iPhone 12 Pro pre-orders start on October 16, shipping on October 23, while iPhone 12 Pro Max pre-orders begin November 6, shipping on November 13
5G speed. A14 Bionic, the fastest chip in a smartphone. All-new design. Andrew O'Hara / AppleInsider : What MagSafe on the iPhone 12 is, how it works, and what can it do Tristan Rayner / Android Authority : Apple's USB-C controversy, and more tech news you need to know today Steven Aquino / Forbes : Apple's 2020 iPhone Event Had An Unmistakable Undercurrent That Was All About Accessibility Oliver Haslam / Redmond Pie : Buying An iPhone 12 For Its 5G? You'll Only Get The Fast mmWave 5G If You're In The US Jason Snell / Macworld : Size matters: Choosing between the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Joe Rice-Jones / KnowTechie : Your next expensive iPhone purchase will not come with a charger or earbuds Andrew Williams / TechRadar : iPhone 12 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S20: the battle of 2020's biggest flagships Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal : iPhone 12 vs. iPhone 11 vs. iPhone XR vs. iPhone SE: Comparing Apple's Full Lineup David Pierce / Protocol : Apple saw the future and it was magnets AT&T : Get a New iPhone for $0 With Trade-In for New & Existing Customers Joe O'Halloran / ComputerWeekly.com : Apple announces new era for 5G with iPhone 12 Andrew Orr / The Mac Observer : iPhone 12 Sensor Shift, ProRAW, and Other Impressive Camera Features Rajesh Pandey / iPhone Hacks : iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro with mmWave 5G Will be Sold Only in the US Emilio Morales / Appleosophy : Apple Introduces HomePod Mini: Their Newest, Most Affordable Smart Speaker. Victoria Song / Gizmodo : The New iPhone's Ceramic Shield Sounds Cool, But You Still Need a Case Rachel Kraus / Mashable : The iPhone 12 mini is a perfect fit for thine dainty woman hands Ed Hardy / Cult of Mac : 5 big takeaways from the iPhone 12 launch event Alissa McAloon / Gamasutra : Apple totes the new iPhone 12 and its 5G as a game changer for mobile games Alex Wagner / TmoNews : Apple unveils iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max with improved cameras and 5G Devindra Hardawar / Engadget : Apple's iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max have larger screens and steel cases Tweets: Marc Blank-Settle / @marcsettle : One advantage of the new (old) design of the iPhone 12 - it should be able to stay upright (on its side, not vertically) while recording of the surface is flat and level. #appleevent https://twitter.com/... Brian Tong / @briantong : I have never been a big phone guy...NEVER I will not upgrade to 12 Pro Max for the camera... I will not upgrade to 12 Pro Max for the camera... I will not upgrade to 12 Pro Max for 5X camera... Lord give me the strength...🙏 #iPhone12Pro #AppleEvent https://twitter.com/... Quinn Nelson / @snazzyq : This gets even more confusing. So, the 12 Pro does not have the 65mm telephoto (it keeps the standard 50mm) and it also doesn't have sensor-OIS and the larger sensor. It retains the old system. Apple refuses to break this out properly in columns likely to blur 12 Max advantages. https://twitter.com/... Mighoul de Icaza / @migueldeicaza : Using LIDAR for auto-focus on the iPhone Pro is a stroke of genius. Glad people can use LIDAR for their AR stunts, but auto-focus in low-light conditions is fabulous. @jason : Seriously, Apple's new iPhone 12 is a literal remix of Steve Jobs' greatest iPhone: the iPhone 5, MagSafe, & variations on color (rose gold)!🤦♂ ️ That's where Apple is in 2020: their biggest innovations are things Jobs did over a decade ago. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... @dpreview : Apple unveils 5G iPhone 12 Pro, 12 Pro Max devices with larger screens, better cameras and more https://www.dpreview.com/... https://twitter.com/... Antoine Rosset / @rossetantoine : Yes, it's true we were in the Apple Event for iPhone 12, today. https://www.apple.com/... https://twitter.com/... Steve Troughton-Smith / @stroughtonsmith : It's definitely looking like a Pacific Blue Max kind of year. You had me at ‘47% larger camera sensor’ Mark Gurman / @markgurman : The iPhone 12 (all models) does indeed have the plastic window that looks like the iPad Pro Apple Pencil charger on the side with the power button. Apple didn't say what it's for. https://twitter.com/... Rene Ritchie / @reneritchie : They just couldn't get enough LTPO panels from Samsung for the 120Hz adaptive at iPhone 12 scale. If they could, I bet we'd have seen 10 minutes on that as well. Easy. They even still have the slides from iPad Pro 2017. 