Running two lines on an iPhone 16 Pro

The answer in one line

The iPhone 16 Pro supports eSIM, and the model sold in the United States has no SIM tray at all. Elsewhere, Apple kept the tray.

The Pro does nothing special here. It has the same eSIM capability as the standard iPhone 16 — no extra profiles, no better modem behaviour for travel. If you were hoping the Pro badge buys you something on this front, it does not, and anyone telling you otherwise is guessing.

What the Pro does attract is people who travel for work, and that raises a more interesting question than "does it have eSIM".

Two lines, one phone, no tray

The common arrangement abroad is a personal or work number that must stay reachable, plus a cheap data plan for the country you are in. On an eSIM-only handset both of those are profiles, and you assign roles to them in Settings → Mobile Data.

There are three settings that matter, and getting them wrong is what produces the bill you did not expect:

• Mobile data — which line carries the internet. Set this to the travel plan.
• Default voice line — which number your calls go out from.
• Data roaming, per line — turn this off on the home line and on for the travel plan.

That last one is the whole trick. Data roaming is a per-line switch, not a global one, so you can leave the work number fully alive for calls and texts while it is forbidden from touching data.

Deciding which line does what

Ask what has to keep working while you are away:

• Bank and login codes by SMS. Those go to your existing number, so that line stays on. This alone rules out the "just turn the home line off" advice you will see elsewhere.
• Calls from colleagues. Incoming calls on the home line while abroad are usually charged to you, not just the caller. Consider forwarding to a colleague, or simply not answering unknown numbers.
• Outgoing calls. Check which line is set as default before you dial, or a habit will cost you.
• Everything else — email, messaging, maps, video calls — rides on the travel data and costs whatever the plan cost.

Most travel eSIMs are data-only. They do not issue a phone number, so they cannot receive your bank's SMS. That is a feature of how they are sold, not a fault.

Some carriers let you make and take calls on your home number over any internet connection, using WiFi calling — which, on a travel eSIM, means calls that behave normally at no roaming cost. Others restrict it by country. It is worth one look at your carrier's terms before you leave, because when it works it removes the main reason to keep a roaming add-on at all.

What we would check before a trip

Install the profile at home. Confirm it appears as a line. Set data roaming off on the home line the night before you fly, not at the gate. Then, on landing, the only action is switching the data line over.

If your handset was bought on contract, check Settings → General → About for No SIM restrictions first — a carrier lock refuses third-party profiles regardless of hardware.

Where the money actually is

The handset decides nothing about price. The plan does, and so does the country. A short business trip to a country with cheap prepaid data is a different calculation from a week somewhere expensive, and on a US 16 Pro the local-SIM route is closed anyway.

We publish what we pay and how we test at /how-we-test/, our tested travel plans at /cheapest-esim/, and per-country detail in guides like Japan. Other handsets in the team's hands can be checked against the eSIM phone checker.

If you have to expense it

One small advantage of buying data as an eSIM: there is a receipt. Travel eSIMs are bought online and invoiced to an email address, which is easier to file than a prepaid card bought for cash from a kiosk that issued nothing.

If your employer reimburses connectivity, that alone can decide it. A roaming add-on on the company line is simplest of all, and if your employer is paying, "simplest" is often the right answer even when it is not the cheapest one. Where you are paying yourself, it usually is not.