Tested: 9esim V0 eSIM Adapter + Shopback Travel eSIM vs. StarHub Prepaid in Singapore

As you may have already been aware, I recently took a trip to Singapore for a couple of weeks. While I’m still “recovering” from the holiday (yes, you really do need another holiday to recover from the holiday) and things are still not quite unpacked or processed, I can at least start with this small side-quest which turned into a bit of a triple-review.

9esim V0 eSIM Adapter

If you’re travelling, no doubt, you’ve heard of eSIMs – essentially all of the “identity” in a SIM card but delivered to you through the internet, often in the form of a QR code or a text string starting with “LPA:1$”. Many travel eSIM providers sell a “global platform” service (i.e. install one eSIM, reuse for many different countries, with the possibility of having credit validity worldwide), while a minority sell “local” eSIMs which are usually country or region-specific. For travellers, the eSIM really has changed the dynamics of getting connected in a foreign place – it’s delivered virtually instantaneously electronically, it can be pre-installed so it is ready-to-go as soon as you land and pricing can often seem rather reasonable.

The problem occurs if you have an older phone or foreign-made phones which don’t have inbuilt eSIM capabilities – I sit in both camps here. I recently purchased a Nubia REDMAGIC 11 Pro only to find it had no eSIM capability even though it’s a flagship gaming phone. My older Motorola G84 has no eSIM either … nor did my Poco F3 or my now-banned Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T. The only phone I do use that has native eSIM is my Motorola G54 and that’s the one I usually do my testing with.

But that doesn’t have to be a problem because of the existence of eSIM “adapters” which are a physical SIM card that has an eSIM element inside that can be reprogrammed using compatible readers or through an app on supported phones. I had heard of eSIM.me and Switch by Plan B a while back, but the pricing was a bit steep for my liking so I forgot about it until I was thinking about going on holiday again.

That’s when I decided I would give the 9esim V0 eSIM adapter a try. While the price still isn’t all that cheap (a AU$30 card is pretty big slice of the cost of a phone, especially an older one), at least I could get it through Amazon AU meaning it’d be at my door quickly. Apparently, these can be purchased through AliExpress, but the pricing doesn’t seem all that much better, so probably best to just buy directly from 9esim if you can wait (currently listed at US$15 = approx. AU$22).

Unboxing

The card arrived in a small thin cardboard envelope, sealed with the Amazon stock barcode label. There is a silver metallic foil that surrounds the branding, with rudimentary instructions and a QR code on the rear.

Inside, we get a half ID-1 size card with triple-cutouts for different SIM sizes and an ejection tool just hanging around loose in the envelope. The card itself looks clean with a blue-green gradient. The text is very tiny, but it does say “You can buy a better version at www.9esim.com.” I wonder if that’s just to guilt the V0 purchasers to upgrade to a V0max or a V3 – from what I can tell, the V0max has a larger 1.1MB storage for more eSIM profiles compared to the 448kB of the V0, while the V3 increases this to 1.5MB storage with potentially better compatibility with legacy Android devices. There’s now a new B1 version which communicates via Bluetooth for better iOS experience.

Given that my Motorola G54 has about the same storage as the V0, which easily accommodates at least five profiles based on prior experience, that’s more than enough for my use. Larger memory versions may be useful for those who like to test a lot of providers that offer “lifetime” eSIMs that shouldn’t ever be deleted (some will charge to reissue), but otherwise, I just see it as a bit of overkill.

The back of the card is mostly plain white, with the SIM card number laser-marked onto the back of the card and onto the substrate.

In Use

The card is supported by the 9esim app, which is a reskinned version of NekokoLPA 2 which is open source. As far as I can tell, the card is also supported by the more traditional, but less pretty EasyEUICC, but I decided to stick with the official application.

For the most part, the card is almost plug-and-play on modern versions of Android, with my REDMAGIC 11 Pro detecting the card just fine in SIM1 slot, but not being able to manage the eSIM profiles when placed into the SIM2 slot (but can use whatever profile is already active like an ordinary SIM card).

I found the app very easy to use and very featureful. I’ve installed a batch of different travel eSIMs from four different providers with no issues at all. Downloads were smooth and completed first time. I definitely appreciated being able to see the size of each eSIM and being able to easily toggle each profile on or off as needed. It turned my non-eSIM phone into an eSIM-capable phone, but with some minor caveats.

