Another year, another iPhone. This time, the XS (Max). The biggest, best, yada yada iPhone Apple has ever made.
With the obligatory cheesy movie from Johnny Ive describing the amazing build process.
Except this one has one massive technical feature that does, indeed, make it different from the other iPhones. It supports eSIM, and amazingly, in China is available as a physical dual-SIM version.
While I did think about trying to get hold of the China physical dual-SIM version, I decided against it because I wasn’t sure what bloatware / backdoor was on the device thanks to the large Chinese market that Apple would be desperate to tap into.
So I got the local eSIM version from my carrier, and other than being bigger, I didn’t really notice much difference. Except when I travelled.
I managed to test the eSIM functionality using a company called Gigsky, in San Francisco, Thailand and Hong Kong. And other than paying a premium for the service from Gigsky, it worked perfectly and better than advertised! Buy the second data-only eSIM for the country you wish to use it, “download” it, and hey presto, 2nd SIM!
Coverage was adequate (not brilliant), and speeds were average to ok. But better than roaming rates, better than hunting for a local SIM and a device to carry it and infinitely more convenient to literally do nothing but switch your phone on! Awesome.
Punchline : if you travel, get an iPhone XS / XR. Otherwise, don’t waste your time and skip this version.
