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  The iPhone 12 Pro Max (left) and iPhone 12 mini (right). [credit: Samuel Axon ]

Two weeks ago, we published a double-review of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro —but those two phones were only half of Apple's new lineup. The extra-small iPhone 12 mini and extra-large iPhone 12 Pro Max are out today, and we've spent some time with both of them.

We'll go over the key differences between these two models and the phones we already reviewed—and only those key differences. Consider this a short supplement to the previously published iPhone 12 review; unless otherwise noted here, everything we wrote about the 12 applies to the 12 mini, and the same goes for the 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max.

For the most part, size is the only difference between these phones and the two 6.1-inch devices that shipped before. But there are some other differences—most notably, the iPhone 12 Pro Max has some camera improvements, which we'll talk about.

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  The iPhone 12 Pro.

As previously announced, Apple has begun shipping orders of the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and redesigned iPad Air today. This is the launch day for all three products, and new orders are no longer considered pre-orders on Apple's website. The products are also available in Apple's retail stores today.

Note, though, that today marks the day the first pre-orders are shipping. Shortly after these products went on sale, shipping dates for new online orders began to creep beyond the release date and into November. And at the time of this writing, new orders of the iPhone 12 Pro models are shipping in the United States between November 13 and 20, Apple's website says, and the iPhone 12 is shipping between November 2 and 4. The iPad Air is shipping sometime between November 12 and 18.

Apple has yet to begin shipping the smallest and largest new iPhone models—the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 mini and the 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max. Only the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are going out today. The other sizes will be available in November, Apple says, along with the new HomePod mini smart speaker .

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  iPhone 12 Pro.

Pre-orders began today for three major new Apple products: the iPhone 12 , iPhone 12 Pro , and iPad Air . All these devices are available for order on Apple's website, but none are shipping right away.

The planned ship dates for all of these devices was October 23, but some are already backed up into November. In some cases, it depends on the configuration that you choose. At the time of this writing, some iPhone 12 and iPad Air configurations are shipping later, but others are still listing October 23 as the ship date. On the other hand, every iPhone 12 Pro configuration we looked at promises to ship either later in October or sometime in November.

Additionally, Apple seems to have normalized the cost of the iPhone across all carriers after an initial uproar about the phone being announced at a slightly cheaper price point on AT&T and Verizon.

Enlarge / The promotional key art graphic Apple sent out with its announcement about its October 13, 2020, product launch event. (credit: Apple )

At 10:00am Pacific time (1pm Eastern) on Tuesday, October 13, Apple will hold its second live event in less than a month—almost certainly to announce new iPhones this time, after the previous event focused on iPads and the Apple Watch.

Ars Technica will be liveblogging the event and publishing the major announcements in real time as usual. Return to this page when the event starts to follow the updates.

This event carries the tagline "Hi, Speed," which could refer to any number of things: 5G modems in new phones, the faster A14 chip that was already introduced last month, or even Apple Silicon in the first non-Intel Mac in many years.

Enlarge / The promotional key art graphic Apple sent out with its announcement about its October 13, 2020, product launch event. (credit: Apple )

Here we are again , less than one month after Apple's September 15 event. Next Tuesday, October 13, Apple representatives will take to the streaming stage to announce new products in an event the company has monikered "Hi, Speed." But what can we expect from the event?

Normally, Apple launches iPhones at a September event, but it didn't this year, possibly because of COVID -related delays in its testing of the new devices. Rather, the September event was primarily about the Apple Watch (there was also a new, redesigned iPad Air , along with some services announcements and a slightly modified non-Air, non-Pro, non-mini iPad).

All that is to say that iPhones are very likely to be the stars of Apple's October show. Let's get into what to expect from them—and what else we might see at the event.