Qualcomm puts SIM card in phone processor: this is ‘iSIM’
Qualcomm has proposed the possible successor to the nano-SIM card and the eSIM. iSIM no longer works via a separate chip in your phone, but is part of the processor. Qualcomm demonstrates it on a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3. Here are the benefits.
What is iSIM?
Most phones still come with a slot where you insert a nano SIM card. Yet we see that often flagships come with the eSIM technology, a technology that makes the physical card superfluous. But if it depends on Qualcomm, the most important maker of smartphone chips, then that standard can also be retired.
The iSIM or integrated SIM primarily has an important advantage for smartphone makers. The eSIM chips already took up a significantly smaller space compared to nanosim, but iSIM is simply part of a phone’s chipset. It frees up extra space that manufacturers can use for other technologies. Consider, for example, extra space for the camera lenses.
iSIM in wearables and smart devices
iSIM partly uses the technology behind eSIM. As with eSIM, iSIM also allows you to use multiple phone numbers at the same time, and iSIM settings can also be adjusted remotely via apps and services from your provider. Qualcomm wants to use iSIM not only for smartphone processors, but the intention is that it will soon also connect wearables and other smart devices with 5G.
During its demonstration, Qualcomm let the iSIM work on a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 phone with Snapdragon 888. That high-end chipset comes with a so-called ‘secure processing unit’, or a secure environment on which the iSIM works. For now, it is only a demonstration of the technology, because Qualcomm did not announce when iSIM will work on a consumer phone.
