Flashback: some crazy phones had three or even four SIM card slots

29 May 2022
How many is too many? Dual-SIM phones have their uses and the first arrived in 2000. But things got out of control for a period after that.

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I don't think it necessary to buy recently. In my country, those 3 or 4 supported SIM card phone are not popular brand, very low end specs, not good.

In my country, there are Gstar, Micxone, Mito, Maxtron, they sometimes support 3 SIM slot or even 4 SIM card slot. Will you choose unpopular brand like Gstar, Maxtron, Micxone instead of Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, etc? I don't think so. You must be prefer Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, realme and other popular brands.

    Never. I never buy 3 slot SIM card phone or 4 slot SIM card phones. Most the phone were not attractive brand, unpopular brand, not good specs.

    The very good spec offer by a smartphone usually 1 SIM card slot smartphone or 2 SIM card slot smartphone.

      I use 3 Android phones + 1 Feature Phone, total i have 8 simcards...
      if there is 4 simcards in 1 smartphone, it will be reducing the number of smartphone i used only 2...

        dazzxq, 30 May 2022In Asia, especially China and Vietnam, dual SIMs is a "... moreI see. Here most of us have their data within their calling sim so it doesn't matter but people have two numbers so the use the dual sim feature for that mostly.
        I pretty much understand how everyone find it useful where they live, and that is basically why the feature is still implemented.

          I remember the Benefon Twin. I had one for a brief period of time. It was a chunky device and the two sim cards could not operate simultaneously. You had to switch of one before starting the other one. The build quality was also nothing to brag about but for the rest it was a good phone with great reception and audio quality. The menu was also rather intuitive. Good old times! It was a fun time to work in the telecom business with the GSM boom and the relentless flow of new devices and technologies and of course gimmicks :-)

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            • Anonymous
            • 6v0
            • 30 May 2022

            Darknoor, 30 May 2022Even a dual sim is gimmicky for the normal user (most peopl... moreFor Majority of people 2 sim slot makes live easier. Might be cheaper to use unlimited call and text with no data from one carrier and data from another carier. Also for students studying overseas, or just for vacation (easier to store both in phone than taking one out to replace, no fear of losing sim). Now with e-SIM this may soon not be applicable anymore.

              Two Sims is absolute minimum for me, and I have two reasons for that,
              first: I bought my first simcard 15 years ago, and I have been using that simcard for all the 15 years for calls and sms, all my accounts on internet and government organizations are connected to this number, but lately a new data provider has emerged in my country which has awesome 4G coverage for real nice prices, just for you to understand they sell services with unlimited data from 2am to 7am for 1$/d and the download speed is like 120mbps, so I use the second simcard for internet and my old simcard for calls, I would ditch my first simcard but I can't because I've been handing that number everywhere for years.
              Second: because of my job I have to constantly move between two countries, I have a simcard from the other country that I travel to, so I place it in my second sim slot(I change it with the one that I use for internet in my own country since it won't work out of my country anyways) and I keep the simcard I have for years since my bank transactions have to be authenticated with that simcard

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                • Bob
                • x3@
                • 30 May 2022

                Well, in current times, a minimal of 2 sim slots. some countries have more value per subscription. one sim as DATA only while the other for calls and SMS, well maybe in the future 3 sims perhaps? so i can put another sim as autoroam usage, perhaps one E sim and two SIM slot in far future.

                  Darknoor, 30 May 2022Even a dual sim is gimmicky for the normal user (most peopl... moreIn Asia, especially China and Vietnam, dual SIMs is a "must have" feature. Almost everyone has 2 SIM cards, one for contacting and other for 4G/5G data.

                    Darknoor, 30 May 2022Even a dual sim is gimmicky for the normal user (most peopl... moreThe best use is to get a local sim when you are out of the country , but you still want to be reachable on the old nr . But even that's going the way of the dodo with current EU roaming charges ..

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                      • David
                      • HCY
                      • 30 May 2022

                      I'm surprised people don't think dual sim is a necessity. For example having a personal sim and a work sim is very common situation, saves you carrying two phones. Seems to still be very popular in Asia and the Far East.

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                        • 2simsareprettynice
                        • tRJ
                        • 30 May 2022

                        For me, 2 sims phones are very useful: you can have a main sim card for contact and another for data package. In my country, ISP sell data-only sim with very reasonable pricing data package E.g. 4GB per day for as long as you could pay and the price is around 4$/month.

                          Even a dual sim is gimmicky for the normal user (most people) but is easy to take advantage of.
                          I can see how a businessman can benifit from these though.

                            when 2014-2015 I am thinking about changing the phones to three slots SIM, I need it because I use 1 phone for 2 users (sometimes) to my younger brother. In that time back when LG made really great low end phone Optimus L series, super pain using my Galaxy Star which is 3G doesn't support too. And they released 3 SIM slot 1 year later (Galaxy Star Trios).

                              I saw a phone from India with 7 sims.

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                                • pralea
                                • HFJ
                                • 30 May 2022

                                Anonymous, 29 May 2022Elop was a trojan horse Nobody can fight the mighty eagle agentnokia was doomed since ios and android was released. Elop was just a part of it. Symbian was indeed a true os, but times change

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                                  • Anonymous
                                  • rJX
                                  • 30 May 2022

                                  BMHater12, 29 May 2022What mobile OS are you going to run anyway?Meego

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                                    • Anonymous
                                    • I@H
                                    • 30 May 2022

                                    i prefer a dual sim...
                                    and i had a feature phones and smartphones having such...
                                    and make it toolless, hot swappable... solved...

                                      SpiritWolf, 29 May 2022Right now I have Symbian (my favourite), Windows Phone (bet... morewindows phone... what kind of phone model do you have?? lumia? they look cool though

                                        SpiritWolf, 29 May 2022Still using my Nokia 808 running Symbian Belle. Best phone ever.speaking of nokia phones, i tried to flash my n95 and my laptop just blue screened during the process... it rendered the phone useless, but the phone is still on but stuck on the logo😭😭 idk how do i get it back

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