Do NOT buy a 16gb iPhone 6S

[manly]

True enough. Android is an "open" platform.
At least you can store your media on the SD card, which leaves more room for apps on internal storage.

It used to be possible to symlink apps installed onto the SD card (using Link2SD and other apps) but Google locked this down in KitKat.

Supposedly they will bring that back natively in Android M.
http://www.androidauthority.com/android-m-apps-microsd-adoptable-storage-612505/

 

[mmntech]

It used to be possible to symlink apps installed onto the SD card (using Link2SD and other apps) but Google locked this down in KitKat.

Supposedly they will bring that back natively in Android M.
http://www.androidauthority.com/android-m-apps-microsd-adoptable-storage-612505/

That's the good news. The bad news is that no current devices will get Android M because updating all those custom ROMs is hard.

 

[davygee]

The 16GB model is there to make the entry level more affordable, even although new iPhones in general a pretty expensive. Yes it would have been nice and long overdue for the basic storage to be upped to 32GB, but just not this year. I think it will happen next year with the 7. The problem is the average selling price of the iPhone, and what Apple don't want is a large majority of people happy to buy the entry level device, they want most people going for the middle device (ie 64GB). So next year, I wouldn't be surprised to see only 2 sizes of iPhone. 32GB and 128GB similar to the iPad Pro.

I personally have a 5s with 16GB and at times I struggle for space, but this is more often than not down to photo's and video's which normally sit around the 5GB in size on the device, and with my basic iCloud account at 5GB, it's always full. Apple is currently charging an extra £80 for the upgrade to 64GB from 16GB with the new iPhone. What has pleased me is the changes to the iCloud pricing and sizes. For under £10 a year, I can now get 50GB of cloud storage, this will work for photo's and videos thus reducing the need to have 5GB of space on my device for these items. Also with the new App-Thining strategy within iOS 9, hopefully we will start to see smaller Apps. I personally find it ridiculous that some Apps are 2GB+ and seeing as the higher resolutions and textures are really only required for larger screen devices, primarily iPad's, hopefully we will see smaller more streamlined Apps/Games on iPhones.

In short, although annoying that there is a 16GB model again, I can totally see the point of having it and with reduced cost Cloud storage, there is less need for people to push for a 64GB model as a basic.

 

[Eug]

In short, although annoying that there is a 16GB model again, I can totally see the point of having it and with reduced cost Cloud storage, there is less need for people to push for a 64GB model as a basic.

Heh, I saw it as just the opposite. Reduced cost iCloud storage will make it easier for people to backup their 64 GB iPhones. 50 GB for $1.29 (or 99 cents US) works well for this.

 

[davygee]

Heh, I saw it as just the opposite. Reduced cost iCloud storage will make it easier for people to backup their 64 GB iPhones. 50 GB for $1.29 (or 99 cents US) works well for this.

Well yeah it will work well for everyone. The basic 50GB for £0.79 is really good value and even the level up 200GB for £2.49 is good for those that need huge amounts of storage.

 

[Aristotelian]

Just so people are aware, 4K has bigger issues than sensor size or storage space. On the iPhone 6S it does not have any digital or "cinematic" stabilization, it relies solely on OIS, which is actually pretty typical even in other flagship smartphones.

OIS alone is nowhere near as stable and it warps frames to hell and back if you don't have a steady hand (you will vomit when you see it), which is impossible to fix in post. If you care at all about your video, you will still shoot in stabilized 1080p. 4K is not ready yet on smartphones...

Is it not? http://www.phonearena.com/news/Video-stabilization-comparison-Sony-Xperia-Z5-vs-Xperia-Z3_id73411 I use an Xperia Z3 and am itching to upgrade, and I film in 4k - saving to a 128 gigabyte micro SD card.

I'm actually quite pleased with my results, and do not have a 'warps frames to hell and back' experience at all. Is it not ready on any smartphone, or just this one?

