One of the many concerns associated with using a smartphone is how much mobile data it would require. Before you incur extra charges pertaining to excess mobile data usage, make sure you observe your usage pattern to determine how much you need.
Make sure you know what apps and features you like to use on a daily basis so that you can compare the best deals online.
Web Browsing
The general web browsing on your phone will most likely result in variable data usage; it can go as low as 1 MB for each minute and up to 4 MB or more. It all depends on the websites that you most usually surf and the number of pages you visit. You should remember that every page of a single site loads separately. Also, if you are trying not to waste mobile data, be wary of click baits.
An average Australian user spends 48 hours every month browsing the internet; the good news is that most of the browsing is done on desktop or laptop. If you are using 2.5 MB in a minute, you will easily hit 1 GB in less than 8 hours.
Uploading Pictures
This takes around 1.5 MB for a single picture. If you are uploading a high resolution picture, the higher the amount of data will be consumed. When you are uploading to Instagram or similar apps where you use an in app camera function, you will find that your uploads are smaller in size because the app efficiently compresses the data.
Not many people are aware that emails don’t take much data; in fact, they only consume around 50 KB of it. Even if you think you are prone to sending at least a dozen emails every day and you have set your phone to automatically refresh the inbox every half an hour, it still won’t take too much data. The only thing that may demand for more data is when your emails carry large attachments. The good news is that if you are trying to be careful, you can always check the attachment size which appears beside the folder before sending it.
Streaming Music
Most music streaming is done on sites like Spotify which uses 2 MB every minute for average sound quality. It may not seem too much, but that rate is charged as you stream music. If it takes you half an hour to get to work and you listen to music during all that time, you would have used 30 MB on a single commute.
Online Games
Some games use up more internet data than others do. Some usually use 1.5 MB of data every minute while others won’t use any data after you have downloaded them. However, if you are into playing online multiplayer games, the amount of data consumed increases drastically. Each game is unique and has its own features; thus, opting for such games will likely use more data. To be sure, check your data usage before starting a new game and after you are done playing the game.