Hi everyone
I’m planning on buying the FP4. I am a happy owner of a dual sim FP3, which has slots for 2 physical SIMs. I understood that the FP4 has only 1 physical SIM with the second slot being an eSIM. However, this website appears to offer both a “Dual SIM” and " SIM + eSIM" versions of the FP4. I would obviously prefer 2 physical SIMs to SIM + eSIM, but this is the first I have heard of this.
Can anyone confirm that this is a true Dual SIM version of the FP4?
There is no version for two physical SIMs.
Great, thank you for confirmation!
It looks like the information in the shop is simply wrong. The official specs are here:
I’m not an employee of Fairphone of course, so you might contact support too. But there never was an announcement for a second version of the FP4 and no sign at all at the Fairphone website.
Thank you for that information!
Why? The entire industry will move to eSIM eventually, since it is more comfortable for all stakeholders.
Best wishes,
Thomas
The only drawbacks on the e-SIM is that some providers don’t offer than, but as mentioned that is the way to go.
The advantage is that by using e-SIM a user is not limited to two accounts/numbers/providers.
So the FP4 has the best of both worlds in that it can be used with those providers that do not offer e-SIMs yet and can use many e-SIMs
If you currently have two hard SIMs see if one of your providers can offer an e_SIM
All the best
Because I travel a lot, with sims from multiple countries, and I don’t want to have to visit the store every time I need a sim activated. It would be particularly difficult I were out of the country and I needed the sim activated.
So, I wouldn’t agree with your comment that it is more comfortable for all stakeholders.
I’m not sure if I understand your point. The whole idea of eSIM is that you don’t have to go to a shop or wait for a physical item to arrive. You can simply “download” your SIM. If you travel a lot you could even have multiple eSIMs already loaded and activate them as needed.
Yeah that’s great, until you run into a problem, and you try calling customer service in a language that you don’t speak. I have more than one phone, and sometimes need to transfer sims between phones. Physical SIM is much easier in my experience.
That is indeed an issue - but a different one. Maybe this is not the right phone for you then, unfortunately.
But if you transfer your home SIM to an eSIM, the physical slot is free for every foreign SIM you want to use.
I used to have a FP3 as well needing to use both sims (one for work and one private). I didn’t know what a e-Sim is but assumed that I will be able to use both numbers, so I bought a FP4. However, I then found out that my provider is not equipped for e-Sim, even though the Phonecoop is piggybacking on EE who is offering this to their custumer. I am not a happy bunny and for months I pester the Phonecoop to resolve this (I have to use two mobile phone now).
Check with your provider first if they support e-Sim cards.
Hope this helps.
Dani
Thanks for the tip - I hadn’t even thought about that aspect of it!
And the PhoneCoop Uk is one of them 
Well, just coming back to this topic. I bought a FP4 and it’s a wonderful phone, but I have had no success so far in both Ireland and Italy in obtaining an eSim. The Italians keep telling me to come back next week. The Irish seem to be having huge difficulties with eSims, and while they are more helpful than the Italians, they seem unable to solve the problem. For example, you can see the frustrating experiences Irish people are having in the discussion here Any news on eSIMs in Ireland? - Page 3 — boards.ie - Now Ye're Talkin'
So right now, I’m still using my old FP3 until I get this eSim issue resolved. Anyone else who is thinking of switching should be warned - go and have a serious conversation with your provider to make sure that they actually can give you an eSim.
Just writing here to +1 to OPs point (in the hopes FP product managers see it) - I saw “Dual SIM” and was also under the impression the FP4 must have 2 physical sim slots before I bought it. Now as a frequent international traveler, it’s a huge pain for me to power down, remove the battery, and swap sims (which I frequently have to do to receive SMS verification codes, for example). It’d be great if we could purchase an alternative SIM module with 2 physical slots instead of the SD card. I feel like this is a relatively simple and cost neutral hardware change that would really help a lot of frequent travellers/nomads such as myself.
As others have noted, whilst esim is an option, the industry isn’t there yet. Neither my “home” sim provider nor ones I typically use while travelling seem to offer this as an option.
Alternatively, if the 1 sim slot were just accessible without needing to remove the battery, this would also be fine!
Hi and welcome to the forum.
The SIM module is not a separate module, it’s part of the core module and would cost a lot to change and there is absolutely no chance that would happen.
So your ‘usual’ sim is not available as an esim.
Also if you are a frequent traveller using multiple SIMs you would still have to remove the battery to use a different SIM
With eSIM you wouldn’t have to do that and this is the forward thinking.
By the way why would you hope the product managers would see this, this is a user forum. You could of course contact Fairphone via their support page which can be found on the post under contactsupport, but I doubt the 2 physical SIM would even be considered for the FP5 etc.
Because I am a product manager and that is what we do - it is our job to understand the user’s needs, and user forums are a great way to see what type of product feedback repeatedly comes up!