How Much Data Does The Captivate Use

MissBrightside · Dec 30, 2010

So I just switched from a Blackberry to this phone. I barely used up any data on my blackberry out of the 500 mb plan I have. Now I shot up to like 200-300 since I got my samsung captivate which was like a few days ago, could I have really been using that much data ( this and the previous blackberry) ?

Does captivate use alot of data and for what? ( I like to leave msn talk running) Please tell me how much data the Android uses and for what, this is really concerning me because if it uses too much since I only have 500 mb I may have to switch back to blackberry. Thanks

xeni0o · Dec 30, 2010

Depending on what you do it could be a lot or little. if you just visit websites and read e-mail then it won't be much. But if you start streaming audio/video you will run out of data quick.

MissBrightside · Dec 30, 2010

Does the Captivate typically use more data then a Blackberry though?

sremick · Dec 30, 2010

There's no "typical" as no two users use their phone in the same way.

Big data hogs are streaming, and email apps (poll frequency, mailbox size, which app is being used, etc).

MissBrightside · Dec 31, 2010

Well lets say downloading apps ( not streaming things) and browsing the web, and instant messaging. How much data do those take up on Android?

xeni0o · Dec 31, 2010

Downloading apps can be a lot of data especially if the apps are large in size. For example angry birds is is 16MB and angry birds season is 14MB. So if you download both that is 30MB.

The best way to find out how much data you use is to get an app from the market that monitors bandwidth. Then during one day just IM and browse the web without streaming anything and see how much you use.

Vinny454 · Dec 31, 2010

I use about 300 Mb and that is downloading E-mail, about 15 - 20 different apps (including both Angry Birds) and the usual texts and a few youtube videos. If that is basically what you are doing, then 200-300 Mb sounds about right

sremick · Jan 2, 2011

MissBrightside said:
Well lets say downloading apps ( not streaming things) and browsing the web, and instant messaging. How much data do those take up on Android?

Depends on how much downloading you're doing, how big the apps are, and how much web browsing you're doing.

I drove my car this weekend. How much gas did I use?

richtate · Jan 2, 2011

I've used the Captivate and an iPhone, the iPhone used about 100Mb w/my normal usage. But the Captivate is using 350 to 400Mb. I see that most of the games I play has advertisements that the same games on iPhone didn't have them. These games are constantly getting ads as I play. One night I checked my usage and then next day there was 60Mb of usage from my phone overnight. One thing I found is if you set up WiFi by default, then it will sleep when the screen shuts off. If there is any activity, it will not 'hook up' to the WiFi but use 3G even though the WiFi is available. I changed the 'sleep policy' to never, and I haven't seen a large data usage since.

I got 'data switch' that will turn off the 3G but if it gets turned on, the next thing I know is there will be 10 to 60Gb of 3G if I don't hawk-eye the data usage. It's as if there are some apps that will not use anything but 3G.

My data plan is unlimited but my wife only has the 200Mb plan and we have had to pay the extra 200Mb for 2 months now. I set the usage from 2 years worth of data usage on my plan that was, like I said, around 100Mb. Now both of use are using 3 to 4 times the data!

I read somewhere from a wireless provider that android usually run twice as much as an iOS but the captivate in particular runs 118% above that! I'm beginning to wish I spent the extra money up front and got the iPhone 4. Now I'm stuck using this phone for the next 2 years.

I like the android OS so far, but the data usage is killing me.

GaryS1964 · Jan 3, 2011

I rarely access the internet when away from home where I use WiFi. Since Dec 15 I have only used 4MB. All I did some was some searches to find some nearby businesses so I would say the on it's own the phone uses up very few of your MBs.

Perhaps you are downloading more since you got your new phone.

jdCaptivate · Jan 3, 2011

Do you do a lot of social networking? My wife got a Motorola Flipside and used 130mb in like 3 days, because it was constantly accessing and updating facebook. Even though I set it to use only wifi for Motoblur apps, it was still sucking down the data. My Captivate however, with basically the same settings, uses around 40mb a month on 3G.

I solved her problem by installing APNDroid.

El Niche · Jan 3, 2011

I am almost always connected to MSN Talk on my captivate. It really doesnt use too much data. I use the captivate for light browsing and a few emails. I try to download apps whenever I am using WiFi. I really dont use that much, but as someone said before it depends on the person who uses it. I got a great idea on how much I use by downloading 3G watchdog app to keep an eye on how much I use. If I dont touch it and have syncs off I think the phone by itself uses minimal data

La Luna · Jan 3, 2011

I don't think anyone can give even an estimate of how much data someone elses phone will use. It all depends on how much downloading of apps, how much those particular apps connect, how much browsing you do, plus anything else that requires data usage, none of which is the same for everyone.

Frenzy2223 · Jan 4, 2011

I used 2+gb per month with my iphone 3g and I average 1.5gb with my captivate. Don't the blackberry servers compress data?

tylerdurdin · Jan 4, 2011

Yeah its funny when I get my bill it says my data usage for the month is 985kb. But I am connected to wifi everywhere I go. I refuse to give AT&T another penny over my plan. If I leave my house I kill all data until I get where I am going. My actual data though is well over 300mb every month without a problem.

