Taiwan is my favorite East Asian destination – perhaps even my favorite Asian country.
During the pandemic, I was in the country for a year (because the government extended everyone's stay/visa every month for 2.5 years).
And it was one of the few countries where life was close to normal.
So yeah, I have a soft spot for Taiwan 😳.
From mountains to tropical forests, staying connected while exploring the country is crucial.
So, while trying to find the best way to stay in Taiwan, I tried out eight travel eSIMs from various eSIM providers, including Airalo's Xie Xie (Taiwan) eSIM, and five Taiwanese SIM cards.
I spent over 100 USD for my Taiwan SIM card and travel eSIM review series – I went all out 😎.
I spent way more in 2020 because I was “stuck” in the country for about a year. It was probably the best country to be stuck in during the pandemic!
In most countries, getting a local SIM card is the cheapest way to stay connected (and you will have a local phone number, something you often do not get with a travel eSIM).
But installing an eSIM is quick, easy & convenient, as you do not have to queue up upon landing (after a long flight) or deal with SIM card registration requirements (such as getting your passport details captured in Taiwan – mandated by law).
Moreover, if you do not buy your Taiwanese SIM card at an airport, getting one in town can be a challenge.
Especially those from Far EasTone, T Star Taiwan & Far EasTone. Chunghwa Telecom's and Taiwan Mobile's are relatively easy to get.
And travel eSIMs, like Airalo's Xie Xie, are relatively affordable (especially compared to international roaming).
But what matters is how the eSIM performed in Taiwan – especially compared to the local mobile operators (and the network Xie Xie uses in the country).
Let's find out.
Original publication: 18th of January 2024. Last updated: 29th of February 2024.
Table of Contents
Airalo's List of Compatible eSIM-Supported Phones
Before I even focus on Airalo's Xie Xie (Taiwan) eSIM, does your phone support Airalo eSIMs?
If you have an eSIM-compatible smartphone, it is almost guaranteed that you can use an Airalo eSIM.
While Airalo had to certify phones in the past, almost all are supported nowadays.
As of December 2023, the phones shown in the infographic below are compatible with Airalo eSIMs:
Now we can actually focus on the Xie Xie eSIM.
Airalo Xie Xie (Taiwan) eSIM Prices
You can get the Airalo Xie Xie (Taiwan) eSIM for between 7 USD (1 GB for 7 days) and 31 USD (10 GB for 30 days).
Below is an overview of how much each Airalo Xie Xie eSIM costs:
- Taiwan/Xie Xie 謝謝 1 GB eSIM for 7 days, costing 7 USD – very popular with Phone Travel Wiz readers
- Taiwan/Xie Xie 謝謝 3 GB eSIM for 30 days, costing 14 USD – most popular with Phone Travel Wiz readers
- Taiwan/Xie Xie 謝謝 5 GB eSIM for 30 days, costing 21 USD
- Taiwan/Xie Xie 謝謝 10 GB eSIM for 30 days, costing 31.50 USD – very popular with Phone Travel Wiz readers
Note: Phone Travel Wiz reader popularity ranking was updated in December based on data up to the 30th of December (2023 data only).
>>> Get your Airalo Xie Xie eSIM now! <<<
The links above will bring you to the product page of the Xie Xie eSIM.
And if you already have the Airalo app installed on your phone, the links will open the respective app (Android or iOS).
Regardless of the currency used in your country, Airalo will always charge you in USD (US Dollar).
If your credit/debit card charges you foreign exchange fees, get yourself a Wise Borderless Account and Debit Card.
Their fees are MUCH lower than banks and credit card companies charge you (and Wise is transparent about their fees, unlike banks).
I have saved THOUSANDS of Australian Dollars and Euros, my main currencies, when using Wise abroad when traveling compared to my debit and credit cards.
What if you buy the 10 GB Xie Xie eSIM, as I did, and realize you need another 5 GB of data close to exhausting your data allowance?
Would you need to purchase a new eSIM? Not at all.
You can top up your Airalo Xie Xie eSIM for the same amount of data and prices as listed earlier.