Unlike an eSIM-native phone, the eSIM management is done via the app and not the system. Therefore, you may have problems with certain providers who might restrict the eSIM installation to app-only automated installs, as it won’t be able to invoke the “system” eSIM manager because there isn’t one. Some other issues can include apps which “detect” based on model that you have no eSIM capability and refuse to install or run.

But for all other eSIM providers where you are given the QR code or can extract the manual text-based “LPA:$1” string, it’s as easy as scanning the code, selecting a picture with the QR code or pasting it into the app. The app then gives you some information about the eSIM and estimates the download size based on other people’s installations. The process takes barely a minute and the profile is then ready for use.

The app’s settings menu features a long list of options you can customise.

Some more advanced features include setting tags and reminders and changing redaction settings so you can send screenshots without exposing vital information.

The app supports a few different reader types – for phones that do not support directly accessing the eSIM, an additional USB or Bluetooth reader will need to be purchased to manage the card, or you will need to temporarily “borrow” a modern phone to download the eSIM and activate one profile for use on the not-supporting phone. This is a rather inconvenient compromise though. The cloud features can also be disabled.

In all, the app performs beautifully and is easy to use. If only the system eSIM managers could be so detailed – on my G54 which has native eSIM, you’re always left guessing if there’s enough room to install another eSIM or not.

Shopback Travel eSIM vs. Starhub Prepaid in Singapore

While most modern travel eSIM businesses are literally screaming at the top of their lungs to pick them for a seamless travel experience at a cheaper-than-roaming price, my own experience tells me that there are more nuances that mean that the travel eSIM usually isn’t the best choice for all scenarios. Going to Singapore allowed me to highlight this issue in a practical light.

For the travel eSIM, this time, I’m taking advantage of Shopback’s recent promotion where they offered a 1GB 7-day global eSIM plan for free. The plan doesn’t cover Australia, so going overseas was necessary to understand what the service was like. While the cost of this was “free”, the app currently quotes the following prices for Singapore:

• 1GB/7 days – $3.99
• 3GB/7 days – $7.99
• 5GB/15 days – $10.99
• 10GB/15 days – $18.99
• 20GB/15 days – $25.99
• 30GB/15 days – $31.99
• 50GB/30 days – $46.99

It was definitely advantage to the eSIM for being connected as soon as I landed (they were using Singtel’s network). I installed it the day before I left using the 9esim app and I was connected even before the plane had opened its doors. That’s a nice-to-have, for sure. The ongoing prices, however, were not.

When it comes to connectivity, Singapore is a bit of a strange country. It’s a regional internet hub in Asia, but it also boasts extremely cheap cellular plans, to the point that a sizeable proportion of travel eSIMs piggyback on Singtel infrastructure. As a result, the eSIM would be facing stiff competition.

As a tourist to Singapore, you have four main network operators you can choose from – Singtel, StarHub, M1 or SIMBA. With SG$1.00 = AU$1.10 (so, nearly parity), the prepaid tourist-oriented offerings are offering you a lot for your money:

