Is 1 TB of storage space on your smartphone excessive? That will be the discussion we'll have in the coming weeks as Samsung prepares to announce the Galaxy S10, which should arrivewith a model that has so much storage space. The point is, it might be worth it for some of you.
There are a few reasons to consider spending the extra money for the most storage we've seen in a phone yet. First of all, you guys don't upgrade that often. Second, we're taking more photos and videos than ever before. And third, the internal storage is so much faster than a microSD card.
Looking at upgrade rates, things are declining these days. In a relaxedsurvey we conducted last month, the majority of you (72%) said you upgrade every two years or more. It is acomplete turnaround from last year, with only 33% of you saying you'll keep a phone for more than two years. And it's not just our numbers that indicate a slowdown in upgrades. In July last year arapportstated that the average smartphone upgrade cycle increased from 25 months to 32 months from 2016 to 2017.
And that brings us to point two, which has to do with the amount of photos and videos you take with your phone. As the camera quality of devices has reached incredible levels, we are using them more and more. According to areport from 2017The industry was expected to jump to 100 billion additional images per year. I can't even imagine how much it has increased since then.
So as we take more photos and keep phones longer, the quality and resolutions have increased in many cases. It requires more storage space. With 1TB of storage space, Samsung says you can store 260 10-minute 4K videos. That should also mean plenty of room for thousands and thousands and thousands of high-resolution images. Sure, Google Photos gives you (usually) unlimited storage, but unless you have a Google Pixel phone, the quality of the images uploaded is reduced. If you want full-resolution photos for later in life, they'll be on your phone and having 1TB of storage isn't a bad thing. Do you need to consider the file sizes of 4K video, especially ifCompanies are introducing HDRmore storage becomes even more important.
Finally, because you want to keep it all for years to come, you want to do it as quickly as possible. With internal UFS 2.1 storage that Samsung has packed into its phones, you get the best experience. The new 1TB card they just announced has read speeds of 1000 MB/s and write speeds of 260 MB/s. Thatfastest microSD cardpeaks at a read speed of approximately 275 MB/s and a write speed of 100 MB/s. So if you're moving files, running apps and games, and generally using your phone, internal storage is your preference.
The prices for a 1TB phone won't be wallet-friendly, we can assume. But if you're planning to buy a phone this year, take a look back at how often you upgrade. Phones are better than ever. Phones last longer than ever. If you're stuck on the next phone purchase, it might be worth spending a little more.