The 5 GB top-up would still cost 21 USD as if you bought the 5 GB eSIM from the start.
That way, you will never run out of data.
A handful of Airalo eSIMs do not allow for top-ups. But that does not apply to the Xie Xie eSIM – so worry not.
You can top-up on the Airalo website or its apps.
And if you buy a top-up before you have fully exhausted your data allowance, Airalo will not use your top-up yet.
As a result, the validity of the top-up will not start until you start using the top-up data (which is not the case with all travel eSIMs).
>>> Get your Airalo Xie Xie eSIM now! <<<
My Airalo Xie Xie eSIM in Taiwan Experience
During this trip, I used my Airalo Xie Xie (Taiwan) eSIM mostly in Taipei but also in Kaohsiung, Taiwan & Taoyuan.
The East did not get any love on this trip – I visited Hualien, Taitung & Luodong/Yilan in 2020… boring cities 🗿.
Anyway, travel eSIMs, including the Taiwan eSIM, roam on the networks of local mobile operators.
Airalo is not a mobile (network) operator (MNO), so it partners with various MNOs, which roam on local MNOs' networks.
Okay, that may sound a bit confusing – all you need to know is that you will be treated as a guest on one of the Taiwanese mobile networks while using another network to make this system work.
Airalo's Taiwan eSIM uses the Chunghwa Telecom (review) and Taiwan Mobile networks (review) while being powered by Singtel from Singapore (so your phone, some apps, or sites you visit may claim you are on Singtel instead of Airalo – that is correct).
So, are Chunghwa Telecom and Taiwan Mobile any good? And which one is better?
Regarding 4G/LTE availability in Taiwan, the aforementioned mobile operators cover almost all populated areas of the country, with a 4G/LTE availability of more than 99.1% for Chunghwa Telecom and 99.2% for Taiwan Mobile, according to Opensignal.
Chunghwa Telecom won the Speedtest Best Mobile Coverage Q2-Q3 2023 award.
If we focus on 5G NR availability, the difference between Chunghwa Telecom (19.2%) and Taiwan Mobile (20.3%) is minimal.
They are behind Far EasTone (25.5% – review) and GT Mobile Taiwan (28.5% – review) but ahead of T Star Taiwan (15.1% – review).
If we look at speeds, Chunghwa Telecom is the fastest in all categories (4G/5G download/upload speed), while Taiwan Mobile is the third-fastest.
We have got to love this consistency 🤪.
I did speed tests with the Speedtest app throughout Taiwan.
For reference, I consider an average download speed of 25 Mbps and an average upload speed of 10 Mbps fast enough.
Why is that? A more than 25 Mbps download speed is enough to video stream content @ 4k resolution.
Social media sites that do live streaming, like Facebook Live, recommend an upload speed of at least 10 Mbps.
I have way higher standards, but not everyone demands a download speed of 500 Mbps 🤪.
In the section below, you will find various colors and formatting.
Results in dark green mean that the result was the fastest download or upload among all SIM cards and travel eSIMs I tested at that location.
Whereas results in light green were the fastest download or upload within the category (among all SIM cards OR all travel eSIMs) but not the fastest when considering the other category.
The same applies to dark red and light orange results – the slowest download or upload among all (dark red) or the slowest within a category (light orange).
All underlined results are on 5G NR, while results in italics are on 3G – results without additional formatting are on 4G/LTE.
That should clear up the colorful speed test results in the next section.
For now, let's see how the Airalo Xie Xie eSIM performed in Taiwan.
>>> Get your Airalo Xie Xie eSIM now! <<<
Airalo Xie Xie (Taiwan) eSIM in Taipei Speed Test Results
I used my Airalo Xie Xie (Taiwan) eSIM mostly in Taipei and a little bit in Kaohsiung, Taipei & Taoyuan.
All travel eSIMs I tested could be on either Chunghwa Telecom (review), Taiwan Mobile (review), or both networks (including the Xie Xie eSIM).
While Airalo claims this is the case for the Xie Xie eSIM (access to both networks), I could only connect to the Taiwan Mobile network.
