Do y'all use eSim or Physical Sim for your phone?

NotSkynet@lemmy.ca to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 84 points –

Just curious.

I used eSim for a while when I first got a phone that supported eSim, because I wanted to make it harder for a thief to disable the phone tracking, but now my main phone is broken and I'm a bit annoyed at having to chat with customer support for half and hour to activate eSim on another device.

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I use a physical sim. I'm not sure it even supports eSIM, but I'd be hesitant to ditch the physical sim for precisely the reasons you mentioned. I've swapped sims around between phones and even borrowed them from people when I was in a new area, something that's much harder with eSIMs.

what's eSim?

eSim

From my understanding, its a chip inside your phone that allows you to download Sim cards onto your phone. You could switch carriers without visiting a store or waiting days for the sim to arrive, just take minutes to an hour depending on which carrier you choose. Cool concept in my opinion, just not very mature at the moment.

Physical, because "it just works". I have had a SIM fail on me once, but I was quickly able to get a replacement. Popped out the old one and popped in the new one. No fuss.

eSIM on the other hand requires competency from both your device manufacturer and service provider, and is a mess to deal with if anything goes wrong. The phone manufacturer will blame the service provider and vice versa.

I've had two unpleasant experiences trying to activate an eSIM, and I don't plan on using it again soon – at least not until every Android device manufacturer does an Apple and goes eSIM-only.

I use a physical SIM because my phone doesn't support an eSIM, also i'm preety sure you have to activate it everytime you clean flash a custom ROM.

I'm not an expert in technology, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't delete eSims since they are actually stored in a separate chip. I've done some experients with wiping data (I'm always curious about new tech so I always do some testing to satisfy my curiosity) via remote wipe, both Android and iOS, I've intentionally entered incorrect password to get it to reset, and I've used the recovery menu in android to reset it, and I've used android apps that lets you wipe data via the device admin feature. The eSim always persisted unless you specifically choose to delete it, so I think flashing a rom isn't gonna be different as long as your don't send a command to the eSim chip to wipe the eSim data.

Which can be a bit worrying if a theif is able to reset your phone and bypass the anti-theft device activation features (which is difficult, but not impossible), they could use your eSim if it doesn't have a Sim pin to protect it, which nobody even thinks about locking the eSim since most people would assume it is safe behind the phone's lockscreen and it would get deleted in a device reset, but the eSims never get reset unless you specifically chose to.

Speaking as an Apple user here with a phone that does dual SIM (one physical and one eSIM), but I currently prefer the physical SIM for my primary number and eSIM as I need it for data.

For the last 18 months I've had it the other way around (eSIM primary) and I needed a data SIM with a different provider for a weekend cause I was somewhere with bad coverage on my main provider.

Getting a prepaid eSIM was very easy, but it decoupled my main number from iMessage since the eSIM slot was now linked to a different number.

So now I'm working off the theory that since I can generally get an eSIM for any country I might visit reasonably easily (the App Store has a couple of different eSIM providers), it's better to leave the eSIM empty until I need it and rely on a physical SIM for my primary.

It's not the cheapest way to go about it, but definitely the most convenient, and doesn't rely on you having to try and obtain a SIM locally (which can be very easy to very challenging depending on what country you're visiting).

Apple user here. When I went from the X to the 14, I went full eSIM.

Primary is eSIM. Works fine. When I travel, I add a second eSIM to my phone from a cheap, local provider. When I’m done, I deactivate and delete the traveling eSIM.

Not once do I have to use a paperclip. It’s wonderful.

If we had the dual eSIM model in Australia this would be my setup as well, but since we still have one physical and one eSIM, having the home SIM being physical basically provides the same benefits you've described.

Yeah, that would make sense in that situation. And primary carrier is a rare change, so it’s not really an inconvenience.

I've been using a physical sim for a while and while I normally would be fine with esim I've heard of various issues with them including having tethering data be used as normal data. There's also the ease of switching between phones with a physical sim so for now I'll continue using it.

You have a separate data plan for tethering?

No I've read about issues where after switching to esim people have had all phone data get reported as if it was tethered. For example if you have 2 gigs of tethering data included with your unlimited plan then you effectively have only 2 gigs of data if this issue affected you.

I didn't know anyone had a separate limit for tethering.

Canadian providers all charge about $15 a day to "roam like home". For about $20 I can buy a 30 day 5GB data only plan for Europe. Getting a European phone number doubles the cost as most of those plans have much more data as well. You can buy the plans before you leave, download and install the eSIM so you're ready to go when you arrive.

