Ready to take the smartphone plunge w/ HTC 8x - questions about memory and data usage
Wally50
Newbie

I have been very happy with my old LG chocolate for six years but the screen is starting to crap out so I think it is time for me to join the 21st century and upgrade to a smartphone.  After much review, I've decided that the HTC 8X is the phone for me.    I really like the Windows phone interface and the touch screen on the HTC 8X seems more responsive then others I've tested out.  As a pretty heavy texter, one of the biggest challenges for me will be getting used to the virtual keyboard.

I can keep my old plan and add a data plan - 2 GB a month for $30.  I'm really not willing to increase my monthly bill for my cell phone anymore than that, but I have no idea if 2 GB a month is realistic.  When I ask friends and family how much data they use in a month, they seem oddly evasive in their answers.  I doubt if I'll be playing games or streaming video much, but I will use e-mail, web browse and maybe listen to music some.  I have absolutely no interest in using turn-by-turn navigation -- I never agree with their directions -- but I will enjoy being able to find maps (although apparently not Google maps).  What I am concerned about is what I call "data creep"  -- how much data is being used in the background for syncing "live apps"?  I can connect to WiFi at home, which will cut down on data use, but I have also read that there are issues with WiFi connections being dropped. 

I love the whole concept of the People Hub, but how much data is being used in the background to update the links to external accounts?  Do I have to stay signed on to my FB and e-mail account at all times or can I just sign in when I want to do something?  I don't have any desire to have all my FB friends in my People Hub -- its not essential that I see what someone had for lunch or the latest cute cat photo that's gone viral in real time.  Can I limit which FB contacts I add to the People Hub?   Can I do the same sort of thing with e-mail?  

After data usage, my other concern is memory since HTC 8X doesn't have an expansion slot.  The music on my chocolate is stored on the external 4 GB microSD card and I'm only at 50% usage on that, so 16 GB seems like a lot.  On the other hand, memory might get eaten up pretty quick once you start downloading apps and taking photos.  I occasionally get a warning on my current phone that my text inbox memory is almost full and I have to go in and clear some things out.  I also have quite a few photos stored on my phone at any given time, but the memory usage says I'm only using about 55% of my phone's internal memory right now.

When I set up my e-mail on my phone, is the e-mail actually being stored on my phone?  I currently don't download my e-mail to my PC and I am extremely lazy about cleaning out my mailbox.  Is this going to eat up my memory?  I see a lot of articles/advice out there about managing battery life and some about managing data usage, but hardly anything about managing memory usage.  As you can tell, I don't have a clear understanding of how data from the internet is captured on the smartphone -- is it stored in your phone's memory or are you using your data to look at it on the web in real time?

Any input that you experienced users could give me on these issues would be much appreciated.

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Re: Ready to take the smartphone plunge w/ HTC 8x - questions about memory and data usage
_yankees_
Contributor - Level 3

Hello Wally I'll answer your questions as much as I know.

If you are not using a whole of internet, then 2GB is more than enough for you. That is also if you are also using Wi-Fi most of the time. I use Wi-Fi all the time at home so I don't really end up using more than 2GB in a month. Since you won't be playing games or streaming a lot of videos, you should be fine. But also depends how much web browsing you are doing. The live tiles syncing use up very little data and you can always turn them off in the background so they are not constantly trying to sync. I have Wi-Fi on all the time at home, I have never had a problem with it dropping.

I don't really know too much about syncing FB to your phone since I never bother doing that. But however once you sync your account to the phone, all your contacts will stay there forever so there is no continuous sycning or anything for contacts. In the people hub, you can create your own group and add any contact you wish to have in there of your choice whether they are your email contacts or FB contacts.

