This is the one thing I want from the iPhone 13

(Image credit: Svetapple)

Apple tree's iPhone sets the standard amongst smartphones in many means. Non simply does Apple tree make the best camera phone you tin can currently purchase, the list of best phones overall is peppered with dissimilar iPhone models. When information technology comes to pattern, software, and just the overall smartphone experience, the iPhone puts many would-be rivals to its smartphone crown to shame.

Unless you look at the storage Apple includes in its entry-level iPhone models. In that instance, the competition has got the iPhone's number.

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I'm not talking about the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, which evangelize a good for you 128GB of onboard storage in their base configurations. Of form, that's a large modify from the iPhone eleven Pro, which started out with 64GB in storage. What, is the "Pro" brusk for, "prohibitively cramped"?

The iPhone 12 Pro models may accept increased their base storage from previous versions of Apple tree's phone, but that edict didn't reach the iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 mini. Those phones even so start out with a pedestrian 64GB of on-lath storage. And given Apple'south "no microSD slot, ever" policy, iPhone shoppers fave a dilemma when buying the cheaper versions of Apple tree's flagship — brand do with the 64GB of storage in the base model or pay an extra $50 to crash-land the storage to an acceptable 128GB.

A new iPhone brings the opportunity to correct quondam mistakes, and Apple's expected to introduce new iPhone xiii models this fall in the same 4 variations every bit the iPhone 12 lineup. While big changes are doubtlessly in the works, touching everything from display refresh speed to camera features, I hope Apple remembers to boost the amount of storage it includes on the iPhone thirteen and iPhone 13 mini.

How iPhone storage compares to similar smartphones

Eyeball the storage of other phones that price about the same as the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini, and it doesn't take a lot of analysis to meet where Apple tree's coming up curt.

Phone	Base model storage	microSD?	Toll
Apple iPhone 12 mini	64GB	No	$699
Apple iPhone 12	64GB	No	$799
Samsung Milky way S21	128GB	No	$799
Samsung Galaxy S20 Iron	128GB	Yes	$699
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G	128GB	Yes	$499
OnePlus 9	128GB	No	$729
Google Pixel vi	128GB	No	$699
Nokia 8.3 5G	128GB	Yes	$699
Motorola Border	256GB	Yes	$699

These days, 128GB of storage is the table stakes for a flagship phone, something Apple seems to recognize with its Pro models at to the lowest degree. Some of the phones on this list have expandable storage, some don't, but all of them save for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini, commencement with at least 128GB; the Motorola Edge even doubles things up to 256GB.

To notice 64GB every bit the starting betoken for a phone, you commonly have to scour through midrange and fifty-fifty budget models. Here, too, the Galaxy A52 5G tops the latest iPhones, with double the storage in the base model for $200 less than the iPhone 12 mini.

Why doesn't Apple offering more iPhone storage?

Storage is non the near expensive component of a phone, only it isn't inexpensive, and Apple uses storage as a manner to create pricing tiers and keep margins loftier.

— Avi Greengart, Techsponential

And so what's stopping Apple from following the lead of other telephone makers and giving its two least expensive flagships a decent corporeality of storage? One possible explanation is the price of adding more than capacity, but Avi Greengart, atomic number 82 annotator fro Techsponential, told me that's probably not the case.

"Storage is not the most expensive component of a phone, but information technology isn't inexpensive, and Apple uses storage as a way to create pricing tiers and keep margins high," Greengart said. "There are definitely supply constraints on retentivity correct at present, and prices take gone up, though y'all can say that about nearly whatsoever component these days."

iphone 13 mini renders — I don't care if the iPhone 13 mini looks like this render, but I hope it has 128GB of storage. (Image credit: SvetApple)

If storage is ane of the ways Apple tree is differentiating between its standard phones and its Pro models, the iPhone 13 would seem to render that distinction moot, based on the other rumored changes apparently headed to those handsets. It's the iPhone 13 Pro models that are expected to go the dynamically refreshing 120Hz displays, not the iPhone 13 and iPhone xiii mini. Likewise, the most interesting iPhone 13 camera additions are slated for the Pro models. Why non give the iPhone xiii and thirteen mini a lilliputian extra storage love?

It may seem similar a small point, merely storage is an increasingly value commodity on phones in an historic period where device makers are encouraging the states to snap a lot of photos. And given Apple's accent on photo features, you'd retrieve the company would desire to brand certain at that place'due south enough room on its iPhone to store all those images.

"Consumers who shoot a lot of pictures or shop lots of video definitely try to buy phones with higher baseline storage capacity," Greengart said. "The alternative is to move content more rapidly to the cloud — but that costs money, besides, just every calendar month instead of when you buy the telephone."

Apple has little immediate motivation for bumping upwards the storage on the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini. After all, nobody's really making ownership conclusion based on the corporeality of storage a telephone has. If annihilation, customers are just shrugging and paying the extra price to get more storage or purchasing an iCloud subscription— a situation I'yard sure Apple tree isn't entirely unhappy about.

But skimpy storage is nevertheless a flaw, and an easily correctable 1 at that. It's something Apple tree should address with the iPhone 13.

Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom's Guide. He has stiff opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics and old movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.