512GB is great but can we ditch 128GB next time, Samsung?

Finally, Samsung has a 512GB model available across the Galaxy S25 series, meaning you can now pick even the smaller phone with plenty of storage capacity to keep all your music, photos, and videos for years to come. Well, at least for global markets. For whatever reason, Samsung decided against bringing this new 512GB variant to US customers, which is disappointing, to say the least. Even then, you’ll have to pay for the privilege, an eye-watering £959 (let’s say $959 if it was coming to the US), but at least it’s an option if you’re in need of extra space. Now, I don’t want to sound unappreciative, but Samsung should have done away with the 128GB Galaxy S25 model as well, making 256GB the baseline and really giving the series a shot in the arm for storage.

Myself and our readers have said it countless times: 128GB isn’t enough space for a flagship purchase, at least for most of us. Especially for a phone that’s supposed to store up to seven years of new updates, increasingly space-greedy games, and years’ worth of snaps. I don’t want to repeat myself; the bottom line is that when you add up 20GB for the OS, 35GB for a game like Genshin Impact, 6GB for a single FHD offline movie, and a conservative 5GB per year of pictures (not even videos), 128GB is eaten up astonishingly quickly.

Now, granted, there aren’t many ~6.2-inch phones that start with 256GB; Apple’s iPhone 16 and Google’s Pixel 9 all start at the same storage configuration at the same $799 price. But smaller phone owners don’t require less space, so why do Galaxy Plus and Ultra customers seemingly get more for their money? If you’re curious, they start at $999 and $1,299 with 256GB, respectively, while an equivalent Galaxy S25 costs $849. It’s not ludicrously expensive, but it puts prospective S25 buyers ever closer to the next model up anyway, which is perhaps the point.

The basic Galaxy S25 looks worse when considering that the brilliant and higher-specced OnePlus 13 starts at a very reasonable $899 for 256GB storage (you could even grab 512GB for the same price at launch). The S25 remains a little cheaper, but when you consider OnePlus’ other charms, it’s probably worth spending that extra $50 for a phone that charges way faster and has a more modern camera setup. On the other hand, the more affordable OnePlus 13R provides 256GB by default for just $599, and the Xiaomi 14T for about $529.

Of course, that’s no consolation if you don’t want a 6.8-inch behemoth, but it still makes the baseline Galaxy S25 seem rather anemic by comparison. Ultra-premium models have already moved on, and rivals now offer more storage at lower prices. Why are the big US three seemingly holding out with their baseline flagships?

It’s hard not to conclude that Samsung, as well as Apple and Google, for that matter, stick with such low storage to make their prices appear “low” while pushing consumers to spend a bit more on the model they actually need.

Of course, Apple, Google, and Samsung won’t want to raise their seemingly competitive $799 entry point alone and concede the appearance of value for money. Equally, they don’t want to eat some profit by bringing more storage down to a lower price. Most likely, Apple, Google, or Samsung will keep waiting until one of the others moves either way with their base model first. Hence, we’re stuck at this impasse.

However, the first one to offer 256GB as standard not only gets to show up the other two but also corners the market for smaller phones with ample affordable storage for however long it takes its rivals to catch up, which could be more than a year if they’re caught off guard. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that Galaxy S25 owners now have a choice between 128, 256, and 512GB of storage, at least in some regions, but I’d argue that very few customers should pick that cheapest option if they plan to keep their phone for Samsung’s full seven-year update promise.

If there’s a silver lining, Samsung is running its usual “double storage for the same price” promotion when you pre-order any model in the Galaxy S25 series. It’s a great way to get more storage at a discount, especially if you’re going to buy the phone anyway. Perhaps 256GB will be the baseline for the Galaxy S26, right, Samsung? And maybe we’ll also see the 512GB in the US next time?