Last Updated on April 19, 2025 by Michael Motha
Past the Alphabet
Beyond the Alphabet is a weekly column that focuses on the tech world each inside and out of doors the confines of Mountain View.
For so long as I can keep in mind, I’ve virtually by no means left the home with out having (at the very least) two telephones on me. A part of that’s simply the character of the beast whenever you write about smartphones for a dwelling. Nevertheless, I used to be dual-carrying telephones lengthy earlier than I started writing full-time.
Often, I’d keep on with only one telephone, leaving the opposite behind, whether or not it was for an important day or only a fast journey to the shop. Nevertheless, after Apple had the “courage” to drop the SIM card tray, the times of coming out the SIM from one telephone and utilizing it in one other have lengthy been gone. And given the complications that accompany making an attempt to get my service to transfer an eSIM from one phone to a different, I wasn’t positive if I’d ever return to being “regular.”
All that modified after my 15-month-old son determined that he was going to take a possibility to check out for the Orioles. One second, I am strolling down the hallway with him in a single arm and my iPhone within the different, to show off the lights in his room. The subsequent factor I do know, my telephone was a very good ten toes away from me, face down, with my son nuzzling his head into my shoulder.
Similar to that, I used to be making an appointment at Greatest Purchase to place my AppleCare Plus subscription to make use of. The primary hiccup was that I wanted to depart my telephone there in a single day, which additionally meant that I could not approve any of the 2FA requests wanted to entry my Verizon account from one other machine. It did not look like that huge of a deal, because the Verizon retailer was within the subsequent procuring heart.
Nearly two hours later, I used to be lastly capable of go away Verizon with my telephone quantity activated on the Galaxy Z Fold 6. In that point, the gross sales rep tried the whole lot they might to get my eSIM transferred from the iPhone to the Fold 6. At one level, they even obtained their supervisor concerned, solely to come back away empty-handed. It seems that the one factor that labored was activating and inserting a bodily SIM card.
Since then, I have been day by day carrying simply the Fold 6, and it is truly been a bit liberating. For one, my pockets are lighter, as I am not carrying round an additional pound (actually 1.027 kilos). However there’s additionally simply one thing good about not needing to fret about the place I might need put one in all my telephones, or making an attempt to resolve which telephone I ought to use to perform a sure process.
And whereas I do sometimes miss utilizing my iPhone, it has been virtually a month since “the incident,” and I have never felt the urge to truly undergo one other potential ordeal. I fairly benefit from the thought of with the ability to simply pop my SIM card out of the Fold 6 and into the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. There is no have to log into my Verizon account, get on the telephone with customer support, or head into an area retailer. Each time I am able to, it’s going to take perhaps 5 minutes, and I will be on my merry means.
I want I may sit right here and inform you what sort of issues prevented the eSIM from being activated on the Fold 6, however neither the Verizon rep nor their supervisor may determine it out. For all I do know, it may have simply been a random glitch that occurred to happen on the proper second. Perhaps it is the universe’s means of telling me that I do not want an iPhone *he mentioned, tongue in cheek.*
What’s bizarre is that I have never run into these sorts of issues when shifting eSIMs from carriers like Mint Mobile or Visible to different units. As an alternative, I solely ever cope with points with regards to the Verizon eSIM housing my private cellular quantity. This leads me to consider it is one thing on Verizon’s finish, which additionally would not come as a shock given how troublesome carriers have made it to change units.
It doesn’t matter what the reason being, it would not actually matter on the finish of the day. This is not a “redemption story” for eSIM, however as an alternative simply additional proves that it isn’t as good an answer as we would be led to consider. It isn’t like I used to be making an attempt to activate an eSIM on the primary telephone to incorporate assist for the expertise; it is a telephone that not solely prices an arm and a leg, however can also be not even a 12 months outdated but.
Whereas we recurrently see lots of the best Android phones comply with in Apple’s footsteps, that is one space that I am grateful they have not. And albeit, I hope the day of an eSIM-only Android telephone by no means comes.
