Nano, Micro, Standard: Navigating the World of SIM Cards ⋆ Alertify

Nano, Micro, Standard: Navigating the World of SIM Cards

All phones need SIM cards, but they don’t all need SIM cards of the same size. In fact, there are three different sizes in use: standard, micro, and nano. sim card adapter

Standard SIM

The standard SIM card is the original SIM and the largest of the three. Standard SIMs are mainly used on older phones these days, such as the Samsung Galaxy SII, but also on very basic phones, such as the Nokia 105. This SIM measures 25x15mm.

Micro SIM card

A Micro SIM card is one size down from a standard card. So it’s a little smaller, coming in at 12 x 15mm. As noted above, the actual chip is the same size, so it’s just the bit around it that’s smaller.

Having been introduced back in 2003, this card also isn’t widely in use anymore, with most handsets having moved on to newer Nano SIM cards.

Nano SIM card

Nano SIM cards are the smallest of the bunch, coming in at 8.8 x 12.3mm, they’re also the newest, having made their debut in 2012. This has almost no border around the chip, so it’s hard to imagine SIM cards getting much smaller in the future unless the chip itself is shrunk.

SIM cards have shrunk primarily because the bits that were removed were essentially wasted space, and space comes at a premium in a smartphone. By having a smaller SIM card slot, more space can be freed up for a larger battery or other components, or the phone can be marginally shrunk down.

What is the evolution of SIM cards?

We’re unlikely to get smaller SIM cards in the future; as noted above, to get much smaller, there would need to be a change to the chip itself since Nano SIM cards already have hardly anything around the chip.

What we will probably start to see more of, though, is eSIM ‘s. These are embedded SIM cards, which means you won’t have a physical card that you need to put in a phone; it will be built in instead. As well as potentially being smaller, there are other advantages to these, such as being able to change networks without changing SIM cards.

A small but growing number of phones already have one of these, but it’s primarily just Apple and Google phones, such as the Apple iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 14, iPhone SE (2020), iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR, Google Pixel 8, Pixel 8 XL, Pixel 3, Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL. However, all of these also have a normal SIM card slot, as not all networks support eSIMs yet.

How do I get my SIM card to work on my phone? sim card adapter

Make sure your phone is off.
Locate the small hole on the side of the phone.
Insert the tool provided or a paperclip into the hole, which releases the SIM tray.
Take out the old SIM card and place the new one in the same way.
Carefully push the tray back in.
Turn on the phone.

What can I do if I have the wrong size SIM card?

If you get a new phone that needs a different size SIM card or end up with the wrong size for any other reason, your best option is to contact your network and ask them to send a replacement. As noted above, you’ll usually get three sizes in one, so you probably won’t even have to request a specific size.

If you can’t wait for that, then there are other options. If your SIM card is too small for your phone, then you could buy an adaptor. These are small pieces of plastic shaped like a Micro or Standard SIM with space for a Micro or Nano SIM inside, so you just stick your SIM card in the adaptor and then put that in your phone.