Apple’s new iPhone 13 and 13 Mini mark the official end of the 64 GB iPhone era: the company has effectively doubled the storage capacity of its 2021 models while maintaining the same prices, so the new Smartphones now start with 128 GB of storage with 256 GB and 512 GB options. (For those who need more space, the iPhone 13 Pro models offer up to 1 TB).
While 64GB capacities will be maintained on the legacy models of iPhone 12, iPhone 11 and iPhone SE, Apple’s latest hardware will have a minimum of 128GB now.
To what I say, goodbye and good release. This change took a long time. Just 64GB was not enough to shrink them in 2018 and the problem has only grown as apps, photos, videos and games continue to grow. Although Apple has offered this capability since 2011 (joining the 16GB entry-level and 32GB mid-range models), it was stubborn even though Apple began offering 128GB, 256GB, and 512 GB on your phones.
If history seems to be repeating itself, it could be because we also called the annoyingly small capacity of a 16GB iPhone in 2015, even though at that time, Apple only took a year to change things with the iPhone 7 , which offered 32 GB by default.
Apple’s own small print points to one of the reasons why 64 GB wasn’t enough: you didn’t even have 64 GB of usable storage space, as the company’s pre-installed apps and operating system take up between 11 GB and 14 GB immediately.
“The space available is smaller and varies due to many factors. A standard configuration uses approximately 11 GB to 14 GB of space (including iOS and pre-installed applications) depending on the model and configuration. Pre-installed applications use about 4 GB and you can delete and restore them. Storage capacity may vary by software version and may vary by device. “
You still have a fifth of your storage space left, but even the remaining 50GB of storage is eaten up pretty quickly given the size of modern apps and games. As SensorTower reported earlier this year, the best iPhone apps are nearly four times larger than they were five years ago, which continues to have a long history of larger apps.
From Nintendo Fire Emblem Heroes, for example, takes up almost 4 GB of storage. Apple Arcade Fantastic takes up 4 GB more. WhatsApp and iMessage conversations can also build up quickly; a look at my phone shows those occupying 2.7 GB and 4 GB respectively. And that doesn’t even go into music or videos, which can quickly take up all of your phone’s free space if you download a lot of locally stored content from Apple Music, Spotify, or Netflix.
And of course, there are photos and videos, which can easily occupy those 50GB for prolific photographers, especially considering the fact that improved iPhone cameras have come alongside more demanding video and video formats. Apple’s ProRAW format, introduced with the iPhone 12 Pro models, can reach an average of about 25 MB per image, and 4K images can accumulate even faster: Me more notes that 30 seconds of 4K video at 30 fps will take approximately 175 MB (or about 85 MB with HEVC encoding). Shooting in HDR, as it is compatible with the new iPhones, further increases the file sizes. Apple has omitted 1080p video quality for years on the iPhone (which has technically been able to shoot in 4K from the iPhone 6S), presumably to avoid complaints about storage depletion.
Because Apple doubles storage while keeping the same starting prices ($ 829 for the iPhone 13 and $ 729 for the 13 Mini), phones at entry prices are also a better price than before. Last year, customers looking for the cheapest new iPhone were stuck with 64GB of storage, to the point that it almost made more sense to get a $ 999 iPhone 12 Pro (which came with 128GB from the beginning) instead of paying $ 879 to get the same capacity as the normal iPhone 12.
Of course, none of this solves it clearly others Apple’s approaching storage issue: the fact that 2021 still offers customers a few 5GB of free storage on iCloud (essential for backing up your iPhone), which Apple often enjoys reminding users with its constant “Out of Storage” notes that implore them to deploy to get more space in the cloud. However, the additional 64GB of internal capacity can help alleviate the problem by letting users store more photos and messages locally on their phones instead of in the cloud, leaving more room for device backups in the 5 GB that Apple offers you for free.
Hopefully, though, this year’s local storage change is a prelude to things to come; after all, those 5GB of free iCloud storage were also introduced a decade ago, in 2011. Surely, after 10 years, Apple could find room in its heart (and budget) for a similar increase in space?