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iPhone 15 Pro Max 256GB vs 512GB - your thoughts?

L

LetteIT

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 9, 2022
72
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Hello everyone!

I’m currently considering to get an iPhone 15 Pro Max, and I'm trying to decide between the 256GB and 512GB storage options. Some say that 256GB is more than enough, but on the other hand, I saw plenty reviews, where a person had to get a new phone only because of the lack of storage on the old phone. I’m planning to keep my new phone for few years and hoping that I’ll have enough storage for this time period and I won’t be worried that I’ll run out of space.

I’d like to get your insights on situations where a large amount of storage on the phone would be necessary, especially considering the availability of an iCloud storage options. If you got 512GB or 1TB of storage on your iPhone, what factors influenced your decision? Do you prefer to rely only on the phone storage and don’t use iCloud? But that way there’s always the risk that you’ll lose all your data if something happens to your phone, right? Or do you backup everything on iCloud anyway? Then you’re forced to get bigger iCloud storage as well.

And also, the new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max support external hard drive connectivity for video recording. I was wondering, do they support only ProRes video recording directly onto an external hard drive or you can record any video that way? So, if I get it right, the external drive is one more way to save space on your phone? You can just transfer photo and video materials to it?

So, who needs more than 256GB? Maybe someone who prefers to have all the photos and videos available on their phone? Or do you think that in the near future, 256GB of storage may not be enough as memory requirements keep increasing?

And which iPhone storage size option would you recommend to get according to your experience?
 
I don't have any insights for you. That is simply because I do not subscribe to 'only what you need', 'more than enough', or 'who needs more'. I also do not subscribe to any condemnation that sometimes comes because I have 'more' than what others think I should have or deserve. On the whole, 'need' is never any consideration in most of my purchases. If I stuck strictly to buying only what I need, I would never own anything I want.

What I do focus on is what I want. I want the largest capacity Apple offers anytime I buy an iPhone. And that is what I get - what I want.

So let me pose a question. If you got more than you needed, would that be a bad thing? Terrible, awful, no good? Are the 'You can only buy what you need and no more police' going to come and take you away?
 
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LetteIT said:
Hello everyone!

I’m currently considering to get an iPhone 15 Pro Max, and I'm trying to decide between the 256GB and 512GB storage options. Some say that 256GB is more than enough, but on the other hand, I saw plenty reviews, where a person had to get a new phone only because of the lack of storage on the old phone. I’m planning to keep my new phone for few years and hoping that I’ll have enough storage for this time period and I won’t be worried that I’ll run out of space.

I’d like to get your insights on situations where a large amount of storage on the phone would be necessary, especially considering the availability of an iCloud storage options. If you got 512GB or 1TB of storage on your iPhone, what factors influenced your decision? Do you prefer to rely only on the phone storage and don’t use iCloud? But that way there’s always the risk that you’ll lose all your data if something happens to your phone, right? Or do you backup everything on iCloud anyway? Then you’re forced to get bigger iCloud storage as well.

And also, the new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max support external hard drive connectivity for video recording. I was wondering, do they support only ProRes video recording directly onto an external hard drive or you can record any video that way? So, if I get it right, the external drive is one more way to save space on your phone? You can just transfer photo and video materials to it?

So, who needs more than 256GB? Maybe someone who prefers to have all the photos and videos available on their phone? Or do you think that in the near future, 256GB of storage may not be enough as memory requirements keep increasing?

And which iPhone storage size option would you recommend to get according to your experience?
Click to expand...
External recording only supports Pro Res. If money isn’t an issue get the 512. You can’tgo wrong.

If money is an issue, look at what you’ve used on your current phone. How much free space do you have now?

Also, don’t forget that with the USB port on the iPhone Pro Max you can always off load videos to some kind of external storage device.
 
LetteIT said:
Hello everyone!

I’m currently considering to get an iPhone 15 Pro Max, and I'm trying to decide between the 256GB and 512GB storage options. Some say that 256GB is more than enough, but on the other hand, I saw plenty reviews, where a person had to get a new phone only because of the lack of storage on the old phone. I’m planning to keep my new phone for few years and hoping that I’ll have enough storage for this time period and I won’t be worried that I’ll run out of space.

I’d like to get your insights on situations where a large amount of storage on the phone would be necessary, especially considering the availability of an iCloud storage options. If you got 512GB or 1TB of storage on your iPhone, what factors influenced your decision? Do you prefer to rely only on the phone storage and don’t use iCloud? But that way there’s always the risk that you’ll lose all your data if something happens to your phone, right? Or do you backup everything on iCloud anyway? Then you’re forced to get bigger iCloud storage as well.

And also, the new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max support external hard drive connectivity for video recording. I was wondering, do they support only ProRes video recording directly onto an external hard drive or you can record any video that way? So, if I get it right, the external drive is one more way to save space on your phone? You can just transfer photo and video materials to it?

So, who needs more than 256GB? Maybe someone who prefers to have all the photos and videos available on their phone? Or do you think that in the near future, 256GB of storage may not be enough as memory requirements keep increasing?

And which iPhone storage size option would you recommend to get according to your experience?
Click to expand...
I personally went for the 15 Pro Max 512GB this year, coming from a 13 Pro Max 256GB.
I went with 512GB because I like having a lot of my media available offline (Music, Videos, Photos etc…), but with that being said I also have iCloud (400GB) along with Google Drive (2TB) and OneDrive (1TB).

