Over half of Samsung Galaxy S4’s advertised 16GB storage capacity eaten up by Android and Samsung bloatware

“Buyers of the Samsung Galaxy S4 base model have found that more than half of the advertised 16GB storage capacity is taken up by Android and Samsung’s own bloatware,” Ben Furfie reports for T3.

“It is normal for some of the advertised storage space in a phone or computer to be used for system data. However, the ratio seen in the 16GB model of the Galaxy S4 is a new record,” Furfie reports. “The HTC One uses up around 1GB less on average than the S4, while the iPhone typically uses 4GB.”

Furfie reports, “Only Microsoft’s Windows 8 tablet, the 64GB Surface Pro beats Samsung in the silliness stakes. Out of the advertised 64GB capacity, owners can only use around about 23GB – less than 36 per cent of the advertised capacity… Commentators have lambasted some of [Samsung’s features such as eye tracking] as gimmicky and unnecessary. Unfortunately for S4 buyers, it isn’t possible to pick the ones you want to keep and uninstall the rest.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Buyers of this type of cheap, plastic garbage get exactly what they deserve.

Good thing you bought one and got one free, dummy. Maybe you can carry both POSes around to get closer the storage you thought you were buying.

Don’t drop ’em now, ya hear, Hee Hawers?

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “TheMightyFinder” for the heads up.]

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21 Comments

  1. Sometimes i wonder if there is something wrong with me. Because I look down on people who use these knock-off P.O.S. Phones. They truly are either ignorant, or tightwads. And maybe unethical. I really like MDN’s take on it. The Hee Haw Demographic. They should trademark it.

    1. I don’t think MDN cares a stuff it their website spreads hubris. When he/she looks in the mirror, it all seems justified. But when MDN recites their mantra – ““No company is invincible. Not even Microsoft” – the frightening thing is, I don’t think there is even a glint of awareness by MDN that “no company” also includes Apple. I think MDN comes across as a youngun who hasn’t been around the traps long enough to realise that “No company is invincible” also applies to Apple. I strongly suspect the MDN fellow was only a teenybopper during Steve Jobs’ first stint at Apple.

      All it takes is the arrogance to not see a small mis-step. Microsoft was arrogant with Windows 8. During beta, everyone told them the problems of removing the start button, and making it so difficult to find the shutdown button, etc. But Microsoft said stuff all to the feedback, and went ahead anyway. Apple is similar, except that Apple’s hits outnumber their misses, so far. But the same arrogance is there in Apple. All it takes is for a company – any company – to get so full of itself, and then it unwittingly takes a series of mis-steps that suddenly translate into a downward trend.

      Look, I am an Apple fan, and I don’t want to see Apple fall in a heap. But it is not helping Apple to give them one-eyed hero worship.

      1. I agree,that hubris is dangerous. But MDN makes a living out of catering to Mac fans. Besides, MDN’s attitude is not Apple’s attitude, so why should it have any effect on Apple’s fate?

        Personally, I don’t like MDN’s “Hee Haw” demographics comments. There are plenty of people who could afford an iPhone (seriously, the price isn’t that different unless Samsung is heavily discounting) who choose Android for some reason. And that is OK. We won’t change their minds by disparaging their intelligence, and neither will MDN.

      2. pffff:

        msft and Win8: the real problem is that Msft is based on Max the Profit even if it means producing shit.

        Msft went ahead with Win 8 to PROTECT ITS DESKTOP WINDOWS BUSINESS so it cobbled together and squeezed a trunk engine desktop OS onto bicycle powered tablets.
        Msft didn’t pursue it’s many mobile initiatives like Win Mo, Kin, Zune OS, Pink, Danger, Win 7 because it needed to protect desktop windows, the Msft Cash Cow.

        Apple has little danger of following Msft footsteps because apple seeks CATER TO THE CUSTOMER FIRST. It doesn’t care to cannibalize or discard it’s own tech. IPod was their biggest money earner but jobs decided not to build an iPod phone because he knew iOS was BETTER.

        Msft disregarded its own mobile arm (Zune, Win Phone, Win Mo were in the Entertainment and Devices Division) to prop up its money machine Windows Desktop and got the DESKTOP division to build MOBILE device OS…

        Msft and Apple’s DNA is completely different.
        Msft M.O is “what can we do to make the most money”
        Apple’s M.O as articulated by Jobs ” we make the best products possible, the topline and the money, the bottom line will take of itself”.

        1. I agree completely with your analysis. The companies’ motives are different, have always been different except when Steve Jobs was in exile. And when he returned he purged Apple of corrupted DNA, and reshaped the corporate culture through purges of product lines and executives until a Galilean focus was established, that would open new vistas of computing for all mankind. Meanwhile Microsoft had acquired power and wealth enough to rule like Caesar, but became degenerate, institutionally incapable of change, unable to resist overwhelming barbarian innovations. It took a thousand years, but the Roman Empire decayed and eventually dwindled to nothing, and nobody speaks Latin any more.

    2. why should MDN be careful of hubris in this case?

      Hubris is “Pride before the Fall”
      Worried that if anybody falls they would hit Samsung sucking at the bottom?

  2. more than half of the advertised 16GB storage capacity is taken up by Android and Samsung’s own bloatware

    Horrifying. It reminds me of another vendor who scams the victim customer by providing far less than the advertised usable storage space: MICROSOFT.

  3. The article ended up obscuring the comparison between Samsung, HTC, MS Surface and iPhone, on the issue of usable space, so it isn’t quite clear how much of the user space is actually used by each. Here is my understanding:

    MS Surface: way more than 8GB
    Samsung G4: over 8GB
    HTC: a bit below 8GB
    iPhone: around 4GB

    More important point here is that the Samsung G4 numbers shown in the article are for the generic device as sold by Samsung (unlocked). When you get this phone from your carrier (for $200 with subsidy and contract), you are saddled with more crapware provided by the carrier, in addition to all the crapware installed by Samsung. None of this crapware can be removed by the user.

  4. The GS4, with bloat and all, is still a MUCH better phone than anything Apple has ever offered. Benchmarks and feedback from former iphone users testifies to that.

    How do you like being force-fed iTunes and everything else that is Apple? How does non-expandable memory and non-replaceable battery work out? Apple has lost it’s sparkle, and Samsung is whipping them like a red-headed stepchild.

    Just wait for the 32gb and 64gb versions of the GS4, then go get a superior phone and unchain yourselves from Apple.

    Have a great day!

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