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eSIM-Only iPhone 14 for Travel to Developing World? ‘Bit Concerned’ Says Pro Photographer
Pro photographer Austin Mann again has shared a review of the latest iPhone cameras, specifically the iPhone 14 Pro. This year, he took his testing to the Scottish Highlands, hanging out in the Dunton Kilchoan Estate.
Mann is a perfect use case for Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro, as he pushes the cameras to the limit at exotic locales around the globe. What better way to showcase the newest iPhone 14 Pro?
The photographer said despite the new 48 megapixel camera on iPhone 14 Pro, he ended up leaving settings on 12 megapixel ProRAW, noting the latter is faster at capturing than the former. He also pointed out worrying about large file sizes of shooting in 48 MP (although Apple said the sizes would be the same as the 12MP shooter?) and he also said battery life seemed better at 12 MP. Shooting at 48 MP was a mode he said to use for images he would want to print, to get the most detail.
Mann praised the new Action Mode that mimics filming video with a gimbal for stabilization. The feature looks like it lives up to its promise.
Now, the part of Mann’s iPhone 14 Pro camera review that caught my attention was the part about using an eSIM-only iPhone 14 Pro while travelling internationally.
iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models sold in the U.S. no longer have a physical SIM try, but instead, only have access to eSIM. Here in Canada, we’re still lucky enough to have a SIM try for our new iPhone 14 lineup smartphones.
Mann said he was “a bit concerned” about “the practicality of an eSIM-only approach for travelers with US iPhones who frequently visit the developing world.”
“My wife and I usually land for a project, get money changed, and pick up a local SIM card so it’s easy and cheap to communicate with people in-country. I keep these SIM cards in my daily bag (see image above), and for areas I’m frequently traveling I can just swap the SIM card upon landing and be ready to go,” said Mann
While trying to sign up for an eSIM line in East Africa, as he’s heading there next summer, he wasn’t able to figure out how. He said he did follow some guides on how to do it, but the process is taking longer than usual.
Apple has this support document detailing eSIM and traveling, but it doesn’t really help that much. You can store up to 8 eSIMs on your iPhone at one time, while two of them can remain active. The problem is some smaller wireless carriers in the developing world may not have adopted eSIM yet. That means one will need to still rely on a phone with a physical SIM card, for now.
There are third-party eSIM companies that support global roaming, such as Airalo. You can purchase voice and data ahead of time right from their app on your iPhone, and your plan will be ready for your arrival. But sometimes this may not be as cheap as buying a physical pre-paid SIM card on the ground at your destination, and popping it into your iPhone.
Apple says using eSIM is more secure than a physical SIM card, and that can be true. But for now, Americans may be better off using third-party eSIM services for travel, as support is usually widely available in most countries by now.
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I’ve been in Hong Kong for a month and I had no problems using eSIM but the only problem is the phone carrier’s iOS app is region locked. I had to create a Hong Kong Apple account.
eSIM is convenient but the only hurdle are certain phone carriers not offering their app for non-Hong Kong residents.
I also realized that I left my Freedom Mobile eSIM account on but it wasn’t enabled and the battery kept draining it.
That latter battery drain was likely due to the Freedom Mobile eSIM using WiFi Calling via cellular data off the other eSIM, if both were active simultaneously.
I hope Apple doesn’t remove the physical sim on iPhone 15. I travel a lot in East Africa and most of the carriers never heard of esim. Many countries haven’t adopted that yet. Hopefully soon.
The eSIM only iPhone 14 series devices are the mmWave enabled models, specifically for the US market.
The earliest Canada would see these mmWave models would be late 2024 or early 2025, after that spectrum has been auctioned and deployed.
Unless Apple simplifies their devices to one global model per submodel, the iPhone 15 series devices should still have nanoSIM.
Well obviously there is no intrinsic correlation between removal of SIM slot and mmWave. Apple plans to eventually remove the SIM slot from all models, perhaps as soon as next year. Removing from US first was just a warning shot across the bow to get carriers ready, in a market where eSIM adoption was already relatively robust. The fact that the US is also the only market to support mmWave is coincidence, not causation.
Right now there’s a direct correlation because the mmWave has its own little antenna slot and it’s own specific hardware.
Apple was able to design their phone for 14 so that the same space is either the sim slot or the mmWave slot, instead of empty space…
But yes, there’s nothing to say that a phone with mmWave can’t have a nano sim slot.
Ok, fair enough. That is a clever use of space. My point is that they did not remove it because they could only fit one or the other, but rather because they want to eventually remove it from all models. Otherwise, it would not have been possible for the iPhone 12 & 13 to support mmWave.