• Singtel $10 hi! Tourist Plan SG$10/7 days – 500GB 5G+ (SG, MY, ID, TH, HK), unlimited local calls and SMS.
• Singtel $15 hi! Tourist Plan SG$15/30 days – 500GB 5G+ (SG, MY, ID, TH, HK), 18GB APAC roaming + CN, KR, JP (20 destinations), 8GB worldwide roaming (60+ destinations), unlimited local calls and SMS, 600 IDD minutes (20+ destinations), 100 IDD minutes (Myanmar).
• Singtel $30 hi! Tourist Plan SG$30/30 days – 1000GB 5G+ Enhanced (SG, ASEAN, HK), 100GB Asia roaming + CN, KR, JP (20 destinations), 18GB worldwide roaming (200+ destinations), unlimited local calls and SMS, 1000 IDD minutes (20+ destinations), 100 IDD minutes (Myanmar).
• StarHub 4G Tourist SG$12/30 days – 300GB local data, unlimited calls and SMS, 15GB APAC data (9 destinations), 200GB SEA data (MY, ID, PH, VN, TH), 100 minutes roaming calls (9 destinations), 50 roaming SMS (9 destinations), up to 500 mins IDD calls + 100 mins Myanmar.
• StarHub Tourist Core SG$15/30 days – 300GB local data, unlimited calls and SMS, 30GB APAC data (20 destinations), 200GB SEA data (MY, ID, PH, VN, TH), 100 minutes roaming calls (20 destinations), 50 roaming SMS (20 destinations), up to 600 mins IDD calls + 100 mins Myanmar.
• StarHub Tourist Plus SG$30/30 days – 400GB local data, unlimited calls and SMS, 95GB APAC data (20 destinations), 300GB SEA data (MY, ID, PH, VN, TH), 100 minutes roaming calls (20 destinations), 50 roaming SMS (20 destinations), up to 600 mins IDD calls + 100 mins Myanmar.
• M1 Data-Only Exclusive SG$13/30 days – 500GB local data (SG, MY, ID, HK, MO, TW, TH), 20GB APAC Roaming Data, 7GB International Roaming Data.
• M1 All-in-One SG$14/30 days – 600GB local data (SG, MY, ID, HK, MO, TW, TH), 20GB APAC Roaming Data, 8GB International Roaming Data, 500 minutes local outgoing calls, unlimited local incoming calls, 500 minutes IDD 033 calls to APAC, 50 local SMS.
• M1 All-in-One SG$25/30 days – 750GB local data (SG, MY, ID, HK, MO, TW, TH), 30GB APAC Roaming Data, 15GB International Roaming Data, 5000 minutes local outgoing calls, unlimited local incoming calls, 700 minutes IDD 033 calls to APAC, 400 local SMS.
• M1 Data-Only Exclusive SG$12/30 days – 500GB local data (SG, MY, ID, HK, MO, TW, TH), 20GB APAC Roaming Data, 7GB International Roaming Data, 500 minutes local outgoing calls, unlimited local incoming calls, 500 minutes IDD 033 calls to APAC, 100 local SMS.
• M1 All-in-One SG$30/30 days – 1000GB local data (SG, MY, ID, HK, MO, TW, TH), 35GB APAC Roaming Data, 18GB International Roaming Data, 3000 minutes local talktime, 900 minutes IDD 033 calls to APAC, 1000 local SMS.
• SIMBA Prepaid SG$10/30 days – 500GB (MY, ID, TH, HK, SG), 3GB Global Roaming (60+ countries), 12GB APAC Roaming (7 countries), 500 SG+ IDD minutes, unlimited calls to SG mobile, unlimited SMS, free voice roaming, roll-over up to 6 cycles.
• SIMBA Prepaid SG$12/30 days – 600GB (MY, ID, TH, HK, SG), 8GB Global Roaming (60+ countries), 18GB APAC Roaming (7 countries), 600 SG+ IDD minutes, unlimited calls to SG mobile, unlimited SMS, free voice roaming, roll-over up to 6 cycles.
• SIMBA Prepaid SG$15/30 days – 600GB (MY, ID, TH, HK, SG), 8GB Global Roaming (60+ countries), 25GB APAC Roaming (7 countries), 700 SG+ IDD minutes, unlimited calls to SG mobile, unlimited SMS, free voice roaming, roll-over up to 6 cycles.
• SIMBA Prepaid SG$18/30 days – 600GB (MY, ID, TH, HK, SG), 10GB Global Roaming (60+ countries), 30GB APAC Roaming (7 countries), 800 SG+ IDD minutes, unlimited calls to SG mobile, unlimited SMS, free voice roaming, roll-over up to 6 cycles.
• SIMBA Prepaid SG$20/30 days – 700GB (MY, ID, TH, HK, SG), 12GB Global Roaming (60+ countries), 50GB APAC Roaming (7 countries), 800 SG+ IDD minutes, unlimited calls to SG mobile, unlimited SMS, free voice roaming, roll-over up to 6 cycles.
• SIMBA Prepaid SG$25/30 days – 800GB (MY, ID, TH, HK, SG), 15GB Global Roaming (60+ countries + Maldives), 80GB APAC Roaming (7 countries), 800 SG+ IDD minutes, unlimited calls to SG mobile, unlimited SMS, free voice roaming, roll-over up to 6 cycles.

On the whole, it seems that the providers all have decent plans at the SG$15 mark, many as low as SG$10 with some compromises. What is most interesting is that some of these SIMs are offering competitive amounts of data even if purchased in Singapore and roamed back to Australia – e.g. StarHub Tourist Core = AU$16.50/30 days for 30GB data which bests practically all Australian local month-to-month options. What a shame I still need an Australian phone number for so many things, otherwise, this might be an option!