More broadly, I'd never buy ANY 16gb smartphone. Between music, the os install, apps, photos, video - it's far too little.

 

[Ichinisan]

I've seen software that can do it after the fact, but it's an extra step and a royal PITA.

That kind of software has to do it by cropping the edges of the picture significantly...so you would lose your native 4K resolution after processing it this way.

I've seen phone rigs that stabilize the whole device while you hold the rig itself. Works like a steadicam or something.

 

[ultimatebob]

I'm hoping that 4K isn't going to be the default video resolution. If it is, the iPhone noobs will blow through their storage in a month.

Hell, I've only had my iPhone 6 for a year and I've already used up 23 GB of space.

 

[Charlie98]

There is no question their strategy is designed to pad their bottom line but I wouldn't say "don't buy a 16GB iPhone". That is silly. Understand your needs and buy accordingly.

I agree... I have a 16GB 5s (Yes, I live in the Dark Ages, no it does not have a rotary dial) and it's fine for me and what I use it for. Of course, I don't live on the phone, don't have 90 apps installed, and I'm not constantly taking selfies.

 

[Eug]

As Davygee suggests, App Thinning & app slicing in iOS 9 will help.

http://anandtech.com/show/9605/the-ios-9-review/9

 

[JimKiler]

It used to be possible to symlink apps installed onto the SD card (using Link2SD and other apps) but Google locked this down in KitKat.

Supposedly they will bring that back natively in Android M.
http://www.androidauthority.com/android-m-apps-microsd-adoptable-storage-612505/

That's the good news. The bad news is that no current devices will get Android M because updating all those custom ROMs is hard.

I cannot wait for this, i hope my recent tablet gets Marshmellow because otherwise this 6 month old tablet is not going to last with me constantly clearing the cache to update apps.

I meant to say a lot of 3rd party apps prevent me from moving their install to a microSD card for some reason. It is always the apps with the biggest footprint too.

 

[davygee]

As Davygee suggests, App Thinning & app slicing in iOS 9 will help.

http://anandtech.com/show/9605/the-ios-9-review/9

Very good article, I never noticed that when I posted about App Thining earlier. But seeing that savings could be between 20-40% dependant on application type, is potentially a huge saving. And I reckon that large games with large amounts of graphics assets will see the most savings, so I really hope some of the developers out there start doing this soon. So not only are we likely to see Apps getting 20-40% smaller in size on all platforms and resolutions, but we are likely going to see Apps being drastically reduced in size on older platforms with smaller resolutions, so my 5s should see some serious compacted Apps in the near future.

 

[ultimatebob]

As Davygee suggests, App Thinning & app slicing in iOS 9 will help.

http://anandtech.com/show/9605/the-ios-9-review/9

I'm skeptical that those smaller app sizes are going to be permanent. Software always gets bigger over time, not smaller.

 

[Ichinisan]

I'm skeptical that those smaller app sizes are going to be permanent. Software always gets bigger over time, not smaller.

The point is, many "universal" apps contain graphic resources that will never be used on the device where the app is installed. For example, Words with Friends has graphics for the board layout (and all the other elements) designed for multiple different screen shapes and resolutions. At a minimum, "universal apps" must support the different resolutions and layouts for these screens:

• iPhone 4s
• iPod touch 5/6, iPhone 5/5s/5c
• iPhone 6
• iPhone 6 Plus
• iPad 2/mini
• iPad 3/4/Air/Air2/mini2/mini3

It's possible some of them still maintain support for 3GS too.

That's pretty wasteful considering only 1 set of graphic resources is needed on a particular device.

 

[JAG87]

Is it not? http://www.phonearena.com/news/Video-stabilization-comparison-Sony-Xperia-Z5-vs-Xperia-Z3_id73411 I use an Xperia Z3 and am itching to upgrade, and I film in 4k - saving to a 128 gigabyte micro SD card.

