The iPhone 17 launch is likely to be remembered for many years, but likely not for the reason that you think. Yes, the launch brought us the iPhone Air and the new iPhone 17 Pro series, but Apple also introduced the iPhone 17, setting a new standard for the industry.
No, it's not the excellent display, nor the fantastic battery life. And it's certainly not the dual camera, although it's arguably better than the base Pixel 10 and Galaxy S25 despite lacking a third camera. Rather, it's the 256GB starting storage, which is what makes the iPhone 17 likely the best phone for many people this year.
The biggest change with the storage is actually three-fold, and all are strong reasons that I hope Google and Samsung quickly follow suit and copy Apple. One of them is also the core reason the iPhone 17 is likely even better than the more expensive Pixel 10 Pro. Here's why!
Let's be real; 128GB storage isn't actually 128GB
Check your existing phone and you'll find that the operating system uses a sizable portion of the total storage. For example, a 128GB phone could have up to 40GB (or more) used by the OS, making the actual usable storage considerably less than you may have thought.
This causes its own problems, as users — like my mother, who went through this with her aging Galaxy S22 — fill that storage, especially if you've brought a new phone for its cameras.
I've also seen this problem firsthand on my Pixel 10 Pro review sample from Google, which is the base model with 128GB of storage. Taking photos and videos during IFA 2025 this year, I managed to exhaust the entire available storage within that week.
Granted, I'm not an average user, but consider a wedding or a vacation, especially one that you want to capture many memories from. Taking numerous photos and videos can quickly lead to low storage warnings.
Yes, Google Photos can back up your pictures and automatically offload them from your phone to recoup some of that storage. Still, it also increases your data usage, which can be challenging when you're traveling or on a limited data plan.
Double the storage without the extra cost
Yes, Google and Samsung both sell higher storage variants for their phones, and more expensive devices like the Pixel 10 Pro XL and Galaxy S25 Plus start at double the storage, but this comes at an additional premium. This is where the iPhone 17 proves to be a fantastic offering from Apple.
Simply put, Apple doubled the base storage but didn't add the premium. This effectively saves $100 compared to the competition at the base storage. However, it’s worth noting that these savings don’t extend to the 512GB version of the iPhone 17, but neither Samsung nor Google offers this storage option with their base phones.
Storage |
iPhone 17 |
Pixel 10 |
Galaxy S25 |
|---|---|---|---|
128GB |
- |
$799 |
$799.99 |
256GB |
$799 |
$899 |
$899.99 |
512GB |
$999 |
- |
- |
It's also worth noting that both Samsung and Google offer promotions that include double the storage for free, but these aren't always available. At the time of writing, Samsung and Google don’t have this promotion available for the Galaxy S25 and Pixel 10 in the US, meaning the cheapest option comes with 128GB of storage.
There’s one other key reason that 128GB storage is a big problem, especially for the Pixel 10 Pro, and it’s one that I’ve experienced firsthand.
This is why the iPhone 17 is better than my lagging Pixel 10 Pro
As Harish Jonnalagadda explained earlier this year, the Pixel 10 Pro features a unique approach to storage, specifically Zoned UFS. Actually, that’s not quite accurate; there are three different types of UFS in use on the Pixel 10 Pro, which ultimately determine the read-write speeds when saving photos or transferring them to a hard drive or your computer.
The 512GB and 1TB versions of the Pixel 10 Pro utilize Zoned UFS, which divides the storage into different zones with varying speeds. This is ideal for long-term Android updates, ensuring the storage model doesn’t degrade over time. Meanwhile, the 256GB version utilizes UFS 4.0, whereas the 128GB version employs the slower UFS 3.1 standard.
As I found to my detriment, UFS 3.1 can cause a considerable bottleneck when trying to read the storage via your computer, especially if you use a Mac.
Android File Transfer for the Mac is already a challenging app to use, but it can take up to 15 minutes just to read the contents of my Pixel 10 Pro, let alone the considerable added time to offload these files. Yes, this is certainly an edge case, but it serves as a timely warning of the perils of limited storage capacity, especially when paired with slower speeds.
This isn’t exclusive to just Google and Samsung — many companies offer slower speeds in lower storage variants — but it is a considerable challenge for Google and Samsung, considering the iPhone offers more storage by default.
It's time to bin 128GB storage on flagships
If there’s one great thing to come from the iPhone 17 launch, I hope it means the end of 128GB as the standard base storage in flagship phones.
Second, I hope it also means we won’t need to pay extra for the added storage, especially when the additional cost is a negligible addition to the overall hardware cost of the phone.
It may not affect you now, but with Samsung and Google also promoting seven years of software and security updates for their phones, it’s quite likely that 128GB of storage won’t suffice several years from now, especially as new features are added in future updates. It’s time to make 256GB storage the standard, and we have Apple to thank for that!
FAQ
What are the storage options for the iPhone 17, Pixel 10, and Galaxy S25?
The iPhone 17 is available in 256GB and 512GB storage options. The Pixel 10 and Galaxy S25 are both available in 128GB and 216GB storage options.
How much available storage does iOS and Android take up?
On the iPhone 17, Apple states that iOS may take up as much as 12-24GB of storage, which includes "iOS 26 with its latest features and Apple apps that can be deleted." On the base Pixel 10, Android 16 may take up roughly 11GB, with a varying amount reserved for temporary files. On the Galaxy S25, system files can take up to 20GB. Note that these figures may differ depending on the device and software.
What's the biggest difference between UFS 3.1 and UFS 4.0 storage?
Compares to UFS 3.1, the newer UFS 4.0 storage can read up to 100% faster (up to 4,200MBps) and write up to 133% faster (up to 2,800MBps) while using nearly 50% less power.
