Kevin Bostic
Samsung has some advice for buyers of the 16-gigabyte model of its new Galaxy S4 stung by its low storage space: if that's not enough storage for you, that's why we put in a microSD card slot.
The 16GB version of Samsung's newest flagship handset has only just over half of its listed memory available for owner use, according to CNet UK. The rest is taken up by the smartphone's operating system and built-in apps.
"For the Galaxy S4 16GB model," Samsung said in a statement, "approximately 6.85GB occupies [the] system part of internal memory, which is 1GB bigger than that of the Galaxy S3, in order to provide [a] high resolution display and more powerful features to our consumers."
For users unsatisfied with the 8.49GB or so of free space left to them on the 16GB model, Samsung has a solution:
"To offer the ultimate mobile experience to our users, Samsung provides [a] microSD slot on Galaxy S4 for the extension of memory."
Galaxy S4 owners are able to expand their devices' storage capacity via microSD up to an additional 64GB, bringing the potential total capacity of the device to 80GB — of which 73.15 would be available to the user. That additional space, though, couldn't be used to store apps, as Google removed that capability with Android 4.0. Users would, though, be able to store downloaded books, music, movies, and other files.
The disparity between listed storage and usable storage isn't particular to Samsung: device manufacturers typically list their capacities at the maximum amount the device could conceivably hold, regardless of how much is taken up by system software. The size of the disparity, though, is uncommon.
The Galaxy S4 has only about 55 percent of its storage capacity available to the user, as noted by ExtremeTech. An iPhone 5 running iOS 6.1, by comparison, will have about 77.5 percent of its capacity available for users.
Other notable manufacturers have encountered this problem with storage as well. The 64GB version of Microsoft's Surface Pro was said to ship with as little as 36 percent of its advertised capacity. Some 41GB of the device's storage was taken up with the Windows 8 OS, pre-installed apps, and a recovery partition. Removing that recovery image made the Surface Pro comparable to Apple's MacBook Air in terms of storage.
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139 Comments
"You're storing it wrong!"
This just another reason why using android is more complicated than an iOS device. Plus the microSC card sales allow service providers the ability to bilk you for more money. (Most sheep consumers are not smart enough to know you can buy microSD else where and walk out with a card sold by the service provide at 2x to 3x the cost) Plus Google has made it know they are against more storage on mobile devices they want you putting everything on their servers so you have solely dependent on them to get your content and use it.
It's time to get make 16GB the new 8GB. Phone operating systems and app stores have matured to the point 16GB is just enough for basic storage. Manufacturers need to start using 32, 64 and 128GB chips.
"You're storing it wrong!"
I seriously got a good chuckle out of this one!!! LOL
Not a good recommendation unless you can say there are absolutely no restrictions on using an SD card vs internal storage. Can you run apps from there? If there is too much on internal storage, and you need to upgrade, will the phone use the SD card for temporary space? Will it automatically move apps onto the SD card if it needs to? Is there a good mechanism for upgrading the card and preserving all of the data? How do you import photos into your photo app if the photo app is on the SD card? It's better to just get more internal storage.