jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

If I remove the sim card from my current Samsung phone and put it into another Samsung phone, will I be able to use the second one as a phone, just like the original Samsung?

BebuLamar

I think so!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That's what I got from an online search - yes, probably, maybe, it depends. I'd rather not mess up a working phone.

BebuLamar

It wouldn't harm nothing for trying. By the way which phone company are you using?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I use TracFone. It's almost free. This phone was advertised as being unlocked, but it also associated with Verizon, so I don't know how that will work. I have two phones registered with TracFone, and I'd rather not register a third.

BebuLamar

Verizon used to have the phone made for them without the sim slot. The sim is built in and only worked with Verizon. They have changed that now.
I would call tracfone and ask them.

Texas George Loc: Stamford, Texas

I worked for Walmart in the electronics department for 12 years. People would come in and want to buy a Straight Talk phone because they were lower priced and then put another carrier’s sim in it. Straight Talk locks their phones to their service for two years so that you have to subscribe to their service. After that two years the process to unlock the phone is difficult. Unless you take the phone to Mexico where there are phone techs able to unlock the phones immediately.

Indi Loc: L. I., NY, Palm Beach Cty when it's cold.

As I understand it, the SIM card stores all your data such as contacts, pictures, et al. You can set your phone to store all data on your phone via the SIM card, or in the cloud. If you remove the SIM card from one phone with all the data and insert it into another phone, you should be able to access that data on the second phone but not the original phone since you removed the storage on the SIM card.

I’m not sure that’s a perfect answer.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Nothing in my life is perfect, so I'll give it a try.

JoeBiker Loc: homebase: Houston, TX

That is not correct. The SIM card primarily holds the phone number and the ability to use it. It is possible to store a few contacts on the SIM card, but most (android) phones don't do that by default. Other data such as pictures could be stored on a SD card, but most android phones don't do that by default (and iPhones don't support internal SD cards).

Moving the SIM to the new phone "should" move the phone number and the ability to use it to the new phone. But, a few caveats: the new phone must be unlocked. Also (a little harder to explain), but for best results, the new phone must support the protocols and should be optimized for the frequencies used by the carrier in your country. Look on the description of the new phone to make sure that it is compatible with your cell phone company and country. If you get a phone that is optimized for a different region (like Asia), it will probably work where the cell coverage is strong, but may not work well where the cell coverage is weak.

Also, you have to make sure that your new phone has a SIM slot in the first place. Some newer phones (some versions of the Samsung S23+, for example) only support eSIM (electronic SIM: a soft copy of the SIM data), and don't even have a SIM slot.

JoeBiker Loc: homebase: Houston, TX

Correct: if it doesn't work, just move it back to the first phone.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Very informative! Thanks.

JoeBiker Loc: homebase: Houston, TX

Something else that occurred to me as I wrote this: Back in the day, cell phone carriers used to charge ~$50 (or whatever) to move your number to a new phone; because most people didn't know that all they had to do was move the SIM card. Once people learned that, the carriers missed out on that service charge. They would grumble about it; but from a technical standpoint, they couldn't stop you (they might have claimed contract violation).

Now with the new eSIMs, I don't (yet) know how to move an eSIM to a new phone without help from the carrier... I see number transfer service charges coming back....

SteveFranz Loc: Durham, NC

I buy most of my phones on the open market, not from cell phone companies. All my phones are unlocked from day one, and most have two sim card slots. My other criteria is the phone camera. Right now, my cell phone has an IR camera that I really like.

In the "settings" area under SIM cards you can choose which one to be default, or set it up for me to choose which one to use when making a call. Right now I have two domestic SIM cards and I'm trying to determine which one gets a better signal in my area. When I travel, I buy a 30 day SIM card for whatever country I'm visiting. That gives me a local # and access to however many GIGs of data I buy. Then I just set the default based on whether I'm travelling or heading home.