Galaxy S4 storage woes subjected to BBC Watchdog probe
The consumer rights show will examine the S4, which has come under fire for having less storage space than advertised.
Samsung's Galaxy S4 will come under fire from the BBC's Watchdog programme, as the consumer rights show examines the 5-inch smart phone's spurious storage claims.
Since its launch at the end of April, the Galaxy S4 has been criticised for having less storage space than advertised. The 16GB model has roughly 8GB of usable storage, with Samsung's own-brand software hogging up half of the phone's available room.
A preview of next week's Watchdog, spied by Slashgear, suggests that the show -- which targets shoddy or misleading behaviour from large companies and rogue traders -- will take aim at exactly this issue.
In the teaser for Wednesday's episode, Queen of Mean host Anne Robinson describes how Samsung "claims its brand new Galaxy phone has an extra large memory -- what did it forget to mention?"
Samsung has already spoken to CNET UK about its new gadget's capacity crunch, saying the lack of space is necessary to provide owners with, "more powerful features". I've asked Samsung for a comment on the Beeb's impending investigation, and I'll let you know as soon as I hear something.
The S4 does come with a microSD card slot, allowing you to increase its available space. You can't save apps to an external card however, which means you'll need to keep an eye on how many apps you have on your phone at once, and how much space they're occupying.
32 and 64GB versions of the S4 have been promised, but can't currently be found on sale from UK retailers or networks. Nabbing a higher-capacity mobile will also make the already-pricey S4 much more expensive.
Would you like to see Anne Robinson and pals take Samsung to task? Have you seen the 32 or 64GB models on sale anywhere? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.
