iPad owners, your experience with your choice of storage capacity (16/32/64 Gbyte)?

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

As I am going to give in to myself and get an iPad 2 for myself, I don’t rightly know how much storage to go for (list price for the 3G, 16/32/64 GByte models will be 499/599/699 €, respectively).

I wish my Macbook Air, bought last year, had more than 128 Gbyte capacity, but of course working on a notebook computer has wholly differents storage requirements - I am definitely not going to edit video clips on an iPad. So that’s not really an useful point of reference.

So, to anyone who bought an iPad: do you wish now you had bought more storage, or do you wish you hadn’t paid for a storage size that you did not need?

#2

I got the 32 and am happy I did so. I was thinking of just the 16, since I have the smallest iPhone memory size and I’ve never filled it anything close to capacity. But the iPad is different - I put way more apps on it, use it for different things, so I’d say go with the largest memory size you can easily afford.

#3

I had a 32 Gig iPad, and I never came close to filling it up with anything except music.

OTOH I just bought a new macbook air , it’s 64 GB and I’m perfectly happy with that. I’ve got about 16 gigs free. So you seem to need a lot more storage than I do.

#4

I don’t have an iPad but I have a Touch. I got the 32GB but now I regret it…because encoding 32GB worth of movies/tv would take FOREVER aaaarrgggh. I think I managed to encode like 4GB of stuff before I said “this is more than I’d ever watch on here in a month”.

Much nicer just to catch stuff on YouTube, and download podcasts and sutff.

Then again, I don’t have an iPad. It could be a whole other experience. But IMHO don’t think you’re going to have the patience to put 32GB of video on there. You totally won’t.

#5

I could easily fill it with photos though. Of course I could limit the photos that transfer, but I’m too lazy, and I like having all of my photos at the tip of my fingers.

I have yet to watch a movie on the iPad.

#6

I think it comes down to how much video you watch. I have a 64 GB that’s full, but that’s because I use it to watch video on the bus to and from work (and the airplane to and from Europe) and I don’t try very hard to limit what I put on there. I could probably make due with 32 GB, but it would involve doing some prioritizing. I think 16 would just not be enough.

Looking at my itunes collection, most of the videos are like 900 MB/hr, and I usually have ~15 hours of video on there so it will last a good week or two of bus rides or a trip to Europe and back. I also have ~2 GB of games/apps and about 10 GB of music on it.

I’ve had no problem transferring large amounts of data over - I typically just plug it in while I’m doing other things.

Edited to add: My wife bought the 64 even though I had suggested the 32, but I’m glad she did

#7

Ditto. We have a 32. It’s currently pretty much full, and 80% of the space is used by video. That’s the only reason we’re anywhere near capacity.

I hear that the new iOS 4.3 allows you to stream video from your PC to the iPad wirelessly, but I haven’t had a chance to check that out for myself yet. That might reduce the amount of space you need on the iPad itself.

#8

The NYT Gadgetwise blog did a good piece on this yesterday - account req’d.

#9

I bought the 64 and it was way too much. I regret spending the extra money. The iPad just doesn’t get used for the same things as a pc and i have a 120gb Zune for my mp3 player. We put all the apps we want on it as well as all 3 seasons of breaking bad and are still no where near full.

#10

I have a 16GB Touch and wish I’d gone for the 32GB, because I hate having to choose which music to leave off it. If I want to listen to a particular album when I’m away from home, sod’s law says it’s one of the ones that won’t fit (I’ve got about 23GB of music on iTunes).

And that’s without any video or photos, and just a few games.

#11

I have the 64gb version and while I’ve only had it completely full a few times I’m glad I have the size I do.

I keep the TV shows I subscribe to on iTunes on it until I’ve watched them, I keep a couple gigs of photos, several dozen books and a little music. It’s most often used on my commute and I’m usually watching TV or reading.

#12

Here is another geek blog answer to the ‘What iPad should I buy?’ question.

#13

I’m disappointed with my 16GB Wifi version 1, but it’s my fault. I based it off my iPhone size, and didn’t think that my photo library would be 4x the size on my iPhone, which I was using as a surrogate. I do understand my mistake. My fault completely.