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How much space are you using on your phone at the moment, OP?

I might go for 1TB simply because I don’t want to worry about space at all.

if you plan to shoot Apple ProRes Log, be aware those files are massive. Like, 1 min can be over 10GB easily.
 
Many people like to give advise as if everyone is loaded with cash.

Of course if everyone's loaded with cash, then get 1TB.

Anyway, if you plan on recording ProRes, get 512GB as many has mentioned.

Even if you shoot tons of photos, you can always upload them to the cloud. I never have more than 100 photos on my phone at any one time. And will transfer to the cloud end of each month.
 
Many people like to give advise as if everyone is loaded with cash.

Of course if everyone's loaded with cash, then get 1TB.
I'm not sure that's true. I do assume that by asking the question OP has the means to get what they are asking about and that is the assumption I make for all of these types of questions. If it's not within your reach somehow, why ask the question to begin with?

For us (my family), we are not loaded. But I do (as I mentioned earlier) get what I want. That comes either from saving up, tax refunds, upgrading to devices that are one or more models behind the current model or buying used.

I am typing this message in on a computer with several displays. Circa 2009, everything I have would have been extremely expensive. But it didn't cost me a lot because I got most of it over a time period from 2020 to now. Some of it was just being given away. But it's all stuff I wanted.

I have the patience to wait (and have waited) decades to get what I want.
 
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I have 256GB and have 87 GB. I’ve had 256GB since the X (2017) and never found I need more spade. Always have plenty to free space available. I also have a 2TB iCloud plan so that also helps. I think if you Arne sure you can get the 512GB. It depends on you.
 
One thing to keep in mind, 512GB is twice the size of 256GB. This allows you to store a lot more photos, videos, and documents on your iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The 512gb has 256gb more than the 256gb. That’s the only difference, simple enough isn’t it.
 
Previously I have always gotten 1TB storage model. But when I actually look at my usage it appears I only been using less than 100 GB storage. This year I went with the 512 GB 15 Pro Max and personally I feel that the 512 GB is the sweet spot for me. I still have around 400 GB space left.

I tend to always avoid the lowest storage tier when it comes to iphones.
 
Fot the 13pm and 14pm i actually have my storage is 256GB but as i skipped 15pm (my 14pm is still at 100% battery health, nice screen and no issues) i'll be definetely upgrading to 16pm no matter what. I usually upgrade anually so in my scenario this in an exception.
Despite running apple one family plan as a host with 200GB cloud storage i'll definetely go this time around with 512Gb version. I think it's a sweet spot for demanding video we can capture and all around not worrying running out of space with all music, podacast, movies and arcade games offline and last but not least video and photo we take (now they take like twice more storage than before and the quality is awesome)
Now i have like 160GB taken - lots of apps, games, photos and videos but no movies or not so much cinematic videos.
The 256GB is still OK, not limited for memory speed write and read as 128 GB version.
Also cinematic video are full capable with minimum of 256GB storage.
My final thoughts are price and longevity.
In general it's good buying the most storage we can afford but the details in choices may vary.
it's only my personal 2 cents contribution
 
I had a 256GB 15 Pro max and swapped it for a 1TB because I have my music in local and it's taking an ever increasing amount of space.
I also decided I wanted all my photos in local because I tired of waiting for them to load from iCloud. Now I take pictures and videos while travelling without being anxious about space and clean up later.
 
I came from a 64gb Xs. It was always maxed out, always had to do memory management. When I was ordering the 15 pro, my main goal was to ensure I would never have that issue, or at least for the next 5-10 years I plan on having this (if it wasn’t for storage and crappy Xs comms, I’d keep it forever).

I figured 1TB was overkill, so I went 512. Very happy I did and in half a decades time will probably go 1TB for the next one.

One thing to keep in mind is that apps REALLY stretch their legs when you have lots of storage. Like instagram shot up to 8gb. They just absolutely max out local storage. Kind of annoying because the percentage wise you feel like you’re not having that much difference. I’m already at 128gb used. Some of it is games like Genshin impact “just cause I can” , but still.
 
if you do all of your computing on the phone (or shoot a lot of videos while out & about) , take the 512 else iCloud takes care of everything else.

Speaking for myself, I have always opted for the lowest capacity iphone and never felt short on storage. I’d have picked a 128gb variant for the 15 PM in a heartbeat if it were available. Since I have to pay for cloud storage anyway (to avoid risk of data loss), i might as well save up on the upfront cost.

I have never felt the need to have my photos or videos from say circa 2015 available to me locally on the device.
The sync (and removal of old local files) happens automatically and there is no manual intervention required ever .

As an end user, it is completely transparent to me and I have no means of knowing if a file is local (or a cloud copy) other than maybe the extra 1-2 seconds it takes to pull up full res older photos when needed
This is why I have never really understood why so many people opt for the higher tier capacity models despite the unusually high cost of upgrade
 
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I went for 512GB, and even though most of it is free, I plan to keep the 15PM for a couple of years now, so wanted to future proof as much as possible without worrying about space issues.
 
Speaking for myself, I have always opted for the lowest capacity iphone and never felt short on storage. I’d have picked a 128gb variant for the 15 PM in a heartbeat if it were available. Since I have to pay for cloud storage anyway (to avoid risk of data loss), i might as well save up on the upfront cost.

I take it you meant the 256 GB variant for the 15 Pro max? There is no 128 GB model for the 15 Pro Max. Only the 15 Pro does.
 
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I've been buying 256GB capacity for the past few generations, and have only tapped a fraction of that.

I made my latest purchase based upon the fact that I would probably not need more.

This assumption held-true ;)
 
I've used like 110/128GB on my 14 Pro

Prob cause i keep saving tik tok vids/screenshots of memes i'll never look at again lol

I do pay for 2TB of Google photos storage every month, i had a Pixel 3XL which i used for the free google photo backups but the charging port died and i couldnt be bothered fixin it
 
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my 12 pro max had 256gb which i didn't manage to get any where near filling up.

my 15 pro max has 512GB and i still have 480GB free lol. i always buy the most storage i can afford.

will i ever fill it up? probably not but it's good to have so i don't need to worry about space. i don't miss the money i spent to get it. and if anything else i might get a little extra when i trade it in.

I take it you meant the 256 GB variant for the 15 Pro max? There is no 128 GB model for the 15 Pro Max. Only the 15 Pro does.
"if it were available"
 
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I take it you meant the 256 GB variant for the 15 Pro max? There is no 128 GB model for the 15 Pro Max. Only the 15 Pro does.
err, my post specifically says i would have picked a 128 variant if it were available.

Since it isn’t, I had no choice but to pick the 256 (and pay more).
FWIW, the actual usage is currently well under 40GB (thanks to iCloud) and I don’t really foresee it being a constraint for the life of said variant.

On a side note, While English isn’t my first language, surely the sentence structure I used wasn’t so convoluted so as to lead to a completely different interpretation .. or was it?
 
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Well, here we go again! This year I had the 512Gb but never got near it. Always managed with 256.

I have 2TB iCloud storage so don’t know why I’m even thinking about it!
 
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Since I finance MOST of the time I look at price. The 512GB option is the one that I feel like I can afford the most without feeling bad about dropping a certain amount of money. I *ALMOST* got the 1TB a few days ago but couldn't see me spending $1700 on a phone. Or I don't want my bill ending up being $50 more because of a phone cost.
 
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