Are you finding yourself too limited by the memory size on this as I heard reports you are left with around 3GB of storage after the update? I really want a Wii U but I don't really fancy paying the £350 for the ZombiU pack so I am considering a White Wii U and the game separately.

What exactly is the memory used for, can you pre-install games like on a 360 or is it solely used for saved data and DLC?

I just use it solely for save data. Which is plenty of space. I have an external USB drive that I'll be using for the games I purchase. And to back up my saves.

But I think you CAN download games onto the 3GB of storage. Just small games like Mighty Switch Force.

Yah, it's pretty much mandatory that you'll need an external hardrive if you plan to buy the white one, unless you never plan to download any digital games.

I have one and I will eventually add an external hard drive. The 32GB on the other isn't enough either if you plan to download games.

Been getting on fine with my 8GB console so far. Installing the day one patch left me with around 4GB and the MarioU / ZombiU updates took up an additional ~75MB. This still leaves plenty of space for saves (which are roughly 1MB each) and enough room for the occasional demo (probably, lol...).

That said, plugging an external HDD in will likely be something that all WiiU owners will have to do at some point, regardless of whether they own the Basic or Premium.