If we buy 500g of pasta, we expect to find 500g of pasta inside the package. If there are only 400g, we would contact someone to take action against the manufacturer. It seems obvious, but when it comes to smartphones, evidently, we are less strict.

Not all of us are tech enthusiasts, but I’m sure many attentive users have noticed that in a smartphone sold with 32GB of memory, the actual available storage is much less. Why? Because no one informs us that these GB are gross; they include the operating system!

Technology is advancing so rapidly, and the number of products on the market is so vast, that consumer associations have been somewhat left behind. However, in recent times, Altroconsumo has started investigating the inconsistencies between the declared specifications of smartphones and tablets and what actually exists.

The result of these investigations? It has been found that over a third of the gigabytes claimed by Samsung and Apple are unusable, as they are occupied by the operating system and pre-installed apps.

Altroconsumo’s ruling states that this behavior influences consumers’ purchasing decisions, as they are persuaded by features that ultimately do not exist.

Not only does the user find themselves with less space for new apps, photos, or videos, but they also risk not being able to update the operating system. For this reason, Altroconsumo has decided to initiate a class action to obtain a refund for consumers who purchased a Samsung or Apple device that turned out to be non-compliant with what was advertised.

For now, the action involves only the two phone giants, but reports of devices from other brands are also expected.