I would say go ahead and get 512GB if you plan on keeping the phone for a few years, you can then upgrade your iCloud as and when you need to later down the line.
 
I went from an X with 64gb to a 15PM with 512gb.. I could get by with 128gb but I felt the need to be conscience of what I have on the device. With 512gb I can do whatever I want with videos, photos, whatever.. It's nice to not worry about storage
 
I got the 1 TB version because my 512 GB iPhone was full, it is as simple as that.

There is no downside of having more storage, so just buy the bigger model. It probably even has faster read and write speeds.
 
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i was a 256 user for the 11PM , 13PM, 14PM . but decided 512 for the 15PM because i wanted to rely more on downloaded content and wasn’t sure if the camera updates would eat more space. i don’t regret my decision at all. I have more piece of mind than the next guy.
 
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From 12 mini 256 gb to 14 PM 512 gb: bigger pictures files and the personal preference of have all my pictures stored in the device.
 
I have 347 free gb on 13 mini. I’m struggling to fill it up. I guess I’ll have to take more videos at higher quality
 
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I have 1Tb, I’ve been rocking the 256Gb for many generations, as soon as I learned about the ProRes, coupled with the amount of footage and photos I take, then the largest storage option was almost an immediate must.
I’ve always had ~10Gb of free space remaining on my previous iPhones, I took into account the photo quality options you can set and also being able to record in ProRes, I figured that’s going to chomp up near 512Gb, so I just double that number for scalability. That’s how I decided on 1Tb, also being able to plug in an external drive is great for data backup. I don’t use iCloud.
 
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I went with 512gb for my 14 pro max as I love having my photos, videos and music all stored locally on the device as there are areas I do travel to where I have no service at all. ive filled up over 300gb on mine so far. If you dont care to store everything locally and are ok with iCloud, then the 256gb storage is more than enough.
 
TBH, I don't know what people store on their phones that require more than ~64GB. Maybe if you download all your media to it for offline viewing, I could see it. Or record hours of video at a time. The only time my storage gets full is when an app (usually a podcast player) goes bananas and downloads everything until I'm out of space.
 
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I made a mistake a year ago when I got the base 128 GB iPhone 14 Pro. The last three months I had it I kept getting messages that I was running out space. That was the first and only time I did not bump up to a higher level storage. When I got the 15 Pro I decided to never do that again and went with the 512 GB model. Sure it cost more but I did not want an issue for the next 3-4 years I have this model. And no I went with the Pro size as the Max is uncomfortable holding it in my hands and I could not one hand the phone and I can barely one hand the Pro size.
 
eyoungren said:
I don't have any insights for you. That is simply because I do not subscribe to 'only what you need', 'more than enough', or 'who needs more'. I also do not subscribe to any condemnation that sometimes comes because I have 'more' than what others think I should have or deserve. On the whole, 'need' is never any consideration in most of my purchases. If I stuck strictly to buying only what I need, I would never own anything I want.
Click to expand...
I think I just heard what the sound of one hand clapping sounds like. 😳
 
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LetteIT said:
Then you’re forced to get bigger iCloud storage as well
Click to expand...
Just get bigger iCloud storage, or do local backup. I go 2TB because I just can’t be bothered to not be able to do near perfect restore via local backup.
LetteIT said:
especially considering the availability of an iCloud storage options.
Click to expand...
Up until when you desperately want to download a file but cellular is painfully slow or not work at all.
LetteIT said:
Do you prefer to rely only on the phone storage and don’t use iCloud
Click to expand...
This is not an “either or” situation.
LetteIT said:
I was wondering, do they support only ProRes video recording directly onto an external hard drive or you can record any video that way?
Click to expand...
ProRes And especially Log file Is external only. Everything else I think is local storage only.
smirking said:
I think I just heard what the sound of one hand clapping sounds like. 😳
Click to expand...
That’s plenty of insights Imo.
 
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Mikeske said:
…but I did not want an issue for the next 3-4 years I have this model.
Click to expand...
This is one particular reason I purchase the largest capacity offered. Our (my wife an I) cycle of upgrades is anywhere from 2 years to 5 years. I don't want to have to think about space - ever.

And I certainly do NOT want to have to deal with the major hassle my wife will bring down on my head over this (because she gets what I get when we buy phones).
 
LetteIT said:
And which iPhone storage size option would you recommend to get according to your experience?
Click to expand...
What is your current usage? If it’s more than half of your current capacity, then buy the next-higher storage tier. If it’s less then half, then don’t bother, unless you have specific plans for using storage-intensive applications in the near future.
 
I went from iPhone 7 128 GB to 11 pro 64 GB - and years later, I'm completely happy with it (despite using the phone a lot!). Still have more then 15GB of free space available, can't remember the last time I had to offload something.

Storing full resolution photos/videos in the Cloud is a HUGE and effortless space saver. And they load up pretty quickly whenever I need them, so not a problem at all.
 
I retired my nearly full XS Max 256 and moved into a 14 Pro 1TB. It is a bit much.. :D

512 would have been ok for me, but I was thinking of music, pics, vids, and my games.
 
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