Contrary to popular belief, you can use eSIM phone plans without needing a phone that supports eSIM. Why would you want that? Many prepaid eSIM plans are very cheap and can be bought ahead of travel, but most phones don't have an eSIM chip built-in. So how does this work? The tl;dr is that eSIM is actually a specification that is implemented by a UICC, or universal integrated circuit card. Phones with eSIM support have an eUICC (embedded UICC) chip, but there's nothing preventing a vendor from making a traditional nano SIM-sized card with an eUICC that follows the eSIM spec. These are called "removable eUICCs" and are actually used in IoT devices, but their use in mobile devices is still somewhat new. A few companies have popped up that sell you removable eUICCs, like eSIM.me and esim.5ber.com, but it's also possible to DIY your own removable eUICC. There are tutorials online on how to take an off-the-shelf eUICC chip, remove the original chip in a physical nano SIM, and then weld the eUICC chip onto the nano SIM card. Some Chinese online retailers also sell the finished product for much cheaper than the aforementioned companies, but you can't just buy the product, insert it into your device, and then download an eSIM profile. That's because you need a way to actually provision the eSIM plan onto the removable eUICC. Most Android phones with eSIM support built-in ship with an app that does this, like SIM Manager on Pixels (shown below), but these apps won't work with removable eUICCs you insert. Companies like eSIM.me and 5ber offer apps that work with their own products, but if you go the DIY route, you'll need to use something like OpenEUICC. OpenEUICC is an open source app for Android that allows for provisioning eSIM profiles onto removable eUICCs. It requires certain system privileges to function, so you need a phone with root access to provision an eSIM plan. Once a plan is provisioned onto the card, though, you can use it on any device that has a SIM card slot. If you want to learn more about removable eUICCs and how eSIMs work in general, check out this article I wrote last year: esper.io/blog/android-desser… --- Other links: esimdb lists a bunch of prepaid eSIM plans: esimdb.com/ esim.me or esim.5ber.com for off-the-shelf removable eUICCs without the need for DIYing your own/rooting a phone to use OpenEUICC OpenEUICC project: gitea.angry.im/PeterCxy/Open… (DIY method): A tricky way to use eSIM on CN/IN variant: forum.xda-developers.com/t/a…