The wife and I both bought Pixel 7's this year as they support eSIM. We're in England right now. Our cost roaming would have been $600+. Only one of us needed a local phone number, and the has just data, and the cost was maybe $70.

Canadians are getting robbed. Roaming for me, if I travelled to Canada from the UK, would be £15 a month added to my plan, and I have one of the more expensive providers (EE). That's with the same limits so like 200GB data.

If you enable wifi calling before you leave then you can leave your Rogers esim active and use your local sim for data and calls. The advantage is that you still receive sms messages on your Canadian number.

Rogers won't let you use wifi calling to avoid the roaming charges. I've tried.

Both. Sim card for my country's provider. eSim when I'm abroad for cheaper rates.

Using both. Just emigrated from the US but keeping my Fi number as I've still got roots there, meanwhile I can swap physical SIMs as I jockey services here.

Physical. Had the same card for aaaaages now and no need to swap to esim so why bother.

Physical SIM because I have that card since a few years and I am too lazy to request an eSIM. In the end it simply does not matter at all.

Dito, also I don’t want to pay 20 bucks for a „replacement“ SIM on my contract, since my SIM isn’t broken/lost

I'll keep using physical until something stops me from using physical. So far I have only got a new phone once since e-sims became a thing, and I just popped my old sim out and put it in my new phone, like I always have. I'm not really interested in learning a new process unless I have to or there is some benefit that I want.

Physical SIM. No way to use eSIM in my phone. Even if it had, I'd have gone with physical one.

Physical, but I have used eSIM while traveling to different countries. It was much cheaper than getting an international data plan.

Stares in American

This isn't exclusively an American thing. I went to China and it's extremely common to see SIM cards being hawked on the street and sold to tourists. They're disposable and quite convenient. You buy them on the street, pop the SIM card in, get an activation text, and then you get data for a week before it stops working and you throw it away. They come with different data amounts and durations. But eSIMs do exist as well there, although it's not nearly as convenient. You need to register your identity (surveillance purposes) and sign up for a regular phone contract. I haven't seen any disposable eSIM plans there yet.

Phone models sold in China (even iphones) have had dual sim capabilities for a long time before eSims were a thing. I mean like 2 physical sim card slots in a phone. Adoption of eSims isn't much of a necessity when the phone itself already can carry 2 sims by default.

On the other hand American phone models only ever had the one sim card slot. It's a bit strange that eSims haven't been as widely adopted.

My last phone had a dual physical sim in the same slot. Unfortunately it was shared with the SD card reader so you couldn't have dual sim and an SD card.

I think that's because of Chinese people's travelling habits. Popular domestic travel destinations include Hainan for a tropical experience, Sichuan for pandas, Beijing for landmarks, Hong Kong for fake Britain, Macau for gambling, and Taiwan because it seems foreign enough without being actually too foreign (to Chinese people).

Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan require travel permits to enter, despite the Chinese government considering them "domestic". They kinda straddle the line between actual domestic and international. Regardless, it's not common for Chinese people to have phone plans that work in Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan, so they'll buy the disposable SIM cards I talked about earlier. That's why phones typically have two SIM slots.

Getting visas to travel internationally is a pain for Chinese people because they have to visit a consulate or embassy, apply, and then be subject to high scrutiny. After all, it seems everyone's scared of Chinese spies nowadays. It's also very expensive by Chinese standards compared to applying for a cheap HK/MO/TW travel permit. The People's Republic of China passport is pretty weak compared to European or American passports. Chinese people can get visa-on-arrival or visa-free access in South Asian countries, Central Asia, or Africa, but these destinations are not popular with Chinese tourists.

I use both. SIM where I live, eSIM when travelling. 30mins doesn't seem that bad to me tbh. How often do you switch or break phones?

No idea what you are talking about. I did notice a lot of yank mobile phones didn't need a SIM to function, but that's not a thing here. SIMs are cheap and easy to use, I use them.

I have not heard of anyone having their phone stolen in many years here in Australia.

I'm on vacation in France and I can download an esim very easily to get more data for much cheaper than it would be through my own carrier

Don't even have to visit a store or contact support.

My own carrier still uses normal sim because it doesn't support esim

Physical since I carried it over from my old phone which didn't support eSIM.

I did get an eSIM some time ago for a short vacation in switzerland though. The activation went surprisingly smooth even though I had to wait a day before they verified me. The verification delay was probably because I used a foreign ID to register at a swiss provider for that eSIM.