This could have been a temporary issue because the Nomad APAC eSIM also has access to both networks, but I could not choose Chunghwa Telecom with it either.
I manually selected the Chunghwa Telecom network with the Airalo Asialink (Asia) eSIM (review), which is also powered by Singtel.
This way, I could easily see which Taiwanese network you should choose with the Xie Xie and Asialink eSIM for the best speed performance in Taiwan.
So, in the next section, I will compare the Xie Xie results with Taiwan Mobile and the other travel eSIMs that defaulted on the same network.
This includes Airalo Discover (global – can also use Chunhgwa Telecom) and Nomad APAC (claimed it could also use Chunghwa Telecom, but I could never connect to it).
Below are the results:
Fast speeds with the Airalo Xie Xie eSIM.
Airalo's Taiwan eSIM does not yet have 5G NR access on the Taiwan Mobile, while the Airalo Discover eSIM (review) does.
Surprisingly, the Xie Xie eSIM performed better than the global eSIM (the former was almost twice as fast, even on 4G/LTE.
However, the two eSIMs are powered by different operators (Singtel and Drei Austria, respectively), which explains the differences.
But as I mentioned before, the Xie Xie and Asialink eSIMs are both powered by Singtel, so it is better to check the difference between the two (because I chose Taiwan Mobile for Xie Xie and Chunghwa Telecom for Asialink).
Especially when I was always on their 4G/LTE networks (no access to 5G NR at that time).
Among the eight travel eSIMs I tested, Airalo's Asialink eSIM had the fastest download speeds at 21 of the 28 test locations – aka 75% of them.
In fact, the eSIM was even faster than the three Taiwanese SIM cards I retested, Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile & Far EasTone (review), at six test locations.
So much so that it managed to get the fastest download speed among all at Xiangshan Station in Taipei (Xinyi District on the Red Line) – 594.17 Mbps (4G).
Airalo's Xie Xie eSIM only got a download speed of 251.70 Mbps (4G).
Not as impressive, right? 🤪
But did the Taiwan eSIM ever outperform the Asialink eSIM? Yes, at five locations.
At Square Mall in Taipei (Datong District), Airalo's Xie Xie eSIM got a download speed of 73.74 Mbps (fastest among eSIMs) compared to Asialink's 12.46 Mbps (slowest among all).
In Terminal 1's arrivals hall at Taipei-Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, I got a download speed of 166.76 Mbps (the fastest among eSIMs), which was slightly quicker than Asialink's 126.76 Mbps.
At the same terminal at gate B1R (which is downstairs and has eight gates), the Airalo Taiwan eSIM had a download speed of 98.68 Mbps. Once again, it is slightly faster than Airalo's Asia, which was 82.72 Mbps.
We are now leaving Taipei and Taoyuan and going to Tainan and Kaohsiung.
At a breakfast place I visited at least four times a week during COVID-19, 圖係花鐵板吐司, I got a download speed of 100.25 Mbps with the Xie Xie eSIM – 63.30 with Asialink.
Finally, we have the results at Xin Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung – 93.92 Mbps with the Taiwan eSIM and 28.60 Mbps with the Asia eSIM.
Surprisingly, Airalo's Xie Xie never had the slowest download speed.
It was the slowest among eSIMs at the B1R gates I mentioned earlier (5.39 Mbps) and the slowest of all at Taipei's Main Station (7.19 Mbps).
Honestly, these results are impressive, and I actually did not expect much less in Taiwan and from Taiwan Mobile.
Sure, Asialink's figures are significantly better… but you can get those results when you manually select Chunghwa Telecom instead of Taiwan Mobile.
As I mentioned earlier, I could not connect to that network for that reason (I had the same issue with another eSIM), but I suspect that was temporary.
But even if you face the same issue as I did, you should be alright, as shown in this section.
Overall, I got an average download speed of 113.39 Mbps with the Xie Xie eSIM and 202.36 Mbps with the Asialink eSIM.
These are incredible numbers because they are all on 4G/LTE.
Heck, they would even be impressive if some/many were on 5G NR.
