When choosing a 3G or 4G smartphone, you need to decide on a number of factors including how many minutes and how many texts a month you will need. You also need to choose a data limit that you think will suit you.

Data limits are expressed in the form of MB (megabytes), which can be difficult to think about in real terms. When choosing a data plan for a 3G phone, you can easily find out how many emails you can send, how many minutes or hours of video content you can stream and how many websites you can load up within a specific data limit.

However, the UK is in the process of upgrading to 4G, the next generation of mobile network. As the main feature of 4G internet is vastly increased speed (compared to 3G), it may mean that you can do more things with 4G data bundles and deals. Conversely, it may mean that you need a greater data limit to use 4G phones.

Handily, the mobile operator Everything Everywhere (EE), which is currently rolling out its 4G network to the UK, has come up with its own guide to help mobile device users figure out how much data they will need.

According to the guide, you will need:

• 500MB of data – if you will use your 4G phone mainly for emailing and browsing the internet on a daily basis

• 1GB of data – if as well as browsing the web and emailing every day, you also like to keep up to date with social networks as well as watching the occasional video clip or streaming music

• 3GB of data – if you use your phone a lot in everyday life to do everything from browsing, emailing, tweeting and checking the news to listening to music, downloading apps, posting photos and watching videos

• 5GB of data – if you like to use your device to download and run lots of apps, watch TV and stream music, as well as occasionally using it as a modem to connect all your other Wi-Fi devices

• 8GB of data – if you want to use your phone for heavy browsing, playing online games, watching hours of TV and downloading lots of apps, as well as using your phone frequently as a modem to connect other Wi-Fi devices

• 20GB of data – if you want to do it all on your phone, including hours of browsing, playing games, emailing, managing your social networks, streaming lots of music, films and TV, and regularly using your device as a modem.

This is a guest post from Michael Goodwin.