The Galaxy S20 is where Samsung's eSIM support begins

Where Samsung drew the line

Yes, the Galaxy S20 has eSIM — and it is the model at which that becomes true. The S20 is the earliest Galaxy S line with the hardware. The S10 immediately before it has none, and neither does anything older. If you have ever wondered why Samsung compatibility lists all seem to begin at the same point, this is why.

Being the first of something has consequences, and this page is mostly about them.

The FE is the exception

Our data flags one caveat against the S20 line: the S20 FE varies by region. The FE was the cheaper member of the family, and eSIM is one of the things that differs between the versions sold in different markets.

So if you have an S20, an S20+ or an S20 Ultra, the general answer holds. If you have an S20 FE, it does not decide anything for you and you need to check the handset itself. That is not us hedging — it is the difference between a plan that installs and a plan that doesn't.

What "varies by region" means with the phone in your hand

Two things resolve it.

The first is *#06# in the dialler. If an EID appears alongside the IMEI, the eSIM hardware is present in your particular unit. That number is issued per chip, so its presence is not a matter of interpretation.

The second is the model number, in Settings under About phone. Handsets sold into different markets carry different model numbers under the same marketing name, and where a feature varies by region it varies along that line. If you are checking before buying — a second-hand S20 FE, say — the model number is what to match against, not the name on the listing.

Six years on, the likelier blocker

Assuming the hardware checks out, the thing most likely to stop a travel eSIM installing on an S20 is a carrier lock. A phone sold on contract in 2020 may still carry one, and it will reject a third-party profile even though everything else is in order. Carriers generally unlock on request once the device is paid off.

Worth separating from a related worry: a travel eSIM does not go through your home carrier at all. If your carrier never offered eSIM plans, never provisioned one for you, or has changed how it handles them since 2020, none of that matters to a profile you buy independently. The handset needs to be unlocked. Your carrier needs to be nowhere near the transaction.

Using it on a trip

The arrangement is the same one that makes dual SIM worth having. The travel eSIM carries your data. The home SIM stays in the tray, keeping your usual number reachable for calls and the codes that banks insist on sending by text. Data roaming goes off on the home line before you fly.

Six years old is not old for this purpose. An S20 with an eSIM profile installed behaves the same as a current handset with the same profile — same network, same speed, same coverage.

The install itself is unchanged too. You buy a plan, the provider sends a QR code, you scan it from the mobile network settings, and the profile downloads in under a minute over wifi. Do that at home. The download needs an internet connection, and the entire reason you bought the plan is that you will not have one when you land. Then set the travel line as your data line while you are still somewhere with signal to test it, rather than working it out in an unfamiliar airport with a phone that is doing nothing useful.

What to check first if it doesn't work

In order: is there an EID under *#06#; is the handset unlocked; has the QR code already been used on another phone. Those three account for almost everything. Only the first is about the S20 being an S20, and on anything but an FE it will come back clean.

The full compatibility list covers the rest of the range, and our plan comparison is where to go once you have confirmed yours.