But I digress – while you might want to get started quickly by buying the eSIM option, things can get a bit tricky as Singapore requires passport verification to enable phone number and calling features. Although data is supposed to work, some people have reported having difficulties until they got verified correctly. To avoid such issues, it’s best to get a physical SIM, at a shop or counter at the airport – Singtel (Changi Recommends) and StarHub (Prosegur Change) have agents at the airport but I’m not sure about M1 or SIMBA which are more likely to need you to go into the city and deal with somewhat shadier independent resellers who might not offer much in the way of support.

So the local SIM definitely will win-out on value when you consider the amount of inclusions for the price, and that’s only considering the main network operators and not the MVNOs which might undercut them further. But it comes at a cost of inconvenience. For longer trips, I suppose the time spent picking up a card and getting it properly registered and set-up is not a major issue, but if you’re only going for a day trip, the eSIM option makes better sense.

But we’re not done. Because if you buy your tourist SIM through “travel tech” companies like Pelago, you can avail yourself a StarHub card for much less, especially if you’re buying two –

So for AU$10.12, I purchased two cards – one for me, one for my Mum, each with the full 5G Tourist Core inclusions (300GB local). That’s less than I would pay for just one of the Shopback 5GB/15 days top-ups.

For the record, the pick-up at Prosegur Change was easy – they took our passports and activated the cards for us, writing down the local phone number for each on the sleeves. We put the cards into the phone and it was all drama-free, at least until I got home and realised that they seemed to have activated the cards on a plan that didn’t have APAC roaming that covered Australia which is contrary to the description. While this didn’t affect my trip, it did mean that I couldn’t enjoy some extra data connectivity when I got home.

Nevertheless, I think this gives you some indication of how local providers are likely going to give you better value, while travel eSIM providers may give you convenience. So, it was a case of the free eSIM mainly being used as bridging connectivity between the plane through to when we had our bags and SIM cards provisioned. From there, I was on the local StarHub card for the rest of my trip. But what about performance? Let’s see …

Shopback eSIM

The eSIM is from Plus, a Polish operator, one which is commonly found in such eSIMs.

The APNs that are pre-configured also belong to Plus and is simply called “plus”.

The card connected to the Singtel network in Singapore, but only in 4G mode.

IP Address & Geolocation

The Shopback eSIM is essentially a Sparks product, as the connectivity emerges out of London, UK from a Sparks IPv4 block (ASN 208893). There is no IPv6 connectivity. Unfortunately, this does mean a significant latency hit to Singaporean servers.

The geolocation.com output saw a different IP address, this time one belonging to Arelion Sweeden AB for use in data centre applications. I suspect this is not unusual either, as I have observed multiple public facing IPs depending on the destination for some travel eSIMs.

Latency & Routing

I had to use traceroute under Termux on the phone, which always seemed to get stuck before completing the trace entirely.

This partial trace towards Singapore suggests the latency would be at about 200ms disadvantage.

Tracing back home to my Australian VPS, I was seeing something over 480ms, which is pretty painful. I really did not find working via SSH on this connection to be enjoyable.

Because of the multiple layers of tunnels, the MSS is limited to 1350 bytes.

Performance

Performance-wise, testing to Singaporean end-points (Singtel, GSL Networks, M1) saw downstream throughput range from 44.6 to 63.6Mbit/s and upstream from 8.49 to 18.9Mbit/s. Latency was in the 340ms range, with some packet loss being reported. The throughput limitation is likely due to the 4G LTE connectivity, exacerbated by longer round-trip times, congestion at the service provider and packet loss.

While I did want to do more throughput tests, unfortunately, my 1GB allowance ended here and so did my use of the service.

StarHub Prepaid

The StarHub card was connected in 5G mode and has two pre-configured APNs – one for prepaid and one for postpaid. As this is a prepaid card, I used the prepaid setting.

The full settings are above, but “shppd” is the appropriate APN and there is only IPv4 available.

IP Address & Geolocation

Being a local SIM, it correctly recognises as coming from Singapore on a StarHub IP block (ASN 4657).

IP2Location reports that the IP address is a fixed-line ISP usage, while it is technically mobile.

It seems that geolocation.com also concurs. Perhaps this is what happens when both mobile and fixed customers are lumped together in CG-NAT or some reshuffling of IPv4 address space may have occurred. Nevertheless, having the local geolocation means that sites will display the correct local information and some more security-conscious sites that block outside-of-country visits will be able to load correctly.