I also don’t think the space that the mmWave support takes up is anywhere near equal to the space that the nanoSIM slot takes up. I did not see a nanoSIM-sized empty cavity inside the non-mmWave iPhones 12 and 13. The reason the international models didn’t support mmWave, as I understand, was due to component shortages and cost. Whereas the removal of the SIM slot is mainly about reclaiming internal space, and improving waterproofing (other reasons too but internal space is the biggest one IMHO). Similar logic to the headphone jack removal.
So far, pbk review has a disassembly video of the mmWave 14 Pro Max and once they or another channel disassembles the other markets non-mmWave model, more will be known/exposed.
As raslucas pointed out, there is additional hardware taking up some of the free space that the SIM slot would have occupied.
Since Apple conveniently always omits actual battery capacity in their iPhone technical specifications, it’s quite likely that the mmWave models have a slightly larger battery to those without mmWave.
So I reviewed the pbk disassembly video (14 pro max) and compared that to an iPhone 13 Pro max w/mmWave teardown. I believe @raslucas is actually mistaken. It’s pretty clear in the video that the space where the nanoSIM cage goes on the PCB on the 13 pro max is filled with nothing more than a plastic spacer on the mmWave 14 pro max.
If you review 5:14 to 5:20 on the pbk teardown video you can quite clearly see the black plastic (or whatever material) spacer that is occupying the space that is normally used by the nanoSIM tray. Furthermore, the components that are required for mmWave are extremely small, relative to the size of the nanoSIM cage and are located elsewhere on the motherboard, or on the side of the frame in regard to the antenna.
So it looks like the nanoSIM space on the mmWave 14 models is not being used for anything else, just as the tiny spaces where the mmWave components go on the non-mmWave models are not being used for anything else either.
@raslucas I don’t think that’s accurate. If you see my other post, it looks like the mmWave hardware on the 14 pro max is not occupying the space occupied by the nanoSIM cage. There is just a spacer there. And the mmWave chips are located elsewhere on the PCB, while the antenna is way on the other side of the phone, just as on the iPhone 12 and 13 series.
As it currently stands, the mmWave models are the eSIM only ones.
If you look at Apple’s own eSIM carriers/providers page,
https://support.apple.com/HT209096, all the Canadian carriers are using an eSIM activation process that doesn’t seem to comply with eSIM Carrier Activation & Quick Transfer that the American (& select international) carriers do support.As you stated, Apple could change it for the next models, however if the aforementioned Carrier Activation & Quick Transfer are requirements for the eSIM only models, then the next year will require Canadian Carriers to conform, leading up to the next generation.
Yes. But as I said there is no intrinsic correlation there. Clearly Apple could have made the mmWave iPhone 14 models support nanoSIMs if they wanted to, just as they did with iPhone 12 and 13. But they chose to deliberately remove the nanoSIM capability from the US models in a bid to push carriers to improve their eSIM support faster. It was not an either/or technical feasibility tradeoff.
It is only a matter of time until apple removes the nanoSIM slot from all future models. Whether they choose to do it for iPhone 15 or not will be based on how successful they are at improving eSIM support globally, not on whether or not mmWave adoption happens in Canada. It’s quite feasible that they eventually release an iPhone 15 or 16 model that supports neither mmWave nor nanoSIM.
The eSIM only iPhone 14 series devices are the mmWave enabled models, specifically for the US market.
The earliest Canada would see these mmWave models would be late 2024 or early 2025, after that spectrum has been auctioned and deployed.
Unless Apple simplifies their devices to one global model per submodel, the iPhone 15 series devices should still have nanoSIM.
The eSIM only iPhone 14 series devices are the mmWave enabled models, specifically for the US market.
The earliest Canada would see these mmWave models would be late 2024 or early 2025, after that spectrum has been auctioned and deployed.
Unless Apple simplifies their devices to one global model per submodel, the iPhone 15 series devices should still have nanoSIM.
Seeing as it is removed for iPhone 14, the absence of a sim tray in iPhone 15 wouldn’t be considered as removal, unless you are referring to the Canadian model.
It’s important to also note that those global roaming carriers mentioned, such as Airalo, Truphone, Ubigy etc. are all data only. They don’t allow you to make calls or send or receive SMS, which sounds like is important for Mann to keep in contact with locals. When I was in the UK, this was a problem as one frequently needed to text various info to the national health service regarding COVID tests, in order to be admitted to many events.