{"id":249027,"date":"2026-01-24T05:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T05:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/249027\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T05:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T05:07:11","slug":"iphone-air-gains-a-sim-slot-through-impressive-mod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/249027\/","title":{"rendered":"iPhone Air gains a SIM slot through impressive mod"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsmarena.com\/apple_iphone_17_air-13502.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">iPhone Air<\/a> is the first iPhone sold as an eSIM-only version all over the world. But a new report from China shows a modified Air with a physical SIM slot next to the USB-C port. The information surrounding this project is bleak, but it was reportedly undertaken by an electronics store based in Shenzhen\u2019s Huaqiangbei market.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"inline-image\" width=\"1200\" height=\"826\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769231231_677_gsmarena_000.jpg\" alt=\"iPhone Air gains a SIM slot through impressive mod\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The project required some clever space-saving solutions, like replacing the Air\u2019s original Taptic Engine vibration motor with a much smaller unit that still retains basic haptic feedback. The gained space allowed the enthusiasts to connect a SIM card reader alongside the physical SIM slot.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"inline-image\" width=\"1200\" height=\"799\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769231231_20_gsmarena_00.jpg\" alt=\"iPhone Air gains a SIM slot through impressive mod\"\/><\/p>\n<p>One of the images shows the phone running a China Telecom SIM card, and there\u2019s another image that shows it making a call. It can reportedly access 5G mobile data just fine, and even more impressively, it has retained its IP68 ingress protection rating.<\/p>\n<p>Apple iPhone 17 Air<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-source\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/UniverseIce\/status\/2014563518817898544\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Via<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The iPhone Air is the first iPhone sold as an eSIM-only version all over the world. But a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[342,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-249027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}