😂 https://twitter.com/... Horace Dediu / @asymco : LiDAR now in iPhone Pro. The applications are wider than expected: autofocus. Marques Brownlee / @mkbhd : 10-bit HDR Dolby Vision video recording at 4K, 60fps is just the biggest flex of image processing. Paul Haddad / @tapbot_paul : Super Pro Raw Retina XDR Dolby HDR Sensor Shifted Night Mode Deep Fusion images are going to be da bomb! Tom Warren / @tomwarren : The iPhone 12 Pro looks like a camera disguised as a phone. It has Apple ProRAW raw photos support, big low-light improvements, video recording in Dolby Vision HDR, and a LiDAR scanner. It's incredible how far Apple's chips have come https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... Joanna Stern / @joannastern : You know what would be the ultimate move? Apple revealing this entire event was shot with an iPhone 12 Pro. Ben Bajarin / @benbajarin : Apple really putting the Pro into the Pro line up lol. Lance Ulanoff / @lanceulanoff : 10-bit high dynamic range video recording on the iPhone12 Pro. it will also record in Dolby Vision HDR. #AppleEvent https://twitter.com/... Patrick McGee / @patrickmcgee_ : Bigger display for iPhone 12 Pro is 6.7 inches — largest ever for iPhone. Adam Bell / @b3ll : As usual, now the iPhone 11 Pro feels deprecated / eclipsed (yet still better than any android phone) compared to the newer 12 phones. Apple's very good at dunking on their own hardware Drew Olanoff / @yoda : the iPhone 12 XR Max Pro https://twitter.com/... Patrick McGee / @patrickmcgee_ : Pro Max version of the iPhone has better cameras. Massive wide lens — w/ sensor 47% larger, giving 87% improvement in low-light. Ben Bajarin / @benbajarin : Apple differentiating the camera system on iPhone 12 Pro Max, like they used to when Max had OIS and others didn't. Apple differentiating the camera system on iPhone 12 Pro Max, as they used to when Max had OIS and others didn't.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's Pro tier descends from the OLED line it started with the iPhone Xs and Xs Max and continued past last year's budget-focused iPhone 11. What changed this cycle is the shape of the launch: instead of one purchase window, pre-orders split in two — the 12 Pro on October 16, the 12 Pro Max not until November 6.
First-order effects
- Buyers of the larger 6.7-inch Pro Max wait roughly three weeks longer than Pro buyers — orders November 6, shipping November 13, versus October 16 shipping October 23.
- Only US pre-orderers get the fast mmWave 5G hardware; every other market ships the same phones on slower sub-6 GHz networks, so the headline '5G speed' claim varies by country at checkout.
Second-order effects
- US carriers like AT&T get their first 5G-capable iPhone ahead of the holidays — the trigger for carrier-led upgrade pushes — while Samsung Galaxy loses the ability to pitch Android buyers on 5G hardware Apple doesn't yet sell.
- The staggered windows let Apple read Pro demand for three weeks before committing Pro Max inventory, spreading production-ramp risk across two launches instead of one.
Third-order effects
- The late-shipping Max hardens from experiment into structure: Apple repeats the Pro/Pro Max pairing in the iPhone 13 generation and still fields a Pro Max years later in the iPhone 17 lineup, making the oversized flagship a permanent tier rather than a one-off.
- Stretching each fall announcement across multiple purchase windows converts a single-day event into a month-long demand funnel, a rollout rhythm competitors must now plan against.
The trend: Flagship phone launches are fragmenting into size-tiered, date-staggered rollouts, with the largest model held back to extend each cycle's buying season.