eSim mobiles - pro's and con's?

wackyjacky

wackyjacky

Striker
First up, I'm a bit of a ludite with phones having always used an iphone company phone, last one an iphone 8. I've always had a sim card, and have bought my own so a separate account to the work one.

Now though I'm looking at buying my own phone and have settled on an iphone 15 as it's not mch bigger size wise, has a decent battery life and covers verything I need. Also, talking with others who have one it appears to be a decent reliable phone and I'd prefer to stay with Apple as I've a large itunes library which I prefer to use than a streaming service.

Looking about, the best deal seems to be with SKY mobile which I don't mind as coverage is the same as O2 but the mobiles come with an eSim rather than a normal sim card.

This is where I need some advice as to the pros and cons.

I'm thinking an eSIm phone would be restrictive if I wanted to sell it in the future and if I lost the phone I'd have to wait for a repacement phone rather than just a repacement sim to put in my old phone which I'd keep as backup.

What are the other pro's and con's as struggling to think of any pro's other than the cheaper deal?
 


wackyjacky said:
First up, I'm a bit of a ludite with phones having always used an iphone company phone, last one an iphone 8. I've always had a sim card, and have bought my own so a separate account to the work one.

Now though I'm looking at buying my own phone and have settled on an iphone 15 as it's not mch bigger size wise, has a decent battery life and covers verything I need. Also, talking with others who have one it appears to be a decent reliable phone and I'd prefer to stay with Apple as I've a large itunes library which I prefer to use than a streaming service.

Looking about, the best deal seems to be with SKY mobile which I don't mind as coverage is the same as O2 but the mobiles come with an eSim rather than a normal sim card.

This is where I need some advice as to the pros and cons.

I'm thinking an eSIm phone would be restrictive if I wanted to sell it in the future and if I lost the phone I'd have to wait for a repacement phone rather than just a repacement sim to put in my old phone which I'd keep as backup.

What are the other pro's and con's as struggling to think of any pro's other than the cheaper deal?
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Aye that's one downside, you drop your phone and smash it then you can just get the trusty old non nonsense Nokia 3310 outta the draw to use until you get a new phone. If you then got on non eSIM replacement phone you'd have to wait until you get a new SIM before you can use it.

Losing the phone, then I think you'd just get the eSIM suspended and transferred to a new phone so not so different to when you lose a non eSIM phone as you've also lost the SIM card.
 
Rather than wait for a plastic replacement SIM to turn up in the post, or having to go to a shop in town, you simply login to your providers account and you can delete, replace or order a new one on the spot.

They aren't restrictive.

I changed my phone the other day, logged into O2, ordered a new esim and within 10 seconds the QR code was on my screen.

Now my work line uses the SIM tray which I turn off at 5pm every night and weekends
 
No7 said:
Rather than wait for a plastic replacement SIM to turn up in the post, or having to go to a shop in town, you simply login to your providers account and you can delete, replace or order a new one on the spot.

They aren't restrictive.

I changed my phone the other day, logged into O2, ordered a new esim and within 10 seconds the QR code was on my screen.

Now my work line uses the SIM tray which I turn off at 5pm every night and weekends
Click to expand...
Ah so, if I wanted to sell it in the future someone from another network could use it with their sim card or would it be locked?
 
No7 said:
Rather than wait for a plastic replacement SIM to turn up in the post, or having to go to a shop in town, you simply login to your providers account and you can delete, replace or order a new one on the spot.

They aren't restrictive.

I changed my phone the other day, logged into O2, ordered a new esim and within 10 seconds the QR code was on my screen.

Now my work line uses the SIM tray which I turn off at 5pm every night and weekends
Click to expand...
They are restrictive in some ways. As I said if you smash your phone so you can't use it and your 'spare' phone doesn't have an eSIM they you can't just swap out the SIM card to use it in the spare temporally until you get a new phone. You also can't quickly test to see if a phone is definitely unlocked and works with your SIM (or other reasons why you try a quick SIM swap).

Even so, the eSIM is far more convenient if you don't smash the phone in some way or don't use/buy 2nd hand phones that people reckon are unlocked.
 
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Is there no option for a physical sim? I’m on sky and have a sim but granted I’ve been with them a while. I would have thought they’d let you choose sim type unless they’re phasing out physical ones.
 
beezer said:
Is there no option for a physical sim? I’m on sky and have a sim but granted I’ve been with them a while. I would have thought they’d let you choose sim type unless they’re phasing out physical ones.
Click to expand...

All phones still come with a physical SIM tray but they are phasing them out to go fully electronic
 
No7 said:
All phones still come with a physical SIM tray but they are phasing them out to go fully electronic
Click to expand...
Yeah, I read that in certain countries the iPhone 15 range doesn’t come with sim trays as they are further ahead than us and don’t need them.
 
Not sure I would want to have an eSIM for day to day usage but they are ideal for short term use when travelling. I used one in Thailand last year and it worked brilliantly.

Then again, eSIM-only seems to be where the industry is headed so before long we won't have any choice in the matter.
 

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