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Can someone tell me why we can't get a 32 or 64 gig phone?

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Interestingly that would not work for me. I have about 54gb of music/video stored on my 64GB micro SDHC card and with a 64GB version of the HTC One, I'd be facing roughly the same thing as a 16GB GS4 since I'd have to store that on the internal memory itself.

I have never understood WHY someone needs to carry around that much media with them. Maybe I just don't have enough free time to consume that much media on the go.
 
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I have never understood WHY someone needs to carry around that much media with them. Maybe I just don't have enough free time to consume that much media on the go.

If you get a chance, have someone demo a JBL Flip for you, that's a very fine bluetooth speaker. (Although with Boomsound you're already ahead of the game.)

It's not difficult now for someone to get a stereo speaker like that, an MHL adapter and cabling and extend a phone into a nice miniature entertainment system. For $100, not too shabby.

Another case is for international travel. One of my more common trips will always take 26.5 hours from my door to the hotel, regardless of route. Years back, I carried DVDs and had to be concerned about my laptop in-flight or waiting. If you'd have told me ten years ago that one day my phone would have a large hd display and enough storage to carry lots of movies and music, with a multicore processor to ensure performance and longer battery life than my laptop at the time, I'd have looked at you like you were from Mars. :)

I think that the answer to your question is probably a combination of convenience and that everyone's mileage varies. ;)
 
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I have never understood WHY someone needs to carry around that much media with them. Maybe I just don't have enough free time to consume that much media on the go.

your point about media is missed on this thread, however. media can be stored on a sd card and won't require any internal storage to be used.

the point i think this thread is making is that 32gb or more should be available for the small percentage of people that need that much space for apps.

that said, i have somewhere around 20gb of 'media' on my galaxy nexus. since it's constrained by not having sd card expansion i've had to pare down and be selective on what i put on it. with the s4 and 32gb card (64gb on the way) media constraints will no longer be an issue for me. i have around 2gb worth of apps and related app data which will fit nicely on the s4's internal 9gb available storage, with much room to grow.
 
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It all comes down to choice, rather than a presumed standard for everyone. Samsung is offering multiple sizes, so up to the carriers to offer them.

Let us hope the people making the decisions on what to stock are not as ignorant as a lot of people in the stores selling them...... They could actually make the decision based on a wrong perception being pushed in stores now.
 
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It all comes down to choice, rather than a presumed standard for everyone. Samsung is offering multiple sizes, so up to the carriers to offer them.

Let us hope the people making the decisions on what to stock are not as ignorant as a lot of people in the stores selling them...... They could actually make the decision based on a wrong perception being pushed in stores now.

very true. the only difference is the 'choice' in the consumer's mind vs the 'choice' from the carrier's perspective. basically what they think you should have while also keeping in mind their objectives. margin, contracts and what will sell to the majority of their customer base is what drives the choice they give us.

i'd think the market analysis by verizon and samsung (possibly supported by google's own analytics) has given them supreme confidence that they're making the right decision in what they've offered. so far the results are very telling. 'sold out' pre-orders and continued very high demand once they get more stock. i wouldn't be surprised if the carriers and/or google have an automated method for determining how phones on their network are being used right down to the storage space reporting in the phone settings. think about that. this could likely be the reason the 32gb internal storage version isn't on the radar right now. that's not reassuring to the people who depend more on high internal storage than sd expansion capability, however it just goes to show how important verizon, samsung, google think those users are to their overall objectives.
 
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Mods, transfer to another thread if you feel prudent, but seems this is too juicy to bury in a thread:

Key chemical-like induced zingers:

1. "The storage size is for a greater good"
2. "If you need more space, there are external solutions (sd card)"

Samsung responds to Galaxy S4 storage woes, says current setup is good


Seems their better response would be, "For consumers that desire more storage, we are offering two larger sizes to our retail partners". That way, they lob the storage ball into the CARRIER'S court.

Jeepers. This one kind of destroyed my good faith in a solution, so I am tapped out. That and carriers misleading as well.

Added: If this was the beginning of April, I would think this was a prank.
 
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I think the most interesting thing about that article is the reference:

Samsung also notes that users who really need more storage space than the Galaxy S4 readily offers can turn to external solutions, and it has made things somewhat easier for them by bundling a free microSD card with every unit
 
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it is misleading to market the device as 16gb and not make it clear that only 9gb is available to the user. without an sd expansion card the phone with 9gb wouldn't get the time of day from me. 9gb is piddly and high resolution display and other features wouldn't make up for it imo.

that said, this is par for the course with virtually all smart phones. they don't clarify what is actually available to the user.

the only redeeming factor is that they say they're adding a free sd card, but don't say what size it is. fortunately for them users can add a 16gb sd card for about $10 or a 32gb for about $20.
 
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Between this 32/64 thread, the Verizon misleading people on 16 GB thread and this new one on the 16 GB discussion - juicy or not - that's really about a thread extra for the subject in general.

