Samsung
Samsung is finally starting to support eSIM in the US. XDA Developers reports that the first working combo is Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra on T-Mobile. You’ll need an update to activate the feature, but then you’ll be able to handcuff your old plastic SIM cards. Samsung’s flagship ships began shipping with eSIM starting with the Galaxy S20 in March 2020, but never received support for the US operator. With T-Mobile now supporting the Note 20, we hope other carriers and models will follow suit.
Samsung has been quite slow in terms of absorbing eSIM in general. The first eSIM phone in the world was Google Pixel 2, which was launched in 2017 and was quickly accepted on Google Fi. Apple began supporting eSIM with the iPhone XS in 2018, and carriers quickly activated support.
eSIM eliminates the need for physical plastic SIM cards to connect your phone to your phone bill and get you up and running on your cellular network. Physical SIM cards are one of the many ways in which operators cling to outdated technology. To be identified for service, carriers require that we reserve space in our phones for a 12×9 mm plastic card that contains 256KB of information. It may have seemed like a good idea in the 1990s, when operators prepared the SIM card standard. But today, when a MicroSD card of similar size (15×11 mm) can hold 1 TB of data – or about 4.2 million times more data – SIM cards seem ridiculously outdated.
eSIM, if the mobile industry adopted it and gave up SIM cards completely, would allow the operator to change more easily, as you would only have to download an application to switch service, instead of buying a piece of physical plastic . It would allow manufacturers to save space inside a device, as an eSIM chip on the motherboard is much smaller than a SIM card, a SIM card tray, and an eject system. Complete removal of the slot would lead to less space for dust and water to enter.
For phones with eSIM and a physical SIM slot, eSIM often leads to “dual-SIM” support, allowing users to subscribe to two operators simultaneously. This is good for people who want to juggle multiple numbers or for someone who wants to combine the best coverage of two operators. This is enabled on T-Mobile’s Note 20, which lists “Dual SIM Support (DSDS)”, which means you’ll be on both networks at the same time.