Storage on iPhone: 64 GB is not enough

The latest iPhones from Apple bring many improvements. They are more durable, they are faster and their cameras are much more capable. At $ 699, the iPhone 11 is even cheaper than last year iPhone XR, at its starting price of $ 749. Still, one thing has not changed: all new iPhones start with 64 GB of storage space.

On the surface, it is … well. Two years ago, Apple increased storage on the iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X to a minimum of 64GB – a welcome upgrade from the previous 32GB basic option (which took years to reach).

At a time when music and movies are streaming and photos are stored in the cloud, you can even claim that local storage is an obsolete system. This argument is valid if you always make sure your photos are uploaded to Google Photos or iCloud and that they are always connected to the Internet to stream to YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, or Apple Music.

But most people do not, and many prefer to have music and photos at their fingertips whenever they want. Not to mention the games, whose size increases in the same way as the phones on which they work, become more powerful. Apple Arcade will soon have a hundred games in hand.

The photos, in particular, are a frequent storage hog. With the focus put by the new iPhone on camera enhancements, one could expect people to take even more pictures and videos. Especially with the The new night mode of the iPhone 11 and coming Deep Fusion Technology.

Even with Apple compression softwareit remains to be seen what place these new modes will occupy and the improved 4K video capture. On the iPhone XS Max, a minute of 4K video at 60 frames per second consumes up to 400 MB of disk space.

And if that is not enough, there is also a competitive argument. 128GB is now the standard among the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Note 10 lines or OnePlus® 7 Pro, but the higher capacity has become the benchmark for cheaper mid-range peripherals. New Motorola A zoom, which costs $ 450, starts at 128 GB.

Reading in progress:
Look at this:

The 5 biggest disappointments of Apple iPhone 11

4:19

Current Google Pixel telephones start at 64GB like iPhones, but at least the search giant is throwing free unlimited storage in Google Photos to the original quality at the purchase of its premium phone Pixel 3. ICloud Apple's starts at 99 cents a month for 50 GB of storage, and only offers a tiny 5 GB free.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why iPhone storage remained at 64 GB.

Jumping up to 128 GB on the iPhone 11 is such a small business that Apple only charges US $ 50 to do so, ostensibly presenting it as an "obviousness" to those who plan to drop hundreds dollars on a phone that they will keep for years. .

But it's time for Apple to remove this bar. Make 128 GB the new standard.

$ 899

CNET may receive a commission of retail sales offers.