With the Verizon HTC 8x, you will get about 14.56 GB free spaces. Verizon takes about 2GB. But good thing is you can delete some of the nonsensical Verizon stuff such as My Verizon or VZ Navigator. Remember you have about 14 left, and your phone will need a lot for apps, text messages, offline maps and what not. Best thing about Windows Phone is, you can always save your photos or music to SkyDrive. But the downside to that is to access skydrive you will need to use your data or Wi-Fi obviously. But SkyDrive gives you about 7gb of free space, so you can always store your pictures there and music too. I have been using my phone for 1 month and I have 0 music and couple of photos, and whole lot of apps in there, I have about 10.5GB left

As far as I know, the emails are not stored in your actual phone. You are just connecting to a server, like for example hotmail, who store your emails in their own servers. You are just using the the internet to connect to those servers and view them in your phone. I believe if you download an attachments from your email, that would be stored in your phone. For example if someone sends you a picture from your email, you can download the picture to your phone.

If you have anymore questions, i'll be happy to answer it for you

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Re: Ready to take the smartphone plunge w/ HTC 8x - questions about memory and data usage
Wally50
Newbie

Thanks Yankees, that's very helpful.  I'm looking forward to playing with my new phone!

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Re: Ready to take the smartphone plunge w/ HTC 8x - questions about memory and data usage
_yankees_
Contributor - Level 3

You are welcome and good luck

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Re: Ready to take the smartphone plunge w/ HTC 8x - questions about memory and data usage
jimariz
Newbie

Hi Yankees,

I to am thinking about getting the HTC 8x.  I'm coming from the iPhone, never really cared to much for it as I don't use an apple computer or iPad. I have a couple of questions that I couldn't get answers from the sales people at Verizon.

-It looks like the "contacts" doesn't have an alphabetical quick find feature on the right side of the screen.  Is there a way to add one or do you just have to type in the letter at the search window?

-Does the windows phone work well with Win7 and Office 2010?  I have been told that there may be problems with Win7.

-The biggest concern for me is that I can back up all my information on my PC in a form that I can easly read it.  I could never do that with the iphone.  Mostly interested in backing up contacts and notes.  Pictures and mail would be nice too.  I still have alot of information on an old Palm Pilot that would like to put on the win phone.

thanks for any help you can give me,

Jim

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Re: Ready to take the smartphone plunge w/ HTC 8x - questions about memory and data usage
_yankees_
Contributor - Level 3

Hey Jim

  1. Once you go to your address book, depending on how your contacts are set up, it should start Alphabetically  or numerically. Mine starts with the "#" in front of it. For you all your contacts might start with alphabetically with the alphabet "A" category. Just click on that "A" (it should be highlighted with whatever theme color you have selected) and the alphabetical quick find feature will pop up. You can also use the search feature to find the contact you are looking for.
  2. I don't really use my phone to plug it in my computer, but as far as I know from other users, it should work just fine with Windows 7 and especially Office 2010
  3. Once you open a Microsoft account (Hotmail or Outlook) you will automatically have access to SkyDrive which is Microsoft's  online storage device. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/skydrive/download

  Through SkyDrive you can store your emails, contacts, notes, pictures, text messages, Office documents, and other stuff. It is integrated right into your phone and you just need to download the app from the app store. For ease of convenience I suggest using your main Microsoft (Outlook or Hotmail) account that you will be using for your phone, also for SkyDrive account. For example I have 1 hotmail account which I use for SkyDrive and  Windows Phone 8 App store on my phone (you have to have a Microsoft account in order to be able to purchase apps). Makes live a lot easier especially for Syncing stuff

For yoru palm pilot, I suggest you download the SkyDrive app into your computer, sign in with your Microsoft account, upload all your information there, then sync your 8x with the same Microsoft account, download the Skydrive app your phone from the App store, sign with the same Microsoft account, and all your stuff should be there.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/skydrive/work-together-office#1TC=t1

Good Luck

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Re: Ready to take the smartphone plunge w/ HTC 8x - questions about memory and data usage
jimariz
Newbie

Thanks for the quick reply,  I really appreciate it.

Jim

<Personal information removed for privacy per the .>

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

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