Is 4GB enough? How many apps can you have?

[JimboJones2268]

Can people report back on space after a day or two? On mine I only have about 360Mb left. In the storage details I am using a lot of 'Other' space, around 800Mb and I have no idea what any of that is.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[richard_c]

Can people report back on space after a day or two? On mine I only have about 360Mb left. In the storage details I am using a lot of 'Other' space, around 800Mb and I have no idea what any of that is.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

I used my HTC 8S for 24 hours and after having a handful of apps and 3 games on it, it went from 500mb free to 400mb free. That's just from apps storing data. Thus why I returned the phone.

 

[brmiller1976]

Though if you're just looking for a budget phone you'd probably be better served with a Lumia 620 or reduced cost WP 7.8 capable device.

Sorry, I have to take issue with this statement... no 7.8 device is a better choice than an 8 device.

The average app is about 4 megabytes in size. That means that a gigabyte of storage will hold around 250 "average" apps. There are some huge ones, like games with 100+ megs of graphics data, but they're the exception, not the rule.

Overall, an 8S will be fine for "day to day" use. Just make sure you get a decent-sized SD card for your media, photos, music, etc.

 

[JimboJones2268]

Sorry, I have to take issue with this statement... no 7.8 device is a better choice than an 8 device.

The average app is about 4 megabytes in size. That means that a gigabyte of storage will hold around 250 "average" apps. There are some huge ones, like games with 100+ megs of graphics data, but they're the exception, not the rule.

Overall, an 8S will be fine for "day to day" use. Just make sure you get a decent-sized SD card for your media, photos, music, etc.

Where are you getting your average app size from? App data also has to be stored in that same space along with other os data. Whilst it is possible to install 250 apps into 1Gb of space, the calculation is a lot more complex than that.

Only pictures and music can be stored on the sd card. Apps cannot be stored there
Sent from my Windows Phone 8S by HTC using Board Express

 

[richard_c]

Where are you getting your average app size from? App data also has to be stored in that same space along with other os data. Whilst it is possible to install 250 apps into 1Gb of space, the calculation is a lot more complex than that.

Only pictures and music can be stored on the sd card. Apps cannot be stored there
Sent from my Windows Phone 8S by HTC using Board Express

JimboJones2268 is right. Your making the mistake I did by looking at the app size on the store and thinking that it but in reality an app like facebook can be 5mb but it can download and cache data and after take up to 50mb.

If you have an iphone or android phone you can view the list of apps and see the app size and then the size of the data that is added to the app as you use it. Because of this you are limited to how many apps you can get on the 8S. This was my over sight as when I got my 8S and install about 30 apps top, all of which were useful app and utilities not games I found I had only 400mb left. Which sounds fine but over time these apps will take up more data and then that 400mb is gone, which then forces you to delete apps. Its such a shame as I really really really liked the 8S and could live with out pointless games but having to pick and choose which key apps to keep was the killer for me.

I also think its really wrong and misleading to consumers to market this device saying it has 4GB of storage. While I know this is the case with all phones that the stated amount of storage isn't a true representation of much storage you really get due to the actual memory size and then how much the OS takes up. Now this isn't a real issue with 8GB storage or upwards as you can usually get away with have a nice amount of apps on with out much concern. But the average consumer is going to get the 8S and think hey I can install a nice amount of apps and or games, only to find out that they cant. I think it should say 4GB storage (1.3GB free).

Maybe part of me is really annoyed as I was waiting to get this phone since it was announced and then after looking the WP8 launch this was going to be the phone for me, but now I have to wait for one of the hardware makers to bring out a 4" phone with 8GB storage, with an SD card slow.

 

[lbleij]

Hey,

Today i've found a video (it's in some kind of polish language, i can't understand it either but google translate helped me), it says a lot about the storage, he is in the menu in the review. Note that his 8s is full of apps, but what worries me is het next:

Other = 1 Gig
Apps = 400 MB
System = 1,91 Gig

Total available = 268 MB

His photos are stored on the SD, which is 32 gigs.
The phone states that it has 3,6 Gig of free memory, this is the way it's formatted, in fact it's 4 gigs but there is some kind of sophiticated counting system. As 1 gig is 1024 mb and so on. I don't get that story completely.

Anyway, here is the video. And the part of the memory is on 17:20

 

[grzegut]

It is in Czech, not Polish

 

[Alex Rodriguez]

The amount of the Apps depends on the size of the App(2mb, 5mb, 10mb all depends)

 

[brmiller1976]

Caches rarely get larger than available space. If you clear your FB cache and install a couple of new apps, and there's "less" room available to the cache, it will just cache less.

 

[richard_c]

Caches rarely get larger than available space. If you clear your FB cache and install a couple of new apps, and there's "less" room available to the cache, it will just cache less.

