laptop and in the cloud. It also would be possible to reduce the music to stuff that is played more frequently. Still at least we have choice.
  • whoever,heywhoever,hey Posts: 30,992
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    finbaar wrote: »
    I am not being confrontational here but why do you need 10 gig of pod casts? I have mine set up to auto delete after they have been played. Also why do you need 20 gig of photos with you as well? I have a couple of hundred on my phone but mainly I have them saved on my laptop and in the cloud. It also would be possible to reduce the music to stuff that is played more frequently. Still at least we have choice.

    Well i've migrated the 5GB of photos from my iPhone. At the minute its more why not, rather than why.
  • Mark in EssexMark in Essex Posts: 3,836
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    finbaar wrote: »
    I am not being confrontational here but why do you need 10 gig of pod casts? I have mine set up to auto delete after they have been played. Also why do you need 20 gig of photos with you as well? I have a couple of hundred on my phone but mainly I have them saved on my laptop and in the cloud. It also would be possible to reduce the music to stuff that is played more frequently. Still at least we have choice.

    No worries.

    Sorry but just don't see the point in faffing about restricting on what you put on your phone (deleting and reloading it) when you can have the whole lot on there.

    I listen to a very wide variety of music (from classical to 80's to techno to dubstep) and want my whole music collection and pod casts on there. The same with photos as I don't see the point on having photos if you are not going to look at them.

    I gave nearly 80gb to play with so why not use it?
  • finbaarfinbaar Posts: 4,818
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    No worries.

    Sorry but just don't see the point in faffing about restricting on what you put on your phone (deleting and reloading it) when you can have the whole lot on there.

    I listen to a very wide variety of music (from classical to 80's to techno to dubstep) and want my whole music collection and pod casts on there. The same with photos as I don't see the point on having photos if you are not going to look at them.

    I gave nearly 80gb to play with so why not use it?

    Everyone's usage us different I suppose. I see the point with music and to a certain extent photos but which pod casts do you return to? Still 16 gig is more than I use now, but even I would struggle with 8. I think to two sensible storage options Google should offer are 16 for normal users and 64 for horders. 8 and 32 are imo pointless.
  • Mark in EssexMark in Essex Posts: 3,836
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    finbaar wrote: »
    Everyone's usage us different I suppose. I see the point with music and to a certain extent photos but which pod casts do you return to? Still 16 gig is more than I use now, but even I would struggle with 8. I think to two sensible storage options Google should offer are 16 for normal users and 64 for horders. 8 and 32 are imo pointless.

    I normally download a whole load of pod casts in one go and then just listen to them as I go (have not even for upto the upto date stuff yet so don't auto download).

    I delete pod casts as I go but have got lots of dance music mix ones longer than a couple of hours in what sounds like quite high quality so they take quite a bit of space up.
  • finbaarfinbaar Posts: 4,818
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    I normally download a whole load of pod casts in one go and then just listen to them as I go (have not even for upto the upto date stuff yet so don't auto download).

    I delete pod casts as I go but have got lots of dance music mix ones longer than a couple of hours in what sounds like quite high quality so they take quite a bit of space up.

    That explains it. I generally download twice a week so big never have more than 15 stacked up. As long as I have enough for my long runs, say 4 hours, I am happy.
  • Mark in EssexMark in Essex Posts: 3,836
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    finbaar wrote: »
    That explains it. I generally download twice a week so big never have more than 15 stacked up. As long as I have enough for my long runs, say 4 hours, I am happy.

    I am on the road a lot for my job (a mobile engineer) and can be on the road upto 6 hours a day so sometimes get through a lot of Pod casts (Frank Skinner & Dave Goreman and music etc).
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