The bigger the screen, the more data you use. That’s the maxim that anyone looking to min-max their data plan every month should follow if they want to keep their bills low.
According to a new report from Citrix, if you have an iPhone 6 Plus, chances are, you’re burning through your monthly data cap a lot faster than if you had bought an iPhone 6 or iPhone 5s.
In fact, the marketing firm found that iPhone 6 Plus owners used, on average, roughly twice as much data every month as those who have an iPhone 6.
Why? According to Citrix, they believe that those with an iPhone 6 Plus are more likely to use their device as a tablet than a smartphone. That means sucking in a lot more streaming video, and downloading a lot more games.
Not impressed yet? Let’s compare data usage of the iPhone 6 Plus with a few generations back. It turns out that iPhone 6 Plus users don’t just use twice as much data as iPhone 6 users, they use 1000% more data than users of the iPhone 3GS.
No wonder carriers were keen to give out “unlimited” data plans back in the day, then reneged on the deal. When smartphones were smaller and less powerful, no one ever used much data anyway.
Source: Citrix
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
10 responses to “iPhone 6 Plus owners use twice as much data as those who buy the iPhone 6”
Oh.. I thought the reason was because the iPhone 6 Plus has a bigger screen, more pixels, and therfor download more information from a website because it shows more information then the screen on iPhone 6 or 5/5s. Or downloading higher quality on 6 Plus it has a FHD screen compared to 6s lower resolution
in case a website is not mobile ready, no matter the screen size you still download the same amount of data. and if it is mobile ready, chances are, nobody would care to make a version for 6 and a bigger version for 6s so again, you’re at the same numbers… whether you stream HD or not is (in most cases) not a decision made based on the size of the screen. i stream HD all the time on my 6, wouldn’t have it any other way :)
I agree. Just some toughts I had, without any taste of sense or logic :)
Then they made it limited data for new users and changers to hotspot to rake in more money.
Fingers crossed broadband going tittle II reverts that bs.
My data habits have not changed since I got the 6+. I do use it more than I did with the 5 and I use the same data as I did then. Only reason I got a bigger data cap on my contract is 4G has ramped up here in Australia and the speeds are ridiculously fast and it’s easy to burn through.
It’s so True, with the 4s, I was using maybe a Gb, a month, then came the 5s, still about 900MB a month, but the 6plus, your not gonna believe it, 998.89Gb, last month, that’s a lot of a Netflix, and Bollywood movies, easy eat 5/7Gb, a movie, then teethering with Apple TV, Smart Tv, work, watch Live News, more movies on Movie box, listen to radio in car, data hungry, even whilst waiting in car sit watching films, dramas, soaps, downloading music the list goes on and on and on!
Having true 1080p on the 6Plus over the 6 will definitely chew through more data streaming hd for hd
doesn’t the 6 just downscale the 1080p? what matters is the resolution of the stream, not the resolution of the screen.
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