https://gizmodo.com/google-s-pixel-8-sim-slot-esim-only-iphone-1850759671
What happened to daring to be different? What happened to having options? What happened to creativity?
(all carriers support and promote esim where i live)
what advantages do physical, external sims offer over built-in esim modules?
Physical Sims are easier to move around. So someone like a tech reviewer (as an extreme example) can flip their sim into any device for review and switch back without having to do anything further. With esim, generally the qr code initiates the process but doesn’t actually represent the sim itself, so the sims are non-transferable. You usually need a new esim qr code and you have to interact with your carrier to move to the new eSIM; usually through an online sim transfer process.
Transplant that for people who travel and may have half a dozen sims for various destination locations which can be swapped out for any reason at any time. Hopping between carriers as they go. Landed in France? Cool, just pull out your collection of sims and pull your France Telecom company sim card, and pop it in. No internet/wifi/data/phone call needed.
For me, I use my esim as dual SIM, my esim is my personal SIM card. For work, I’m usually given a mobile number at least, so I take the sim that work provides and drop it in the physical SIM slot and I’m off to the races. If I’m fired or quit, I just pop it out and hand it back to them. With eSIM, they only have my word that is been removed, and they need to transfer it to a new eSIM QR code. It’s just more hassle. With a physical SIM they just pop it into a new device for my replacement, or hand it to that person if they’re bringing their own device to the table… It’s just a lot less hassle.
90% of people don’t travel enough that the former is a problem, or change jobs enough that the latter is a problem. Most people put the sim into their phone and ignore it exists (as long as it keeps working). So for the vast majority eSIM is barely an inconvenience, and most of the work in transferring the eSIM will be done by the carrier employees when setting you up on a new device as part of an upgrade, so the vast majority of customers won’t care or notice.
The main technical argument for eSIM is that it takes up substantially less internal space which can go towards making devices smaller, and lighter, or provide slightly larger batteries or storage or something.
I prefer having a sim as an option, but for the most part, I’m not going to be too bothered if they don’t put it in.
you can usually store multiple esims on your phone tho and quickly swap between them… (with only one active at a time)
I have both my eSIM and physical SIM active at the same time; I need it this way, since it’s my personal line and my work provided line, both of which need to be able to receive a call, more or less 24/7. I’m an IT tech, and if you’re not familiar with the job, we end up on-call, 24/7. Usually there’s a rotation to the on-call (one person is on call one week, another the next, etc etc). So I need access to my work SIM all the time. With dual-SIM (one physical, one eSIM), I can make and take phone calls on either, 24/7. I won’t sacrifice either personal communication nor work communication for the other; and presently, I don’t.
The caveat is that I can only have one of them active for data at a time; so I have to pick which one. To avoid putting a lot of personal data on my work SIM, or a lot of work data on my personal SIM, I limit my work-related data and keep my personal SIM active for data 90% of the time or more. Whenever work demands require that I use mobile data for something that’s data intensive, I switch to my work SIM for the duration of that task (like tethering, or a video call or something). That’s how I’ve structured it. I’d like for it to be able to have both connected and direct traffic around based on app, but no such structure exists either with iPhones, nor Android, so I cannot do that for the moment (which I believe would require another cellular modem - which would increase costs for the phone, and most people wouldn’t need that).
I haven’t used dual-eSIM, though I know it’s possible to have multiple of them, and I don’t know what the behaviour is with dual-eSIM in this regard… Since it’s a fairly niche use-case, I don’t expect to have an answer without experimenting.
Physical sims are physical and contribute to unnecessary waste. Which is bad for the environment. Embrace digital. Personally i hope we can live in a star Trek utopia where we even get rid of currency
