Dual SIM phones - any relevance in modern times in Europe?

For a use case: work and private number in one device.
FWIW, I believe the “dual radio” solutions have been around for a while, perhaps just not from “reputable” manufacturers.

I’m using a dual SIM phone for about three years now. Reason as tmo says: work and private in one device.
It’s a Wolfgang (sold by Aldi) with standard Android (no shell or extra software you can’t get rid of) and it is a solid device.
And … it takes two SIM’s and a SD-card!

I think this is a problem that is effectively coming to an end in the EU.

EU Roaming Charges

From the end of this month, you can’t be charged more than 5 cent + VAT per MB for data romaing or per minute outgoing call to the EU.

Then from 15 July next year, you can’t be charged any different that you would be at home. So if you have a package for data & calls at home, it also applies when you’re abroad without any additional charges.

So for this summer, a short stay isn’t worth getting a local sim for, and next summer there is no reason to do so at all.

Obviously travelling outside the EU is different.

Before appearing under the major brands, dual-SIM phones had been available for years from obscure Chinese manufacturers, and some of them were in fact quite good. I have a Chinese dual-SIM 7" phablet called Freelander PD10 3G – an excellent piece of engineering that has served me very well for over 4 years. Another strange gizmo I have is a no-name quad-SIM phone, which is functionally ugly but can wake the dead with its ring at full volume.

I could use a two sim phone. In lots of powerplants there are no connection, so the powerplants themselves make a deal with one (single) provider to set up a local net. If you use an other provider, then you cannot use the phone there. So I have two phones, one everyday that use the Telia net, and one “special” using Telenor net. It would be much easier with a twin sim phone, but it would also be much easier if the net providers could be somewhat more flexible.

Peter wrote:

In the GA/travelling context, the relevance is that you can use your normal SIM as before (retaining your number, etc) and a locally purchased data SIM for data.

I use a WiFi enabled modem/ router for that. Because it works with all the devices I use, I don’t have to shuffle a SIM card around and it doesn’t drain a device I might later want for something else.

In the UK, I now have 3GB for £15/month

Didn’t you lose a zero there? As in 30 GB (which is what I have for roughly that money). Because 3 GB seems like a bad joke.

I was always reluctant to give out my mobile number at work, for fear of getting irrelevant calls at inconvenient moments. So I bought me a cheapo dual sim GSM (a Nokia RM-761, aka Asha 200) and a second SIM card with its associated private number. It soon turned out that I work with very polite and correct people, even when I started publishing the “professional” number it was very rarely called and that hasn’t changed a year later. So that when the phone got lost I replaced it with an (even cheaper) single sim one, and am quite satisfied. The RM-761 re-emerged later, and is now available, feel free to make an offer. One day I do will have to get some kind of Android thing, though, if only as a backup navigation device.