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Looking to Buy a 256GB iPhone 7? Not So Fast...

You'll have to hit up your favorite carrier if you want a large-capacity iPhone 7. At Apple, the iPhone 7 now stops at 128GB.

October 22, 2017
iPhone 7 vs. iPhone 8

If you're the kind of person who needs to have every photo, song, and video you've ever taken on your mobile device—in addition to a huge collection of apps and all the movies you've previously purchased—then you're probably less interested in buying anything but the highest-capacity phone you can get. You need the big guns. And if you're an Apple aficionado, that means you're aiming for a 256GB device come iPhone refresh time.

Don't go looking to Apple to score a deal on an older 256GB iPhone, however. As Mashable reports, Apple removed the ability to buy an 256GB iPhone 7 following the September 12 announcement of its latest iPhone 8 and iPhone X models. Though Apple itself hasn't confirmed the change, the Apple Online Store shows that there is now no way to purchase any version of an iPhone 7 with 256GB of storage—including the iPhone 7 Plus.

In other words, if you need a ton of storage, you're going to have to upgrade to the iPhone 8 if you're purchasing the device directly from Apple. That at least gives potential customers another solid reason to consider Apple's latest device, though likely not enough of one that will help boost the allegedly anemic sales of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

That said, you can still find a 256GB iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus from different wireless carriers for the time being, which could save you around $100 or so if you're not keen on upgrading to Apple's latest device. And if you're still on the fence about which iPhone makes the most sense for you, the decision only gets more difficult come October 27, when preorders for Apple's flagship iPhone X go live at 12:01 a.m. PT. (Yes, the iPhone X will come with a 256GB option as well, for the eye-opening price of $1,149, or $150 more than its 64GB version.)

As PCMag's Sascha Segan noted in his review of the iPhone 8, the "excellent" phone "doesn't bring any radical new consumer features for owners of the iPhone 7 or even 6s models," and is "the least appealing member of the iPhone family right now" based on the performance a user receives for its price.

"The iPhone 8, at $699 and $849, suffers from one major problem: the iPhone 7 is now $549. And the 8 just isn't $150 better—yet. The major improvements here are wireless charging, which I still think is basically a curiosity, and the A11 processor. The A11 is amazing, but there just isn't much that stresses it right now other than augmented reality, and if you want the best augmented-reality phone, you should go with the 8 Plus or the X."

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About David Murphy

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David Murphy got his first real taste of technology journalism when he arrived at PC Magazine as an intern in 2005. A three-month gig turned to six months, six months turned to occasional freelance assignments, and he later rejoined his tech-loving, mostly New York-based friends as one of PCMag.com's news contributors. For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).

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