Someone asked me why I don’t use dual-SIM phones instead of carrying 2 or 3 phones at a time. I said that if there were only high-end phones that support dual-SIM, I might consider using them. So the question popped up — why aren’t dual-SIM phones picking up?
They’ve been here for years, even started with custom modules for Nokia 5110 and 6110 many years ago (the one that you turn off and on whenever you want to switch active SIM).
Even today, there are very few manufacturers and even phone models that support dual-SIM. Of course, that does not include those Chinese phones that offer triple-SIM and the likes.
Philips has the Xenium 9@9w and 969 while Samsung has the SGH-D780, D880 and D980 DuoS. Filipino company Solid Group is also the one distributing the my|phone dual-SIM phones. Verzio also has the Duplii and Twinn. Aside from these, we haven’t seen similar ones by LG, Sony-Ericsson and Nokia.
That’s probably because of some good reasons:
- Dual-SIM phones need to carry 2 separate transceivers for each SIM and that could easily drain the battery life of the phone (estimated to be between 30-40% lower). That also means phone manufacturers need to increase battery capacity to deliver the same standard usage and that costs more money.
- Supporting 2 SIM cards into a single phone may drastically affect volume of phone sales especially to people who tend to use 2 or more mobile numbers at the same time.
- Telcos might not want to subsidize a phone that a post-paid customer can easily add a competing SIM card into.
Guys and Gals,
You should try Verzio Duplii Exec series!
Inexpensive and very functional!
Nice 3MP also and with 2GB memory card!!
i was waiting for a comment that will tell about the phone’s durability. i am looking at buying samsung gt-b7722 touch dual sim. are branded dual sim phones considered as china phone? any fair comment/recommendation (based on actual use) before i buy?