eSIM on iPads and tablets: when it's worth it and how to install it

A tablet with mobile connectivity, one of the ones with a slot or a chip for data, supports eSIM just like a phone. Wifi-only ones don't: there's no modem to connect to any network.

How to tell which you have

If your tablet's settings have a mobile data section, yours is one of the connected ones. If there's only wifi, it's the model without mobile connectivity and there's nothing to install.

It's the same check as on a phone, and here too it's more reliable than any list of models.

When a plan of its own is worth it

• If you work from it and don't want to depend on your phone's battery.
• On family trips, where the tablet is the children's entertainment and uses data of its own.
• If somebody else is carrying the phone and you split up during the day.
• When the tablet's plan costs less than the extra usage tethering causes.

When tethering from your phone is better

On most short trips. Sharing the connection is instant, costs nothing extra and covers occasional tablet use perfectly well.

What to bear in mind is the usage: a tablet watching video uses more than the whole phone does, so it has to be counted when choosing a plan.

The figures for tethered usage are in tethering from an eSIM.

Installing it, step by step

1. Connect the tablet to your wifi at home.
2. Go into the mobile data settings and choose add eSIM or add data plan.
3. Scan the code with the tablet's camera or enter the details by hand.
4. Name the line and leave it switched off until the trip if the plan allows.

And smartwatches

Watches with mobile connectivity have eSIM too, but they work differently: they usually share your phone's number through a service from your operator, and they don't take just any travel data plan. There the answer is normally with your operator rather than with a third-party plan.