Internal storage for apps!

[rabiddawgs]

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about smartphones is the internal memory and what is available for apps.
nothing is listed for this anywhere that i have found.
I am basically new to smartphones (6 months) and really didnt have a clue what to look for when picking out a phone. so I decided to get the Casio Commando because of the ruggedness of it and being an automotive technician I would find it to be a very good idea to go this route. love the phone. dropped several times and no problems at all. speaker is loud as heck. but it falls short big time on the internal storage for apps. 400MB... sucks you know what. esp with all the bloatware

so what i basically want to do is trry and get a list together with what phone you have and how much internal storage for apps is listed under manage apps.
please list carrier/phone/int memory

I will update this post so it is all organized

verizon Casio commando 400mb

 

[APSoft]

The specs for the Casio Commando say it has 1GB of storage. Of course a part of it is taken by some system stuff, but 600MB for that sounds too much. You see 400MB available right after a factory reset?

My first Android phone was Nexus One, which had only 512MB of internal storage, with even less available than on your Casio, so I do understand you. But it was still quite usable. Most apps these days support moving to SD card (and even some, which don't have that option, could be installed to the card as well), so just move everything you can to the SD, keeping in the internal memory only things like widgets and similar utility applications, which have to be available at the early stages when device boots (the SD card is initialized with some delay). That will give you some room to breathe.

 

[rabiddawgs]

straight out of the box its at 400mb for apps.
i know about moving to sd card and i am fine with that except alot of my apps will not auto update when on the sd card. plus there are a lot of other apps i want but cant get becuase of low system memory.

 

[APSoft]

i know about moving to sd card and i am fine with that except alot of my apps will not auto update when on the sd card.

Really? Hmm... I don't remember that. I believe everything updated properly on mine.

plus there are a lot of other apps i want but cant get becuase of low system memory.

Yeah, I had to limit myself too.
There might be some options though. Alternative ROMs created by independent developers (CyanogenMod, for example) usually have an option to make SD card work exactly like internal storage, so apps don't even know they are installed on a card. I'm not sure though if there are ROMs available for your device, and how difficult (if possible at all) to flash them there.

 

[Hadron]

I'd just note that the bloatware isn't directly affecting the app space you have, though any data those apps store will.

The reason is that the internal storage is partitioned. The /system partition holds the system apps, including any bloat. User apps and app data live in the /data partition, which is your 400MB. There will also be a /cache partition. So if you remove a system app (only possible when rooted) that doesn't make more space for user apps as they are in different partitions.

By default the HTC Desire (my phone) only had 147MB for user apps and data! Mine has 368MB now, after re partitioning the internal storage, but of course that requires running a much more compact ROM.

 

[APSoft]

I'd just note that the bloatware isn't directly affecting the app space you have, though any data those apps store will.

Well, "bloatware" is not only that useless stuff from your mobile network operator that you get pre-installed on the phone. Unfortunately this tendency to grow big applies to all modern software. Apps from the Market (well, the Play how it's called now) frequently take more than 10MB each. Google+, for example, uses 23MB of storage on my phone! That's only the application itself - without data! I don't like where it all is going. That's why I always try to make at least my own software as lightweight and fast as possible.

 

[rabiddawgs]

I'm in the process of looking at new phones. even if I root and get a little more internal memory I dont think I will still be happy with that amount.

The basic point of this thread was not to really complain about my internal storage but get a list together for everyone to look at and see what amount of storage is available for apps on all the phones out there.

 

[APSoft]

I'm in the process of looking at new phones. even if I root and get a little more internal memory I dont think I will still be happy with that amount.

Yes, there is no such thing as too much memory.
But frankly speaking 400MB is not that bad. I just checked - Nexus One has less than 200. That's very small of course, but even with that it's possible to use the phone and install a lot of apps. Twice as that should already be quite usable.
But you have to move most of the apps to the SD card, that's for sure.

The basic point of this thread was not to really complain about my internal storage but get a list together for everyone to look at and see what amount of storage is available for apps on all the phones out there.