But surely it will do that until you have no space left then it cant cache anything else but at that point our phone is full. Won't you get message saying you can receive texts etc as you have no free space?

 

[JimboJones2268]

I dont know what will happen when the space gets full - I might try that though. No doubt 4Gb is not really enough, apps can request a certain amount of space be reserved for them no matter what. You cannot assume that any sort of cache is dynamic.

 

[lbleij]

I've had some contact with HTC itself, apparently with a very good informed spokesman, who told me the next:

It is not able for apps to control their cache with an eye on the amount of space available. I recommend that you empty your app-cache from time to time.

I've done some research on the app-market and it seems that there is no app available for it. It shoud, because every 8S user has to use it. Maby an idea for developers.
Anyway, it doesn't stop me from buying an 8S. The Nokia lumias are all ugly. Hehe, and I just like HTC

 

[Coolknight1968]

Did you try the 8S app, make space?

 

[Aliandren]

Hey,

Today i've found a video (it's in some kind of polish language, i can't understand it either but google translate helped me), it says a lot about the storage, he is in the menu in the review. Note that his 8s is full of apps, but what worries me is het next:

Other = 1 Gig
Apps = 400 MB
System = 1,91 Gig

Total available = 268 MB

His photos are stored on the SD, which is 32 gigs.
The phone states that it has 3,6 Gig of free memory, this is the way it's formatted, in fact it's 4 gigs but there is some kind of sophiticated counting system. As 1 gig is 1024 mb and so on. I don't get that story completely.

Anyway, here is the video. And the part of the memory is on 17:20

the difference in formatted vs unformatted space has nothing to do with 1024 bytes in a kb, 1024 kbs in a mb, etc. It is due to file allocation table which assists the OS in managing what bytes are assigned to what file.

Imagine if you took a stack of paper and ran it through a paper shredder then wanted to be able to quickly re assemble any given piece of paper to its original state. You need something to tell you where to get each piece and what sequence it goes in.

The 'other' data section in the chart consists of items like app cache data, email, texts, saved files (email attachments, downloads, etc). As mentioned previously only music/videos/pictures can be saved on an SD card. Anything else on the phone is stored on the built in memory chip. That is why i mentioned before you might be better off with a 7.8 device in some cases as it will likely be offered at $0 with an upgrade and have pretty good specs (say Lumia 900).

I'm not aware of the minutia on OS difference between 7.8 and 8 though, so that could certainly play into things.

 

[kittshelby]

So I saw a post on WPCentral about SD cards and installing apps from them. So does that mean we can now install apps on SD cards? If so, that solves this "is 4GB enough" question for the 8S.

 

[ragingsilver]

So I saw a post on WPCentral about SD cards and installing apps from them. So does that mean we can now install apps on SD cards? If so, that solves this "is 4GB enough" question for the 8S.

No it's a feature to download an app from a website then install said app FROM the sd card. This app will still install itself onto your phones memory and not the sd card. Perhaps sometime in the future MS will fix this issue but for now you'll have to limit yourself away from games and big apps. For me it would suffice and I was very close to getting an 8S but ever since the Nokia 620 was announced, I'll be getting that instead.

 

[lbleij]

Ok, thanks I get it now.
In my own opinion buying a Phone with an outdated (7.8 is only a sign of loyalty, not a real bone-breaking update) OS. I don't need that much apps, and games, so I will do fine with the 1 gig. Only thing is that I want to clear my cache from time to time. As I don't care about one or five seconds more load time, I don't want any cache on my Phone. Forget anything! It should be able to delete that cache somehow. The HTC app make more space is useless and I deleted it right away.

 

[kd88]

I'm not a tech person so I really don't understand how much space is not enough etc. Basically, I'm very tempted to get an 8S. At the moment I use a Samsung Galaxy Y. I've used pretty much all of the space but I don't really need anymore, it's not an issue for me. I have a few apps (maybe 20), some pictures and thats it. Not much email/videos/music or anything like that.

Does this mean that space on the 8S will be more than enough for me?

 

[X0LARIUM]

I'm not a tech person so I really don't understand how much space is not enough etc. Basically, I'm very tempted to get an 8S. At the moment I use a Samsung Galaxy Y. I've used pretty much all of the space but I don't really need anymore, it's not an issue for me. I have a few apps (maybe 20), some pictures and thats it. Not much email/videos/music or anything like that.

Does this mean that space on the 8S will be more than enough for me?

Galaxy Y is an Android. From all that you currently have, only pictures go on mem card. The app, data and cache all go on the PHONE mem. Music, pictures and movies go on the MEM card.
Hope that answers your questions. Also, judging an Android device apps with WP8 device app is slightly stupid.

Sent from my RaZr on MIUI.

 

[tmn0]

after installing the app about 10 and 5 small game (most 1 PvZ big game), do not understand the other is nearly 1G?