Welcome Guest! To access all forums & features, please register an account or sign-in. → Why register?



iOS vs. WP7 -- Which one uses less data?


12 replies to this topic - - - - -

#1 whitebread

    Neowinian Senior

  • 3,667 posts
  • Joined: 09-April 06
  • Location: Waterloo Region, ON
  • OS: OS X Lion 10.7.4
  • Phone: iPhone 4S

Posted 19 April 2012 - 15:11

I have both an iPhone 4 (running iOS 5.1) and a Nokia Lumia 710 (with all updates). I get 100MB of data/month. Which phone will use less data? I like the iPhone because I can track how much data I have used with an app, but it also eats up data like there's no tomorrow :(.

100MB is not much at all, but it should be enough for emails... Still, I want to do everything I can to make it last, so using a data-efficient phone will help.

Thank you :)


#2 Rudy

    Neowinian Super Star

  • 21,948 posts
  • Joined: 30-September 01
  • Location: Ottawa, On

Posted 19 April 2012 - 15:12

It all depends on what applications you use with each phone :/

If you use youtube all the time on your iPhone you'll go through a lot of data, same with WP7

#3 OP whitebread

    Neowinian Senior

  • 3,667 posts
  • Joined: 09-April 06
  • Location: Waterloo Region, ON
  • OS: OS X Lion 10.7.4
  • Phone: iPhone 4S

Posted 19 April 2012 - 15:14

Just email, maybe the occasional web browsing (just to check Neowin). And periodically the Canada-411 app if I need a number. Definitely no YouTube (except when on wifi).

#4 Rudy

    Neowinian Super Star

  • 21,948 posts
  • Joined: 30-September 01
  • Location: Ottawa, On

Posted 19 April 2012 - 15:18

The both phones should use about the same amount of data.

It's not about the phone that uses the data but what you do with it

#5 bogas04

    This title is bogus

  • 2,686 posts
  • Joined: 15-May 09
  • Location: India
  • OS: Windows 8
  • Phone: Lumia 920

Posted 19 April 2012 - 15:20

BTW use Opera Mini , it saves about 60% of data by their compressing technology :) (not on WP7 atm)

#6 +chAos972

    Neowinian Senior

  • 3,988 posts
  • Joined: 30-December 03
  • Location: Seattle, WA

Posted 19 April 2012 - 15:22

Both will gobble up that 100MB every month.

#7 +Elliott

    Neowinian ULTRAKILL

  • 11,080 posts
  • Joined: 26-September 02
  • Location: Virginia, USA
  • OS: OS X Mountain Lion
  • Phone: iPhone 5 (iOS 6)

Posted 19 April 2012 - 15:26

View PostchAos972, on 19 April 2012 - 15:22, said:

Both will gobble up that 100MB every month.

Pretty much.

I consider myself a fairly light cellular data user. I'm half-way through my billing cycle and I've used up almost 100MB. iPhone 4S.

#8 philcruicks

    Resident Elite

  • 1,500 posts
  • Joined: 24-February 09
  • Location: Bracknell, UK

Posted 19 April 2012 - 15:38

I would imagine WP7 because of the live tiles...always gotta be polling data from FB Twitter etc...

#9 ACTIONpack

    Graphic Designer

  • 1,660 posts
  • Joined: 10-August 03
  • Location: Lawrenceville, GA
  • OS: Windows 8 Pro
  • Phone: HTC Windows 8X

Posted 19 April 2012 - 15:47

I use iHeartradio all the time and I can go through 100MB in 2 days. If you have Zune Pass then the WP7.

#10 vetneufuse

    Neowinian Super Cool

  • 15,031 posts
  • Joined: 16-February 04

Posted 19 April 2012 - 15:58

View Postphilcruicks, on 19 April 2012 - 15:38, said:

I would imagine WP7 because of the live tiles...always gotta be polling data from FB Twitter etc...

no they don't that's the great thing about push technology... you log into the web service.. then when it has data for you, it pushes it to you... no more polling for data... only get data when it needs to give you data

#11 M_Lyons10

    Neowinian ULTRAKILL

  • 12,242 posts
  • Joined: 21-October 08
  • Location: Pennsylvania

Posted 19 April 2012 - 16:14

View Postneufuse, on 19 April 2012 - 15:58, said:

no they don't that's the great thing about push technology... you log into the web service.. then when it has data for you, it pushes it to you... no more polling for data... only get data when it needs to give you data

Agreed. And I am ALWAYS on my WP7 phone. Browsing the web, Checking contacts Facebooks, looking at pictures, checking 4 different email accounts, etc., and I don't use anywhere near what I used with my Windows Mobile device OR my sister uses on her iPhone. She admittedly is a heavier user than I am, but each month I generally use between 250 and 350 MB's of data. She exceeds her 2 GB limit. Windows Phone has to be better at handling data than the iPhone as a result. There is just no way...

#12 OP whitebread

    Neowinian Senior

  • 3,667 posts
  • Joined: 09-April 06
  • Location: Waterloo Region, ON
  • OS: OS X Lion 10.7.4
  • Phone: iPhone 4S

Posted 19 April 2012 - 17:06

Thanks, everyone :). Very enlightening (Y). I am going to stick with my iPhone 4 so I can monitor my bandwidth usage. Thankfully, the 100MB only has to last me until the last day of the month :D.

#13 migo

    Resident Elite

  • 1,955 posts
  • Joined: 02-May 05

Posted 20 April 2012 - 15:20

Battery saver mode on WP would also cut down on data use.

One of the third party browsers (SurfCube?) has server side data compression, but make sure to pay for it so you don't have ads eating data.