(Image credit: Future)
There was a time not too long ago when a 32GB smartphone felt perfectly workable — potentially even spacious. Fast forward to today and apps have gotten bigger, cameras have become larger, and routine software updates now eat entire gigabytes on their own.32GB has gone from seeming totally normal (even luxurious) to looking absurdly stingy. I think 256GB laptops are heading in the same direction.In 2026, plenty of otherwise excellent laptops start with 256GB of storage, despite many of the best smartphones offering the same amount. At first, 256GB might be enough, but after months or years of apps, photos, downloads, and updates, that breathing room is just... gone.And when it does go, Windows 11 and macOS have a very convenient answer waiting in the wings: move more of your stuff into the cloud — and, sooner or later, start paying for it.256GB isn’t tiny — and that’s exactly the problem
(Image credit: Future)The funny part, if we can call it that, is that 256GB can feel perfectly comfortable for those who live inside a browser. But there's a difference between having enough storage and having enough room to grow.We’ve previously said that 256GB is the bare minimum you should look for in a general-purpose laptop, and that increasingly feels spot on in 2026.It’s definitely enough to get by, but it doesn’t leave you with a huge amount of headroom for the future. In a world where a single Spotify playlist with 1,000 songs can take up nearly 10GB of space, bigger is better.Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.You can actually see the shift happening elsewhere in the market: Apple’s latest MacBook Air now starts with 512GB, an upgrade we welcomed, while many budget laptops continue to stick with 256GB to keep their prices down.There is, of course, some nuance to this picture. A cheap Chromebook or secondary laptop definitely doesn’t need a huge SSD, and with memory prices soaring, buying decisions are becoming harder than ever.But for a laptop you expect to use as your main computer for the next five-plus years, 256GB looks less like a specification and more like a compromise.Your laptop can last years, but its storage can’t grow with it
