I was afraid of this, when I bought my 15PM. Traveled to Chile, and what would have been a quick transaction at the Entel store ended in disappointment. Apparently you need a Chilean ID to purchase an eSIM. Fortunately, I brought a pixel 3 I can hotspot, and takes a nano sim, but it’s something of a hassle. My only regret so far.
I can’t believe Apple is subjecting you guys to eSIM only iPhones.
Bought my iPhone in America because it was almost $400 nzd cheaper and now I’m a tiny bit regretting it because it’s been a week and a half and Vodafone NZ messed it up so badly I haven’t had service the entire time.
In NZ they still do iPhones with physical sims and I didn’t know that America was eSIM only so I had to change providers and because I wanted to keep the number I have had for the last 10 years it meant I had to transfer it to another company because mine doesn’t do eSIM.
Anyway, if you’re from a country where they do physical sims don’t buy an iPhone from a country that does eSIM only phones 🥲
This is why I’m glad the 15PM in the UK still has the physical sim
You can use one of those data eSIM: AirAlo for one time usage. Three Hong Kong for a HK number and cheap data roaming, valid indefinitely (a year if you don’t use it).
You might have a better chance with a small street vendor. I noticed this is the case for some countries where the small street vendor sometimes doesn’t care to check your ID even when they are required to. Not sure if this is the case in Chile.
I have multiple phones I rotate between using. Some don’t have eSIMs and when I want to move service to a different phone I’d need to set up the eSIM on the different phone or go and buy a new pSIM.
Too much of a hassle for me. I won’t buy anymore iPhones till Apple returns the pSIM slot.
Many people are mentioning buying the non-US model. Unfortunately this comes with some trade-offs, the biggest is the lack of UWB. The non-north American model lacks some additional bands. In addition to that, there is the issue of warranty support and AppleCare.
I really dislike the face that Apple removed the sim tray for US models specifically because of issues getting service on travel. The concept of eSIM is great but the implementation so far here in the US has been generally poor.
At this point, my plan is to just take an iPhone SE with me when I travel and not even bother with trying to do an eSIM outside of the US.
Get the Hong Kong version which has dual physical SIM!
Adding an eSIM via many services has been pretty easy for me. I used Orange in Europe and added it while in the US very easily, activated it once my phone connected to towers there. There appear to be quite a few options for South America as well.
In a lot of ways it was easier than physical sim and it was nice to have my local service and European service active simultaneously.
Use an app like Airalo and buy one of their country-specific plans. Much easier.
Use this app called Airalo.
Yeah I’m with the physical sim crowd on this one. It’s utterly stupid that Apple is doing this. Incredibly inconvenient and a huge hassle for those of us eu travel. Yea I understand the esim is the future, but the future hasn’t caught up with a large portion of the world. I wish you could easily buy the other versions of iPhones in the US, which still have sim slots. Apple: “nope, nobody travels, nobody travels, and if they do they should pay exorbitant international roaming charges becaus…” Now I’ll wait for the Apple fan club to “let me have it”.
On the flip side, the cellular providers won’t catch up until they’re forced. They still haven’t bothered with carrier side RCS. Apple’s going eSIM as much as possible now, and how much you want to bet Samsung and Pixel will follow through within a year or two?
But none of that diminishes the pain points for those of you traveling internationally this year, I know.
There is a study out there that suggests that middle class Americans only travel internationally once per decade, and that includes Mexico and Canada. I’m guessing that Apple figured out that they could save a few bucks in costs and operational efficiency per phone by removing the physical sim. That extra profit was enough to screw over the small minority of us who have the privilege of visiting other countries pretty often.
Here in the Phils, we have one esim and one physical sim. Hongkong and China has two physical sims.
Next time try using airalo buy a prepaid e sim and enjoy
Airalo is absurdly overpriced, just like most eSim services. A month ago I travelled to Egypt and had the option to get an eSim in there (around 27-30$) or wait and see my options and the airport. I got a prepaid SIM card for 8 bucks that offered me more than Airalo lol for a third of the price. Thanks god that the 14 Pro and 15 Pro still have a physical sim card slot outside the US
That looks like a better deal than the app I was using, ubigi
Had to go for Ubigi (and was very happy with it) when I went to Japan because I read tons of terrible reviews about airalo in Japan specifically. Great service in general but seemed to have horrible coverage in Japan
Hmm
I feel ya, I just bought a 15 plus in the U.S. but I live in México and it’s been a total pita. The other problem is you can only register your Apple ID in one country/region so many apps I need in one country are not available in the other and you can only change it once every 90 days.
You can make a second Apple ID and switch between the two for 2 different countries app stores that is what I do to get local apps for 2 countries.
Thanks for the tip, I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll give it a try!