..I'm getting my first ever smartphone delivered this Friday (Android - Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 , T-Mobile)
I Don't really intend to do much streaming of films/clips/music ect BUT - it must be connected 24/7 for receiving (and sending) emails at all times.
My tariff is limited to only 256meg per month..
Will this be enough for what I require...
Is internet useage only required when an email comes in or is sent OR does being connected 24/7 use up any of my (small) quota ?

Being connected only uses a little bit. Also if you have wifi at home you can get all your emails through that and it wont come out of your Mobile data plan.

..ok..thanks...BUT if I use the phone and make a normal (speech) call do I have to reset it again after the call to go back onto my home wifi connection or is there a setting that will automatically do this ?

Edit: I misread your last post, i thought you meant you left you house to make a call. This below is only about leaving the range of your home broadband wifi.....


You dont have to do anything yourself apart from entering your wifi passphrase.

When you leave your house and go out of range it will disconnect and all internet data will go through your 256Mb tariff. Then when you get back home your phone will pickup your router again and connect to it.

This only works though as long as you leave your wifi enabled on your phone, which is fine.

Making voice calls is entirely separate to data, whatever means you use to access that data. So having WiFi enabled or not will have no impact at all on voice calls. And similarly voice calls have no effect on WiFi usage.

Calls are different to data. No you won't have to do anything. The phone will make and receive calls regardless of whether WiFi is on or off.
The phone will use its 2G or 3G data connection to send and receive emails (and do any other Internet stuff) when you are out and about. When you come home it will automatically connect to WiFi (assuming you have wireless broadband here).
The WiFi connection will always override the cellular 2G/3G connection. While you are connected to WiFi your cellular data allowance will NOT be used up.

Yeah sorry, think we were all typing at the same time there Haha

With such a small allowance, one thing you should do is make sure you leave WiFi on all the time and connect it to as many WiFi hotspots as possible (public hotspots, friends houses etc.).
The handset will remember them and automatically connect when you go back there. In that way you are using as little cellular data as possible.

thanks guys....made it a bit clearer for me..as long as the phone is indoors I can do more or less what I like on the net as long as I'm on my wifi... that's good.. When I'm out (and out of wifi range) any email will come in on my tariff ! - Then when I get back home my phone will 'automatically' (I hope) pick up my wifi again....? - I don't have to keep logging back into wifi connection ??
I that right ? (I hope so)

With Android you can also tell all your apps to update less frequently and only over wifi.

Yes, thats correct .

Android also lets you look at your data usage which you should probably have a look at. It tells you what apps are using your tariff. Keep an eye on it from the off, and you can check its only the things you expect to be using it.

..what sort of apps gulp up data/tariff ?

My auto uploading photos to google+ was 105MB, so i would make sure thats disabled.

My photo gallery is synced aswell which has a 195MB down, but that might be because i had loads in the cloud the first month i got my phone.

Then i had 16MB for facebook, i guess that must be a few photos i've looked at by scrolling down updates.

But then i am on unlimited so have not needed to worry about how much i use.

I do look at emails with lots of images, that totalled 9MB.

...seems like there's a few things to watch out for...!
What happens if I go over my limit then...
I don't want to find a bill coming in for many pounds from T-Mobile like I've hear some kids go way over 'cause they forgot to log out or something like that .... Do you get a warning when you're getting near your limit /

As far as I know T-Mobile stop your internet traffic when you reach your limit and direct you to a web page where you have the option to buy more.

I'm on Three, so dont have experience of T-Mobile i'm afraid. When i was on a three contract that wasn't unlimited, i got a text saying i was near my limit and if i continued i'd be charged at x rate......

You could install a data monitor app on the phone. I use My Data Monitor

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ia.android.mdm

which shows you how much data you are using and what apps on the phone are generating that data usage. And you can set alerts for when your usage is nearing your allowance. Which could be handy if your service provider can't be bothered to tell you they are planning to lighten your wallet quite significantly with the next bill

Yep I used to use 3G Watchdog for that
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...oid.g3watchdog to record use, warn when I was close to the limit and block it as soon as I reached the limit. All this seems to be available out of the box with the latest version of android mind, so I don't bother with a 3rd party app any more.

Later versions of Android have a data monitor built in, with alerts over certain usage.

ah I didn't realise it was only new to android.

To answer your question OP, if you're wanting to use the phone to its fullest whilst you're out and about, and that includes email, social media, maps, internet use and other apps that use data, then no, 250MB isn't likely to be enough unless you spend most of your time tied to wifi hotspots.

In my opinion, if you're careful 500MB is probably enough. If you want to use the phone out and about a lot, then 1GB a month would be safer, particularly if you get emails with attachments a lot.