[Closed] Android type phones - data usage

Can you get packages with that little data?

I wouldn't want to have less than 500mb of data, I reckon. You probably won't use it all, but you don't want to be constantly having to check your usage in case you are going over the limit.

if you download the opera mini browser it cuts your data usage by about 90%. it compresses it and strips out the stuff your phone can't display. it means its much faster too! its brilliant!

I use the web on my phone quite a bit, I've only used 111mb in the last month.

100mb is pretty low per month & even casual viewing of STW will eat that in no time.

I have 500mb & if I browse STW a couple times a day then I can rip through it before the month is up. The STW site seems to eat my download limit 😕

I tend to view STW less on the phone & more on the PC.

500 mb seems to be a standard data usage bundle. I get through about 250-300 mbs when I use my phone for browsing at work when on a month of nights. Don't forget that the way you use it can affect how much data you get through; only sync your e-mails when on WiFi, only watch youtube vids when on WiFi and so on.

Sure you can get low data packages - 100MB and 250MB costs about £13 and £16.50 per mo respectively on Vodafone for example. Another q then; my wife has an i-phone and usually goes into starbucks etc when in town and uses their wi-fi to check email and so on. I assume I can do the same with any smartphone and it doesn't then use any data?

Yup.

Mobile data = access to the internet via your mobile provider, which they will charge for or allow if you pay for a set amount of data/MB.

WiFi = access to the net that they don't charge for, so doesn't come off your allowance.

Yep that's right - on my android phone the wifi kicks in & takes over from network data (the 2G/3G/H symbol then disappears).

Ta

HTC or Galaxy?

(questions, questions!!)

I've used 83mb on contract since the 1st

I've also used 317mb on wifi in the same period.

HTC 🙂

HTC Desire HD. (Or the latest equivalent, not sure which one it is). If you like surfing the net with a phone the bigger screen is great. At work or home mine hooks up via WiFi so my 500mb allowance doesn't get used much. I think if you run around with Google maps going it can cane it a bit. I think you'll struggle to stay in 100mb though if only using data allowance. I rarely use my laptop for browsing the net at home. Phone is just easier.

500Mb, I don't do much in the way of browsing using 3G but with Twitter, Endomondo, Gmail and the like all running you soon eat through it. That said, if you've got wifi at work (I don't) and at home you could get away with less.

I only have an 100 meg monthly allowance, doubt i use more than 70meg every month. I use wifi at work and home, rarely use the data, but it's there if i need to.
Keeps my contract rental low and i can always buy a bigger bolt on if im going to be away and use more.

Don't forget to set your settings so that apps only update by WiFi otherwise they can rape your data allowance. Also I can recommend HTC Sensation XE, you can pick them up for 21 ish a month.

If there's a price difference, the Sensation and Sensation XE are the same phone.

I've got a 500Mb package; probably use about half of it. I'm careful to only download updates at home (WiFi) but other than that I don't give it too much thought. I suspect most of my traffic is sync data, email, Twitter, that sort of thing; I don't use a lot of web or streaming.

I don't think I'd use email - have a work BB for that. And i don't tweet or base**** so that's another usage avoided. Is literally to read the ramblings of idiots on here and keep up with the news / football scores. I think I'm going to go for 250MB, if I exceed it costs me another £5 for another 250MB. Whereas going for 500MB straight up costs about £5 a month more anyway although admittedly I'd get more minutes and texts too. Also not a big wow.

Thanks all.

I've had an android phone since the 19th I think, of feb, and so far I've used 105mb of data over network and 2.4 Gig through wifi. Just get the little widget to press to turn off data when not in use and use wifi wherever possible.

I'm with BT for my home phone so I get free wifi all over the show with them anyway.

if you have access to power - sensation/sensation XE is brilliant.

if you like to forget about charging your phone for a few days then the Desire S

I use wifi at home and network everywhere else. I use my connection without thinking for vids, surfing, endomodo, spotify etc and use 5-6mb a month so far

I don't know how sweepy is managing that on 5-6mb a month.

For general web browsing STW and a couple of forums, facebook, BBC etc for a an hour or so a day, I average 160mb a month. (normal android browser)
Several email accounts set up, 140mb a month.
Auto-upload for a video app, 210mb
Google maps, 30mb.
'System' traffic, 50mb.
BBC news app, 35mb.
Ebay app, 5mb.
Android system, 5mb
Facebook app, 5mb.
Most other apps are below 1mb.

Total traffic last month, 745mb
Month before, 1200mb, but that included a blokes trip to wales where we tethered a Blackberry Playbook to the phones data connection so we could watch 'fail' youtube videos to while away the M4, that took about 300mb, and 50mb for a failed video upload attempt.

The above is just mobile data, my Wifi usage is about 10% of my mobile usage, but then I normally use my laptop at home. It only gets turned on if I want to watch a youtube clip and there is a hotspot nearby.

A 100mb limit would impact on the usefulness of the phone, it is a mobile device after all. They are designed as a permanently connected device so it seems a bit short sighted to tie yourself into a small data plan. My brother did it a year or so ago, and his smartphone was basically a phone he made calls on, it was useless as a smartphone as he would only browse or use the maps when he really needed to.

(I pay £15 a month for 3000mb data, around 100 minutes and 500ish texts, don't think I will be able to get a comparable contract come renewal in a couple of months, so might just treat myself to a new battery for my Desire)

500 mb would be the absolute minimum from my point of view. I used to get through that from just browsing the web and using Google maps.

Being as there is talk of very low data limits and bolt ons, are we talking about o2? Their tariffs seem very poor for smartphones to me. I'd look at one of the Panther tariffs on Orange with free music / times online app / sky sports and a decent data cap. Otherwise you're buying an expensive phone and using very little of what it can do.

I'm on Three PAYG, with a £15 top up you can buy a bundle that gives you 300 minutes, 3000 texts and unlimited data. I've even used the phone as a wireless hotspot which was included in the normal data allowance. Scarily good. Obviously you'd need to buy a phone..

[url= https://www.three.co.uk/Support/Free_SIM/Order?id=1300 ]linky here[/url]

sweepy - Member
I use wifi at home and network everywhere else. I use my connection without thinking for vids, surfing, endomodo, spotify etc and use 5-6mb a month so far

You're not using mobile data for that and only using 5-6mb. You must be on wifi a lot or your figures are wrong.

30 mins of streaming on spotify will be around 25mb alone.

Youtube will be around 1mb per minute

This page of the site is around 0.5mb

I don't think I'd use email - have a work BB for that

Use it or not, Gmail will be constantly checking the server for updates. Still, it's not a huge amount of data even if you actually use it as your primary mail account, assuming you don't regularly send and receive huge attachments of course!

The things that really kills your data allowance are:
1. Streaming video or music (this is up to you...)
2. Letting the phone update itself (apps particularly) over 3G

The second point's the one that caught me out at the start - you need to manually configure, as much as possible, all your apps to use wifi only for updating. This includes the Android Market (or whatever it's called today...)