With the announcement of the iPhone 14 Pro at the end of 2022 we got a much brighter screen for daylight viewing and a much better camera but we lost the physical SIM card slot. While old school technophiles might lament this move it might not be as bad as you think. The iPhone 14 and other compatible iPhones can store up to 8 eSIMs with two active at any one time*.
eSIM Advantages
- Sure we don’t have to be lectured on the advantage of an eSIM: cost saving, convenience, security and flexibility. I’m preaching to the choir here right!
- More eSims – more is better right. Obviously you need to keep your existing line while you jet of to London to take in the sights but now you can have a few eSims on your phone, perhaps you have one with a larget bucket of data your your UK jaunt and another for the rest of Europe for your Italy and Croatia adventure.
eSIM Disadvantages
- No physical SIM card slot – gone are the days of jumping off the plane in a humid (or rainy) far off land and heading to a dodgy little cellphone booth to purchase a physical SIM card. But me thinks the little cellphone store guys won’t go down without a fight. eSIM cards can be enabled simply by scanning a QR code so I see them switching to this method in the future.
Summary
So with all US carriers supporting eSIM now it’s a lot easy to travel overseas and not get burned by their exorbitant roaming rates.
*All iPhone models that support eSIM can have multiple eSIMs and use Dual SIM with two active SIMs at the same time.)