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gbf

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2019
905
562
So I bought this little spitfire last night in New York city’s Apple store.

I bought the cell version but they said I don’t need a physical SIM card?

I have Verizon and want to activate it on my account and they say I can use the esim???

Is this true? Do I not need a nano sim for 5G and everything can be done off of the esim?
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,268
11,765
Yes. Data only but you don’t need a physical sim for that.
Pity Telstra in Australia gave up eSIM support. They used to be able to.
 

gbf

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2019
905
562
I’m confused. Please excuse my ignorance. I don’t need a 5G SIM card? All I have to do is call Verizon and give them the esim info and it will have cell service? Data only of course.
 

rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,920
13,269
I’m confused. Please excuse my ignorance. I don’t need a 5G SIM card? All I have to do is call Verizon and give them the esim info and it will have cell service? Data only of course.

No need to call Verizon. Chances are phone customer service would be clueless anyway.

You can sign up for a Verizon plan (including postpaid) directly from your iPad (Settings - Cellular).
 

gbf

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2019
905
562
Thank you! So why do we need SIM cards for our iPhone 12’s when they have sims
 

rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,920
13,269
Thank you! So why do we need SIM cards for our iPhone 12’s when they have sims

iPhones are dual SIM (eSIM + Nano-SIM, or 2x Nano-SIM in China).

I like using the eSIM for my main US number and the physical SIM slot for local SIM/number when traveling.
 

gbf

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2019
905
562
So is the iPad Pro. It’s dual sim. Has a nano slot and esim
 

rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,920
13,269
So is the iPad Pro. It’s dual sim. Has a nano slot and esim

iPhone is dual-SIM standby. You can receive phone calls and messages to two different without needing to switch.

iPad is data-only so only one SIM active at a time.

And really, there are lotsa countries where eSIM support is either lacking or limited so the physical SIM slot on both iPad and iPhone are pretty useful in those cases.
 
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