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darrylcn

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 24, 2015
195
47
I've read cases for yes and no so I thought I'd see what users here feel. I don't think it should, since I assume a web page for example is the same size because it would be the same source coming to any phone, but I'm seeing massive data use with my 6S Plus even with all the iCloud, background app refresh and cellular tweaks I can think of/Google. I'm thinking of taking my 3GS or my iPhone 5 (since both are unlocked) to work a few days this week to compensate for burning through 1/4 of my monthly data in 4 days. Back when my 3GS was my main phone I might see 30-50mb/day, my iPhone 5 was about 50-90, and my 6S Plus is using 120 or more. Does screen resolution affect the size of a page, or Twitter's use when loading new tweets? Thanks.
 
The resolution of the screen should have nothing to do with data usage directly, though a definite case can be made that the higher resolution camera can cause higher data use if you're taking photos and using your cellular data to upload those images to iCloud or some other cloud service. a 12MP camera is going to produce larger photos than an 8MP camera. Live photos are also up to twice as large as non-live photos. And 4K video is MASSIVE compared to HD video.

Also something to keep in mind: there are a lot more services available on newer iPhones and newer version of iOS that chew through data. When the 3GS, and even the 5 were state of the art phones, you didn't have Apple Music and iCloud. And on Twitter you didn't have native video capabilities like you do now. All of that adds up to more data, and have nothing to do directly with the screen resolution.

Lastly: have you checked to see if WiFi assist is on?
 
Hi all thanks for the input. I've got WiFi assist off, I should have mentioned that as one of my tweaks. I don't take a ton of photos, most are at home after work of our infant daughter now that she's arrived.

I've looked at the data use and Safari and Twitter are the main offenders. I have image preview off on Twitter and I dragged an old version from my iPhone 5 to my 6S Plus to avoid seeing ads where tweets' comments (or nothing) used to appear, there's no auto playing ads in my feed but they will show if I tap a tweet. I'm on Twitter 6.16.1.

It's not a case of some background task using data, it's from my use of the phone for sure, I was just surprised at the massive difference. ScaredPoet your point about background stuff is certainly valid as it's much more than before but Twitter/Safari seem to kill the most data. Just a page load or a Twitter pull down seem to be much more of a penalty than before.

Lastly - I'm on iOS 9.2.
 
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