Child Item

Site Totals

61368 Questions Answered 267 Categories

Silly question about data usage

Right now I have a BlackBerry Tour. It's good and all, but my guy and I are looking to possibly get Android phones sometime in the future. For the past few months I've really TRIED to hit 1G by using data on both phones, but the best I've been able to do is 0.1 and some change. My question is if we got an Android phone would our data usage jump overnight and go sky high? We don't download apps (unless I can do so on my computer then transfer to my phone) and, even though we have Pandora, we have used it a total of 3 times in the two (2) years it's been on the phones (we use it mostly from our computers).

Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Comments

keezy

It doesn't really matter how much data you use, because both Blackberries and Androids require the $29.99/month unlimited data package per line.

You say you don't use apps, but Androids are completely different. There are a lot of things that you absolutely cannot do without an app. There's no way you can have an Android and NOT use apps. I could see how you wouldn't on BBs though.

Kirin

About the cost: I am fully aware of the cost of having a smartphone. I am also aware that the *unlimited* aspect is going away in July. So that paragraph was moot.

Regarding the apps: On my Tour I use Weatherbug, it's free and it's useful. What other app would I possibly need for an Android to work? Play games? Not interested. Check facebook? I go online. Check emails? Once again, I go online. Do I need an app to access the internet???

Please advise.

DbG2514

With Android phones, for Facebook use the facebook widget so you don't have to pull up your browser.... for your email, use the email widgets and sync your phone with your email. Honestly, it sounds like you don't need smartphones because you aren't using what the smartphone is used for.

I use almost all of my widgets even the news widgets. I use my banks app that they have. There are alot of useful apps in the Android market, you just have to look. I also use gtunes music to download music for free

keezy

Kirin wrote:
About the cost: I am fully aware of the cost of having a smartphone. I am also aware that the *unlimited* aspect is going away in July. So that paragraph was moot.

Regarding the apps: On my Tour I use Weatherbug, it's free and it's useful. What other app would I possibly need for an Android to work? Play games? Not interested. Check facebook? I go online. Check emails? Once again, I go online. Do I need an app to access the internet???

Please advise.

If you have a smartphone BEFORE then, you are grandfathered in. So, no, it was not "moot" thank you.

As the other poster said, it really sounds like you don' t need a smartphone. If you don't want apps and games, and you don't bother checking your email or facebook, what's the point? If you're wanting to text, you'll most likely need an app (the stock texting app on smartphones is VERY dull and plain - you can't customize anything about it) Most people use an app called Handcent SMS to text with. If you want music, you'll need an app. If you want wallpapers, you'll need an app. If you want ringtones, you'll need an app. If you want to apply certain ringtones to certain contacts, you'll need an app. If you want to check your bank statements securely (although I don't know why people do this on their phones) you'll need an app. If you want to do a simple google search, you need an app. Most people also get an app for a different keyboard if it's a touchscreen (the ones on the phones are also VERY plain and difficult to use) Get my drift? Basically, if you want to customize the phone at ALL, you need multiple apps. If you don't want any of this, get a simple to use iPhone.

There are thousands upon thousands of cool apps that can do anything you want. Especially after the Gingerbread update for the Droid X, many of the functions of the phone were "broken" you could say, by this update, and users have to use apps to get back those functions. A prime example of this would be that the LED blinking light stopped working with the update, and users went to apps such as LightFlow to get it back.

Kirin

I know about being grandfathered in. If we upgrade it will be after the tier changes and I was informed that we'd have to choose a new pricing level (UGH!)

Regardless, I DO want to get the Kindle app and I mainly wanted to know if, by getting anything fancy, would our data usage go from less than a gig to over 5?

The information in the last post did bring home how data intensive the smartphones can be, but I guess it is really up to the end user on what works best for them.

Child Item