Historically, Australia telcos have flat out refused to sell dual SIM smartphones – heaven forbid you use the second slot for a SIM from one of their competitors.
Optus has changed that this week with the Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro. While Telstra and Vodafone are only ranging the single SIM version as per usual, hell has frozen over at Optus: it will have the dual SIM variant of both phones.
Normally you’d need to buy outright to get a dual SIM device, which isn’t necessarily ideal when phone prices keeping creeping higher and higher.
So why get a dual SIM smartphone? There are a couple primary reasons you’d consider a handset with two SIM slots:
- You want to have a personal number and a work number without carrying two separate devices.
- You want to keep using an Australian phone number when using your phone overseas, but pick up a more cost-effective local SIM for mobile data.
- You want the benefit of coverage from two different networks. For example, if you get patchy Optus when road tripping, you could throw in a prepaid Telstra SIM in the second slot for additional coverage in the outback when you need it.
Dual SIM smartphones can be a little confusing, as there’s a few different possible configurations.
The most common dual SIM setup has one 4G compatible SIM slot and one 3G-only slot. This means that only one SIM is able to connect to the 4G network, while the other can only connect to the slower 3G networks.
Another fun dual SIM fact to be aware of is the term ‘dual standby’. On a dual standby phone, you can’t use both SIMs simultaneously: if you’re on a call on your primary SIM, someone dialling your second SIM number won’t be able to reach you. This tends to only matter in terms of phone calls though, and who makes those anymore?
In a ‘dual active’ configuration – which is a bit less common – both SIMs operate simultaneously.
The Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro are both dual active devices with two 4G SIM slots.
Here are the plans you can buy the Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro on with Optus.
If you’re after the P30 Pro on an Optus plan, we think the $95 per month plan with 50GB is the best buy.
Customers who pre-order before either device before the April 16 release date get bonus Sonos One smart speaker valued at $299.
And if you need a second SIM for your second SIM slot, here are a bunch of no-contract SIM-only plans with at least 10GB:
The author travelled to Paris for the launch of the P30 and P30 Pro as a guest of Huawei
Alex Choros is Managing Editor at WhistleOut, Australia’s phone and internet comparison website.