Does the iPhone 12 Pro have eSIM?

Yes, and that is the easy part

The iPhone 12 Pro has eSIM and a physical SIM tray. Installing a travel profile takes a couple of minutes.

What costs people money is the next screen. When a second line goes onto an iPhone, iOS asks a series of questions that look like housekeeping and are not. Answer them carelessly and you end up in the worst configuration available: a travel data plan sitting unused while your home carrier bills you for roaming.

The four decisions iOS makes you take

Label the lines. iOS offers "Primary" and "Secondary" by default and they are useless names. Call them "Home" and "Travel", or the country you are visiting. Every later prompt refers to lines by their label, and you want those prompts to be unambiguous when you are tired at an airport.

Default voice line. Set this to your home number. People calling you have that number, and nothing about a data-only travel plan changes that.

iMessage and FaceTime. Normally the home number too, so conversations continue in the same threads rather than fragmenting into a new one that your contacts do not recognise.

Mobile data line. Set this to the travel eSIM. This is the decision that determines your bill.

The setting that causes the surprise charge

iOS also offers an option that lets the other line use mobile data when it needs to — so that calls placed on your voice line can still access data. At home, on two domestic plans, it is a sensible convenience. Abroad, it is a hole in the bottom of the bucket.

Turn it off before you fly. Then turn data roaming off entirely on the home line, in that line's own settings, so there is no route back to your home carrier's data rates at all. Two switches, both quick, and together they close the gap that produces the "I bought an eSIM and still got charged" complaint.

Calls are a separate matter

An eSIM travel plan is normally data only. That has a consequence people miss: your home number still works for calls and texts while you are abroad, and your home carrier still charges its roaming rates for them. The eSIM does nothing about that, because it was never in that path.

If you expect to make calls, plan for it. Data-based calling over the eSIM's connection costs you nothing extra beyond the data. Leaving the home line on for incoming calls is fine and often desirable — just know that answering one is a roaming event, and check your carrier's terms for what incoming calls and texts cost while abroad, which varies enormously.

The pre-departure list

Five minutes, at home, on Wi-Fi:

• Install the eSIM profile. It has to be downloaded, and you cannot download it without a connection.
• Label both lines clearly.
• Set the travel eSIM as the mobile data line.
• Turn off the option that lets the other line borrow data.
• Turn off data roaming on the home line.
• Save the provider's QR code as an image, in case you need to reinstall.

Do all six and there is nothing left to configure when you land except switching the travel line on.

One more thing on a phone this age

A 2020 handset bought on contract may still be locked to the network that sold it, and a locked iPhone refuses third-party eSIM profiles without ever explaining why. If the phone came from a carrier rather than from Apple, confirm the unlock before the trip.

Check other handsets on the eSIM compatible phones page, and see the cheapest eSIM comparison for cost-per-gigabyte across the providers we track.