Recently there’s been quite a bit of talk regarding the GALAXY S 4 and its internal storage. The device is now readily available from AT&T and a few other US carriers, but owners are finding something they don’t like. Users that ran down to AT&T to snag a shiny new 16GB model were unhappy when they noticed only 8.8GB of storage available. The rest was all already being used.

When you buy a 16GB Galaxy S 4 to find out only 8GB or so is available, it’s understandable that you’d be a bit upset. However, you can always add a micro-SD card for more, which most devices don’t offer. The issue here being that all those apps coming out of the box take up plenty of storage. Samsung’s simply said you get “more powerful features” with the S4, and that’s the cause for the storage used.

All those amazing S-features we’ve been hearing about for the past few weeks are all taking up storage. Add TouchWiz changes and carrier bloat to stock Android and we’re using a decent amount of that 16GB of storage. Then add S-Voice, S-Health, Dual-Shot, Eye-scroll, Eye-pause and all of those fancy and nifty features to the mix, and that internal storage starts to drain.

Essentially, it’s the price you’ll have to pay for new features. This is why we can’t have nice things folks! Because people will always find something to be unhappy about. For a comparison, all the pre-loaded apps and features use almost an entire 1GB more than the Galaxy S III before it. Don’t worry though folks. You still have the option for the 32GB model, or just spend $50 or so and get a 64GB micro-SD card and end this little argument right now. More details in our full GALAXY S 4 Review.

[via CNET]

[device id=5332]

15 COMMENTS

  1. “This is why we can’t have nice things folks! Because people will always find something to be unhappy about.”

    Exactly what I was going to comment…. stop complaining, throw on a 64GB MicroSD card that you’re not going to get to use with that OTHER “One” out right now, wait for the bootloader unlock to be distributed by Dan “The Man,” and then we can wipe all the crap off we don’t want!

    RELAAAAAAAAAAAAX people……

      • So get the 32gb version? It’s cheaper than most device’s +16gb. Or get an HTC one. Etc

    • Are you kidding me? The SD is pretty much useless so is the 16gb version of this phone. Apps will install to the internal, not external storage and if you hack it so that the apps install to the external you’ll experience endless problems with freezing, apps crashing, sleep of death, some apps simply not working, etc.

      The 16gb version of this phone is a colossal fail! I believe Samsung has shot itself in the foot here. Let’s hope they don’t make the same mistake with the Note III

      • Not sure either of you are listening, because I never said anything about putting apps to SD…. and Babs has this WAY wrong, I have 191 apps on my S4 and still have 5.6GB left without removing ANYTHING from the stock Touchwiz ROM…. so that means once this is unlocked and the ROM is trimmed down, I’ll have just as much room on my internal SD as my 16GB SIII did, with my 64GB external to store all my media and docs!

        The hell do you all complain about when it comes to the N4 or the One? You know those don’t even have external memory and are maxed at 16 / 32GB respectively, so why complain about the S4 when there’s plenty you can do to move non-essential data over to external memory!

  2. I’m betting App2SD doesn’t work on this either. Making an SDCard nearly useless.
    Sure, you can store your non-google-play music there, and your non-google-play-videos, but games that chug space will likely consume all 8gb of that space fairly quickly.
    Couple that with the 90% of apps who don’t allow you to repoint /sdcard storage to /extsdcard and it’s just more space wasted.

    My 32gb card has 24.5gb free only because i can’t move anything else.

  3. You may be able to add an SD card but you will not be able to install apps to it. This is a Jellybean feature, so you are still left with roughly 8GBs for apps. This is unacceptable in 2013, given the size of some of the more popular apps.

  4. The SD card is useless for apps. In other words, the 16GB version of this phone is useless and it’s the only one available. Makes absolutely no sense that they would even offer a 16GB version, let alone not put the 32 and 64GB internal versions into the market.

  5. It would be foolish to buy a 16gb (actually 8gb) phone. The least should be 32gb and there should be 64gb and 128gb options right out of the gste

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