While physical SIM cards are long from gone just yet, eSIM adoption has been growing slowly but steadily in countries like the United States. Apple’s iPhones since the iPhone XS have featured dual SIM functionality with a nano-SIM and an eSIM. But it’s not really a huge thing just yet. While it’s more convenient as you don’t have to insert and take out physical SIMs, many phones in the U.S. still don’t have eSIM support thanks to carriers, even though some of them actually have eSIM hardware. Right now, if you want eSIM support in the United States, you either have to go for an iPhone or a Google Pixel. The newest update for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra on T-Mobile is, however, bringing support for eSIM through an update, as reported by a Reddit user on /r/tmobile.
This is noteworthy news because this is the first Samsung smartphone to feature eSIM support in North America. The newer Galaxy S21 lineup, launched a few months ago, touts support for this feature in their official spec sheet. Still, this feature is not actually enabled in any major U.S. carrier, and an update enabling it has not yet rolled out to any S21 series phones. The slightly older Note 20 Ultra is getting a headstart with support for this feature, giving hope to S21 users that they may soon get it and future Samsung Galaxy smartphones that could feature eSIM support out of the box.
eSIM support also means that these phones are now also dual-SIM capable through eSIM, just like the newer iPhones, and the update itself also adds support for DSDS (Dual SIM Dual Standby). As for the rest of the update, though, it also comes with bug fixes and security improvements.
The update is currently rolling out over the air to T-Mobile Note 20 Ultra users, so expect an update to arrive soon to your smartphone.
