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Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania...

Good luck getting comprehensive eSIM options in every one of those for the same price as regular SIMs....
As long as Croatia and Greece are good, I’m okay. No plans to go to Russia or Belarus anytime soon…or ever.
 
As long as Croatia and Greece are good, I’m okay. No plans to go to Russia or Belarus anytime soon…or ever.
Never been to Belarus, but had a great trip to Russia a few years ago.

Outside of Europe... Haven't China and India banned eSIMs, or at least the companies that often provide them like Holafly and Airalo, in India's case? There are a lot of Americans that visit both each year that will have issues.
 
The only reason I'm hesitant to use eSIM is in case my phone breaks. So if quickly need to swap to another old phone, how easily can I switch? And well, since my phone has both physical SIM and eSIM, there isn't really a benefit of using eSIM at all.
I have a garbage phone I use for biking. I like the ability to SIM swap just for this reason, because carrying around a brick made of glass on two sides isn't the smartest idea if you eat it. Plus even Apple had said in the past vibrations can damage the camera so I prefer not to take my main phone.

I kind of feel like this is a power play in the US so carriers can eventually charge you a fee to activate a new phone each time you swap. You'll be able to do it online yourself but will have to pay for the convenience, when it should be included as part of your service. I know in the past you had to contact a carrier to SIM swap (I'm thinking AT&T). Now it's one of the ways not to get charged (T-Mobile) if you change to a new phone (assuming it has a SIM) on your own. It's just easier with a SIM card but I get it, most people don't do this.

It's annoying too, when I bought my 13 mini from Apple using a corp discount, they forcibly disconnected from my SIM and went to eSIM which I didn't want. I then had to go into a physical store to get them to put it back to how I wanted. I've seen occasional cheap prices at Best Buy on old Google Pixel stock but I bet I have to do the eSim thing to get the price (by activating the phone) which is just dumb.

In the end Apple doesn't care as long as they sell phones.
 
Good! I need to be able to swap my sim from work easily between the phone I am SUPPOSED to be using and the phone I am actually using
Yes this is why I need to keep the physical sim. Esim is fine I use Mobimatter when traveling, a bit more expensive than physical but worth not hassling with finding/stopping at a shop. But my work phone has physical sim and I need to be able to put that in my personal phone or I have to carry two phones!

I think I'll be getting A3292 model from Canada/Mexico/Japan. No mmWave bands but I'm not buying a phone without a sim slot.
 
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Yes this is why I need to keep the physical sim. Esim is fine I use Mobimatter when traveling, a bit more expensive than physical but worth not hassling with finding/stopping at a shop. But my work phone has physical sim and I need to be able to put that in my personal phone or I have to carry two phones!

I think I'll be getting A3292 model from Canada/Mexico/Japan. No mmWave bands but I'm not buying a phone without a sim slot.
Prepare for the loud shutter sounds you can't turn off if you buy it from Japan....
 
We get a few Americans come up to Canada for this feature

however they do have specific mmWave in the states that is faster and better than having a SIM card. Depends on the city though

Canadian models still support e sim just not exclusively e sim
 
Yes this is why I need to keep the physical sim. Esim is fine I use Mobimatter when traveling, a bit more expensive than physical but worth not hassling with finding/stopping at a shop. But my work phone has physical sim and I need to be able to put that in my personal phone or I have to carry two phones!

I think I'll be getting A3292 model from Canada/Mexico/Japan. No mmWave bands but I'm not buying a phone without a sim slot.

Yeah I live by the border - I see a lot of Americans come up for that feature. Basically the same phone and features otherwise between Canada and USA apple products

Likewise we go down to USA to get some products cause the dollar and taxes are cheaper
 
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Brazen boneheadedness from Apple as always. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — they live in a bubble over there at Apple Park.

I traveled internationally last year with a Pixel 8 and at one point had to get a physical SIM to get back in contact with someone (my eSIM wouldn’t suffice, long story). Thank goodness I had a PIXEL 8 with a REAL SIM CARD TRAY. I would have been up the creek had I been using my iPhone 15 Pro that I’m typing on now.

I, literally, would have been out of contact for the rest of my trip. And it would have been solely because of Apple not providing a physical SIM slot. They stand alone on this one.
 
