Nano-SIM cards: What you need to know

With the Nexus 5 shifting to Nano-SIM, in all probability, this could pretty much be the standard for future Android flagship smartphones. This is what you should know of the new standard and how you can convert your card to a Nano-SIM.
Apple shifted to the Nano-SIM standard with the iPhone 5, and the two newer ones - the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c, are following the same standard. Android phones till now, had remained on the micro-SIM standard, irrespective of the brand, the device or the price band it played in. Except for the Moto X, but that hasn’t made a splash in India, as yet. But, with the Nexus 5 apparently shifting to the even smaller SIM card standard, surely the next line of Android flagships (and beyond), will also make the shift.

Unless you are using an iPhone 5 or beyond, and suddenly decide to shift to the Nexus 5, you will probably not be prepared, in the true sense of the word. There are basically two possibilities in play here - either you have the Mini-SIM (the SIM card as we have known till recently) or the smaller micro-SIM, that most phones use these days. We tell you how to get your SIM card ready for the Nano-SIM standard.

What is the Nano-SIM?
The current Nano-SIM cards that we are using in the newer iPhones and now with the Moto X as well, are also known as the Fourth Form Factor (4FF). This SIM measures a mere 12.3 mm x 8.8 mm x 0.67 mm, which is 15% thinner than the micro-SIM cards that most Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 phones deploy, with dimensions at 15mm x 12mm x 0.76mm.

The basic idea behind the even smaller SIM card standard is that the Nano SIM (4FF) reduces the size of the SIM effectively to just the golden coloured contact area. The area around the contact area is just about enough to prevent any electrical shorts that may occur within the socket. Essentially, the socket (also known as SIM-card slot) design remains the same, only that it is now smaller in dimension because the area around the contact area is greatly reduced.

Why the shift to the even smaller SIM standard?
Albeit belatedly, Android phones are also moving to this standard, because this allows smartphone makers those critical extra millimeters to play around with, with the immediate demands of a faster processor, the cooling need that comes with it as well as the bigger batteries to make the phone last longer than they do these days, on a single charge. There is no performance or cost advantage, but just the technological and internal design aspects.