We’re already nine months into 2025, and phone companies are long overdue in dropping 128GB storage configurations.
Every device in the Apple iPhone 17 lineup starts at a minimum of 256GB, and that’s a trend that all manufacturers need to get on board with. It kind of feels like an episode of “The Twilight Zone”; Apple has historically been one of the worst offenders in adopting new configurations, so the fact that the base iPhone 17 offers 256GB when even the Google Pixel 10 Pro has a 128GB option is strange.
It’s not just Google, either. The Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus also have a 128GB configuration. And here’s the kicker: the iPhone 17 didn’t see a price hike with its added storage.
128GB is just not enough anymore
During our testing, our reviewer put the Pixel 10 Pro through its paces with a bunch of pictures and a few hours of video. In his words, it was the equivalent of what someone might do at a wedding. After that, the storage was filled to the point he couldn’t even back up the videos to Google Drive to delete them.
Part of the blame lies in file sizes. Over the last decade, high-resolution camera technology has become the norm. 4K and 8K sensors are available in readily available consumer-grade devices, and that means the average size of a picture or video has steadily crept upward. Yes, codecs have also grown more efficient, but storage optimization is not what it once was.
That holds especially true for app sizes. In the early days of computing — and the early days of the smartphone — developers spent a significant amount of time on compressing files to the smallest sizes possible to work within much more limited storage. Now, as storage has become larger and, more importantly, less expensive, that same level of care isn’t given to apps. Many of the most popular mobile games, such as Call of Duty Mobile and PUBG Mobile, are nearly 4GB each.
The operating system also dominates a percentage of the available storage. On my phone, 11.78GB is devoted to iOS, while another 12.92GB is given to system data. If you only have 128GB to begin with, that’s roughly 20 percent of your available storage off the bat.
If 128GB were devoted entirely to images and video, that would probably be enough for the average user. But when it’s shared with text messages, system files, games, and all of the other data necessary for day-to-day phone use? Size quickly becomes a premium.
Apple isn’t the first to opt for more storage
OnePlus was one of the first companies to increase the base storage amount in its devices, although the vast majority of brands in China start at 256GB (and sometimes even 512GB) by default. Apple is following in its footsteps with the iPhone 17 lineup.
Many users argue that cloud storage is the option, but that isn’t true in every case. There are many places where the available connection speeds are abysmal and would get in the way of transferring files from the phone to the cloud and back.
There are other considerations, too. Internal storage is faster, and accessing stored data is much easier. It’s also more secure. No matter the provider, uploading your data to a server increases the number of entities with access and creates more vulnerability.
However, the main issue ties back to the previous topic about the apps. You can move photos and videos to the cloud, but apps have to remain on your phone. Even if you offload infrequently-used apps, it only removes a portion of the data. You can’t move a storage-hungry app to the cloud and use it.
According to surveys, the average smartphone has more than 80 apps installed. Of course, some of those are smaller apps that are only used periodically, such as grocery store reward programs, apps for mobile food orders, etc. But many of us use social media apps on a daily basis and wouldn’t want to remove those.
While size might vary from user to user, here’s a quick look at my app usage. TikTok takes up 2.17GB, while Facebook uses another 1.65GB. X, despite the fact that it is barely ever touched, uses 1.5GB. The Facebook Messenger app is 1.24GB. Ironically enough, my most-used social media app (Instagram) uses only 725MB.
And let’s not even start on podcast apps. I listen to a limited number of broadcasts, but Overcast still uses 3.99GB — and that’s after I deleted a huge amount of saved podcast.
I’ve said it before: the western phone market is missing out. China has multiple companies launching wildly innovative phones, like Huawei, Oppo, etc. Most of these offer dramatically more storage than the typical Samsung phone at much more affordable price points. While it’s excellent news that Apple is increasing the base storage amount on the iPhone 17 lineup, brands like Google and Samsung need to catch up. Apple still has work to do, too; the most recent iPads still have a 128GB option.
