eSIM - good or bad?
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2026 1:14 pm
eSIM is becoming more and more commonplace on smartphones - some phones even have a non-physical-SIM variant.
A benefit of eSIM is added convenience. You don't have to fumble around with SIM cards.
On the downside, you lose control. If your phone breaks, you can not take out the physical SIM card and put it into a different phone. You might need someone working at the cellular provider to change the eSIM profile to the new phone.
This is the same reason MicroSD is beneficial. If the device is broken, the data on the MicroSD card is the likeliest to survive. It can just be removed from the device and read externally or inserted into a new device.
German video blogger Simon Unge had to find out the hard way (source). They lost all the recordings they took during the last few days.
Another benefit of physical SIM cards (and MicroSD cards for that matter) is the sneakernet. Replaceable modular physical items can be exchanged more easily than non-modular items.
Privacy-wise, a mobile phone can still be clearly identified through its IMEI. Even if a new physical SIM card is inserted, the same physical phone will always have the same IMEI, so the cellular provider (and by extension the government) will know it is the same physical device.
A benefit of eSIM is added convenience. You don't have to fumble around with SIM cards.
On the downside, you lose control. If your phone breaks, you can not take out the physical SIM card and put it into a different phone. You might need someone working at the cellular provider to change the eSIM profile to the new phone.
This is the same reason MicroSD is beneficial. If the device is broken, the data on the MicroSD card is the likeliest to survive. It can just be removed from the device and read externally or inserted into a new device.
German video blogger Simon Unge had to find out the hard way (source). They lost all the recordings they took during the last few days.
Another benefit of physical SIM cards (and MicroSD cards for that matter) is the sneakernet. Replaceable modular physical items can be exchanged more easily than non-modular items.
Privacy-wise, a mobile phone can still be clearly identified through its IMEI. Even if a new physical SIM card is inserted, the same physical phone will always have the same IMEI, so the cellular provider (and by extension the government) will know it is the same physical device.
