For years, Apple customers have wondered why they have to dig so much deeper into their pockets for iPhone models with more memory, even though the larger flash modules hardly cost the manufacturer any more. Until now, the only answer to this was that the models with the smallest memory configuration reached their capacity all too quickly when faced with numerous photos and media files as well as new iOS versions. At least there is the option of storing files in the cloud. But now, with the iPhone 7, Apple is giving its customers a solid reason to invest the extra money. As the GSM Arena portal has discovered, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models with 32 GB are apparently equipped with significantly poorer components than the more expensive versions with larger memory. This cost-cutting measure leads to considerable performance losses in the cheapest models. While halving a three GB video in 4K resolution with the 128 GB iPhone 7 took around 17 seconds, the 32 GB model took more than three times as long at 52 seconds.

Memory benchmark results

GSM Arena also found similar results in tests with various memory benchmarks. For example, the iPhone 7 with 128 GB scored a decent 1,721 points in "Basemark OS II", whereas the performance of its smaller brother was anything but impressive at 821 points. Even the iPhone 6s with 64 GB was significantly faster here with 1,422 points. The difference was also particularly noticeable in the "PassMark Storage Write". The 128 GB iPhone 7 models achieved a write speed of more than 300 MByte per second. In contrast, the iPhone 7 with 32 GB only managed a paltry 39.6 MByte per second. The difference in read speed was not quite as clear, with "only" around 20% between the two storage variants. While experts initially suspected that these discrepancies between the models were due to a faulty device, the experiences and test results of numerous users prove that this is not an isolated case, but an unusual model policy on the part of Apple.

Price difference justified

While such benchmarks may provide rather theoretical values, it is clear that they also mean considerable differences in performance in the everyday lives of users - especially on this scale. Instead of complaining about the memory-gate affair, these findings (at least for Android users spoiled by cheap SD memory expansions) can also be viewed positively: At the very least, the price difference of 110 euros between the 32 GByte models and the next largest variant with 128 GByte on the iPhone 7 is thus really justified for the first time.