Comments on: Microsoft Surface 32GB only has 16GB of usable storage

By: Cody Horner

Cody Horner — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:50:00 +0000

True… but if you look at the download sizes of these apps, Google maps is let me check here…. 18.6MB in size. YouTube is 19.7MB in size. On average, the size of apps and even games on iOS is ~60MB and under.

Compare this to the bloated size of anything and everything Windows; if you know the facts you’d probably change your mind. Also, 4 months later (after this initially was posted)… and everyone knows the Surface RT is a piece of junk and a bit of a joke.

By: pepee63

pepee63 — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 08:37:00 +0000

Who’s the idiot that made a gigabyte not equal a thousand megabytes.

By: LiveInJapan

LiveInJapan — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:57:00 +0000

included apps for iOS? like the map that is not usable? How many native apps on iOS is actually useful? it’s small because it took away things like youtube and google map (you end up have to use storage space to download them).

By: Peter Noble

Peter Noble — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 22:05:00 +0000

MS Surface RT is not your daddy’s iOS6. I’m amazed at how much control is in RT and the version of Office for RT is amazing. Now, why not applaud MS for having made their base config 32GB? Applaud again that like Google we have Micro-SSD storage upgrades and a free Skydrive cloud storage and standard USB 2?
I was stuck below 39th street in NYC and MS Surface RT and Verizon MiFi LTE gave me a fully functional connect to the world. The Touch cover and after loading many Apps I still do not need my Micro-SSD or USB drive. This is amazing and different. This RT gave me a near fully functional computer that could power up to 50% in two hours, faster than the leaner iPad,
I have Google, Apple and MS..oh and Kindle Fire and by far the most useful in a crisis is the MS Surface RT. So to have only 13GB of free space is just fine considering I have been making storyboards.PNG by the hundreds take up a lot of room.
Anyway, I have ordered 64gb Micro-SSD…so that’s better than my 16gb iPad

By: Deco Teague

Deco Teague — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 20:58:00 +0000

Because the storage memory chip itself does have ~16GB

By: Seth M.

Seth M. — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 20:20:00 +0000

Why is there not a class action lawsuit filed against these manufactures for false advertisement or misleading advertisement ? I don’t have a 16 GB – I have a 14.2 GB iPad (this before I added Apps).

By: Ryan Smith

Ryan Smith — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 20:02:00 +0000

I hear that Microsoft Office for iOS takes up…

Oh wait…it doesn’t have…?

Sorry move along.

By: Deco Teague

Deco Teague — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:34:00 +0000

I think the blame lies with using goddamn metric terms, which actually are based on orders of 1000.

By: Deco Teague

Deco Teague — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:31:00 +0000

Since it was the case with Windows 7, doesn’t the Windows folder in 8/RT contain lots of hardcoded shortcuts to files, thus getting the files counted twice for disk usage?

By: vba

vba — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:29:00 +0000

He is referring to the ability to refresh the OS, which leaves intact your photos, music, videos, and documents, system settings, etc.

Not sure about RT, but in 8, you also have the ability to reset the OS, which iirc, essentially formats the drive and reimages a clean install of the OS.

By: stigs007

stigs007 — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:22:00 +0000

Good point.

By: stigs007

stigs007 — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:21:00 +0000

By refresh, do you mean update?

By: Abdul9

Abdul9 — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:17:00 +0000

Another thing many here are missing is the feature to just refresh windows, you can’t tell me you can add such a convenient feature without eating up disk-space. Well i don’t have a surface but i guess it has some space for Windows rt in case you want to refresh it (and that also includes the build in software like office). So its not surprising that it takes up that much space.

By: AmiRami

AmiRami — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:10:00 +0000

enjoy. iOS is only 2 GB for a reason. Windows RT offers much much mich more than iOS does. For example RT offers free Office (which is included in this memory allocation they are speaking of) while on iOS at best you can get the best equivalent they have which is pages and numbers etc for 10 bucks a pop.

By: AmiRami

AmiRami — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:06:00 +0000

Well its not exactly a false statement. There is 32 GB of space, it is just that some of it is taken up. Windows Recovery takes up 5 GB of space because thats how big the binary files are to restore the OS to factory conditions. iOS usually only takes up about 2 GB but remember that Windows RT is a full OS so it takes up more space.

By: HiTechObsessed

HiTechObsessed — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:05:00 +0000

See, what they should have done is called it the 16GB version, and said that they give you a full 16GB, whereas the iPad only gives you 14 or so lol

By: HiTechObsessed

HiTechObsessed — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:04:00 +0000

Yes, but you can add additional (swappable) storage to it at a much lower rate than the iPad does. I’m only bringing up the iPad because it is, obviously, the main competitor to the Surface.

