Question about tcl flip 4 5g esim

Hi everyone,

I have been scouting the dumpphone market for a while, and I came to a point where I might have found a dream solution, yet it still needs some verification.

So personally, I have an iPhone 16e with eSIM, and I still want to use some specific apps like 2FA/plane tickets/iMessage etc. I want to be able to switch eSIM between phones in case I need my phone for work.

I came across the TCL Flip 4 5G Metro by T-Mobile, it supports esim and I can use it for my daily usage with hotspoting to apple watch for 2FA/imessage.

Now my question is: can I use this TCL Flip 4 straightly using T-Mobile eSIM and without using any Metro plan/binding contracts? I saw Metro is $ 40 on Walmart, and T-Mobile is $ 120. Other options will be saving up to get a light flip phone ($299).