I recently arrived in Cebu from my second business trip to Japan. If you haven’t been following me on Instagram, I’ve been using an iPhone XR. Since I got an unlocked XR, I could use a data SIM while I was there. Since there’s a chance I might go back again, I wanted to take advantage of the eSIM (embedded SIM) inside the XR. This phone (along with the XS and XS Max) has support for eSIM. Good thing I can get a Globe eSIM!
What is eSIM?
Instead of using a plastic shell with a chip in it, eSIM (embedded SIM) has that same chip inside a smartphone. Cellular information is usually taken from a QR code or a smartphone app from the carrier.
What Advantages Does It Have over a Regular SIM?
The main advantage that an eSIM has over a regular one is storing cellular information in the phone. If your phone supports eSIM, it’s best if you have a reliable backup system in place.
The Globe eSIM Experience
Getting a Globe eSIM was fairly simple. (You’ll have to deal with their queueing system though. Another topic for another day, I suppose.) You just request for it and the representative will process everything and give you this lovely card:
You can opt for them to do the setup for you or do it yourself. The Globe rep that I talked to did the setup for me (that was nice). I wanted to try the setup for myself though, so I removed the one already set up on my phone.
How Simple Was The Setup?
It was really easy to add my cellular plan through the Globe eSIM. On my iPhone XR, I just tap Add Cellular Plan, scan the QR code, and follow the instructions. Once you’re done, you get something like this:
It just looks like the usual Cellular section of the Settings app. The main difference is that you are able to remove a cellular plan or add another one. It even gets better when you take advantage of the dual SIM capability thanks to the eSIM.
The eSIM gives Dual SIM to iPhone.
With the 2018 iPhones, the eSIM FINALLY gave dual-SIM capabilities to the iPhone. They still have a physical SIM on top of the eSIM, so you can have two SIMs running simultaneously now. I know full well that the Android side of the fence has it for YEARS! (I even own one in the Realme 3).
Good thing that the dual SIM capability doesn’t really take away the overall iPhone experience. If there’s one thing Apple tends to do so well, it’s how new features are implemented well. I’ll report back as to how the experience of using an eSIM is with the iPhone XR.
For my next post, I might go ahead and do the iPhone XR review. It won’t be a normal one though. Watch out for it!
Hello, I may have missed it but is this a PREPAID or Postpaid eSim?
For now, Globe only offers eSIM for postpaid users.
Thanks this is exactly the info I was looking for.