A recent experiencing test has confirmed the data writing speed of iPhone 7 256GB model is up to 8 times faster than the 32GB version due to the characteristics of the memory chip. Why don’t we take a look at the detail of the experiment on iPhone 7 storage performance?

iPhone 7 storage performance: 32GB model is 8 times slower than 256GB model

Apple officially abandoned on iPhone 7 16GB variant, marked the 32GB version for the lowest storage. However, it seems that users are disproportionately disadvantaged when they buy this version. Through a comparative test of speed, GSMArena showed a Basemark OS results. According to the report, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus 32GB version seems to work slower than the same machine with a higher capacity, namely the iPhone 7/7 Plus 128GB and 256GB.  

Recently, a well-known Youtuber – Lew Hilsenteger from Unbox Therapy channel did a test on iPhone 7 storage performance: 32GB vs 256GB ROM model. In the videos, he used Performance Test Mobile software download from the Apple Store as the testing tool. Reading speed of both devices is very high, 32GB version can read 686MB/s while 256GB can read 856MB/s. Although the difference is about 200MB/s, but at such high speeds, users can not recognize the significant differences. On the other side, while the 32GB version reaches 42MB/s writing speed, iPhone 7 256GB ROM is 8 times faster and reached the threshold 341MB/s. Then he tested their performance on copying data from PC to iPhone, 256GB version receive a 4,2GB movie in 2 mins 34 secs, whilst the 32GB takes 3 min 40 secs.

The reason for this significant difference in data writing speed is the result of their Flash Memory different structure. The larger capacity memory chip has, the more multiple parallel  NAND Flash is integrated. When running the copy job, the data is written simultaneously to all NAND flash range to achieve maximum speed. This means that for the same period, the high-capacity memory will burn more data than that of low storage device, which has fewer built-in NAND chips.

Predicted iPhone 7 storage performance difference

Although Apple has “blinded” their customers by saying that there was no difference between the various versions of iPhone 7, the test result is not too surprising. Larger SSD has been proved to  have better performance. Therefore, if the storage speed is an important factor to you, you will probably prefer to spend a little more money to buy a 128GB or 256GB iPhone. If you want to have more such tests about Apple phones, stay tuned!