This Missing OnePlus 9 Feature Has Fans Up In Arms

The otherwise excellent US versions of the OnePlus 9 series (and the Samsung Galaxy S21) are missing one key capability. Here’s who to blame.

By Sascha Segan

The OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro are here. They bring radical new screens and the best ultra-wide cameras we’ve ever seen, but they’re making OnePlus fans angry because of a missing feature the OnePlus 8 Pro included: dual-SIM support.

Both the OnePlus 9 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra have dual-SIM capabilities-outside the United States. The US models have had the feature ripped away, and observers tell me US carriers are likely to blame.

Dual-SIM and its cousin eSIM let you use multiple lines on a single phone. eSIM also lets you switch carriers very easily. It’s useful for international trips or for having home and work lines on one phone. I used a US Mobile eSIM on a trip to Japan and loved it.

The three big carriers hate eSIM not just because it eases the pain of leaving your carrier. It also reduces the salesperson interactions carriers rely on so they can sell you accessories and/or upgrade your service plan. Carriers want to think of themselves as relationship-based solution providers, not just connectivity pipes.

And T-Mobile isn’t an “unCarrier” here, at least not anymore. It now leans on phone makers to block eSIM just as much as the other big carriers do. The Department of Justice looked into AT&T and Verizon’s anti-eSIM practices in 2018, closing the case with no action after the carriers basically agreed not to carrier-lock eSIM-based devices. Eliminating eSIM entirely, of course, sidesteps that pledge. Smaller and virtually focused brands like US Mobile and Visible love eSIM, but they don’t drive enough device sales to matter.

Carriers occasionally try to say nobody wants dual or eSIM, but they never try very hard to make that argument. Every iPhone and Pixel phone for two years has supported eSIM, and that hasn’t created customer service problems or noticeably increased churn. This is a pure power play: Carriers flexing their muscle over OEMs with less brand power than Apple or Google, just to show them who’s boss.

What you lose in freedom you gain in cash, so this isn’t black and white. The carriers sell you phones you’d never be able to afford up front, on financing plans. In exchange, the phone makers agree to abandon eSIM. You, of course, don’t get to make that decision on your own. OnePlus, Samsung, and the carriers have made it for you.

I have been agitating for this to change for decades, but it never has. In 2016 I wrote The Case for Buying an Unlocked Phone. In 2006 I wrote The Unlocked Cell-Phone Revolution Begins Now. Yet the revolution never begins. Americans would always rather have lower up-front prices than the vague prospect of more competition, innovation, and flexibility in the future.

Other interesting things I’ve been thinking about this week…

• Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 780, which will bring triple simultaneous cameras and 5G carrier aggregation to $500 phones. The company is also doing a “make a new dish from leftovers” thing with the Snapdragon 860 and 870, which are really slightly tweaked 855+ and 865+ chips so they can look fresh on spec sheets.
• The chipmaker is also making a Nintendo Switch clone, which is quite odd and almost certainly doomed. Qualcomm has a history here, there was the color smartwatch, the Toq and a bizarre mobile TV, the FLO TV. My first phone was actually a Qualcomm, and it was amazing: the QCP-1960 Thin Phone.
• Rumors abound that LG will stop making phones; the company still manages decent sales in the US, but almost nowhere else. The Korea Times says the company might make a decision on April 5.
• Things that didn’t happen this week: Apple did not have an iPad launch event and T-Mobile did not release its home Internet product. I’ve heard that both are now scheduled for “sometime in April.” Here’s what we expect at the Apple event, at least.

Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com.