I left a 3-day redirect on the title to survive the weekend as a compromise on the move/merge.

That's one heck of a story though!

But - in light of the terminal/df outputs shown earlier in this thread, it's no surprise.

Which - I continue to warn on this - the Euro model does not have 9.6 GB, it has 7.6 GB.

The Euro model's filesystems add to 16 GB. The US model's add to 18 GB.

There's something wrong there.

I'm not sure why no one wants to approach that here - but there's something wrong there.
 
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Between this 32/64 thread, the Verizon misleading people on 16 GB thread and this new one on the 16 GB discussion - juicy or not - that's really about a thread extra for the subject in general.

I left a 3-day redirect on the title to survive the weekend as a compromise on the move/merge.

That's one heck of a story though!

But - in light of the terminal/df outputs shown earlier in this thread, it's no surprise.

Which - I continue to warn on this - the Euro model does not have 9.6 GB, it has 7.6 GB.

The Euro model's filesystems add to 16 GB. The US model's add to 18 GB.

There's something wrong there.

I'm not sure why no one wants to approach that here - but there's something wrong there.


...... Well, that is the place that came up with Gangnam Style, so their near clueless and insane response should not be too much a surprise. Best to just think of a happy place now.
 
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Gash the more I read all this negativity the more I regret getting a 9gb s4 now!


If you are not a gamer, or don't use some of the more media centric social apps, no worries! S4 is a rockin' device for those users not in those categories too much. Gamers are the main point of issue.

As others have pointed out, more than not will have zero issues, but I think the device/app correlation has tilted more now to bigger apps. Hence the sensitivity.
 
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Well a free bundled microSD card certainly wasn't included in the box the Galaxy S4 was packaged in that I received from T-Mobile yesterday! So who's playing us for fools? :mad:

I believe the carriers should have disclosed the actual available internal storage space on the S4 somewhere on their website to buyers. Does the FCC play any role in deciding the amount of storage capacity each device will have when they're deciding which devices carriers can market in the U.S.? Is the SanDisk 64GB Class10 UHS-1 MicroSDXC compatible with Galaxy S4? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230971686996
 
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That SanDisk is compatible.

This whole available storage thing, while upsetting, is not really something you're unfamiliar with.

Pretty sure that we've all bought a PC.

With an xyz GB hard drive.

Hardware and software think in powers of two. A gigabyte is 2^20, but in the world of marketing, a gigabyte is now 1 billion. So all hard drive GB numbers are a lie.

Then comes formatting loss. The xyz GB number gets its second lie.

Then comes Windows and maybe Office pre-installed.

And that uses up more of your xyz GB.

And no one complains that's an unfair practice.

This is no different.

The SGS4 has a boatload of new features. They were shown at the unveiling and have been getting heavily advertised.

As built-in.

They take a bite out of your storage.

And despite the fancy "available storage" graphics, the truth about Android filesystem allocations has always been what it's been.

You've never bought an Android device with xyz GB that were your storage just for you. It's never existed.

I don't mean to sound harsh and I apologize right here if I sound that way, but 1) I don't understand the surprise and 2) I don't understand how this can be a new concept in the course of buying computer hardware.

If you previously thought that your xyz MB or GB phone that you've owned before was all yours for add-on apps and data, now you know better.

And btw, that 2 GB of ram? You don't get that either. Before Android launches, a chunk goes to gpu memory and another chunk goes to i/o management (example, your radio interfaces).

And that's been that way for years as well.

Sorry. But it just is what it is.

PS - no, the FCC has nothing to do with this. They certify devices with schematic diagrams and part numbers. How much storage is in a part or how it's used, is not their concern.
 
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I think the general consensus though based on reviews and initial user perspective is a LOT of the new features are superfluous fluff and simply suck space and resources up to no avail. Basically about 1.5Gb at least of Samsung self anointed "great features that everyone will love and are for the common good"- Gangnam Style!
 
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Like many, I am stuck with Verizon. In my case because wife jUst got a note 2, and the contract has 23 months to go. So, I have been waiting for the s4 to arrive.. I was the first preorder at my local Best Buy. When ordering, I specified a 32 GB model, and assume that is what I will get. I know, at 70 years old, I shouldn't be naive.

Anyway, for two weeks now, I have been following this thread, and hoping Verizon's delay in release means That the 32 and 64 GB models will be there at release. After reading the article quoted in post 159, I am now considering other phones. Samsung's answers came off as arrogant and truly didn't address the issue. Do I want to be tied to such a company for two years? Are they going to fully support buyers, or decide it isn't necessary for the "greater good"?
 
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It all could get settled fine by June (no earlier- my guess). Hoping the person that responded for Samsung was some clueless marketing person. The problem is most sites reporting this (there are quite a few) are not pointing out an sd card will not fix the issue and some even are supporting it as a solution (though they say, "not the best").

Ignorance is a contagious thing.


added:

Let us hope that a similarly clueless marketing person is not the Verizon (other carriers too) person that decides on what models to stock. Yikes.
 
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