What is the minimum amount of data you'd recommend for me?

[knightfall]

I'm still currently using a BlackBerry, but plan on getting Google's Galaxy Nexus from Rogers Wireless tonight.

Currently my plan has 500MB/month. But since all the data is compressed, I can get away with that amount far easier than I could using an iPhone or Android.

So my question to you guys is, what minimum amount of data should I have? 1GB, 2GB? Is 500MB fine?

This is what I currently do on the phone:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google Plus (terrible on BlackBerry, but will use it more on Android)
• Facebook
• Evernote
• Wunderlist
• Emails. Probably 20 per day max.
• Calendar
• Camera
• BBM (But that won't be an issue anymore...)

I can see this list growing exponentially though with Android. Things like Pinterest, more browsing with Chrome, or that new Google Now feature.

Any input will be appreciated!

 

[Rukbat]

I'm still currently using a BlackBerry, but plan on getting Google's Galaxy Nexus from Rogers Wireless tonight.

Currently my plan has 500MB/month. But since all the data is compressed, I can get away with that amount far easier than I could using an iPhone or Android.

I think you misunderstand something. Almost all the data you download is compressed. You can't compressed data. It actually makes the data larger.

Most websites today use gzip, so that's as small as it's going to be, even for a page of text. If Rogers compresses non-web data (emails, etc.) it won't make one heck of a lot of difference unless you receive thousands of them. An email is pretty much one byte per character (plus the headers you don't see, at the same count), so a REALLY long email might be a few KB. A thousand really long ones would be a few MB. And, depending on the text itself (compression ratio is dependent on the data), you might chop that by as much as 50%. So their "compression" might save you 2MB. IF you receive a thousand really long emails.

So my question to you guys is, what minimum amount of data should I have? 1GB, 2GB? Is 500MB fine?

Download an app that shows how much data you're downloading. Keep your normal download schedule. You'll see exactly how much you're downloading. It could be anywhere from a few MB a month to a few tens of GB a month.

I can see this list growing exponentially though with Android. Things like Pinterest, more browsing with Chrome, or that new Google Now feature.

It's all guesswork at this point. At least download an app and have some actual idea. And remember, you can do a lot on wifi, which doesn't use any of your allowable data.

 

[knightfall]

Yeah. I'm aware of the data measuring apps. Rogers actually has one which works best since it's information straight from the horses' mouth. Currently I average 150MB.

I don't have the details memorized to backup what I said about compressed data. I've just seen and been told countless times the data for BlackBerry is compressed, which causes slower results, but less data required. So people using BlackBerry data need less than iPhone, Andriod, Windows, etc.

That said, this isn't the topic of this thread. I'm just trying to get a feel for what data plans people have here and recommend.