Galaxy S5 offers 10.7 GB of usable storage space on 16GB model
The Galaxy S4 was given a lot of flak for using up a lot of the total internal storage for system files, leaving only around 9GB for user data on the 16GB variant. The folks over at Android Central then revealed that available storage space was even lower on the Galaxy S5, indicating that the company has failed to trim down the bloat of its software. However, that’s not the case, as Telekome-presse found out: the Galaxy S5 on display at MWC was simply using up an extra 2.33GB for the demo content related to Samsung’s Unpacked event, demo content that will not be present in the retail version of the device.
It’s a normal scenario for display units in retail stores as well, which store video and audio files to show off the device’s features to consumers, and was the reason for the confusion regarding the Galaxy S5 as well. In fact, Samsung has reduced the amount of storage its software takes up, with the Galaxy S5 offering 10.7GB of storage for user files such as apps and media, which could go even higher when the company is done optimizing everything on the final version on the phone. Granted, this is still quite a bit lower than the available storage on devices like the Nexus phones, but it’s ultimately a trade-off that has to be made for some of the useful features that Samsung offers on its devices.
When you factor in the availability of a microSD slot and the option to move apps to the external storage on Samsung devices, an option not available on the stock version of Android, it’s pretty easy to see that the Galaxy S5 won’t be presenting any issues related to the available internal storage space.
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Have we forgotten 32GB,64GB storage versions ?
App2SD may not be fully compatible in KitKat though as Google is increasing discourage the use of external memory storage
Google isn’t discouraging using external storage its just increasing the permissions for apps for example you install an app to download music, the app makes a folder to store the music. Thats ok but if the app wants to make a folder to store files for advertisements or something other than what its meant to create it gets denied access.
I don’t agree with that last paragraph. My S4 is constantly running low on internal storage with everything moved to the external storage that can be. Can’t believe that phones still come with such low storage. My EVO 4G had 16 GB and that was what 6 years ago.
I had the same problem until I used an app called “AVG Cleaner” and realized that all the app caches were using well over 1gb.
@dominezz
I agree with all you say but I see that my old nexus 4 has 1200MB free ram and runs very fast… OK it is running with ART but it feels like much faster than the s4 and that with a slower CPU… I think I have to flag the Google play edition ROM on to my s4 to see it working like it had to be with such hardware…
Thanks for your posts.
Best regards.
2gb ram in reality is 1.78gb
for me… the s5 is one step back vs the note 3… the note 3 has 32GB and 3GB ram… so I dont know why the s5 has not 32GB and 3GB ram to boost everthing away… I will stay with my note 3.
Agree, Note line comes after so it always have better specs than S line-up, after a while comes the S with better specs, but it wasn’t the case this year. Still have the S4 and Note is too big for me. Sorry Samsung you won’t have my money in 2014, better luck next year.
I have both… the s4 LTE and the Note3… wanted to go s5 but the s5 is like an s4 with a faster cpu… thats not a big deal… the note3 will run faster in multitasking… if the s5 was with 32GB and 3GB ram and a 3 Ghz quadcore… so that where a deal to go s5…
so I will like you… sit back and playing with my s4 and note3… waiting for 2015 to upgrade…
if you have a note3 u would know why it has 3gb of ram but it seems you dont.
2.3 ghz on my note3 is enough for everything so..3ghz (really? you want to replace your pc?)
and having 32gb from start(note3) is normal.its a tool to create stuff lol.
I think I know why the note3 has 3GB of ram… bc of all that things that it has to handle with its stik… but my s4 stock booted has even than over 1GB ram occupied and there is only 500+Mb free for multitasking… but thats not the problem… the problem is that the s5 has from beginning 16GB of ram and you can use only 9GB of them for software. The second problem is that its not a big upgrade to the s4… only if you are on s3 and want to go s5, thats a big deal… but… Read more »
nope the note3 has 3gb only because of the wacom digitizer that for some reason eats memory like hell.dude the s4 has 2 gb of ram so if your s4 uses more than 1 gb that still 1gb left 16gb of ram?(u mean memory lol)it can use more than 10 gb and thats alot(look at your s4 memory man) true people are getting dumb just because it has more cores and ram doesnt mean that is better. i had a nokia n9(1gb) that could run 40 apps at the moment without hiccups and my friends s3(1gb) after a few apps… Read more »
Good, they’re heading to the right direction.
A little less than Note 3. Itá not the best but it’s in progress.
Samsung is really shooting himself in his own foot since they are still being so cheap to use 16GB as the initial size offered for the flagship Galaxy S series line up. When I started purchasing the Galaxy S1 i9000 three years ago it was already offering 16GB as the initial storage size, and at that time most of the apk are under 1MB. A dear 3 years has past and I cannot believe Samsung is still offering 16GB as the initial storage size on flagship S series. I am utterly disappointed with Samsung for this and so many other… Read more »
Samsung offered 8GB as the standard for the Galaxy S.
I hate my S4 for its memory. I tried extending it with 2 SD Cards(class 10 – 16GB, class 6 – 32GB) and burned all of them. Now I am on the third, a SanDisk Ultra 32GB… I hope Samsung brings the software optimization in memory to the Galaxy S4 too, because from 5 games with nothing more installed it becomes pretty boring…
And if you really think about you only really have about 15.3GB of space on a 16GB Drive. So in all reality, the install and reserves is only using 4.6GB. Which in all reality is not much more than all the other Android Kit Kat installs on other smartphone brands! And it’s Google Services and reserve space that takes up most of that install! So on Apple iPhones with iOS7, the download size is smaller, but by the time you install using at least 2.7 to 3GB space and done two backups, you’re also hitting 5GB. I just don’t want… Read more »