Galaxy S20: Which storage size should I buy?

Samsung Galaxy S20 Series All Three
Samsung Galaxy S20 Series All Three (Image credit: Android Central)

Best answer: The Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra all come with a base internal storage of 128GB. That, combined with the option to expand your storage up to 1TB with a microSD card, should be more than enough for most people. If you download a lot of movies, apps, games, and more on your phone, it may be worth considering the 512GB models that are available for the S20+ and S20 Ultra.

The 128GB of base storage should be enough for most people

Samsung is selling three different versions of the Galaxy S20 this year (S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra), and all three of them come with 128GB as the base internal storage. In other words, the lowest amount of storage space you'll get with your new S20 is 128GB.

For most users, that should be more than enough even if you plan on holding on to the S20 for two or three years. When you compare that to Apple using 64GB as the base storage for the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro, Samsung's offering of 128GB is quite generous.

You can use the microSD card slot for up to 1TB of additional space

Galaxy S20 Ultra

Source: Andrew Martonik / Android Central (Image credit: Source: Andrew Martonik / Android Central)

Should you get the 128GB model but find yourself running out of room, fear not! You'll find microSD card support on all three versions of the Galaxy S20, meaning you can easily add more storage whenever you want.

You can expand the S20's storage up to 1TB, or get a more reasonably-sized card like 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, or whatever you'd like. Expanding your storage this way is also quite affordable, with 64GB cards often being sold for around ten bucks.

A 512GB model is available for the S20+ and S20 Ultra

If you know for certain that 128GB is not enough room for all of the digital files you plan on saving on the S20, it might be worth upgrading to the 512GB model.

You can only get 512GB of internal storage for the Galaxy S20+ and S20 Ultra, and upgrading to this from the 128GB base will cost you even more. The 512GB S20+ has a $150 premium at $1350, with the 512GB S20 Ultra going for $1600 — $200 more than the base version. With that variant of the S20 Ultra, it's worth keeping in mind that you're also upgrading from 12GB of RAM to a whopping 16GB.

Most people likely don't need to go this route since the S20 lineup has expandable storage, but if you're going to download heaps of movies, TV shows, music, games, and more right out of the box, stepping up to 512GB could be money well-spent.

Joe Maring

Joe Maring was a Senior Editor for Android Central between 2017 and 2021. You can reach him on Twitter at @JoeMaring1.