looks like, the SIM card slot is in the head unit. Would be cool, if we could just swap the head unit, if we wanna use two physical sims. One advantage of a modular system…
A shame fairphone didn’t solder a second physical sim on the fp4…
No, not a shame but a conscious decision:
Francesco later added:
While this was all for the FP5 I’m pretty sure it is just as valid for the FP4. So they could have added a second physical SIM slot but you either couldn’t have used it because the traces on the PCB lead to the eSIM, or you couldn’t have used the eSIM feature at all.
I think they made a good choice when they basically enabled both a physical and an eSIM. The downside of that is that both the people sticking to two physical SIMs and the people who would like to use two eSIMs are not completely happy, while those who only use one SIM have the choice.
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Amazing summary 
Just to add a few more words: it was indeed a conscious decision, given the fact that we have 2 slots limitation and that the industry is still “in-between” physical and embedded SIMs, so we wanted to cover both scenarios.
And about the “SIM module” with different combinations, while it would be technically possible to make, it is practically very complicated (I would like to use the word impossible, but it feels too strong): Android does not have an internal mechanism to apply a plug-and-play SIM slots configuration, and the device certifications from GSMA also work under the assumption that the SIM slots are not changeable, so we would have had to certify multiple times the very same device with all the permutations possible (significantly increasing the certifications costs).
This is no excuse to not try/think about it the next time though 
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by the looks, it seems possible for Shift to have dual nano sim and esim with an adapter on the coming Shift 8 phone. Why shouldn’t it be possible for Fairphone?
Be aware that the card from eSIM uses your only physical SIM slot. And by doing so you can only use eSIM profiles on the phone.
As not every provider provides eSIM one has to be very carefull.
I have been following shift phone as much as I can without speaking German;-) it seems they are still in the development stage, so perhaps it might be better to wait to see their certification process
It seems like it wasn’t the best solution with one eSIM and one physical SIM. I’m still hoping for a dual sim solution for 2 physical SIM, I don’t want to use eSIM. It’s possible to change the head unit, so it should be possible to provide a head unit, that supports 2 physical SIMs.
Anyways eSIM adapter solutions are already out there: https://esim.me/ unfortunately Fairphone isn’t a supported brand yet.
Its not only about hardware, when you want this, you must plan upfront and ensure the Core Module is holding all counterparts for both as well…
Assuming you speak German, Shiftphones explaines such things in videos quite often, recently for the Shift8
Edit: and esim me is supporting at least the FP3 they even tried to make the FP2 working.
I like physical and eSIM and would not want to go back to 2 physical SIM
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