Indifferent.
I had updated my phone plan because I got a free smart watch with lte and wanted to utilize it.
Got tired with my phone ISP and just said fuck it and now both have esim.

I was leery of eSIM when it first came out. Seemed like it was just a way for carriers to prevent you from swapping because you’d have to go through hoops.

After I got my iPhone 14 pro however, I actually really like it. I went on my honeymoon and didn’t have any cell service and I didn’t speak the local language (I’m an idiot), but luckily I was able to use WiFi and get an eSIM setup with a local carrier in like 15 minutes all without having to go to the store. It was great.

eSIM because I can install multiple of them in my phone and swap as needed.

I keep all the eSIM data stored in 1Password so whenever I change my phone or anything at all, I can easily download and install them to another phone too.

I have never used eSIMs personally but I have requested a lot while working.

It usually takes less than 30 seconds (once logged in) to get a new eSIM (QR code in a PDF).

Is it different for a personal eSIM? If not then I wouldn't bother saving them.

Apparently you can do it with an app too.

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You can store them in a password manager? My carrier just ask for the imei and you get a notification to add the eSim. There is no way to re-add it once you remove it so theres no useful “data” that I can store. I’ll have to ask them to re-add it after deleting it.

I never have to scan any QR codes for my carrier, but I’d assume those aren’t gonna let you re-add the eSim anyways so there isn’t really any point in saving those QR codes.

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I’m an international student in Australia so I have my home country SIM as an eSIM and my Australian SIM as a physical SIM. One time, my eSIM stopped receiving signal and I knew that if I were just able to somehow reinsert the eSIM it would work—but unfortunately you can’t just reuse the same QR code for the eSIM. I had to talk to customer support for over an hour to try and get them to send me a new QR code, but they said they HAD to give it in-store. So I had to get one of my parents to go over there and do it for me (They don’t have any branches in AU)

I would rather prefer both as physical SIMs but alas my phone doesn’t support it.

Thats a terrible phone provider. My esim activation process isn't great either, but I didn't have to scan some qr code, just give them the imei and and they have to verify your identity and that's it, you get a notification to add esim.

Both. Physical sim for things I want to be able to change, e-Sim for ephemeral things

Usually just a physical SIM but I've used pre-paid eSIMs in other countries. Quite convenient!

My home provider does not offer esim so physical is what I use. When I'm travelling I use esim almost exclusively unless there's a killer physical Sim deal.

Both. Verizon service at one of my offices is trash, but our family unlimited plan is ideal for just about everywhere else. I can't beat the present pricing for the number of lines we have. My phone supports DSDS so I've got a physical Verizon sim as my primary and then a secondary esim that connects to T-Mo when needed.

Physical, because I couldn't get eSim to work on T-Mobile. Wasted tons of time trying to activate it.

eSIM. My phone does not have a physical sim slot.

I use both a physical sim (personal) and eSim (work) with a second eSim that I can enable and recharge when going outside of the EU so I don’t get huge roaming charges. When I’m at home it’s disabled so I only have the other two active

My network doesn't offer eSIM so I stick with physical.

My carrier is eSIM preferred so I decided to try it out. I had a few hiccups with their app but other than that, it's great. Way more secure since it's encrypted on the device.

Physical SIM for my home network. Since I have to pay to use my phone around Europe now (another Brexit win!) it's easier to leave the eSIM slot free for travel SIMs.

Maybe you can do both: physical USIM card, but with eSIM functions. So you can move your profile from one phone to another just by plug out and plug in, and install many profiles on one phone and switch between them. There are some products can do it, such as eSIM.me, esim.5ber.com or https://github.com/estkme-group .

I always saw eSIM as an upside in phone specs, but I decided to choose one without it, other priorities, my career doesn't support eSIM anyway

Physical, because my telecom only supports eSIMs for smartwatches... Even if they offered it for mobile phones, I would prefer a physical SIM, so that I can swap it easily if I'm overseas

Both, one physical SIM for data and one esim for calls. I'm actually using a sim from esim.me which turns an esim into a physical SIM so I still have my phone's esim free for when I buy a travel esim.

eSim, that seemed to be the default for my provider/phone (Google Fi with Pixel). It works fine. The online activation seems to work okay, I've even moved to different Pixels without much hassle.

That aside overall I'm indifferent to using Sim or eSim.

I use eSIM, because it's so much easier when traveling overseas to get a physical data SIM than it is to get an eSIM. Many countries' regs prohibit eSIM sales to non-residents, weirdly.