Latency & Routing

Tracing back to my Australian VPS, the broken trace was showing latencies in the 120ms ballpark.

As this is a local carrier SIM, it has a more generous MSS of 1380 bytes – 30 bytes bigger than the travel eSIM.

Performance

Being connected on their 5G network, it’s no surprise throughput was significantly faster.

The fast.com speed test gave relatively consistent 22-24ms latencies with download speeds of 250-320Mbit/s and upload speeds of 29-35Mbit/s. That’s faster than what I get at home in Australia!

Testing using speedtest.net to a barrage of Singapore endpoints confirm download speeds ranging from 176-319Mbit/s and upload speeds of 10-35.7Mbit/s. Latencies of 16-20ms were achieved – this is significantly better than the travel eSIM and noticeable when working remotely.

Surprisingly, tracing back to serves in Australia resulted in bigger numbers which might have been lifting of local congestion – download speeds ranged from 326-497Mbit/s and upload speeds ranged from 28.4-31.3Mbit/s with latencies in the 111-210ms range.

Experiment: Reviving a Blocked Phone?

Back when the 3G network was shut down, one of the major issues was a piece of legislation that was rushed through (Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Amendment Determination 2024 (No. 1)), blocking any device that couldn’t reach the emergency services from joining the network. As a result, a good chunk of grey-market phones became ensnared and stopped being able to connect on the mobile network.

There was an exception though –

This had me wondering … would my blocked Redmi Note 8T be revivable if it only connected using travel eSIMs rather than local SIMs? Now that I have the eSIM adapter, it’s worth giving it a try.

Unfortunately, despite having the Pixel Experience Android 13 build on the device, it turns out that the app cannot access the eSIM adapter to configure it.

It seems that you’ll have to try it and see – it’s hard to know compatibility perfectly beforehand. Nevertheless, I decided to provision a Firsty (free, ad-supported) eSIM and activate the profile using another phone. After removing the card and slotting it into the Redmi Note 8T …

… it correctly detected the profile. But despite waiting some time and manually tapping …

… on every commercial network operator here, none of them would let the phone join. It would seem that simply using a travel eSIM is not enough to evade the block – which may also mean that travellers to Australia using unsupported phones that may have purchased an eSIM may find themselves blocked and out-of-luck until they get a “supported” device.

Conclusion

The 9esim V0 eSIM adapter is a fairly plug-and-play solution for compatible Android 11+ phones. Using the NekokoLPA 2-based 9esim app, you can easily install and manage eSIM profiles with a beautiful, featureful and intuitive interface. While it will work for any provider that issues a QR code or LPA text string, it doesn’t work around issues where providers may mandate the use of an app you can’t install (because your device is flagged as incompatible), or where the installation is blocked by the app (because it can’t detect native eSIM capabilities) or where the installation is mandated to use the automatic system eSIM manager (of which your non-eSIM phone will have none). Furthermore, on older or non-compatible devices, the use of a reader may be necessary to perform profile management or you may need to shuttle the card to a newer phone that is supported to make such configuration changes. The card itself is not all that cheap, but in my opinion, the capacity it has is more than enough to satisfy most users. It has found a permanent home in the SIM1 slot of my Nubia REDMAGIC 11 Pro, fixing one of the glaring omissions in this flagship-tier phone.

Shopback’s travel eSIM when used in Singapore is based around Plus (Poland), with data routing via Sparks (UK). Nothing too special about that as some other travel eSIMs do the same (esim.io, Frewie/Pelago, Kolet), but it was only capable of 4G connectivity on Singtel in Singapore. Accordingly, its performance suffered significantly, when compared to my StarHub local SIM card. The increased latency of routing via UK is also apparent. Cost-wise, the local provider offers significantly better value but with the need to go through identity verification to activate the card. On the other hand, the eSIM offers immediate connectivity conveniences, but at a higher cost and with lower quality of experience. As a result, it’s probably better to mix-and-match connectivity depending on your needs – e.g. using a travel eSIM as a bridging connectivity until you obtain more permanent local connectivity. If you shop around, sometimes you can find the local connectivity at prices lower than advertised by the provider themselves!

In case you had the bright idea that connecting with a “travel” eSIM would free you from the Australian Government’s imposed telco blocking of devices – I tried, but it didn’t work. Once a device is blocked, it seems it will stay blocked, despite the loophole for travellers which doesn’t seem to have a way of being enacted.