I'm actually quite pleased with my results, and do not have a 'warps frames to hell and back' experience at all. Is it not ready on any smartphone, or just this one?

More broadly, I'd never buy ANY 16gb smartphone. Between music, the os install, apps, photos, video - it's far too little.

No it's not.

First of all, Sony is the only company that uses SteadyShot, which is different to other optical stabilization methods in which it can also move the CMOS sensor itself, so the results are a lot better than the typical OIS where you get loads of barrel and pincushion distortion and a floating image feeling. But still:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_RCbXAmQGw

You can tell right away that there is no EIS happening. It's too jittery for digital stabilization to be turned on, and you can still see a bit of that floating feeling, the image seems to slightly lag behind the actual user's movement. And while there is still some distortion happening, this is none the less a lot better than other implementations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxgZfYS_ZeU

See how awful OIS can be with video in the G4's sensor. Besides that, all OIS drives autofocus absolutely crazy, so since the sensor in the iPhone 6S Plus is now OIS enabled for 4K video... users better make a habit of locking their focus before they start shooting in 4K. It sucks because autofocus can create some awesome DOF effects, but with OIS it can really mess up your footage too.

So yea, until 4K can be digitally stabilized in real time and OIS can be turned off for video, 4K is not ready. I hope that the A10 in the iPhone 7 is powerful (and power efficient) enough that Apple returns to EIS only for 4K video. 12MP is sufficient to do a fair amount of EIS and the results will be much better than using OIS.

 

[Ichinisan]

No it's not.

First of all, Sony is the only company that uses SteadyShot, which is different to other optical stabilization methods in which it can also move the CMOS sensor itself, so the results are a lot better than the typical OIS where you get loads of barrel and pincushion distortion and a floating image feeling.

Are you sure that's not just a trademarked name for normal OIS tech? Example: Sony has "SteadySound(tm)" for volume normalization, a standard feature with most TVs.

I always thought OIS moves the whole sensor. Otherwise, what's the point?

 

[JAG87]

Are you sure that's not just a trademarked name for normal OIS tech? Example: Sony has "SteadySound(tm)" for volume normalization, a standard feature with most TVs.

I always thought OIS moves the whole sensor. Otherwise, what's the point?

I don't think so. I don't know what Sony does for the mobile camera modules, but in their actual cameras there are several types of Steadyshot:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SteadyShot

So you can see that SSI is not the same as OSS or even the latest and greatest which combines both, BOSS, which is exclusive to Sony. My guess it that they use the latter in the xperia modules. Other OIS modules do not have these features, or if other manufacturers are buying their modules from Sony (like Apple does), those modules do not feature BOSS.

 

[snow patrol]

going for a 128gb model myself...why skimp for a few extra $$

 

[Ichinisan]

[don't know how I ended up in this thread]

 

[sm625]

$100 extra for a $6 part change in the BOM. Win.

 

[stockwiz]

$100 extra for a $6 part change in the BOM. Win.

There's a reason their stock has such a massive market cap and they are bleeding cash with their high profit margins.

 

[amdhunter]

I was only able to snag a 16GB for reserve. I am hoping I'll get a chance to go 64GB in store later.

 

[Eug]

I was only able to snag a 16GB for reserve. I am hoping I'll get a chance to go 64GB in store later.

Are you getting two? Cuz I personally wouldn't bother with a 16 GB if I wanted a 64 GB. That's 1/4 of the storage.

 

[jkauff]

I've had a 16GB 5S for two years now, and never ran into a low space error until recently. I have almost nothing in the way of media on this phone, but iOS 9 apparently takes up even more room than the last version of iOS 8.

None of my apps are that large except for Microsoft Office. These apps are huge, and if I didn't need them for emergency edits on the files I carry around with me I'd uninstall them.

My new 6S will be 64GB. I hate to pay Apple $100 extra for the same amount of storage I can get on a $20 flash drive, but that's my fault for buying Apple in the first place.

 

[joukersat]

Thanks to all of you