If you purchased a 32GB tablet, I’m sure you weren’t expecting exactly 32GB to store all your music, photos, and files. But I’m also sure you were expecting it to at least be around the neighborhood of 32GB. Maybe 30GB — 28GB even. What if you were only get half of that? Yes, that means 16GB for a “32GB” tablet. Would you be upset? I’m sure I would, and one Microsoft Surface customer is so upset that he’s decided to sue the company for misleading customers.

Andrew Sokolowski, who is a lawyer himself, has filed a lawsuit in California against Microsoft after running out of space on his Surface tablet. As dotTech reported earlier, while Microsoft is marketing these tablets as having storage capacities of 32GB and 64GB, the real-world amount is significantly less.

This is less of a problem on the 64GB, arguably, as the operating system takes up around 16GB — leaving the remaining 48GB for user consumption. But on the 32GB tablet, you’re left with only half of what you were seemingly promised. If Microsoft knows that the operating system would take up that much space, is it really right to still market it as a 32GB tablet when what you get is actually nowhere near that? If the PC industry trend is to be followed, then, yes, Microsoft is safe in doing so — this is an accepted practice for traditional computing and has been for years. However, we aren’t dealing with PCs here so what goes on in the PC world may not necessarily apply to tablets.

It should also be noted that Microsoft updated their website in early November (about a week after the tablets went on sale) to clarify how much free storage space actually comes with the Surface tablets. So how far Sokolowski’s legal attack will go is a toss-up. Still, from the standpoint of a consumer, it definitely is a bummer to get half of what you were expecting.

What do you think? Would you be upset? Does Microsoft have every right to do this? Let us know in the comments below!

[via Mashable, image via ABC News]