The Samsung Galaxy S4 is set to become a very popular phone, but those who have already picked one up seem to have gripes with one particular aspect; the internal storage. Customers feel that they’re being misled by the 16GB storage advertised, and now BBC Watchdog is investigating the case.
The S4 has 16GB of internal memory but in actuality the user has around half that as free space to play with. It’s not rare for a phone to come with a few gigs less storage than advertised, because the manufacturer obviously needs to store the operating system and a bunch of apps, themes and such. However, it seems Samsung has overstepped the mark with the S4.
Many reviews of the S4 note that Samsung has taken the phrase ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ to heart, filling it with loads of new apps, features and other bits and bobs. It seems that this has resulted in half of the advertised storage being missing, which some customers are naturally unhappy with.
The BBC’s Watchdog show will apparently run a feature on the S4 and this complaint on May 15th, so if you’re an S4 owner then it might be worth tuning in. However, we very much doubt that Samsung will be issuing any refunds, vouchers or the like as compensation. It has already issued a statement regarding the issue, encouraging users to simply pop in a micro SD card to expand the memory by up to 64GB. Whilst this is of course going to cost the user extra, it is a feature that the S4 has as a one-up on rivals like the HTC One and iPhone 5, which don’t feature expandable storage slots.
Samsung also has plans to launch 32GB and 64GB versions of its latest flagship phone, which of course are other options for those who demand plenty of storage space. These models aren’t out in the UK just yet, however.
The case questions just how much of the internal memory a customer can expect to have compared to the advertised amount. Whilst it’s all well and good using a micro SD card to expand the memory, you’ll only be able to install apps to the internal memory. Download a couple of big name games that are often at least 1GB in size and you’ll be out of space in no time.
Not happy with the storage space left on your Galaxy S4?