IPad Question - Storage Quantity

Enc

Hey guys,

I've been pretty much sold on getting an Ipad for reading, comics, movie streaming, playing a few games at a time, and so on. My question concerns the storage quantity. 16 gigs, 32 gigs, and 64 gigs all seem like a lot for a tablet device and not nearly much at all from a PC gamer standpoint. I really have no frame of reference for this sort of thing.

If I were to play 3-5 games at a time, what sort of storage would that require on an Ipad? Is the 64 crucial?

skeldare

Enc wrote:

Hey guys,

I've been pretty much sold on getting an Ipad for reading, comics, movie streaming, playing a few games at a time, and so on. My question concerns the storage quantity. 16 gigs, 32 gigs, and 64 gigs all seem like a lot for a tablet device and not nearly much at all from a PC gamer standpoint. I really have no frame of reference for this sort of thing.

If I were to play 3-5 games at a time, what sort of storage would that require on an Ipad? Is the 64 crucial?

iOS games are typically not that large, probably at the most 1.5GB. Most are actually smaller in size. Videos and music would probably take up the majority of the space. If you don't plan on using an iPad for any of that, 16 GB could theoretically be more than enough. Otherwise, 32 would probably be a good safety net.

Raif Severance

I've got the 16 gig variant and I find it more than adequate. I use mine for internet surfing/gaming/reading. I have about 12 games on mine and a bunch of pictures and random stuff and I still have 8 gigs left over. The most memory is taken up by Dark Meadow at 777 MB but the average is around 200 MB for the others. If you're going to be streaming and not using it for storing movies then I would say 16 gigs would be fine. Save the $100 and spend it on games/apps/accessories.

EggyToast

Yeah, it depends on how much you must have on the device at any given time. If you're using a streaming application for movies, you won't need to worry about transferring the files over and storing them on the device. Similarly, if you do have a large library of video in iTunes, you can get a smaller drive if you're active about managing what you watch. If you're used to carrying around 30 movies at all times, in case you get the itch to watch something whenever, then you're going to want more space. If instead you are OK with being more involved in what's on the device, then a 16gb device is fine.

If you're going to carry around a lot of music, it probably makes more sense to just buy an iPod that's dedicated to music, and you'll be spending about the same amount (esp. if you're OK buying one that's a generation or two old).

But the thing that determines the size of the device is really how good you are at paying attention to it, and whether you can trust "the cloud" and "your home computer" for handling the additional stuff on the device. For comparison, I used to have an iPod that was 64GB that carried my entire music library. I thought it was important to have everything with me, even though I generally just listened to smart playlists that used only 10% of the storage space -- and rarely listened to more than 3-5 hours of music when I was away from my computer. When that iPod died, I ended up getting an 8GB Nano and just copied over the stuff I actually listened to. I technically have my computer do that by using Smart Playlists, but the 2 or 3 times a year where I would be happy I carried everything around because I could call up an album I thought of? I don't really miss that. So, for me, the smaller device is fine.

I have an iPad through my work now and it's 16gb, and I just load it up with what I actually want prior to taking any sort of trip. Otherwise, it's not hard to keep it pretty empty.