
Samsung's Galaxy S4 16GB version only has 8GB of usable storage - sinnerswing
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/samsung-defends-16gb-s4s-mere-8gb-of-usable-storage-50011111/
======
mindstab
I hate to say it, but remember the giant outrage and making fun of Microsoft
everyone did over Surface Tablets with over half their HD taken up by the OS?
Less than a year later now it's quite noticeable in Android space... :/ Either
we need to really rip into Samsung or maybe we need to be less hard on MS on
this particular topic...

~~~
melling
Isn't that what the article is saying? People are complaining. It doesn't
sound like Samsung gets a pass while Microsoft doesn't. 8GB remaining isn't
going to last on a phone.

~~~
JohnTHaller
The difference is that the Samsung Galaxy has expandable memory. So, unlike
the Nexus 4 which comes with 8GB ( _total_ , usable is less), you just pop in
a microSD and have plenty of room.

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gcb0
It wouldn't matter if you had control over it. but 3Gb of those are for
useless S-apps (S-suggest, S-store, whatever) that you will NEVER open. in
fact, those are the apps that if you do open, you curse the mistake and close.

samsung is the Acer of mobiles. Other brands used to do that to branded phones
and you would find att or verizon bloatware. now you are not free even if you
buy unlocked.

~~~
mcintyre1994
Woah, what? 3GB on apps that aren't games? That is incredibly poor.

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
They're all badly written bloatware like you'd expect.

Plus even if you remove them you still get the pleasure of storing a larger
than necessary backup/recovery image with them inside just waiting to re-
infect your phone if you ever factory reset it.

I own a Samsung Galaxy Note 1. While I think the hardware is top rate and I am
happy with Android, I think Samsung's bloatware ruins the entire package. I
prefer the experience on my Nexus 7 with "virgin" Android and my next phone
will be a Nexus phone too for that reason.

~~~
r00fus
Why not just root and CM the G Note? Anything samsung-specific that stock
android won't work with?

~~~
gcb0
because i never bought one.

giving them my money would just signal i want that crap.

Also, it's not stable so far. so you'd have dodgy camera, reception, pen... i
don't think CM supports the pen yet, but i may be wrong.

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w1ntermute
PSA: check out the HTC One[0] before buying the Galaxy S4. It's as good, if
not better, than the Galaxy S4.

0: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF75-HPdUfY>

~~~
jmomo
I am still toting around a Nexus One, and finally going to get a new phone.
I've been looking at both the HTC One and the Samsung S4.

The S4 has the huge advantages of having an SDcard slot (up to 64GB) and a
replaceable battery. The HTC One has neither. I wonder how much of the
internal flash on the HTC One is available.

The argument of the 16GB model not having a lot of internal flash space is
pretty weak when you can get a 32GB SDcard for $20 (or less).

The HCT One does feel kind of nice with its weight and aluminum body, but I'm
not sure it would do any better than the S4 in a drop test.

Speaking of drop tests, I've replaced the digitize on my Nexus One twice now,
because I like to drop it. The S4 is difficult to replace the front glass, but
it is not impossible. I do not know how the HTC One fairs in repairability.

On the CPU side, the S4 is faster, but they are the same CPU in both units as
far as I know.

The HTC has a better screen color profile, and the camera does much better
low-light/night shots. I have heard the the S4 camera does not do well in low-
light conditions, which is really shameful.

HTC has a deal going on right now where they will give you a $100 debit card
rebate. That could turn the tide in their direction if you are buying on price
alone.

The top concern I have, though, is modability and community support, since I
know that neither HTC nor Samsung will support that device once they have my
money. I will immediately root it and install something like Cyanogen.

Both phones will likely have pretty good support from the Cyanogenmod project,
but I am going to wait until the end of May and then go see what the community
says. Whichever hardware has better support in the Cyanogen community will be
the one I buy.

~~~
pkulak
I'm not sure about how the S4 is doing, but there are already CM builds for
the One. Plus, it's super easy to unlock the bootloader by just going to
htcdev.com (though not if you have an AT&T phone, I believe). To unlock the S4
you have to rely on hacks.

~~~
LeonidasXIV
Steve posted a screenshot of CM on the S4 yesterday, I suppose it will turn up
eventually.

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UnoriginalGuy
Shame nobody has done a breakdown of exactly what is being held in this used
up space.

From what I can find the system folder is 2 GB alone, but we're still well
short of almost 5 GB of "stuff." We likely also have a backup image, and then
just Samsung's bundled apps?

As a random aside: Why are they still selling 16 GB phones in 2013? I realise
the chips are faster than what goes into SD Cards, but given the speed of SSDs
and the relative price decrease year upon year, if phones were keeping up we'd
be seeing at least 64 GB as standard!

~~~
yareally
It's just speculation, but I think Google is pushing indirectly for more cloud
based storage utilization and getting OEMs on board is a way to do that via
shrinking storage size (it's a trait with many of the new phones on more than
just Samsung).

At the same time though, that clashes with the carriers limiting monthly
alloted data more than any ever before. However, the carriers are probably
going to push their own "cloud" solutions that won't use data that applies to
a user's data cap.If that is the case, there will probably be some sort of
clash between Google and the larger carriers in the near future where
something will have to give. Probably goes with Google's recent venture into
the wireless access realm[1].

[1] <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5110076>

