With the holidays upon us we guess that many of you good boys and girls will be receiving brand new Android phones or tablets which may not use a standard SIM size, never fear as cutting your current SIM down is a breeze!
With Android phones with amazing hardware such as 1080 FHD displays, 8-core processors, NFC, 13 mega-pixel cameras etc it is easy to get caught up with all the juicy new hardware and not really take any notice of the type of SIM your new device has.
Don’t worry though, you won’t have to stare at your new phone over the holidays while you wait to receive a new SIM card from your carrier, instead you can perform a little surgery on your current SIM to get it to work!
How to cut down your SIM
If you take a look at a ‘standard’ SIM card you will notice that most of it is take up with plastic and only some of it has any contact area. Even the smaller micro sim has a little plastic here and there.
Even with all that unnecessary plastic around the chip you still need to be brave as you will actually end up removing some of the metal SIM contact on your card to get it to fit. Once you have got yourself prepped and ready to the work you then need to decide how you are going to cut your own Nano or Micro SIM.
SIM cutter
By far the easiest and less stressful way to cut your SIM down is to use a SIM cutter. There are plenty of models on the market and they can be bought for very little. Most SIM cutters come with punches for either NANO or MICRO SIM (just be sure to use the correct one).
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To use a SIM cutter simply place your SIM in the slot, press down the handle and out pops your perfectly cut new SIM! A benefit of using the SIM cutter is that the left over material can be used was as an adapter incase you ever go back to a device needing a regular SIM again.
Craft Knife
Using a craft or utility knife is going to be the more likely way most of us will perform this as not many have a SIM cutter lying around. Like the SIM Cutter method, using a knife will leave the waste material intact for use as an adapter if needed later.
There are plenty of printable SIM templates on the web which you can print off, attach to your SIM and begin cutting. Just make sure you lay of the Christmas booze before starting!
Scissors
As a last resort you can get a good paris of scissors and chop down your SIM. This is how I have done it in the past and if done carefully works very well.
If you have access to another Nano or Micro SIM you can either use it as a mask and carefully trim around it, or stencil around it with a marker and then cut it out. When using scissors it will probably be necessary to make a few additional trims here and there to get it fitting correctly, this means that you won’t have a DIY adapter for the future though.
How to cut your own Nano or Micro SIM
Cutting down your own SIM can be a little nerve-racking, but with patience it can be done in less than 10 minutes.
Have you ever cut down your own SIM? If so which method did you use? and do you have any tips?
I’ve done it twice, both times using a pair of scissors! Here’s a little tip: Leaving some margin on all sides and then using a file comes in real handy!
Good tip!
I’ve done it twice, both times using a pair of scissors! Here’s a little tip: Leaving some margin on all sides and then using a file comes in real handy!
Good tip!