your phone or tablet as granted. Here we look at the actual space available on some Apple, Nokia and Motorola devices

Don't take the storage space mentioned on your phone or tablet as granted. Here we look at the actual space available on some Apple, Nokia and Motorola devices

Features | by Deepa Damodaran

BANGALORE, INDIA: What's the actual storage capacity of your device? If the answer is same as what your device's spec sheet tells you, then be ready for a surprise. The actual storage capacity of any device- smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop- is always less than the specified or advertised amount.

Surprised? This has been an open secret for a long time, however, not many of us are aware of it. Most of us go with what is advertised. So, if the vendor says its smartphone has 16 GB storage space, we take the entire 16GB for granted for our personal use. But it isn't so. That is because the operating sytem or OS and pre-installed applications occupy most of the space. Also, while some vendors, such as Apple tend to calculate 1GB using decimal system, vendors such as Microsoft and others calculate it according to Binary system.

gibibyte (binary) GiB = 1024 mebibytes and gigabyte (decimal) GB = 1000 megabytes. As a result, 1 GB (in decimal) appears as about 0.93 GB (in binary). The difference is very minute, but it does make a difference. Today both these versions are referred to as GB, though vendors specify the way it is calculated. You may call it cheating. Before you plan an action against vendors for taking consumers for a ride with false claims, wait. Such details are always mentioned, or should I say buried with an asterix, as 'product specifications' or 'FAQs' on their websites.

Let me share my experience. I had my own doubts about this phenomena when I got my hands on my first, and so far the only, smartphone Windows 7 Nokia Lumia 710, that came with 8GB internal storage. As with any new smartphone user, marketplace and camera were my first targets, while I was yet to try my hands on Zune. And to my surprise, after a month, I had to start deleting some applications as I was running out of storage. But then, I did not bother much since the phone came with free 25GB on Skydrive. This happens with most of us because every other smartphone or tablet today comes with free, though limited, cloud storage or microSD cards, for which sometime one has to pay extra. Some of the large device manufacturers today have their own cloud storage services. So, there is always an available option for users when they run short of the internal storage.

Let's now examine storage of some devices.