Newskin01 · Jan 4, 2011

I used a little over 1.2 GB last month with mine. I do w.e I want. I try to limit watching youtube and such. However, to stunt my data use while not doing anything I just kill all tasks. Gmail is the best e-mail client to use on the phone as others will use more bandwidth. You should be able to manage it under 500 MB with no problems just don't download apps and watch vids unless you are on WiFi. With that simple rule you will be fine.

sremick · Jan 4, 2011

Newskin01 said:
I just kill all tasks.

Task killers - CapFAQ

Gmail is the best e-mail client to use on the phone as others will use more bandwidth.

K-9 can be configured with far-more flexibility to use much less data than the stock Gmail client, which is pretty feature-poor/absent.

Android26 · Jan 10, 2011

I think phone users who have just gotten the phone use much more data than normal just because they've got to download everything.
If you're looking for advice, I'd just admonish you to be on wifi as often as you can when using the phone and to download an application from the market (like 3G Watchdog Pro) that lets you know exactly how much data you're using. Just waiting to receive AT&T's message, "You've used 65% of your data this month...etc" might be hazardous.

BookLover · Jan 10, 2011

Newskin01 said:
I used a little over 1.2 GB last month with mine. I do w.e I want. I try to limit watching youtube and such. However, to stunt my data use while not doing anything I just kill all tasks. Gmail is the best e-mail client to use on the phone as others will use more bandwidth. You should be able to manage it under 500 MB with no problems just don't download apps and watch vids unless you are on WiFi. With that simple rule you will be fine.

Killing tasks, in general, on Android is not good (as the CapFaq details)...

I would advocate finding the data-hungry app(s) on your phone and killing those as needed OR do as I do, which is use Juice Defender/Ulitmate Juice, to control which apps connect to data and when. I typically set all my non-push apps like horoscope or recipes to "visible" in JD/UJ -- so they only connect to the internet when I'm using them...and others like GAMES or "quotes" apps to "disable" so that they NEVER connect to the internet. I also set the AT&T bloatware to "disable" because I never use them and I think they sometimes connect for no reason whatsoever.

LimaI896 · Jan 10, 2011

Captivate will naturally use more data for obvious reasons.

The quality or streaming videos is higher, web browser quality is higher(now with flash10), ads in games, actual apps are better quality which means bigger size. So many reasons to list, im a heavy user and the most I have done is 2.7gigs, my iphone used less, thank god for a 6gig plan

.

Brendanmurphy · Jan 10, 2011

Blackberrys use a compressed data sever to compress data before it is sent to the phone so blackberrys use barely anything for data

Galroc · Jan 11, 2011

My captivate was using an amazing amount of data when I was using Samsung's "feeds and updates" widget. I think there is a huge issue with that widget. I had it set to manually update, but if I had it manually update, it wouldn't stop downloading as if it was stuck in a loop. I think I just had it connect to my facebook and twitter acounts. .

Since removing that widget, my data usage has been fine, maybe 1MB/day.

BookLover · Jan 11, 2011

Brendanmurphy said:
Blackberrys use a compressed data sever to compress data before it is sent to the phone so blackberrys use barely anything for data

If you surf using Opera Mini, that is better than surfing on the stock or other browsers. Opera Mini compresses data before you get on your phone, so you can surf a lot, but use relatively small amounts of data.

Opera Mini doesn't play youtube, so when you want to view videos, THEN use a different browser (like Skyfire)...and if you just make sure you view videos only when on Wifi, you will keep data usage down.

Brendanmurphy · Jan 11, 2011

BookLover said:
If you surf using Opera Mini, that is better than surfing on the stock or other browsers. Opera Mini compresses data before you get on your phone, so you can surf a lot, but use relatively small amounts of data.

Opera Mini doesn't play youtube, so when you want to view videos, THEN use a different browser (like Skyfire)...and if you just make sure you view videos only when on Wifi, you will keep data usage down.

Exactly. I don't have to worry because i have 6gb for my captivate on Telus

rajkumar_NYC · Sep 13, 2011

Make sure you don't have any news apps installed. I downloaded and ran TrafficStats Lite app and found out that the ABC News app that I had installed had used 990 MB in 2 weeks, even though I had NOT USED IT EVEN ONCE in that time. Uninstalled ABC News app, and now data usage is fine. If you like news apps, download and run TrafficStats Lite app to see how much data they use before keeping them, but ABC News app is a definite No-No for limited data plans.

How Much Data Does The Captivate Use

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Android Expert

Newbie

Newbie

Newbie

Android Expert

Lurker

Member

Android Enthusiast

Member

Member

Member

Android Enthusiast

Newbie

Android Expert

Android Enthusiast

Android Expert

Newbie

Android Enthusiast

Newbie

Android Expert

Android Enthusiast

Lurker

BEST TECH IN 2023

Smartphones

Best Android Phones

Upcoming

Best iPhones

Upcoming

Tablets

Best Tablets

Upcoming

Laptops

Best Laptops

Upcoming

Televisions

Best TVs

Upcoming

Game Consoles

Best Game Consoles

Upcoming

Wearables

Best Wearables

Upcoming

Smart Home

Smart Home Tech

Upcoming

Similar threads