Why can't we buy eSIM only iPhone 17 in Europe?

croarkzur257 wrote:

But the iPhone 15 pro eSIM only already exists in some countries (Canada, Japan, Mexico, etc...). I'm just wondering why Apple doesn't make it available in France, where eSIM is widely used. We are left with an outdated dead SIM card slot nobody is going to use... for a supposed to be premium phone, it's a bit strange... I guess it's not the phone I need.

You keep asking only users like yourself "why" question on this user to user only forum. We don't work for Apple. We didn't make ANY of the decisions Apple made about the new phones.

BTW, your assertion the iPhone 15 Pro was eSim only in Canada, Mexico or Japan is completely false. They came in those countries as SIM and eSim.

Enjoy whatever else you buy, but as I already said, the primary competitors to iPhone are Google and Samsung, who you'll have to purchase a phone which comes with a physical SIM and eSim. Other than complaining about something not one person here can change, what would that accomplish for you?

croarkzur257 wrote:

I'm interested in buying the iPhone 17 Pro eSIM only (A3522) in France, but the version Apple sells in Europe isn’t the premium one. It still has a physical SIM slot, a feature that’s totally outdated in 2025 here in Western Europe. I don’t want to miss two hours of battery capacity, because of a dead slot, I’ll never use. It's been several years, I have been using eSIM cards and I'm very happy with it. For the moment, I'm keeping my money.

OK......keep your money. We aren't Apple here on this user to user only forum. All we can say is Apple chose to manufacture them with a SIM Tray in Europe. Which, by the way, so did Google with the newest Pixel phones and so did Samsung, with their newest phones.

In addition to Bob Timmons’ and lobsterghost1’s responses, with which I agree:

• You are objecting to getting a SIM card slot which you will elect not to use. The iPhone has many other features, such as Accessibility capabilities, which you also elect not to use. Do you require these features be removed as well?
• The specs I’ve seen show the same battery life (33 hours music) for both models.

Unlike North America where there are 2 or 3 countries and relatively few networks, the Rest of World market has dozens of countries and hundreds of networks which don’t all support eSIM so phone manufacturers have to offer physical SIM. At a practical level the functional performance differences are trivial, and probably less than variability between samples in testing.

The North America versions have different cellular frequencies to Europe and ROW so it is not simply a matter of selling the USA version in Europe. It has to be type-approved by government regulators, and because North American versions have frequencies which are not permitted for ROW regions their answer is predictably… Not approved.

If having a phone without physical SIM is essential to satisfy a sense of entitlement you have a choice from current products. You could find a trusted friend in USA to purchase and ship a US specification device to you, OR you could consider the eSIM-only iPhone. Or you could switch to a different manufacturer who is willing to meet your demands.

But the iPhone 15 pro eSIM only already exists in some countries (Canada, Japan, Mexico, etc...

Wrong, unless you are referring to a user who purchased the iPhone 15 Pro in the U.S. and took it to another country.

The version sold in the U.S. was A2848, which is eSIM only.

The version sold in Canada, Japan, Mexico was A3101......eSIM and SIM

Try to get your "facts" straight.

croarkzur257 wrote:

I'm not the only one in Europe thinking this way. There are many tech articles about this problem in Europe. There is even an online petition about this.

The new iPhone Air is eSIM only worldwide. Buy it. As far as I can tell there are no eSIM only phones sold in the EU. Samsung and Google Pixel phones support eSIM but still have physical SIM slots as do iPhone models sold there. So I don't know where you are getting your information.

The new iPhone Air is the only the eSIM only phone that will be sold in the EU as far as I know.

croarkzur257 wrote:

I'm not the only one in Europe thinking this way. There are many tech articles about this problem in Europe. There is even an online petition about this.

There is always a chance that EU Brussels will fine Apple millions of dollars for “forcing citizens to use eSIM” , they are daft enough.

Also the most popular MVNO in UK, Lebara, still do not provide eSIM. There must be others.

croarkzur257 wrote:

But the iPhone 15 pro eSIM only already exists in some countries (Canada, Japan, Mexico, etc...). I'm just wondering why Apple doesn't make it available in France, where eSIM is widely used. We are left with an outdated dead SIM card slot nobody is going to use... for a supposed to be premium phone, it's a bit strange... I guess it's not the phone I need.

If you meant to say the iPhone 17 Pro, note that the U.K. and European versions of the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max have longer battery runtime (according to Technical Specifications) than the eSim-only U.S. versions of the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max.

There's still an improvement of several hours, even without the larger battery made possible by removing the SIM tray.

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• U.S. iPhone 16 Pro – up to 22 / 27 hours of video playback
• U.K. iPhone 17 Pro – up to 28 / 31 hours of video playback

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• U.S. iPhone 16 Pro Max - up to 29 / 33 hours of video playback
• U.K. Phone 17 Pro Max – up to 33 / 37 hours of video playback

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Why....?

"Why" questions can only be answered by Apple, and on this user-to-user only site, Apple is not here to answer.

I wish in USA we could get it with physical sim. It definitely should be a choice for sure