Hacker News Reader

Comment by bitL | Hacker News Reader

That's just marketing to make sure you buy the more expensive models while base model appears to be somewhat reasonably priced. Usual marketing mindhack.

View on HN

Theres also a crazy amount of enterprise purchases who dont care about storage. Everything is stored off device, and an MDM is keeping whats on the device to a minimum.

Companies would still be buying 32GB by the truckfull if it was available. Apple was right to discontinue it because 32GB wasnt enough to run the OS anymore, while also being a usable phone.

Since you cant run a phone without iOS, and stripping the OS down isnt an option, I think they should be legally required to be truthful in advertising and sell it as a 50-55GB iPhone, probably 50 if they plan on using some of the space for device upgrades.

> Apple was right to discontinue it because 32GB wasnt enough to run the OS anymore, while also being a usable phone.

I use 20 GB on my iPhone SE quite comfortably. It's absolutely enough to be usable.

You also can’t take video or pictures at the resolution of the newer iPhones - requiring more storage.

My iPhone can take 4K video and 12 MP photos, the same as the newest iPhones.

The SE can only do 4K video at 30FPS, so it uses half the space the newer iPhones do (since most users will use 60FPS).

Sure, but it still means that it’s possible to use your phone comfortably with 32 GB of storage.

Although HEVC/HEIC has roughly halved these storage requirements.

> Theres also a crazy amount of enterprise purchases who dont care about storage.

Agreed, but that's what iPhone 11 is for... There's virtually no commercial reason for 95% of enterprise users to have a Pro version.

A Pro version for most of 2020 that can shoot multiple videos at the same time in 4k, with 64gb... I don't know, doesn't sit well with me. I'm all for keeping the base model basic and as low-cost as possible to those who needn't anything more. But then either reasonably price your storage, or create a 128gb option in between, especially if you don't allow SD cards. And especially when Apple is just fine offering 128gb on the 11, but not the Pro... It's a bit much.

Not that its an enterprise case, but personally id get the Pro for the OLED screen moreso than the camera.

Id maybe bet the other reason they dont offer 128 on the pro is supply chain related, they have all their 128 dedicated to the standard model.

There is no need to do mental gymnastics on this.

The reason is simple: profit.

Doesn't Apple support deleting builtin apps from the phone now?

You can remove the icons from the home screen, but it doesn’t actually delete the app from the device storage. They’ve said that’s in case you need or want one of the apps again; it’ll “reinstall” essentially instantly.

Oh sure, I think everyone understands and expects this to some extent. But the Pro model should not have the same base storage as the non-Pro model. Especially with all the emphasis on the professional-level cameras on the iPhone Pro.

The sensors on the Pro model is still 12MPs. HEIC can compress the output of these sensors in an hard to imagine way. A movie takes around 60MB per minute in 1080p30. Photos are also somewhat negligible now.

I think it's still an issue for video. Who's buying a $1000+ "pro camera system" to record 1080p30? I'm sure the bitrates for 4K60 are still pretty high.

4K60 is 400 MB per minute. 24GB/hr.

I still use my iPhone as a Palm handheld with GSM functionality, like a glorified Treo. While I take a lot of photos, video is a rarity for me. So in my case, 1080p30 is alright.

OTOH, I also have a Sony A7iii so, I'm not confined to my iPhone for imagery if I need something really high quality.

People who want to take high quality pictures and don’t really care about video.

32GB of video at 4K is still ~2 hours of video at 30fps. I take a fair amount of pictures, but I don’t think I have taken 30 minutes of video in the last 4 years.

The sensors may have stayed the same, but isn't it taking 3 photos now instead of 1? We don't yet know whether it automatically saves the telephoto, wide, and ultra-wide photos separately, but from the rumors I'd heard it retains them all. Perhaps this is a setting that can be changed, but it means that if you want to use the phone to it's capability, you're going to have a lot more photo storage than before.

One presentation today made a big deal about "able to record 2 video streams at once (among the 4 cameras)".

Capture rate for multiple streams is one problem. Storage space is another, solved largely by the seamless iCloud integration; get an unlimited data plan or Wi-Fi connection, and the imagery will all just migrate off the device until needed wherever.

A landscape image takes 1.5MB when compressed with HEIC[0]. Even it stores all three of them and uses a bit less compression due to better lenses and sensors, it'll be around 6MB per image. It's very efficient for the resolution if you ask me.

[0]: Inspected a fairly complex sunset shot taken with my iPhone X.

The non-pro model looks like the successor to the XR, no telephoto camera, the screen is LCD not OLED with lower PPI, and a cheaper frame (aluminum not stainless steel) and maybe one or two more things I forgot.

Yea. It's for the "starting at"-price which can then be set even lower as the more expensive non-pro variants or products from the competition.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com