So I went from an iPhone 8 to an iPhone 12 Pro Max, mostly because the former is going to be no longer supported with updates and the latter was a good deal. I already seem to be using more data than I’m used to with my iPhone 8, and I’m not sure why. To me, logically, the bigger screen shouldn’t make a difference, since it’s the same picture regardless of its size? Doesn’t the sizing happen on the phone’s end? I’m seeing contradictory Google results. What else could it be, though? I’m using the current phone just the same as I would have the previous. Maybe there was some data usage when I was swapping phones that got counted?
If it turns out that bigger screens do increase data usage, is there a way to guesstimate how much more? I’m thinking about my plan here.
It’s probably not the screen, it’s probably all the new and added services calling back to their various motherships in the background. Every new iteration of every phone comes with additional cruft embedded. That’d be my bet.
See if you can drill in and get a granular data usage breakdown. I guarantee there’ll be stuff you look at and wonder, what is that and why is it using data?
If you backed up and restored from the cloud, this would definitely have an impact. Screen resolution likely not assuming you are on the same plan. Some of the providers up here are limiting resolution for streaming video on the unlimited plans.
Unlikely here given that iPhone 8 should have been current with iOS 16 and the differences with iOS 17 are not huge.
In addition to all the excellent points raised above, I also bet you’re fiddling with it more than you recognize. That may well die down as you get used to it, or you may find yourself spending more time watching vids on it (versus your tablet or PC or whatever) now that the screen is easier to see than it was on the old small phone.
Okay, so the upshot is that any extra data use is probably the result of some action of mine, and not inherent in the fact that this is a more powerful phone with a larger screen? Got it! My usage is going to be thrown off even more in the near future anyway, so I’ll keep an eye on it to see what happens.
I can’t remember where everything is on the iOS menus, but you have tools to monitor and control data usage in great detail. You can block apps from accessing mobile data altogether, so that large downloads will only go ahead with a WiFi connection. You can see your mobile & WiFi data usage by app. You can block apps from running “in the background”, which prevents them both sucking power from the battery and using data unless you have them open - but bear in mind that this may have unforeseen effects, such as WhatsApp not being able to alert you when someone is calling.