You’ ve decided to go with the new iPhone, and chosen a color, but there’s still one more thing to figure out: how much storage to go with.
You’ ve decided to go with the new iPhone, and chosen a color, but there’s still one more thing to figure out: how much storage to go with.
After all, you don’ t want to see that “Storage almost full” message – as you do with your existing phone – but you’ re not sure if it pays to buy more memory from Apple up front or expand the storage later on should you need it.
Wait, what? There’s a way to add more storage to an iPhone after you’ ve purchased it? There’s no microSD card slot, you say, unlike many of your Android-owning friends’ phones.
Correct, but there are a few things you can do. And as you might suspect, there are pros and cons for each decision, and so we break down a few options for you.
Apple, or your cellular carrier, will give you storage options when you buy an iPhone from them.
Using an SIM-free (unlocked) iPhone 7, as an example, you can pay $649 for 32 gigabytes (GB) of storage, $749 for 128GB, or $849 for an iPhone with 256GB of storage. All the phones look the same, but with more storage you’ ll be able to download more apps and media, and take more photos and videos.
No one knows what the iPhone 8 storage options will be, but it’s likely Apple will drop the 32GB model altogether.
Buying more memory up front may be the most convenient option, as it’s all built into the iPhone, but does it make sense to pay an extra $100 for every bump up in storage? To answer that, let’s look at additional options.
As long as you have access to the Internet – whether it’s through Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity – another way to expand your storage is by keeping your media in a cloud account. With most of these services, you can choose to have all captured photos and videos uploaded to the cloud for safe keeping (and easy viewing and sharing) , and then you can delete the media off your iPhone to make more room.
You’ ll get 5GB for free with Apple’s own iCloud service, but you’ ll need to pay per month for more. Prices are $0.99 cents/month for 50GB of online storage, $2.99/month for 200GB, $9.99/month for 1 terabyte (1TB) , which is about 1,000 gigabytes, and $19.99/month for 2TB.
There are alternatives, too, such as Microsoft OneDrive (also 5GB for free) , Dropbox (2GB for free) , and Google Drive (15GB for free) .
But there’s some deals to be had:
More: What’s the best way to back up your iPhone or Android?
Another way to expand the memory of an iPhone is with the use of an external accessory, which either snaps into the bottom of the iPhone’s lightning connector or works with a local wireless drive.
Kingston’s just-launched Bolt, for example, is a small device for your keychain that lets you free up storage for more photos and videos on your iPhone or iPad. After the free companion app is installed on the iOS device, you can use it in two ways. One is to insert the Bolt into the device’s Lightning connector and tap to back-up your iPhone’s photos and videos. You can back up your entire Camera Roll or only new photos or videos, or you can select a specific folder. Once backed up safely, you’ ll then be asked if you want to delete the photos and videos that are still on your iPhone or iPad, to make more room.
The second way to use the Bolt is to leave this tiny drive inserted into the iOS device while taking photos or shooting videos, and having those captured memories save directly to Bolt – effectively bypassing the iPhone or iPad’s internal storage altogether.
The other end of the Bolt drive is a full-size USB connector, so you can plug it into a PC or Mac to copy over to a SSD (solid state drive) or HDD (hard disk drive) , or upload to a cloud account.
Bolt costs $59 for 32GB (about 8,000 photos, based on a 12-megapixel camera on iPhone 7) ; $89 for 64GB (16,000 photos) , or $119 for 128GB (32,000 photos) .
Some other accessory options:
Summary
There’s no clear-cut solution, here. Each of the three ways to expand your device’s storage has its own benefits and drawbacks.
Buying storage from Apple isn’ t cheap, but you don’ t have to rely on an Internet connection to access your stuff (as you do with the cloud) , nor do you have to carry around an accessory.
The cloud, on the other hand, can be relatively affordable and backs-up your important files – including irreplaceable photos and video footage – just in case your phone is lost, stolen or damaged. But you need an Internet connection.
An accessory can also be a cheap solution to expanding your iPhone’s storage after you bought it, and can help back up your important files, but might be less convenient as you must bring the gadget with you or connect to a personal cloud over cellular or Wi-Fi.
Every situation is different, so be sure to crunch the numbers to see what works best for you.
Follow Marc on Twitter: @marc_saltzman. E-mail him at askmarcsaltzman@gmail.com .
