What you need to know about using two SIM cards on the OnePlus 3 – CNET

Enlarge Image

Jason Cipriani/CNET

After unboxing the OnePlus 3 and sliding the SIM card tray out, you may have been met with a surprise: As with the OnePlus 2, the company’s latest phone supports dual SIMs, which means you can put two active SIM cards in the phone and use either one at will.

Why would you want to do that? There’s a couple of reasons. When traveling, for example, where prepaid plans and data services are the easiest way to remain connected, you may want to add your prepaid SIM to the phone, letting it handle the data connection.

Another reason you might find yourself taking advantage of the OnePlus 3’s dual-SIM capabilities comes down to being tired of carrying a work and personal phone; insert the SIM card from your work phone, then send and receive incoming calls and text messages from either number.

Should you find yourself using two SIM cards in the OnePlus 3, there’s a few things you’ll need to set up and know:

Enlarge Image

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

• With both SIM cards inserted into the phone, open Settings > SIM Cards. Here you can set which card you want the phone to default to for Data, SMS and phone calls.
• It’s a good idea to set a name and custom color for each SIM. Anytime you receive a text message or phone call, this name (and color) will be used to help you quickly identify which number is being used. Otherwise you’ll need to remember what number is associated with the default names of CARD 1 and CARD 2.
• You can go into SIM settings and turn off either SIM card at any time.