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iPhone XR Should I get a SIM free phone?

StarShot

StarShot

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 31, 2014
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Looks like I'm going to downgrade to an ATT 11Xr phone. I've bought the last two $999 offerings (X and XS) and IMO, that's just too much to pay. I could care less about OLED and the camera magic.

I see that presently the Xr is available unlocked and sim free. ATT always unlocks my phones anyway when I pay the full price. However, I'm wondering about the SIM free option. When we travel outside the country, I usually pickup a cheap local guy sim card. Wondering how that would work outside the country?

I assume if I'm in Timbuktu and I fire up my phone, I'll be roaming with ATT. How/can I switch to a "local guy" carrier?
 
You can't if the phone is locked to AT&T. So yes, you need a sim free phone to do what you want.
 
If you do buy SIM unlocked, just be aware of the Apple Retail Flex policy. It's a policy that applies to third party resellers that has any SIM-free device (ie, fully unlocked) lock to the carrier of the first inserted SIM card.

In your case, that would be AT&T.

A way around that is to use an active Verizon SIM as the first inserted SIM and then your own SIM. Or to buy from Apple direct.
 
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I guess I'll just get a regular sim card phone (UNLOCKED) and to the "local guy" sim route when I'm in Timbuktu. I know that works.
 
Isn’t your XS for $999 unlocked? At least for this price u should have got one.

This would work with other sims obviously. So i don’t think u have to invest in a new phone
 
maerz001 said:
Isn’t your XS for $999 unlocked? At least for this price u should have got one.

This would work with other sims obviously. So i don’t think u have to invest in a new phone
Click to expand...
You're missing the point. Sure, I can keep my present UNLOCKED Att iPhone XS and pop different sims in it as I travel here and there. Or I can use Att Int'l option of $10 a day to access my present US plan.

I'm in a position to have any phone I want and so I've upgraded every year since the 3G. Up until the IP7, I was able to sell last year's model for either what I paid for it the previous year or within $200 of the previous price. This year I've decided to not go with the latest model, but get the IP 11Xr instead for $750 instead of laying out $999 for the 11 (whatever it's called).

I saw that there is a 11Xr that is sim free. Just wondered how that would work outside the US. I assume sim free means it doesn't have a sim slot. From the responses above, I guess I'll get the sim model instead.
 
StarShot said:
You're missing the point. Sure, I can keep my present UNLOCKED Att iPhone XS and pop different sims in it as I travel here and there. Or I can use Att Int'l option of $10 a day to access my present US plan.

I'm in a position to have any phone I want and so I've upgraded every year since the 3G. Up until the IP7, I was able to sell last year's model for either what I paid for it the previous year or within $200 of the previous price. This year I've decided to not go with the latest model, but get the IP 11Xr instead for $750 instead of laying out $999 for the 11 (whatever it's called).

I saw that there is a 11Xr that is sim free. Just wondered how that would work outside the US. I assume sim free means it doesn't have a sim slot. From the responses above, I guess I'll get the sim model instead.
Click to expand...
Ah ok. Well im from europe and here they only sell them with sim slot.
So the XR works always with either esim, physical or on both simultaneously.
Which means use esim from your home and pop in the phys sim of your travel destination
 
StarShot said:
I saw that there is a 11Xr that is sim free. Just wondered how that would work outside the US. I assume sim free means it doesn't have a sim slot. From the responses above, I guess I'll get the sim model instead.
Click to expand...

I think that’s a misunderstanding of SIM free. To me a “SIM free” phone isn’t anything to do with iPhone physical hardware config, it’s a financial / contractual matter with your phone retailer eg: the iPhone is sold as a standalone purchase without being tied to a 12/24/36 month cell contract.

In UK we can buy unlocked SIM free iPhones directly from Apple with no commitment to ‘a call plan’ or Telco provider & it’ll take any card.

There are now phones with a secondary e-sim ‘virtual SIM slot’ in addition, but so far they all still have a physical primary SIM slot to put a local Timbuktu card into whilst travelling outside of your home region.
 
OK, thanks to everyone. From reading between the lines, it seems to imply that a SIM FREE phone still has a sim slot that that can be used either outside the country (foreign) OR within the country (US) for another carrier's sim.

I thought SIM FREE meant NO slot.
 
StarShot said:
OK, thanks to everyone. From reading between the lines, it seems to imply that a SIM FREE phone still has a sim slot that that can be used either outside the country (foreign) OR within the country (US) for another carrier's sim.

I thought SIM FREE meant NO slot.
Click to expand...

Yeah they all have a slot. Just no included sim.
 
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