esim for phones ? Any help please

jimbo45 said:

Hi folks
I'm looking to upgrade to a Samsung Ultra S20 5G - it offers a thing called "esim". so it can have either "2 Sims" or this esim thing and a micro sd card. Can anybody point me into a direction which reasonably explains what these are -- current Google stuff isn't (at least to me) particularly informative or even whether I should bother with esim.

Vodafone explanation of Esim eSim

As said before it's very carrier dependant..

sygnus21 said:

My Note 20 Ultra didn't come with a headset (nor did I miss it); however, it did come with a power adapter and cord. Anyway, this is another cost cutting ripoff from Samsung. It's ridiculous not to provide a power adapter.

Didn't realize only the Ultra supports the S-Pen. Thanks for the clarification.

Kind of messed up but if this is the road Samsung is going to go down with SD card-less phones and no included power adapter, then my next upgrade down the road may have me looking past Samsung. Love their phones, been using them since 2003, but these cost cutting measures make the phone more expensive to own then need be.

Not including a power adapter will probably be the norm now. Samsung is following the lead of Apple which did not include a power adapter with the iPhone 12.

The Samsung Buds Plus did not come with a power adapter either. It only came with a USB-C to USB A cable. I can charge them either by plugging them to a computer USB port or by using the old charger that came with my Samsung S7. Note that I could probably use the S21's power adapter to charges the Buds if I use the S21's UBB-C to USB-C cable instead.

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sygnus21 said:

Jimbo, if you want an SD Card, you'll need to get the Note 20; if you want a charger, the Note 20 Ultra. There is a 512gig version of the Note 20 Ultra; but it wasn't available in the U.S.A. when I bought my phone.

I have the Samsung Note 20 Ultra 128gig version (only version available at the time), but did add a 250Gig SD card. The phone supports up to 512gig SD cards, but for now the 250 gig card is sufficient enough since I stream music from my NAS, and as a photographer use a DSLR for my photos.

All that said, I've no idea what European versions Samsung might offer so that's another story; however, I'm pretty sure that if you want an SD card capable Phone the Note 20 is it; unless you look elsewhere.

As for the whole eSIM thing, that's a crapshoot. My phone either doesn't have it or it isn't enabled. As for 5G, that depends on availability in one's area. My area is spotty at best.

Good luck.

The Samsung S21 and S21 Plus only come in 128GB and 256GB versions. If you 512GB you have to get the S21 Ultra.

You have to be careful which Samsung variation you get. The US carrier, North American, Latin America, European, etc. may have different cell technology capabilities that may affect which carrier you choose. For example the Latin America version will not work with Verizon.

One annoyance that I found with my S7 US unlocked phone is that once the Sim card was removed the ability to make WI-Fi calls was removed. It seems that only S7 US carrier versions would retain that ability without a Sim card. However, I am still able to make and receive phone calls with my S7 using Wi-Fi using my Google Voice number and the Google Voice app on the phone.

sygnus21 said:

I think the last time I got ear buds with a Samsung phone was the S7 Edge. I never used them. As for power adapters, sorry, but those should come with a phone.

And yeah, I do see Samsung going the "Apple way" and I don't like it. BTW, outside an iPOD, I never owned an Apple product. Not even Mac PC.

Anyway, I think it utterly ridiculous Samsung is going the way of SD Card-less phones. And it that's the way their going to go, the minimum storage phone they should sell is a 256gig phone as you're not getting much with 120gig.

Back in 2015 when I was looking for a phone I skipped the Samsung S6 because it did not support using s SD card. Instead I waited for the Samsung S7 which did support using a SD card.

I may regret only getting the S21 128GB version. If I had waited I could have even used the $1400 stimulus check to buy a S21 Ultra 512GB since it is priced less than $1200 now.

I don't know what Samsung did wrong with the S20. Was it priced too high or what? Recently Samsung has lost a lot of ground with global sales compared to Apple. Apparently the iPhone 12 is a big hit. Samsung hopes the S21 sales will make up for what it lost with the S20.

Samsung: 2020 Q3/Q4 22%/16%
Apple: 2020 Q3/Q4 11%/21%