#DidYouKnow: ‘Free’ apps drain your phone’s battery and memory

free-pic

Everyone loves freebies, right? Well, it turns out, when it comes to your phone’s battery and memory, ‘free’ can actually be a bad thing.

In a recent study published in ScienceDaily, researchers examined the hidden costs of free mobile phone apps and found that when compared to apps without ads, they consumed more energy, uses more memory, and consumes more data.

Researchers at the University of South California, Rochester Institute of Technology and Queen’s University in Canada found free apps with ads use an average of 16 percent more energy, which lowers the battery life of a smartphone from 2.5 to 2.1 hours on average. As for your phone’s memory, ads will eat up 22 percent more memory and on average take up 56 percent more Central Processing Unit time –slowing your phone down.

Ads on free apps are content that needs to be downloaded and will cause you to also use more data – resulting in a higher bill. Researchers found that on average, apps with ads use 79 percent more network data.

So is it better to pay for and add or download the free version?

 

Journal Source:

University of Southern California. “Ads in free mobile apps have hidden costs for both users and developers.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 April 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150401093623.htm>

Sponsored