Posted by julias
Late last week and over the weekend, a slew of critical reports surfaced after it was discovered that 7GB of the 16GB edition of the handset’s memory is used up by Samsung’s Touchwiz custom interface and applications.
The revelation sparked accusations in some quarters that Samsung’s ads for the handset are misleading consumers.
Today, Samsung has acknowledged the existence of the reports. But it certainly didn't acknowledge that there’s a problem, recommending simply that Galaxy S4 users who feel shortchanged on the memory-front should shell out for a microSD card.
Depending on the size of the card you opt for this can boost capacity by a further 64GB.
Samsung stated: “For the Galaxy S4 16 GB model, approximately 6.85 GB occupies the system part of internal memory, which is 1 GB bigger than that of the Galaxy S3, in order to provide a high resolution display and more powerful features to our consumers.
“To offer the ultimate mobile experience to our users, Samsung provides a microSD slot on Galaxy S4 for extension of memory.”
http://www.uswitch.com/mobile[....]ds_to_reduced_storage_reports/
Posted by Tsepz_GP
Samsung and the rest of Android OEMs should start offering their flagships from 32GB, even if they JUST offer a 32GB variant instead of 16GB/32GB/64GB.
That said, your average user will probably not even run in to any issues with the GS4 16GB, but power users who do a lot of gaming will. This makes me wonder how Nexus 4 8GB owners survive???
Posted by skblakee
6GB of space is nowhere near enough for a top spec phone. Many games and applications won't work well or at all on external memory and so therefore one has to resort to either rooting which can be intimidating for some or just deleting items every week. I agree, OEM's should sell phones with at least 32GB of memory. Nothing less.
Posted by Bonovox
Same as when HTC released the 8S on Windows phone and crippled it with 4 gig storage with 1.7 gig taken by the OS and less than 2 gig left. On top of that on WP8 you cannot move any apps to the SD card which is where Android is going now too. With such tiny storage it literally renders the phone crippled and useless
That's why I like that at least Nokia has put 8 gig storage in even their cheap budget handsets. As for Samsung I guess so much is going on inside that handset it's gonna take up alot of space which is why they should be offering at LEAST 16 gig on lower models and 64 gig on others.[ This Message was edited by: Bonovox on 2013-05-07 20:24 ]
Posted by goldenface
There is so much software on the S4 that this is bound to happen. You can understand why people might be annoyed. It's 40% of the advertised total storage not available for use.
Posted by Bonovox
Slightly too bloated
Posted by Tsepz_GP
On 2013-05-07 19:19:26, skblakee wrote:
6GB of space is nowhere near enough for a top spec phone. Many games and applications won't work well or at all on external memory and so therefore one has to resort to either rooting which can be intimidating for some or just deleting items every week. I agree, OEM's should sell phones with at least 32GB of memory. Nothing less.
Indeed!
BTW, the 16GB doesn't have 6GB, it has around 9GB, their SW takes 6.85GB, apparently the 16GB GS3 had 10GB free.
[ This Message was edited by: Tsepz_GP on 2013-05-07 22:40 ]
Posted by Bonovox
Similar thing also happened on the first Intel based smartphone the Orange San Diego. It featured 16 gig storage with only 10 gig available. Couldn't OEM's make a separate space internally for the OS not on same partition of the available memory??
Posted by skblakee
It is unfair, almost unscrupulous to advertise a phone as having 16GB of memory only for an individual to get a varied degree of much less than that. 16GB should be 16GB all free for the user to do as they wish but when the amount goes down so low it gets ridiculous. Then having to deal with apps that won't work well or at all when you move them over to external makes matters worse.
So imagine you move from a phone that previously had even 12GB of free memory then get an S4 with only 9GB free. it messes up things as soon as you get the phone. Not good
Posted by rikken
I have 10,36 GB of internal storage on my Note 2 and 9,15 on my S 4 but never found it insufficient and I doubt most will
Posted by Bonovox
BBC Watchdog programme next week Samsung GS4 will be on it about this subject
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74
[ This Message was edited by: Bonovox on 2013-05-08 21:00 ]
Posted by jj03
Root and uninstall..the majority of the memory will be returned. Simples.
Posted by skblakee
JJ, most people don't root but quite a few play games and add music not to mention take pictures which tend to take up a lot of that left over space.