Found it to be a really unpleasant experience using Airalo in Europe on an iPhone. Maybe user error, but everyone in our group had confusing issues. Lots of problems with the phone forgetting the home number meant it was hard to get messages with iMessage, and no SMS caused a big mess with local businesses and with 2 factor/fraud detection. No phone number was also an issue a few times. I don’t know what we did wrong, but it was really frustrating.
Ask HN: What's Your Experience with eSIMs?
21–30 of 76 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Experience with eSIMs?
#22I have two lines on my iPhone. One is an eSIM (AT&T), and the other is a simSIM (T-Mobile).
I don't travel internationally, these days, so I know that I'm not a "power user," but my experience has been great.
Does what it says on the tin.
From what I hear, Apple is considering going all eSIM, on future phones. There may be nations, where that won't wash, though.
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Experience with eSIMs?
#23[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Experience with eSIMs?
#24This is the fateful combination of O2 and Android together, possibly the worst experience in the universe (from experience). Nothing but trouble for years. I dumped my Pixel 6A and O2 a couple of years back after a roaming shit show in Iceland where they billed me £400 and went iOS and Giffgaff. Despite giffgaff being the same company in theory keeping a physical sim with them has been trouble free. And I just add an…
I got a prepaid eSIM from O2 this summer and then traveled through Europe. It worked great, got some 50GB of traffic for a month, had no connectivity issues.
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Experience with eSIMs?
#25I've tried travel eSIMs (Ubigi) on a couple of trips to Japan. In my experience compared to when I've gone and used physical SIMs, the reception and coverage wasn't nearly as good. Just super random neighborhoods and areas where the phone just completely drops connections. Even the top of a mountain near Fuji, my eSIM failed completely but my Japanese friends with eSIMs had completely normal and fast service despite…
> Not sure if it's an eSIM issue or that the service (Ubigi in this case) that fronts the cellular network just can't operate it smoothly or what.
Or the bands supported by your phone. Could be any of these possibilities
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Experience with eSIMs?
#26Totally smooth experience on my Pixel 8, both in home country (for dual sim) and when travelling.
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Experience with eSIMs?
#27Using Airalo plus a Verizon physical sim in Europe with an iPhone SE 2 worked, and I found the cost fair enough, but it drained my battery like mad, so bad in fact that I found myself turning the eSIM off a lot. I think this is probably just Yet More Shoddy Apple Software, and I will probably use eSIM in future, but it’s something to watch out for.
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Experience with eSIMs?
#28I love the convenience of physical SIMs. Will hate the day when I don't have a choice but to 'upgrade' to eSIMs.
I have a phone with dual physical SIM card slots. I can go to any country in the world, buy a SIM, put it in, and am up and running. eSIM provisioning at airports is barely available in few coubtries.
I broke the display of my phone? Easy, remove the SIM and put it in a spare phone and I can still make and receive calls.
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Experience with eSIMs?
#29Had it for years. The security, convenience and not having to wait 2-3 days for a replacement is great.
At work they haven’t supplied users who select an iPhone with physical SIM the last two or so years.
Even my mom had her new phone set up with an eSIM.
Never heard of any issues, and our department has 100s’s of devices with eSIM.
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Experience with eSIMs?
#30eSIM is amazing for purchasing roaming internet while traveling. There is a eSIM aggregator that I can recommend: https://esimdb.com/
Urgh some of those are crazy expensive. Best to pick by destination if you can.
For example they charge you $23 for 10 gig in Central Asia there but if you get a local eSIM it’s $5 for the same and $10 for unlimited. I just WiFi hopped because there was bugger all reception out there anyway.