Question So, why does the Series 6 Apple Watch have 32 gigs of storage?

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,378
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Even though it's sort of clunky as a music player, I thought it would be cool to load my Apple Watch up with music. Then I came to find out Apple has media storage capped at 8 gigs, or at least this is what it seems. Apple doesn't official say, but everything I've read on Google from others they can't put more than 8 gigs. Now I have just over 17 gigs free and I'm wondering what the hell I'm supposed to do with all this space? I downloaded every app I wanted that took a whopping 300'ish megs.
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
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I didn't even know it had 32GB of space until recently, and I'm pretty dialed into tech in general and apple in specific.

Maybe they were planning on some new feature that hasn't come to fruition yet? Maybe it's there for data buffer space if you're streaming stuff? Who knows... Hell, why does the AppleTV have 32GB and 64GB models? Who's really playing LOTS of games on these things that _doesn't_ also have a fast internet connection to just re-download as needed?
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,378
708
126
You're probably right, they'll add some feature that uses in a future update, but that's still a ton of space. Doubly so when Apple was pretty well known for being super stingy with storage with iPhones and iPad.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
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32 GB is more than enough space, but it's not exactly "a ton".

Those with 8 GB of storage on their old Apple Watches often have to do a complete wipe of their watches just to do a major OS update. Even deleting most of the apps often doesn't help. So, with a few larger apps installed, I would say that for comfortable and consistent OS updates going forward you need 12-16 GB just for that.

Add another 8 GB of media on top, and you're already at 24 GB.

To put it another way, 8 GB is woefully inadequate, and 16 GB would be very restrictive for a lot of users. The next step up is 32 GB and that's what Apple went with. I suppose they could have gone with 24 GB, but typically Apple has not gone with odd sizes like that for storage.
 
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