Submitted by Normal-Question-1994 t3_yfq6it in iphone
Hi guys, are the esims on the iPhone 14 a big deal? Like buying an iphone 13 would be a bad choice because it still uses a physical SIM card and that will be outdated quickly and carriers will no longer use SIM cards? Or will physical SIM cards be around for the foreseeable future and it is okay that iPhone 13 uses physical SIM cards and you’ll still be able to use the 13 for a long time like 3-5 years. Thank you!
Ooh okay, good to know. Maybe I am overthinking things lol. Thanks!
You don't have to use a sim card. iPhone 13 can use eSIM if you like. Use whatever one you want. There's no difference.
Oh wow, I had no idea. Thanks!
Yup. The 13 can use card or esim. Only the 14 is esim only.
In my opinion, eSIM is a huge pain in the a**. I bought a 14 Pro at launch to test it out, and had to activate the eSIM. That part was no problem. HOWEVER- since I decided I didn't want to keep the phone and go back to using my 13 Pro, that is where the problems really began. Instead of simply swapping a SIM card as I would have done in the past, it ended up being a 45 minute visit at the carrier store trying to get an eSIM moved over to my old phone- after that simply failed, they had to give me a new SIM card that was activated on my account to use on my 13 Pro (since the old SIM that was still in it would no longer work, having been transferred over to the 14 Pro's eSIM).
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The ability to quickly and easily swap between phones is a thing of the past with eSIMs.
Hmm interesting. Maybe another reason to get one of the 13 phones since they can use both. Thanks!
It’s not worth buying an old phone because the new ones don’t have a sim slot. How many times does the average user even switch the SIM cards out of their phone? I have done it once in the last 10 years and am a pretty tech savvy person. I have a 14 pro with esim (because they only have esim) and have no problem with it. I’ve actually been using esim for years as it means the sim can’t be taken out if your phone is stolen.
The option to transfer from another iPhone didn’t work?
No, that wasn't working and the store rep was not able to figure it out, had to call advanced support and as noted, they finally had to give up on eSIM and just give me a new SIM card for my 13 Pro.
I don’t know about that, last time Apple removed something everyone had been using forever, it took about two years for the whole industry to follow
It’s still going to take a long time for everyone using physical SIMs to move to new phones. Loads of people I know are using 5+ year old phones with no intention of getting a new one until it breaks. There’s still a large market for non-smartphones and other devices like mobile routers, cameras etc. that need a SIM card. These don’t get replaced anywhere near as frequently as smartphones. My last mobile router lasted 5 years and I expect my new one to as well.
Ah I see, thanks!
Educational_Worth906 t1_iu4mt01 wrote
Physical SIMs will be around for a long time yet. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. Plenty of people are using older phones with no thought of updating. There are over 6 billion smartphones in use and probably at least the same that aren’t smartphones.