If you want to store thousands of photos and videos locally, download hundreds of apps, or play a dozen heavy games, the smaller 128GB model might not be enough for you. Before you even go to the phone store, it’s best to have a good idea of ​​how much space you’re currently using. To do that, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage to see how much memory your phone has and which apps are taking up the most space.
Here’s how to choose the ideal storage for your phone
I have the latest iPhone 17 Pro Max. While I already owned iPhones with 1TB of storage, which gave me plenty of room to store all my photos and videos locally (I have over 400GB of images on iCloud), I chose the base configuration with 256GB of storage. For me, this is more than enough, since all my pictures are synced to iCloud and most of my storage is consumed by Apple Music (because I stupidly stored lossless songs instead of normal songs). After that, the Photos app and WhatsApp are the most consumed apps. With all of that, I’m using around 200GB, which clearly indicates that 128GB wouldn’t be enough, and 256GB gives me a little more wiggle room.
Samsung is more direct about whether a 128GB phone might be enough for users. It says a phone with this average storage can handle: 900 photos, 60 minutes of UHD video, 1,000 songs, over 100 apps and games, and 20 movies. This is useful information if you’re deciding between 128GB and 256GB for your next phone. Still, from personal experience, if you just like to store a ton of songs, a ton of pictures, or the latest episodes of a TV show to watch while traveling or on the go, 256GB of storage is the amount you should aim for. Besides that, there’s another upcoming trend that might inspire you to use more storage: AI.
AI could encourage manufacturers to offer more storage
The AI ​​trend is not new, and with all the big tech companies – Apple, Samsung and Google – artificial intelligence isn’t going anywhere. Considering this and the fact that chatbots are best run locally on your phone, you need to make sure you have enough memory on your device. According to a TrendForce report, these AI models require 40-60 GB of system storage for this local AI processing, which means that on a phone with only 128 GB of storage, you will lose all the space to AI.
As businesses look to provide a more secure experience, TrendForce expects smartphone makers to increase the minimum storage on smartphones to ensure users have enough space to run AI locally. What makes this report so relevant is that even Apple, which has always been on the lower side of storage offerings, is offering all of its current models, including the new iPhone 17e, starting at 256GB of storage. Long story short, if you want to be ready for what’s already happening with AI, 256GB of storage is the way to go. On the other hand, 128GB might be more than enough if you’re not ready to embrace the AI ​​trend or use your phone only for minimal tasks.