I'm just not sure if it makes sense to make such a list. The storage amount is in the specs. The available space is not always mentioned, but in many cases it is. As the rule of thumb: more than 1GB of total internal storage is good. Less than 1GB - definitely tight. 1GB - have to double-check how much is actually available to the user.
By the way, thanks for the info - I didn't know that out of 1GB of total storage the real user-accessible space might be that low. For the mentioned Nexus One only about 320MB is taken, I assumed it's like this for the other phones as well.

 

[chanchan05]

Depends probably in the manufacturer or something. You just have to look at the right place. For example, some sites mention "user accessible memory" in the specs as well. Not sure for other brands, but for Samsung, rule of thumb is that if your phone has 4GB onboard storage or greater, you get approx 2GB (ranges from 1.8GB to 2.3GB) of the onboard storage for apps.

 

[marc12868]

Depends probably in the manufacturer or something. You just have to look at the right place. For example, some sites mention "user accessible memory" in the specs as well. Not sure for other brands, but for Samsung, rule of thumb is that if your phone has 4GB onboard storage or greater, you get approx 2GB (ranges from 1.8GB to 2.3GB) of the onboard storage for apps.

And for HTC phones with 4gb of storage you get like 1... With Samsung and HTC most of their phones have huge overlays (touchwiz for samsung and sense for HTC.) On my HTC MT4GS it has 4gb of internal storage but only a little over 1 gb is user accessible.

 

[chanchan05]

And for HTC phones with 4gb of storage you get like 1... With Samsung and HTC most of their phones have huge overlays (touchwiz for samsung and sense for HTC.) On my HTC MT4GS it has 4gb of internal storage but only a little over 1 gb is user accessible.

My Samsung Galaxy SL has 4GB of internal storage. 1.8GB is set for system storage for apps, 1.6GB for the internal SD card. Checked a Galaxy S and a Galaxy S2, and the partitioning is similar. Seems touchwiz uses only about approx 700mb.

 

[kct1975]

Just wanted to say that the lack of internal storage for apps is really what made me give up on my HTC Hero early. I was getting sick and tired of getting the dreaded 'Low Storage' error on my Hero.
So far, up until recently, I have been happy with my HTC EVO that I got last summer. And for the most part I am still happy with my EVO.
But I have recently gotten the dreaded 'Low Storage' error again and have, once again, had to delete apps.

One of the things tempting me into possibly trading up to the new LTEVO is the 16GB internal memory.
While I may still wait until my upgrade in June of 2013, I will still go for the LTEVO.
I just hope that Sprint does not bog down a ton of the internal memory with Bloatwear apps such as the hated Blockbuster app. I also am hoping that some of the stock apps I have absolutely no use for such as Facebook and Twitter will be removable.

 

[chanchan05]

You could wait for the new ICS phones. They may come out like the GNex, where Google made away with the partitions and you can use the entire onboard storage for apps.

 

[kct1975]

You could wait for the new ICS phones. They may come out like the GNex, where Google made away with the partitions and you can use the entire onboard storage for apps.

Humm...that gives me hope that the LTEVO will have a lot of the 16GB onboard storage free.

 

[sdrawkcab25]

You could wait for the new ICS phones. They may come out like the GNex, where Google made away with the partitions and you can use the entire onboard storage for apps.

^^ this, my galaxy nexus, just about, has all 32GB available for apps.

 

[Hadron]

You could wait for the new ICS phones. They may come out like the GNex, where Google made away with the partitions and you can use the entire onboard storage for apps.

From what I've read in the forum it seems that the new HTCs (One series) don't do that, though you do get a couple of GB for apps (and so not much media space on the One S).

 

[kct1975]

From what I've read in the forum it seems that the new HTCs (One series) don't do that, though you do get a couple of GB for apps (and so not much media space on the One S).

Only a couple of GB for apps ?

Does the HTC Sense and the other crap Bloatwear that Sprint loads take up all of the other 14GB of internal storage ?

 

[APSoft]

Only a couple of GB for apps ?

Does the HTC Sense and the other crap Bloatwear that Sprint loads take up all of the other 14GB of internal storage ?

Of course not! The storage is simply divided into the "internal storage" for the apps and "sd card" for media.