Data usage of Mobile Email

[shrop486]

I was wondering if anyone knew about the amount of data usage the mobile email applicaton uses.  I have one of the hated $9.99 data plans for 25MB and so I can't use an unlimited amount of data.  I realize that a definitive answer cannot be achieved because everyone uses their email differently.  I just get a few emails a day on my gmail account and think it would be nice to know when I get a new one.  I already use mobile "web mail" through the browser so I know I can get to it that way.

Does anyone know if the application is constantly syncing with the email service providers to provide instant updates when you get a new email or if it can be set up to only check every so often (i.e. hourly or something other than always being connected)?

Thanks

[partlysunny]

I would love the know the answer to this question too.  There are waay too many questions about what incurs data and how much data it uses and no clear answers, at least not that I have found. Also about which things will incur an extra charge (like browsing the media store???) and which will not.  I have a strange $2.99 data charge on my last bill, yet I have unlimited data and have never downloaded anything.  I did browse the media once without ordering anything.

[nmchileman · Accepted solution]

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shrop486 wrote:

I was wondering if anyone knew about the amount of data usage the mobile email applicaton uses.  I have one of the hated $9.99 data plans for 25MB and so I can't use an unlimited amount of data.  I realize that a definitive answer cannot be achieved because everyone uses their email differently.  I just get a few emails a day on my gmail account and think it would be nice to know when I get a new one.  I already use mobile "web mail" through the browser so I know I can get to it that way.

Does anyone know if the application is constantly syncing with the email service providers to provide instant updates when you get a new email or if it can be set up to only check every so often (i.e. hourly or something other than always being connected)?

Thanks

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The Mobile Email applications syncs with the Gmail server roughly every 30 minutes. So it's not an always on, constant connection, like Blackberry for example. The amount of data that is used for this polling of the email server is only a few kilobytes if there's no email present. So very, very minimal.

A good way to judge how much data you'll use with Mobile Email is to see how much data you use now by browsing directly through the web and subtracting a few megabytes. The Mobile Email app will use less megabytes than going through the web directly because it doesn't download any images, ads or additional links. It only downloads the email itself, and only text at that.

So because Mobile Email only supports text on most models the actual megabyte usage is a lot less.

Text in an email, even if it's a paragraph or two, is only going to be a few hundred kilobytes.

[shrop486]

Great.  Thank you.  That sounds like it should fit my needs.