Made up your mind to buy the iPhone 12 Pro? Now confused as to which storage variant you should buy – 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB? Read our guide so that you can easily take this decision.
With the iPhone 12 Pro series, Apple has bumped the base storage to 128GB from 64GB. That immediately changes the equation for a lot of customers looking to buy a higher tier storage variant of the iPhone 12 Pro. Despite the base storage increasing, the maximum storage for the iPhone 12 Pro lineup tops out at 512GB, with a 256GB option being the middle ground.
➤ Which Color iPhone 12 Pro Should You Buy – Pacific Blue, Graphite, Gold, or Silver?
Which iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12 Pro Max Storage Capacity Should You Buy?
iPhone 12 Pro – Capacity and Pricing
Before we proceed further, below is a quick rundown of the pricing of the iPhone 11 for different storage tiers.
- 128GB – $999
- 256GB – $1,149
- 512GB – $1,349
The pricing for the iPhone 12 Pro Max is similar, though every model is $100 more expensive.
- 128GB – $1,099
- 256GB – $1,249
- 512GB – $1,449
Apple charges a $200 premium for the storage jump from 256GB to 512GB. While 512GB is a lot of storage, Apple is also charging customers a lot of money for it. Then, with the base storage increasing to 128GB, most users now no longer need a higher storage variant.
General Storage Guidelines
If you’re the kind of person who likes to keep their entire music library offline on their iPhones, or you download a lot of movies or apps, it’s best if you don’t skimp on your storage. If you like to keep your entire photo library available offline on the device, it’s best if you go for the largest possible storage capacity.
On the other hand, if you use music streaming services, stream movies and TV shows exclusively and you back up all photos and videos to iCloud Photo Library, you might just get away with the lowest storage tier. But even then, you should be prepared when you hit the wall. You’ll need to delete apps and backup photos actively to make sure there’s enough storage space available. There’s also the fact that if you use iCloud to backup your photos, you will eventually run out of storage space on it and have to subscribe to a higher storage plan.
Who Should Buy the 128GB iPhone 12 Pro?
The iPhone 12 Pro lineup now ships with 128GB as base storage — twice the amount of the iPhone 12 and previous Pro iPhones from Apple. For average consumers, 128GB of storage is going to be more than enough for the next 3-4 years. You can click a lot of photos, record 4K videos, download movies from Netflix and Prime Video, have a few heavy games installed, and do much more without worrying about running out of storage space. With iPhones now shooting and saving videos in HEIF and HEVC format, photos and videos take up half the space of older iPhones. iOS now also has plenty of space-saving measures that you can now take advantage of.
Who Should Buy the 256GB iPhone 12 Pro?
The 256GB iPhone 12 Pro is for someone who is always on the move and who tends to have a few movies on their device so that they can watch it anytime. If you intend to use your iPhone for 3-4 years and never once look at the amount of free storage remaining or bother with uninstalling old apps or deleting old data and do not mind spending extra for that additional peace of mind, go for the 256GB iPhone 12 Pro.
256GB of storage space is definitely going to be overkill for most people. But for power users and people who want that extra room for that additional peace of mind, the 256GB variant makes a lot of sense. You might also want to check the amount of storage space you are currently using on your iPhone and how much it bugs you. If you own a 128GB iPhone which has around 80-90GB of storage space occupied, it makes sense for you to go for the 256GB iPhone 12 Pro. If you are only using around 40-50GB of space, with most of them occupied by apps and photos, you are going to be just fine with the 128GB variant.
Who Should Buy the 512GB iPhone 12 Pro?
The 512GB iPhone 12 Pro is straight up going to be overkill for almost everyone. Until and unless you have very specific needs like you want to carry around your entire library of FLAC music or Blu-Ray rips of movies and TV shows, there’s little reason for anyone to buy the 512GB variant of the iPhone 12 Pro.
In case you have already made up your mind to buy the 512GB iPhone 12 Pro, you likely already have a use case for it which is why you are looking to buy it. Or you just have a lot of money to burn.
Buy iPhone 12 Pro
You can buy the iPhone 12 Pro from any of the following retailers and carriers below:
You can also get an iPhone 12 for free. And once you do get your hands on it, check out the best iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro tips and tricks. There are plenty of new features in iOS 14 that you need to know about, so take your time to go through them all.
Do drop a comment and let us know as to which iPhone 12 Pro storage variant you went ahead with and why?
This post was last updated on March 26, 2021.
