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.
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.
what's 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.
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.
Physical SIM. Mostly because I've never tried to buy a SIM in a country where eSIMs exist yet. It's kind of annoying, as it's the only way I can dual-SIM my phone.
Current eSIM possibilities in given countries:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209096
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.
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.
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.
My phone doesn't have eSIM option, so physical.
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.
Both. Sim card for my country's provider. eSim when I'm abroad for cheaper rates.
Physical. Had the same card for aaaaages now and no need to swap to esim so why bother.
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 SIM. No way to use eSIM in my phone. Even if it had, I'd have gone with physical one.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Physical, but I have used eSIM while traveling to different countries. It was much cheaper than getting an international data plan.
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.
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.
eSIM. I have Google Fi on an unlocked pixel and it was trivial (read less of a hassle) to use the eSIM.
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 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?
Usually just a physical SIM but I've used pre-paid eSIMs in other countries. Quite convenient!
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 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.
Physical SIM because my phone doesn't support eSIM.
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.
Both. Physical sim for things I want to be able to change, e-Sim for ephemeral things
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.
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.
Both
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