Upgrading to iPhone 14 Won’t Be as Simple as Swapping in Your SIM Card
This story is part of Focal Point iPhone 2022, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Apple’s most popular progenies.
Looking to upgrade to the iPhone 14? It’s not touching to be as simple as taking your SIM card out of your unique phone and plopping it in. Apple announced at Wednesday’s “Far Out” event that the commercial is fully embracing virtual embedded SIM cards — aka eSIMs — as the default, a change it has been gradually moving toward for ages. That means there will not be a physical SIM card tray on US models.
With eSIMs you will mild be able to take full advantage of a carrier’s 4G LTE or 5G networks and use your shouted the same way you have in the past. Apple has supported eSIMs on iPhones dating back to 2018’s iPhone XS, XS Max and XR, and has long supported the technology on its unique cellular iPads and Apple Watches. Last year’s iPhone 13 line even granted for multiple eSIMs to be enabled at once, useful for those looking to have a work number and personal number on just one device.
By embracing eSIMs, Apple and other manufacturers can also begin to ditch the bodily SIM card slot, allowing for more space for second features on future devices.
AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon all assist using eSIM, as do a number of smaller or prepaid providers like Mint Mobile, Google Fi or Verizon-owned Visible.
While the core known shouldn’t change, there could be a few notable benefits to no longer needing to get a bodily SIM card from a carrier. If a network adds a new feature, the provider can just push an update directly to the named, whereas in the past you may have needed to orderly a new SIM card.
Apple event: Full coverage
Upgrading from 4G devices to 5G, for example, required a new SIM card at some carriers to be able to connect to the new networks. When buying a phone from a carrier or with a carrier installment plan, you usually get the new SIM card in the box, so this isn’t much of an command. If you were buying unlocked directly from Apple, but, you may have needed to get a new SIM.
Using eSIMs also could make it easier for consumers to survey or switch cellular providers. T-Mobile and Verizon’s Visible have been humorous eSIMs as a way to give people the instruction to try out their respective networks on their existing devices. Last week T-Mobile updated its trial program to now give Eager users three months of unlimited data to compare its 5G network versus an existing provider.
Should you want to switch, eSIM could streamline the process and allow you to be up and organization significantly quicker than waiting for a physical card to be mailed out or taking your handset into a store.