By: AmiRami

AmiRami — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:03:00 +0000

I like it a lot actually. Obv there are positives and negatives about this like anything else, and the app store is currently def a negative. The big names like angry birds, netflix, hulu, NY Times, etc are mostly there but the store has a lot of growing to do (and I suspect will in a short amount of time). Minus the gaming aspect it already has what I need though.
The build quality of the hardware is nothing short of amazing and for me the touch cover works very very well. Office feels just like the office you would expect on the desktop minus Outlook. It even has built in windows tools like task manager, the desktop control panel, cmd.exe and powershell. It is in every way that matters just like windows 8 except for the VERY big difference of NO LEGACY APPS.
And the biggest bonus in my mind is that IE is flash enabled. This is only for Microsoft approved sites (that won’t be a security risk like porn or other sites) but that includes hulu for watching shows that they don’t approve for mobile apps, HBO Go, and Facebook which allows (I think) for all the FB app store flash games to run in IE if they aren’t in the store.
Gaming seems pretty on par with what you would expect from other tegra 3 tablets like the Nexus 7. In fact I have a game that runs on both (forgetting the name at the moment sorry).
The screen is not as nice as the iPad 3 or 4 but beats the iPad 2 and iPad mini in a heartbeat with Microsoft’s ClearType tech. It has vivid colors and great viewing angles. the optically bonded screen def helps with that.

EDIT: I forgot to mention one thing. The tablet does have a micro SDXC slot to add to the memory if space is an issue after 16 GB.

By: HiTechObsessed

HiTechObsessed — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:02:00 +0000

Right, but a lot of people think a Gigabyte equals a thousand Megabytes. The blame here lies with marketing, like you said, but still doesn’t change the fact that a lot of people believe 1,000 MBs = 1 GB.
(Although, technically, one thousand million bytes DOES equal one billion bytes lol)

By: Guest

Guest — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Plus, in regards to: “the total disk size reported by Windows takes off 3 to 6GB right away”. All SSDs reserve GBs for maintenance etc. My 120GB SSD in my PC reports only 111GBs useable. Apparently Craig doesn’t understand that either.

By: HiTechObsessed

HiTechObsessed — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:56:00 +0000

Good lord I hate how companies these days use the decimal system to represent storage capacity.

By: vba

vba — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:54:00 +0000

Plus there is the reserve space that all SSDs maintain. See this thread: http://www.overclock.net/t/787532/actual-ssd-useable-space

Thus the statement: “the total disk size reported by Windows takes off 3 to 6GB right away.” is true, but it’s not the OS’s fault. My 120GB SSD only has 111GB useable. Again this is normal for SSDs.

By: aceofclubs

aceofclubs — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:51:00 +0000

except for the fact that the surface has an SD Card slot so you can instantly add what 64gb of storage you dont have to worry about. Or since it has a usb port you can attach a usb drive to add how ever much storage you want. but the usb aside adding that sd slot makes the storage question kind of mute.

By: Cody Horner

Cody Horner — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:50:00 +0000

Goes to show how inefficient Windows RT is as well. What does iOS take up, 1GB of storage with included apps (maybe slightly more)?

I’ve switched completely away from Microsoft and couldn’t be happier.

By: stigs007

stigs007 — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:49:00 +0000

I guess, but that’s a serious chunk of space they’re taking up, plus you have to buy that additional storage. Granted that might not be expensive, but the average consumer might not like that, and lets face it, Microsoft is fighting an uphill battle in the tablet market.

By: onpoint G

onpoint G — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:46:00 +0000

I really want to get one but after reading this I’m going to wait, how do you like it? have you checked out the app store/marketplace or whatever they call it

By: vba

vba — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:43:00 +0000

If you need more space, just use the microsdxc slot for media. To me it makes this a non issue.

Also, not sure anything they listed that takes up space would be considered “bloatware”. Slashgear really comes off as biased when they produce articles like this.

By: jmp

jmp — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:41:00 +0000

“Microsoft’s storage figures are based on many
peoples’ false thinking that 1,000MB equals 1GB” You didn’t quite get
that one right there, Craig. 1000 MB is actually just a bit less than
.98 GB. Using your incorrect example of “peoples’ false thinking” would mean
the device would have 31.25 GB to start with. Also, I wouldn’t say
people falsely assume that fact. It’s actually the storage device
vendors who historically represent a GB of storage as a billion bytes
instead of 1024^3 bytes. You probably shouldn’t comment on how people think falsely about something when you don’t understand the concept yourself.

By: stigs007

stigs007 — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:29:00 +0000

I’ll generally defend a lot of the things Microsoft does, but this is just stupid to take up that much space. Moronic decisions like this really bite them in the ass.

By: cliff_dangers

cliff_dangers — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:22:00 +0000

Still don’t know how manufactures have not been sued into oblivion for false advertising. How can you tell someone they have 32GB of storage when they really only have 29.8. And why does Windows recovery take up 5GB?!

By: AmiRami

AmiRami — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:10:00 +0000

Valid point but mine works great.

By: mikexilva

mikexilva — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:04:00 +0000

If CPU has to go through all that stuff, it’s going to strugle…