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

[whitebread]

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 :)

[Rudy]

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

[whitebread]

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).

[Rudy]

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

[bogas04]

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

[Argi]

Both will gobble up that 100MB every month.

[Elliott]

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.

[philcruicks]

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

[ACTIONpack]

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

[neufuse Veteran]

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

[M_Lyons10]

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...

[whitebread]

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.

[migo]

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.