~~~
timcederman
This is pretty out-there speculation. I find it very difficult to imagine a
meeting at Google where they collectively agree to increase the Android
footprint in order to "increase Cloud storage usage".

~~~
yareally
Not the OS footprint, just reducing the internal storage size of devices (such
as the Nexus 4 is only 8gb and 16gb while the Galaxy Nexus was 16gb and 32gb).
There's a number of other current devices out there with a similar trend, such
as the HTC Droid DNA (with only 16gb). Though it doesn't apply to every
device, since the HTC One is 32gb and 64gb.

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yareally
If one ever looks at the various OEM firmwares, they're all ridiculously huge
even for just being compressed images when comparing to vanilla Android. HTC
is also similar in bloat, but just giving the S3 comparison since it was handy
and related to the topic:

Samsung Galaxy S3 stock firmware: ~740mb[1]

Google Nexus 4 firmware: 327mb[2]

[1] [http://forum.xda-
developers.com/showthread.php?p=33570269#po...](http://forum.xda-
developers.com/showthread.php?p=33570269#post33570269)

[2]
[https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#occamjdq3...](https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#occamjdq39)

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autotravis
I just don't understand why these manufacturers are always claiming inaccurate
storage amounts. It's easy to fix:

 __Storage = physical_storage_capacity - storage_used_by_stock_OS __

Doesn't the Surface Pro have some ludicrous claim of storage size too?

~~~
Samuel_Michon
From Microsoft’s site:

The 64 GB Surface Pro has approximately 30 GB storage available for user
content

The 128 GB Surface Pro has approximately 89 GB storage available for user
content

<http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/storage>

(Note that this information is not given on the Surface Pro specs page.)

~~~
autotravis
Then sell it as a "Surface Pro 30 GB (tablet only)", not "Surface Pro 64 GB
(tablet only)":
[http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/productI...](http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/productID.275287300?icid=SurfaceProReferral&WT.mc_id=USHH)

~~~
baddox
This isn't standard. In fact, I don't know of a single device manufacturer
that does this. Every iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows desktop, Windows
laptop, Microsoft tablet, and Android tablets I am aware of states the _total_
storage space as the primary indicator of storage. Do you have any
counterexamples?

~~~
Samuel_Michon
A 64GB iPad has 57GB available storage space, that’s 10% less than the name
suggests. A 64GB Surface Pro has 30GB available storage space, that’s less
than half of what’s advertised.

When shopping for tablets, consumers should compare the 64GB Surface Pro with
the 32GB iPad.

~~~
baddox
But that's a different argument. You're arguing that there is some line that
can't be crossed, like perhaps manufacturers can be up to 10% off in their
advertised storage space. That's a reasonable argument in itself (although
where to draw that line is tricky), but it's a much different argument than
"all manufacturers should advertise only the available storage space."

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tedsanders
I didn't think this was a problem, because the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a micro-
SD slot. However, the article says that apps CANNOT be installed on micro-SD.
Is this a recent thing? Does anyone know why they'd do that?

~~~
CrazedGeek
This is a general Android thing, not a Samsung thing. It has to do with the
way Honeycomb and above handle internal storage and external SD cards. It just
doesn't come up that often because so few new phones have SD card slots
anymore.

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JohnTHaller
First off, it's 8.5GB of usable space of the 15.4GB of total space on the
phone once we convert it from 'marketing' sizes to real sizes. So, there is
6.9GB of stuff taking up space on the phone out of the box.

Second, 8.5GB of space is just fine for most uses, at least according to
Google. They sell a Nexus 4 8GB with only 5.5GB of space free on it.

Third, and this is the key point here, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a handy
microSD port so you can add all kinds of memory to it. Memory that is a lot
less expensive than going up a size. You can get a 64GB class 10 microSD card
for under $60, just a bit more than going from an 8GB Nexus 4 to a 16GB Nexus
4.

The one sad point is that Google is making it harder to utilize the microSD,
harder to move apps to the SD card (unless you run CyanogenMOD like I do),
impossible to store your music/video on the card (movies you rent/buy from
Google can't be saved to microSD, in a vain attempt at preventing piracy),
etc.

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mikebracco
I'd be interested in knowing how much of that is android vs Samsung's
crapware.

~~~
jordanthoms
The system partition is 2GB on my 16GB Nexus 4

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rikacomet
this is similar to ISP's claiming: Unlimited Internet/Download, and still
saying "subject to Fair Usage Policy"

This is BS, I would not buy a Samsung phone, when I can do it. Company policy
towards such issues, reflects it overall approach to quality delivery to
customers.

My friend was actually asking my opinion the other day, I would tell him to
choose Iphone5

~~~
throwaway2048
you are aware that Apple devices are advertised exactly the same way right?

~~~
fleitz
You're aware that a 16GB Apple device has far more than 8 GB of usable space
right?

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
That didn't remotely answer his point.

His point was: "Why recommend Apple when they do the same thing?"

Your point about them using less space is irrelevant when the OP was taking
issue with the very principle of misleading consumers with inflated storage
claims.

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taylodl
Maybe they could change the way they do advertising: the amount of raw storage
and the amount of available storage, similarly to the way they do hard drives
(raw vs. formatted).

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sigzero
Who needs more than 8GB? /s