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I'll be traveling to Singapore next year, does Singtel finally have eSIM? Didn't have it last summer and it's the reason I'm holding on to my iPhone 13.
 
Like with the headphone jack if Apple thought they’d make more money with the SIM tray it would still be there in the US.

I’ve honestly wondered if the US carriers pay Apple some fee we’re not aware of to get rid of the SIM slot
 
We get a few Americans come up to Canada for this feature

however they do have specific mmWave in the states that is faster and better than having a SIM card. Depends on the city though

Canadian models still support e sim just not exclusively e sim
I checked, the Canadian versions on some of the older versions didn't have the ability to work with T-Mobile fast 5G UC I think.

I could honestly live without it if it meant I could keep my SIM card.
 
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So I'm still using an 11pro and it uses a physical sim card with Verizon.
If I get the 16pro, will I have to contact Verizon by phone or go into a store to activate the 16pro? I can't take out my physical sim card out of my 11pro and put it in the 16 pro.

How does it work?
 
And costs a mere $1300 😂
about the same as a 512gb pro max and easily lasts 10 years or more, so worth it if op was only thinking about upgrading because of the camera.

There are cheaper dedicated cameras that runs circles against any phone cameras if the example I provided was out of the budget.
 
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This change was terrible. The Esim prevents users from just changing out the sim card to upgrade their phones. It now costs an upgrade fee, ususally $50 or more, to get a new phone from a carrier. Just being the sim card back.
 
"Apple promoted eSIMs as being more secure than a physical SIM since they cannot be removed from an iPhone that is lost or stolen."
I'd call that 🐮💩.
If I lose my phone, the eSIM would not be much of a deterrent to the criminals comparing to the SIM card.
Yeah, they can swap the SIM easier. But quite irrelevant at that point.

Meanwhile, I could not get the iPhone 15 pro max transferred to the eSIM at home for my family and had to physically go to a Verizon store. Spent more than half an hour just to get the stupid phone working.
With a physical SIM? Bam, bam, bam in under 5 minutes and ready to go.
This is purely a carrier and Apple backdoor deal, plain and simple.

I am gonna hang on to the 13 Pro for a long time or get the phones from Canada.
 
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Never been to Belarus, but had a great trip to Russia a few years ago.

Outside of Europe... Haven't China and India banned eSIMs, or at least the companies that often provide them like Holafly and Airalo, in India's case? There are a lot of Americans that visit both each year that will have issues.
I haven’t read about any country banning eSIMs so I wouldn’t know, but I guess a quick Google search would answer that.
 
Good because I will never buy and iPhone that forces you to go through major carriers that have a monopoly on pricing. I frequently travel around Asia and it’s so much cheaper to pick up local SIM cards especially in Hong Kong. You pay a fraction of the price often for the same or even better deals than you get from major carriers if you are forced to use eSIM. It’s much easier to just pop in a SIM and dispose of it when you’re done, not needing to give out any personal info at all like if you had to go to a carrier.
No one forces you to go to a major carrier. There are tons of online eSIM providers that are not tied to a specific carrier. And the prices are cheaper than physical SIMs and it’s a lot more convenient.

One provider I have used multiple times without issues in Europe, Asia, and the US is Holafly. More recently though, I have used Airalo, which is an app and it couldn’t be any more convenient than that.

So no, SIM trays are no longer necessary.
 
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If it comes to esim data only, try Saily. They cover everything around the globe at good rates. I just got a 30 days esim europe there. Activation is three clicks and you are online.

…psst keep it secret🤣: they offer 3$ bonus for both if I recommend someone.
 
I haven’t read about any country banning eSIMs so I wouldn’t know, but I guess a quick Google search would answer that.
It was a rhetorical question. India banned access to platforms that sell eSIMs recently. China is a bit confusing- foreigners seem to be able to order eSIMs to use there, but about ~8x the cost of a physical SIM you could buy in a store.
 
Great to see that physical SIM card is still supported everywhere else. Will not be surprised if the rumoured Slim version of iPhone supports only e-sim globally
 
I'm probably going to upgrade from my iPhone 13 to an iPhone 16 anyway, but it'd be way more of a no-brainer for me if it still had the SIM slot (here, in the U.S.).
 
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