Europe's eSIM Compatibility Reaches 62.2-71.3%, and the Last Holdout Just Changed

Key findings

The tray that outlived its American twin by three years

Since the iPhone 14 in 2022, Apple has sold no US model with a physical SIM tray at all: American iPhone buyers do not choose eSIM, it is the only option. European buyers waited three more years for the same design. Every iPhone sold in Europe kept a physical SIM tray, often alongside eSIM, until the iPhone Air arrived in 2025 as the first model sold in the region with no tray at all. On the Android side, Samsung's split runs by product line rather than by geography: the S, Z and Note ranges support eSIM everywhere, but the A-series only from the A35, A36, A54, A55 and A56 onward, leaving the entry A06, A16 and A26 without it.

Weighting Europe's mobile vendor mix (StatCounter, May 2026) against the same brand-level compatibility table gives 62.2 to 71.3 percent, which lines up closely with our independently calculated French study (60 to 70 percent). The two figures were built from different inputs, StatCounter's continental market share against France's own manufacturer mix, so the overlap is a useful cross-check rather than a repeated calculation.

Compatibility by brand

Reusable figures (CC BY 4.0)

Quote freely with attribution to Drift Europa and a link to this study. The key figures are also available as CSV:

• Weighting Europe's mobile vendor market (StatCounter, May 2026) against official manufacturer eSIM lists gives an estimated smartphone eSIM compatibility of 62.2 to 71.3 percent, in line with our own French study (60 to 70 percent).
• US iPhones lost their physical SIM tray in 2022 (iPhone 14); the first iPhone sold in Europe with no SIM tray at all, the iPhone Air, arrived three years later, in 2025.
• Apple and Google's entire smartphone ranges have offered eSIM since the iPhone XS (2018) and Pixel 3; for Samsung, only the S, Z and Note lines plus the A35, A36, A54, A55 and A56 onward support it.

Methodology

Estimates are calculated by weighting each region's smartphone vendor market share (StatCounter, May 2026) against a brand-level eSIM compatibility rate, expressed as a low-high range per brand from its official device support list (Apple, Samsung, Google, Xiaomi and others). StatCounter's "Unknown" category and brands outside the top six per region are combined into a single low-compatibility residual (15 to 35 percent) since this bucket is dominated by budget, rebranded and unofficial-import devices. StatCounter measures web traffic (installed base), not the current year's sales, so figures should be read as a compatibility estimate for phones actually in use, not for this year's shipments alone.

For Asia specifically: this calculation assumes each brand's eSIM policy applies uniformly across the region, which does not fully capture mainland China's own restriction. Since October 2025, only the iPhone Air (A3518) and iPhone 17e (A3635) can activate an eSIM from a Chinese carrier; every other iPhone sold in mainland China, a market with substantial weight inside the continental StatCounter figure, keeps a physical SIM tray. Our Asia range should therefore be read as an upper estimate for a China-inclusive Asia; a single market such as Japan or South Korea would likely score higher on the Apple share of the calculation.

Reference point: GSMA Intelligence estimates 5 percent of smartphone connections were actively using eSIM at the end of 2025, projected to reach 10 percent by the end of 2026, a measure of share of smartphone connections actively using eSIM (not device compatibility) rather than device capability, and therefore not directly comparable to the compatibility estimates on this page.

Transparency

Drift Europa sells travel eSIMs. All assumptions and the brand-level rate table are published above so the calculation can be independently checked or recomputed with different weights. Data questions and interview requests: via drifteuropa.com.