Apple's base storage

Fast forward to 2025, and Apple offers 128GB as the base storage tier for most iPhone 16 models. That might sound like a lot by comparison, but it's becoming genuinely problematic...

When I’m recommending a new Apple hardware device to my non-techy friends I’m looking for the longest time horizon for the device to work for them, along with the lowest cost that is reasonable.

128GB is still ok in 2025, but won’t be in 3 years. My iPad Mini is 64GB and struggles with needing free space. I had to reformat it just to update to the latest iPadOS version, requiring a whopping 16GB of free space. All that when the apps I installed were using only a few gigabytes.

Part of the challenge here is having no real control over iMessage, Apple Photos, and iCloud Drive usage on any individual device. It’s up to the iPad and Apple’s magical servers to decide how much of my space gets used up. As my iMessage storage nears 30-40 gigs it’s becoming an issue when that gets transferred to local storage. So while 64GB sounded like enough when I bought the iPad, it’s nearing end of life in a modern iPadOS world.

So while 128GB isn’t great longterm for an iPhone, it’s fine for now.

The greatest insult last year was offering a MacBook Air at 8GB storage. I had two friends upgrade their laptops and for both of them my recommendation was to make sure they purchased the 16GB options. Thankfully both did, but it was crazy that I had to explain that Apple, a multi-trillion dollar company, wasn’t offering them a laptop that would suit their needs.

Now that Apple has removed the 8GB laptop version from their lineup (except with the Walmart edition, which needs to get updated asap), I can recommend any base model MacBook Air to most of my friends.

Meanwhile, Apple's continued offering of just 5GB of free iCloud storage simply adds insult to injury. Believe it or not, that figure hasn't changed since iCloud's introduction in 2011.

There’s simply no excuse for this. 5GB is nothing. You can’t do a thing with it in 2025. Make 128GB the baseline here as well.

Via MacRumors.