14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has started work on the new dual-SIM feature that will be offered to iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max buyers, and the update to iOS 12.1 will enable such functionality.
Announced with much fanfare at the September 12 iPhone XS launch event, dual-SIM support, which in all markets except China combines a traditional SIM with eSIM, isn’t yet ready for the first buyers.
Apple promised to add it at a later time with a software update, and it looks like iOS 12.1 is very likely to be the release bringing it to everyone.
The first beta of iOS 12.1 has added a new option to enable eSIM, though it’s worth mentioning that your carrier must support the technology in order to configure dual SIM.
Apple has created a special page to list the carriers where eSIM is available on the iPhone, and unsurprisingly, the list only includes a few names. There’s a good chance that more would be adding this feature for their customers in the coming months, though.
Dual SIM on 2018 iPhones
iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are the only two models offering dual-SIM support, with China getting a special version of the two devices that comes with two different traditional SIMs and thus a special SIM tray design.
The rest of the markets can enable dual SIM with just one SIM and eSIM support, but given the rather poor adoption of the latter, it could take more time until customers worldwide can benefit from this new feature.
The upcoming iPhone XR, which is the most affordable iPhone launching this year, won’t include dual-SIM support, so this feature comes with a rather high price. In the United States, the cheapest iPhone XS costs $999, while the top-of-the-range iPhone XS Max reaches $1,449 when equipped with 512GB storage.