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Comment by allsystemsgo | Hacker News Reader

It took quite some time for me to fill up the 16GB. I'm more of a power user now, so I'll be upgrading to the 32GB but, for most 16GB is plenty.

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I had to trim down the number of playlists I store on my Nexus 4, which only has 16 gigs. I also have to be more cognizant of how many podcasts I download at the same time.

I like my phone. But I don't think I'll ever buy anything without at least 32 gigs of storage, or a place to plug more memory in.

I have the same problem, the same phone and the same conclusion.

I recommend, uploading your music to Google Play. You do not have to worry about using up the space on the device.

Unless you have a data plan with less than 2GB of data, that is. And are OK with waiting a bit for things to buffer. With Google Music I end up offlining a lot of songs because data plans in Canada are terrible and because 3G isn't everywhere you want to listen to music. Add podcasts and you hit the storage limit in no time.

I live in New York; most of the stations and tunnels have no connectivity whatsoever. If I want to listen to my music offline, I do have to sync it.

In my experience, power users need less storage than non-power users. How many novices have you seen with 16GB nearly full of photos and videos?

My Desire HD has a 32GB SD card now because the 16GB was full with music, videos and game ROMs. That 32 is pretty close to full now.

My younger brother has filled up two 16GB iPod Touches (second gen and fourth gen) with music and videos.

My extremely non-technical father has filled up the 8GB SD card his phone came with, with just music. I'm sure if he could, he'd use more space but a €30 microSD card is more than he's consider spending on phone extras considering he paid €90 for the phone on prepay.

People use more storage than you think. If it was not a big deal, why would phone companies use it as the sole upsell towards their more expensive phones?

Streaming. There is no reason to carry a complete copy of your music/video library around with you. If you think there is, the iPod Classic is made for you :)

Now, here's what happens when I try to stream a video on my phone's internet connection:

* It takes 20 seconds of buffering just to start. * Assuming it's 360p, it runs for about a minute or two, then starts to buffer again. If it's higher, it lasts even less. * The video starts to buffer again. This takes another 20 seconds. * This repeats until the end of the video. * My phone company charges me €2 for data used in excess of my daily allowance.

My home internet connection is mostly the same experience, except I can watch a 480p video, and I don't get charged €2 for it.

A lot of places that I might be don't even get EDGE coverage, never mind 3G or anything better. For 25 of the 30 minutes of my most common bus trip, I don't have 3G coverage.

Here's what happens when I watch a video of any quality on my microSD card.

* I open the video in my video player. * The video plays, without interruption, until the end.

I'll be sticking with local storage for a while yet.

You can still just sync sporadically what you need, and keep the complete library on a HD or your main computer. Most peoples' collections won't even fit on a 128GB device.

I could, or I could just have my collection available when I decide to listen to it rather than have to think to put it on a smaller device beforehand.

My music alone fills up my 64 GB 4S. I am waiting for the 128 GB.

On the other hand, my 4S has a persistent mobile data connection, so storing music locally is of no great benefit to me. I guess all we can conclude is that 16GB can be huge, or tiny, depending on how you want to use your device.

Having local storage is good for services like Spotify though, especially for those long road trips where the signal can be a bit spotty.

Ever done a road trip? Amazing how many places out there on major interstates have like no data coverage. On-device storage is important for cases like these.

The only times I use my iPhone for music are on long drives and airplanes. Not a good use case for iTunes Match. I do have Match, but mainly just use it on my laptops (which don't have any music on them).

I was in the US a few months ago and did experience what you are talking about on the interstates, so I get where you are coming from. It was actually kind of a strange experience to be out of service so often.

But here in Canada, where I spent almost all my time, the only place I've ever had any significant coverage issues is when I was in the far north, and I've only been there once. It's essentially a non-issue for me.

Come play around in Australia for a bit :(

(Hence my 64GB device with the majority of space used by music)

That's why I love iTunes Match. I'm able to take my complete music library around with me without actually using up all my phones storage. As long as I have network connectivity, the song will be downloaded to the device on-demand.

I was starting to fill mine up, but I started using iTunes Match and automatic photo uploads to Dropbox and that freed up a good amount of space.

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