Email on PAYG phone recommendation wtd

[#1]

I normally pick up email at home on a desktop PC, however I'd like to be able to respond to email occasionally using on a PAYG phone, probably something cheap like a Sony Xperia Tipo which runs Android/Jelly Bean.
This particular phone wouldn't be used much for voice calls so I'm looking at something like an Orange PAYG tariff that gives you free internet.
Ideally I'd like it to notify me when mail arrives from particular senders, allow me to respond from the phone, but leave everything on the PlusNet server so that I can revert to my desktop PC when I get home.
Possible?
I know some ISP won't allow emails to be sent from other than the IP of your account. eg they force you to use Webmail when roaming.
Would it quickly eat up 1G free data polling the plusnet server looking for email?
Are PAYG internet services limited/restricted? eg to browsing through the company portal/home page ?
Thanks

[#2]

Hi there,
If you configure the mail client on the phone to access via IMAP then yes it's possible - everything stays on the server that way, until deleted (by whichever client you choose to delete it from - as it's all on the server anyway it doesn't matter).
Sending the email would have to be done through the SMTP server of your mobile provider but this shouldn't be a problem.
Email doesn't use a lot of data so you'd probably be fine with that kind of data limit, but I'd be wary of those kind of PAYG sim cards - there's probably a minimum amount you have to top up each month in order to keep the free data allowance. Might be worth taking a look at giffgaff?
Also, not sure what you mean about restrictions - I believe the only data restriction should be the amount you use over the month, but check that with the provider before getting the SIM.

[#3]

Quote

Might be worth taking a look at giffgaff?

Strangely, I was going to suggest that. They do a £5 data only 'goodybag' which gives 500Mb valid for a month. Calls on a PAYG basis are only 10p/minute.

[#4]

And if you buy a phone on O2 PAYG (£79.99 online from O2 shop for the Tipo) it'll work with a Giff-Gaff SIM out of the box..

[#5]

Thanks for that.