If you’re considering buying a 16GB Samsung Galaxy S4, you might want to reconsider. As the first people are beginning to get their hands on Samsung’s new phone, they’re discovering that there isn’t actually quite 16GB of storage available to them. In fact, the actual number is almost half that, with the phone containing roughly just 8.5GB of usable storage.
While Samsung markets the device as a 16GB phone, almost half of those 16GB are taken up by the OS and pre-installed apps which can’t be deleted. This means that while users buy the phone expecting to be able to put 16GB of apps on it, they’ll actually only be able to put around 8GB on the phone.
Samsung has issued a statement defending itself, stating that the inaccessible 8GB is essential “in order to provide [a] high resolution display and more powerful features to our consumers.” The company adds, “To offer the ultimate mobile experience to our users, Samsung provides [a] microSD slot on Galaxy S4 for extension of memory.” While it is true that users can expand their S4’s memory by up to 64GB with an SD card, it is only possible to store things such as photos, music and video on the card, it is not possible to store apps on it.
Many are criticizing Samsung for not marketing the device as having 8GB of storage instead of 16GB. They claim that Samsung is getting away with charging more for the phone than they would be able to if people knew it only had half of its advertized storage space.
In comparison, Apple’s iPhone 5 has just under 14GB usable of its advertised 16GB.
If you’re thinking about getting a Galaxy S4 and know that you want a lot of apps, perhaps you should consider the 32GB model. Or should I say, the 24.5GB model.
Image Credit: CNET
