iPhone SE and eSIM: only the first generation misses out

The answer depends on which SE you are holding

Apple has used the name "iPhone SE" three times, and the three do not give the same answer:

If yours is the original, the answer is no and it cannot be changed. Apple's first eSIM iPhones were the XR, XS and XS Max in 2018, two years after the first SE. There is no chip in the 2016 model for software to switch on.

This is the only page in our iPhone range where identifying the handset comes before answering the question, so start there.

How to tell which SE you have

Do not go by size or by what the box said. Do this instead:

Read the model name. Settings, then General, then About. The Model Name field states the generation outright. That is definitive and takes five seconds.

*Or dial `#06#`. If an EID** appears alongside the IMEI, the handset has eSIM hardware — so it is a 2020 or 2022 SE. No EID means the 2016 model.

The second check is the more useful one if you are looking at a phone you are thinking of buying, because it tests the hardware rather than trusting a listing. Second-hand SE listings are unusually careless about which generation they are selling.

If it is the 2016 model

You have a nano-SIM tray and one line, which is enough to travel on.

The practical route is a local prepaid SIM bought at your destination. It is frequently cheaper per gigabyte than the travel eSIMs the phone cannot use, because you are buying from a network rather than a reseller. The main costs are a short errand on your first day and, in some countries, showing a passport to register the line.

Two things to sort out before you go. First, make sure the handset is carrier-unlocked; anything sold on contract in 2016 is long since paid off, so the network should release it on request, but the request takes time. Second, check what your existing carrier charges for roaming, because on a short trip that occasionally beats the effort of buying anything.

What this actually costs you

Less than the question implies. An eSIM is a convenience layer: it saves you a trip to a shop and lets you keep a home number active on the same phone. On a first-generation SE you lose the convenience, not the connectivity, and often not the money either.

Where it genuinely stings is on a very short trip, or landing somewhere at 1am with nothing open, or in a country where prepaid registration is slow. Those are the cases where paying a reseller premium buys you something real — and those are the cases where a phone with no eSIM is inconvenient.

Replacing it — the cheapest step up

If the reason you are here is that you have decided to move on from the 2016 SE, note that you do not have to leave the SE line to get eSIM. Both later SEs have it, and both kept a SIM tray, so you gain a line without losing one.

More broadly, everything from the iPhone XR onward supports eSIM. Our compatibility checker lists the full range, including Pixel and Galaxy models, if you are not set on staying with Apple. And if the point of the upgrade is to spend less on data abroad, read our cheapest eSIM comparison before you buy the phone — the saving may be smaller than you expect.