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E-waste manufacturers will continue to produce android 9 phones with 4gb of storage
Android 7 is end of life so manufactures can't officially license it.
Like that stops China.
Far enough
Although I'd be worried about malware
The thing is you don't know if until it's in hand. It's advertised as 12 or 13, and the version string has been modified to say it in settings so a less sophisticated user isn't going to know that Android 13 should be API level 33 and not 25. It's dirty af and probably compromised on top of that but they're all over Amazon.
Any general purpose consumer device should probably have 64GB or more.
But I don't see the point in disallowing <32GB, as that can still be enough for using tablets for lots of uses like e-readers, smart home displays, kiosks, etc.
In practice, this just means that low end devices will stay on older versions of Android even more than they do already.
We have little work laptops for staff and even with just like 3-4 programs and a 5gb limit on cloud files stored locally, 64gb is hardly even anoigh to update Windows. Need to get them with at least 128gb.
Could they just have a microsd card slot instead?
I don't really see the need for 64GB of storage. 32 is about the sweet spot for me.
32gb? What exactly do you use your devices for? For android 15, there already needs to be 12-13gb reserved, then you have only 20ish gb, that in 2025 frankly aren't a lot even for spotify/whatsapp/telegram/organicmaps's cache, and thats if you dont use social mndias. If it's a device you plan on using for more than 2 months, you're bound to run into problems.
On my device Android 12 uses 9GB and there are about 4GB for temp files.
I don't use any proprietary apps for the most part so that might be why. For Organic maps the downloaded map size is just shy of a gigabyte and I have three US states downloaded. The biggest app on my phone is Termux but that's because I installed a bunch of stuff. It sits at around 1.5GB.
Maybe I'm the exception. Is it just that Lineage OS is more space efficient or something? What's your storage space look like?
I have like 80gb of photos and videos on my phone, which is the vast majority of my storage space. I think the second category is signal's database, also mostly consumed by sent media
32 GB is enough for phone calls, messaging, internet (social media, email, browsing), banking, 2FA, news, shopping, calendar, weather, podcasts, music and video streaming, navigation, basic camera usage, etc. I used an XZ1 Compact with Android 14 for a large chunk of last year and only used 23 GB of the 32 GB with all of this and more.
32gb is not enough. We can discuss all day, but at the end of it, a bigger chip doesn't cost that much more. Let's stop defending companies that make a shit ton on money selling inflated value phones.
Letโs stop defending companies
Let's stop making strawman arguments. Nowhere did I "defend companies", I talked about my own experience using a 32 GB phone. It is enough for me. Nothing you say can will change how I use my phone or what I require out of it.
Right but 32 gb isn't 32 gb out of the box, it's probably around 29 gb and nowadays android takes 10 gb itself so you're only left with around 20 usable which is nothing.
And nothing is okay for people who are just using it for web browsing and streaming.
I want local music, and to be able to take pictures without worrying about storage, etc. so ~20GB isn't enough for me, but for some people it really is fine.
I just explained all the ways in which a 32 GB phone is sufficient for my needs, with room to spare. Not everyone is glued to their phone 24/7, some of us still just use them as basic tools and 32 GB is enough storage for that.
You're just limiting yourself for no reason. Don't forget that devices tend to get slower the more full they are and not to mention your phone is using up cycles to aggressively manage internal cache. Also, the more things you have cached on your phone again is better because it doesn't have to use resources to do work again and again.
I just checked my phone and 14 gb is used by "Temporary System Files", whatever the hell that is but it sounds like cache is the primary use. That is not even counting the 10 GB used by Android. So it sounds like Android wants to cache as much stuff as possible.
No reason? The XZ1 Compact only came with 32 GB of internal storage. If I wanted to use that phone, 32 GB was it. You seem to have extreme difficulty understanding the very simple concept that not everyone wants or needs the same things as you in life. We aren't all you, we don't all want to live like you. You're not the main character.
We aren't all you, we don't all want to live like you
Skill issue
16 gigs before losses to OS size is like 5 megabytes after the fact. I had to get my porn in ANSI just to make due
Based on their 75% mandate, 32gb only leaves 8gb for the user. How anyone can argue that's enough is insane.
simply use 7gb to install googleยฎ๏ธ driveโข๏ธ and purchase a Googleยฎ๏ธ Oneโข๏ธ subscription ($24.99/mo) for 512GB of storage*
*We reserve the right to access the data you upload to our service at any time for any reason and share the information with our partners and law enforcement. We also reserve the right to delete your account at any time and still bill you
Starting with Android 15, devices must ship with at least 32GB of storage, 75% of which must be allocated to the data partition.
Still not enough
I think 128GB should be the minimum. A lot reserved for the operating system and the rest for storage hungry applications. At least save local map data and some music
I have 32GB of storage and I'm sitting at around 22GB used with all of my apps.
128GB seems like way over kill especially if you factor in the cost. It doesn't make sense for a cheap device.
I have a redmi note 12, 130โฌ. 256gb of space. There are no excuses to go lower.
Except maybe it isn't needed?
I would have no use for that much. Why waste the hardware? If you need that much just buy a device with a higher capacity. Don't force it on everyone.
16GB is to low because it falls short in many uses. 32GB is just about right for a lot of people and 64GB is excellent. I'm not sure why you would want 256GB. Phone storage shouldn't be relied on for important things like photos since your phone can get destroyed in many different ways.
I take photos/videos and keep a huge amount of music offline. Even 128 GB isn't enough for me.
Exactly. My music collection is about 450gb; and I have maybe 50-60gb downloaded on my phone at any moment.
Do you have a MicroSD card?
Unfortunately not possible (Pixel). If I did had one I'd probably be happy with 128 GB (I have a few games as well on my phone), but I've heard a lot of people online get burned by failing SD cards so you never know.
But the point is that even if I did put in an SD card is it really different than just buying a phone with higher storage? Also the built in UFS devices are much faster than SDs
How would a failing MicroSD card be any different than losing or dropping a phone? I've never had a MicroSD card fail on me for the most part.
I think MicroSD cards have the benefit of being able to be moved between devices.
I've had a micro SD card fail, it sucks if you haven't created a backup as flash storage used for SD cards is lower quality than what you get internally with UFS storage. I would say that's the big difference to losing or dropping your phone.
Your point is valid but I've never actually had a phone get destroyed. Is it common for that to happen?
You never know. I've had my device for years but I've also know people who had there phone ruined in all sorts of ways. Everything from dropping it into the toilet to having it get run over by something.
Flash chips are cheap as actual potato chips, why are you arguing for phones to be shipped with less onboard storage, especially when SD cards aren't guaranteed
I don't see any reason to mandate it honestly
16?? Make it 64
Can fully understand for phones&tablets, but what about smart TVs or maybe watches? I don't see them needing that much storage with just a few apps installed. Sounds like a waste of resources to me...
Not much difference between a 16gb chip and a 32/64gb anymore. In fact, i think it could cost more to do the 16gb variant as request is considerably lower.
That's shit. The only way to wipe these storages safely is to overwrite them a few times.
We need smaller storage for security. We should be able to overwrite unused storage several times per day without having to wait for hours. The smaller the storage, the better this is.