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The one iPhone 15 Pro upgrade I need is basic, reasonable, and disruptive

This one feature upgrade would make all the difference for the iPhone 15's user experience.
Written by Kerry Wan, Senior Reviews Editor
iphone-14-pro-red-background
June Wan/ZDNET

I won't bury the lede: The iPhone is becoming more powerful than ever, and Apple should up the base storage of the Pro models from 128GB to 256GB. 

Also: What to expect from Apple's 'Wonderlust event' this week: iPhone 15, Apple Watch Ultra 2, AirPods

Since the iPhone 12 was released three years ago, the Pro lineup of Apple handsets has sold with a base storage of 128GB. 

The iPhone camera system has since become more capable of capturing detail in low light, Pro Res video recording was introduced, and the influx of content creation (and content creators) means that more and more consumers have found themselves with less and less memory storage.

And I haven't even weighed in the space that's occupied by the iPhone's system settings and default apps, both of which contribute to roughly 13GB of memory. Or the storage that gets swallowed up should you decide to transfer data from an older phone.

The quick fix here is to offer users a higher storage capacity at the get-go. Samsung's done it with its Galaxy S23 Ultra model, and that's made the camera experience much more enjoyable. 

Also: The iPhone 15's USB-C upgrade may have serious implications for the charging accessory future

Because there's nothing worse than investing in a $1,000 phone, only to realize months later when the return period has expired that you have to either delete existing photos and videos or opt into a monthly cloud storage subscription to keep things afloat.

And, with the rumored price increase of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, setting the base storage to 256GB would make the upcharge a little more justifiable.

I'm not asking for 8K video recording, faster USB-C charging, or an in-display fingerprint sensor. Just give me a little more local storage, Apple, to save all those photos and videos I'll likely capture every day, every week, and every month.

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