Personally, I think it will be a hassle especially for those who travel and want to switch SIM cards out of devices. If we become locked into E-SIM (if that is the wave of the future) let’s say you’re traveling internationally and don’t want you use your native home plan as it’s much expensive for travel roaming costs. I usually purchase a new sim at the country im visiting/at the airport and pop it into the phone. I know SIM cards can be tedious but they are convenient. I feel removing this choice and making it all “ESIM” while great will then cause other communication challenges and needing to make arrangements if you’re planning to phone swap and/or travel with an out-of-country SIM.

I myself like to switch sometimes between my iPhone and Android device (though it’s been a bit since I’ve done that, the option is still there whenever I need it).

While in the present, SIM is definitely easier for travel, when I traveled internationally recently, it was pretty easy to just purchase an eSIM from places like Airalo. eSIM is definitely not at abundance that SIM is (much like going from micro USB to USB c or any similar transition), I think it’ll get there. iPhone 14 series eSIM convenience is an early adopter burden type of thing imo, sort of like when headphone jack was gone. But it’ll get better.

I just flew into Greece, bought an eSIM online, and had it running in under 2 minutes. With a couple taps, and didn’t have to remove my old eSIM (just disabled).

With the 13/14 I think you can have 2 simultaneous eSIMs so I’m not sure the problem with this—particularly since every country is being forced into eSIM options because of it

I think what concerns me with this is that at the least, with a sim, you’re garuanteed flexibility to swap. Let’s say you have a backup device (which cannot connect to internet) and you’re on a hike or far trip for the day - your phone happens to break. How are you able to switch to the backup device that has no sim available now to place into the device (since ESIM) or wifi available / and since it’s not connected to data you’re unable to activate it?

I know that’s an off case scenario but I’m not anti ESIM - I think learning more about the technology and convenience is really progressive and adaptive. But I do think there’s benefit to having a physical SIM - there’s just more you can do with it. I like the stability in knowing the physical chip controls the phone service rather than relying just on being locked down to the device managing the electronic sim - in event of an emergency, accident etc.

Got an eSIM today from only 1 operator which supports it out of 5 in our country. It's more expensive than a physical SIM, almost twice!. I can only use the QR code bundled with the eSIM package for installation twice when changing or resetting iPhone. Have to get a new one after that at an additional cost!
Cons outweigh the pros IMO🤔

Yeah. I’ve been eSim for years now and upgrade every year. When I swap over it asks if I want my eSim to cross over and it’s there. Super easy.

I’ve also got a small collection of eSims for countries I visit regularly and I just switch them on and off at will. I usually keep my Uk number live for incoming business calls and the local sim for data.

However. None of my foreign eSims reactivated on my 14. One has disappeared entirely and three are there, but marked ‘no SIM’.

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Switching to iPhone from iPhone isn’t as bad, but switching from iPhone to Android and back you’ll need to do it on the website (TMOBILE) enter the IMEI and EID. When it works it’s not as bad, but when it doesn’t. You possibly could lose your number. It happened to me took them 8 days to get resolved. It was not a fun experience, not planning to switch to any of my Android phones for now. I might just end up selling them or the iPhone 14.

Why would apple remove this feature is beyond me. I think Steve Jobs would be pisst at Tim Cook, on many factors , isent their job to make people’s lives easier and less hassle buy owning a apple device? Instead they always go side ways with new designs. Shame on apple for forcing into your e sim only bs . There was no explanation on the many benefits of going that route besides they claim more security.

This is my concern, I regularly switch between my devices every week or 2, I realise I am an edge case but it does feel like that it is going to be taken away in the near future. Now apple have started down this route everybody is bound to follow.

Now if they mordenised how Sims work e.g. one sim able to work across more than one device then it could work.

I randomly switch between devices every few days 😂 yeah I know I have problems. I have switched to the following devices (S22U, Zflip 4 and Pixel 6a) after getting the iPhone 14 with no issues. Those were done within a few days.
I switched to the Pixel 6a to try out my new Pixel buds pro to run an update. The Pixel 6a battery was draining too much so I decided to switch back to the iPhone 14 the same day. That might have caused my problem, I’m guessing it’s too short of a time with each device that caused an issue with T-Mobile activation server.

It's those poor starving tech YouTubers I feel sorry for!

Yeah, same here that’s how they make content trying out different phones. I do think that’s where everyone is heading ESim only. Who do you have as a carrier?

I'm in the UK on smarty (three network) they don't even offer esim yet.

I think in the UK at least we have another couple of years before it becomes an issue.

Lucky you 😂