No other travel eSIM had an average download speed of over 100 Mbps.
More impressively, Asialink's average was significantly faster than Taiwan Mobile's (141.66 Mbps) – and that one was on 5G NR at every test location 😳.
What did I get with Chunghwa Telecom? 345.43 Mbps – also all on 5G NR.
Chunghwa Telecom is the true winner 😎.
Overall, the speeds I got with Airalo's Taiwan eSIM were beyond satisfactory, especially for the price I paid.
>>> Get your Airalo Xie Xie eSIM now! <<<
My Overall Experience with the Airalo Xie Xie eSIM in Taiwan – Is It Worth Your Money?
I would recommend the Airalo Xie Xie (Taiwan), and it would be one of my top eSIM recommendations for anyone wanting to buy an eSIM for Taiwan.
Getting the Airalo Xie Xie eSIM or any other Airalo eSIM is extremely easy.
Airalo is one of the few eSIM providers that allow you to install an eSIM directly to your phone (without the need to scan a QR code), which makes the installation process a piece of cake (hence, I did not spend any time on how to install in this review – it is easy!).
Moreover, you do not have to adjust the APN settings with the Airalo Xie Xie eSIM, making it more manageable.
In other news, Airalo's Xie Xie eSIMs were one of the more affordable eSIMs I tested on this trip while having one of the most options to choose from (1 GB, 3 GB, 5 GB & 10 GB).
The Xie Xie eSIM uses the Chunghwa Telecom (review) and Taiwan Mobile (review) networks, which have excellent 4G/LTE availability and extensive 5G NR reception.
However, I was on Taiwan Mobile because the eSIM could not connect to Chunghwa Telecom (temporary issue).
Unfortunately, you do not get 5G NR access to either network (unlike the Airalo Discover eSIM (review), which does get that access on both networks).
Among the eight travel eSIMs I tested in Taiwan, the Xie Xie eSIM had the second-fastest download speed (behind Airalo Asialink (Taiwan review) – on the Chunghwa Telecom network).
With an average download speed of 113.39 Mbps, you do not have to worry about slow speeds with the Airalo Xie Xie eSIM.
When looking at upload speeds, it also performed well – 22.94 Mbps.
Moreover, most eSIMs are not (significantly) cheaper than Airalo's, although Alosim (review) and Nomad (review) are doing well.
The latter even has data plans for up to 50 GB (for only 32 USD at the time of writing).
For about the same price, 31.50 USD, you get only 10 GB with Airalo 🫠.
You may want to consider Holafly's Taiwan eSIMs (review) if 10 GB, 20 GB (Alosim), or 50 GB (Nomad) of data is insufficient or if you do not want to deal with data allowances.
Holafly offers eight unlimited data plans for 5 to 90 days between 19 USD and 99 USD (product page).
Anyway, by using a near-perfect 4G/LTE network, offering affordable data plans & offering super-fast download speeds, you should have a smooth browsing experience with the Airalo Xie Xie eSIM.
>>> Get your Airalo Xie Xie eSIM now! <<<
Taiwan eSIM & SIM Card Reviews
Besides Airalo's Xie Xie (Taiwan) eSIM, I also tried other Airalo eSIMs and other travel eSIMs in the country.
I encourage you to read those reviews to decide which eSIM suits your needs.
>>> Airalo Asialink (Asia) eSIM in Taiwan | Airalo Discover (global) eSIM in Taiwan | Alosim Taiwan eSIM | Holafly Taiwan eSIM | Holaly Asia eSIM in Taiwan | Nomad Taiwan eSIM | Nomad APAC eSIM in Taiwan <<<
- Check out my eSIM reviews page if you want to read all the other eSIM reviews I have written, including those I tested in other Asian countries.
Besides travel eSIMs, I also tried Taiwanese SIM cards.
You can find those below.
>>> Chunghwa Telecom (retested in 2023 + 5G) | Taiwan Mobile (retested in 2023 + 5G) | Far EasTone (retested in 2023 + 5G) | T Star Taiwan | GT Mobile Taiwan | Ibon Mobile Taiwan <<<
