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iPhone 14 Pro I hate eSIM
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A perfect summary - great post and 100% accurate
I'll go out of my way to buy iPhones which still contain SIM trays, at least few the next few years. It would just be annoying in so many ways.
Also, what happens if your phone breaks when you're using an eSIM as your main SIM card? You can't even pop the SIM out, and the difficulty of dealing with that problem has apparently been quite severe according to reports.
The ROW gets a 1 SIM + 1 esim slot. (except China which gets dual physical)
If given a choice between 2 physical only and 2 esim only, I would take the latter (Since eSIMs are really useful when travelling)
However 1 SIM + 1 eSIM represents the best of both option - Many of us prefer to have our primary number easily swappable so not sure why the US variant got only the eSIM option
If given a choice between 2 physical only and 2 esim only, I would take the latter (Since eSIMs are really useful when travelling)
However 1 SIM + 1 eSIM represents the best of both option - Many of us prefer to have our primary number easily swappable so not sure why the US variant got only the eSIM option
Water seals degrade over time. One less entry point means one less possible water intrusion point.
Gosh, I hope my rubber seal doesn't degrade after a mere 30 years! Sacre bleu!!
We aren’t really holding up “water seals might degrade” as a rationale for removing the SIM card slot are we?
Likely by the time that seal has degraded the phone will be old anyway.
Yes -- I'd add that I've had exactly zero issues with SIM Slot water intrusion on any of my 2016 iPhone SE1s .. and I do not baby them and never have
(no clue if they were even trying to be remotely waterproof back then -- probably not)
Actually you can still use dual eSIM in the world phones if you prefer, or 1 physical and one eSIM.
I think eSIM is a really nice... when it's not the only way to have a sim card. It should be used _in addition_ to a regular sim card, not replace it.
What's bad is not the eSIM in itself, it's just that Apple decided that a country will have less feature than the rest of the world with nothing in exchange to it. There is literally no advantage of not having the sim tray. No additional battery capacity or feature, just more lock-in.
And nowadays most of the phone provider in the world have physical sim AND eSIM, it's not like removing the sim tray for the US will improve eSIM adoption or something.
What's bad is not the eSIM in itself, it's just that Apple decided that a country will have less feature than the rest of the world with nothing in exchange to it. There is literally no advantage of not having the sim tray. No additional battery capacity or feature, just more lock-in.
And nowadays most of the phone provider in the world have physical sim AND eSIM, it's not like removing the sim tray for the US will improve eSIM adoption or something.
Yet, Apple will add another entry point (Action Button) on iPhone 16. Personally, I believe the benefits of physical SIM far outweigh the possibility of water intrusion over time.
Like it or not eSIM is going to be the future standard for these devices. The “Wild West” days are coming to an end. They want more control.
With eSIM it's the same as if you lost your phone and thus couldn't retrieve a physical SIM. You get a new SIM. What eSIM brings is, theoretically, you can download an eSIM in an app or get it emailed to you. Only problem is when carriers stand in the way and make you get a QR code in stores only. If some carriers weren't so lazy we probably would see very few complaints about eSIM. The only issue would probably be moving between phones with eSIM and phones without eSIM, still a thing with mostly cheaper phones, but at most that means going to the store and getting a physical SIM transferred.
But losing your phone is a different situation to breaking it or it failing to work...
I agree the eSIM replacement process for lost devices should theoretically be smoother, without the need to visit a store or get it mailed to you... but they probably require one or the other for verification and security reasons.
I was just saying it's similar to another, separate, situation, that people also have had to deal with. Loads of people are now going to music festivals and a guy goes around pocketing their phones. Then they find their phone is in China and they send fake text messages asking them to take it off Find My iPhone. Well it's a similar problem, whether physical SIM or eSIM you'd have to transfer your SIM to a new SIM since your old one is gone.
I don't disagree with that. I'll admit the problem is worse with a physical sim if you haven't got a £0/€0/$0 spend cap set up.
I don't even know what a spend cap is, haha. SIMs (physical or eSIM) haven't cost me any money yet, but there might be a fee if you just willy-nilly get new physical SIMs every day for no reason, usually though SIM upgrades were handled for free. I remember first having no SIM at all (TDMA network), then getting 2G SIM, then I had to upgrade to 3G, then I had to upgrade to 4G, then I got eSIMed for 5G.
I forgot every country isn't Canada haha. We have regulations here where carriers are not allowed to lock phones to their network so that once the phone is paid off you can get a cheaper plan with a different carrier.
Without a spend cap someone could make international calls and run up a substantial bill...
Worst case scenario you're already abroad and the thief uses your SIM for mobile data, costing thousands.
Sign up for a prepaid plan. That's my spend cap. They can't use any services other than what's already been paid for. If I need more, I login and add funds for a top up.
Ah, but either you should set a SIM PIN for physical SIM, or use an eSIM and they can’t remove the SIM. For me, if my phone is gone they would need my Passcode to get in and make a call, though they could answer calls. And I would put it into lost mode anyway. Phone thieves mostly just want to reload the OS and sell it as a used phone, but Find My doesn’t let them so they try to trick people into deactivating Find My.
As for SIM PIN it should provide enough security to prevent unwanted calls, so long as you transfer it in time. Maybe if it was still activated in 5 or 10 years they would have an easy SIM PIN software cracking tool that could get into it.
A spend cap also prevents any cost implications. A SIM PIN is a great thing in theory, but is yet another password to remember in practice.
Well most people would need SIM PIN (or eSIM) for other reasons, if you use 2-factor with your phone number then it's essential to keep your SIM card protected. My banks need 2-factor but they don't support authenticator apps yet. So they need a phone number for 2-factor so I need to protect my phone number.