Does the Galaxy S25 series have eSIM?

Yes, and Samsung kept the tray

Every handset in the Galaxy S25 line supports eSIM, and every one of them still has a physical SIM slot. That combination is worth stating plainly, because it is no longer universal. Apple's US iPhones from the 14 onward ship with no tray at all. Samsung has not followed. On an S25 you can run a travel eSIM, a local prepaid SIM bought over a counter, or both at once.

There is one exception in our data and it is a firm one: S25 handsets sold in mainland China have eSIM disabled. Same hardware, different market, different firmware.

If your handset came from mainland China

This catches three kinds of buyer — people who bought while travelling, people who bought a grey import to save money, and people who bought second-hand from someone who did one of the first two. The check takes about ten seconds. Dial *#06# on the keypad. A handset with usable eSIM shows an EID alongside the IMEI. No EID, no eSIM.

We know of no user-side way to switch it back on. Flashing firmware from another region is the sort of advice that ends in a dead phone and a void warranty, and we are not going to give it. If you are buying an S25 specifically because you travel, buy one sold outside mainland China and check for the EID before money changes hands.

What the second line is actually for

Dual SIM is not a novelty on a phone like this; it is the thing that stops the roaming bill. The arrangement that works is simple. Your home SIM stays in the tray, registered, receiving calls and bank verification texts. The travel eSIM becomes the data line. Your normal number still rings, and none of your browsing goes through your home carrier's roaming rate.

The setting people miss is data switching. Android will, on some configurations, quietly fall back to the other line for data. Open the SIM manager, set the travel eSIM as the preferred mobile data line, and turn off any option that lets the other line borrow data.

More than one profile at a time

An S25 can hold several eSIM profiles and let you choose which is active. Samsung does not publish a hard number that we are willing to quote, so treat the practical limit as "several stored, one or two active" and confirm on your own handset.

For a multi-country trip that storage matters more than it sounds. Install every profile before you leave, while you are still on home Wi-Fi, and activate each one as you land. Installing an eSIM needs a working internet connection — landing in an unfamiliar airport with no data and no profile installed is the one failure mode worth designing around.

Locks, and the rest of the list

A carrier-locked S25 — bought on contract, subsidised, or on a trade-in deal — can reject a third-party eSIM even though the hardware is fine. The rejection usually shows up as a vague activation error rather than an honest "this device is locked", which is why people waste an evening blaming the provider. If you bought from a network, request the unlock before you travel. Most will do it once the handset is paid off.

The rest is routine. Update the software before you fly. Save the provider's QR code as an image rather than trusting that you can reopen the email later. Decide in advance which line is doing what.

The verdict

The S25 is about as unconstrained as a 2025 flagship gets. eSIM when you want the convenience of arriving already connected, a tray when the local shop's prepaid deal turns out to be better value. The only owners who need to think hard are the ones whose handset came from mainland China, and for them the answer is settled and unwelcome.

To check a different handset — a partner's phone, an older spare, the tablet — use the eSIM compatible phones checker. For what to put on it, we track cost per gigabyte across providers on the cheapest eSIM plans.