iPhone 12 mini coming with no idea how to get it setup out of the box

Hey!

So, on the right side of the phone, when it's facing you with the screen, is a single button. That acts as a power button. So first, hold it down for around 5 to 7 seconds.

Wait a while for the phone to boot, and then press the same button on the side 3 times.
That should enable VoiceOver.

For going home, swipe up from the screen, until you hear the first POP noise. Lift your finger.
For aapp switcher, do the same, except keep going up, until you hear the second popp, then lift.

For control center, swipe down. First popp is control center, second is notifications.

Those actions will be also explained during the setup.

I have the iPhone SE 2020. Pressing the power sleep wake button three times triggers SOS to my emergency contacts

Hi! As the SE 2020 has a Home button, even though it's haptic rather than mechanical, this is the button to press to toggle VoiceOver on and off, or to start VO when you first get the phone. So the instructions above, concerning the side button and the new gestures for Home and the App Switcher and so on, do not apply to the SE 2020, which I also have.

I would recommend taking the sim card out of your old phone before you power up the new device for the first time. Take it out by using a paper clip and applying a bit of pressure until the tray starts to slide out. Carefully take the sim card place it into the tray on your new phone and then slide it into place. I'ts a fairly simple process. just have to apply the right pressure at a certain angle to get the sim tray to pop out enough to where it can be grabbed.

After you have started up your new device and activated Voiceover, the setup process is pretty straight forward. Folow the prompts on the new device. Quite early in the set up you will be asked if you want to restore from your old device. This is n over-the-air process now. No more iTunes needed. Saying yes will then start the transfer of all settings, apps, and preferences. Of course you need to have both devices reasonably close in proximity.

When opening the SIM card tray, I recommend doing it over a large surface. This way, if you drop the tiny card, it won't bounce away from you. The card removal tool will be an oval shaped thing with a small point on one end. It will be attached to a cardboard sleeve in the packaging. Once you have used this, I recommend storing it inside of something else like an old SD card case or something like that. It is thin and flat and easily lost.

If you are a Bard Mobile, Kindle, or Audible reader, you will need to download your books again. Only frustrating part about the set up process. Hopefully BARD, in particular, will become a cloud-based app so we won't lose our books anymore. Kindle and Audible are cloud based but you still need to redownload those, as well.

Once the process is complete, you will still see your apps in some version of a waiting stage. This is because your device is still working in the background. It is downloading apps and finishing up housekeeping. You can use the device, once it tells you update is complete, but don't be surprised to see apps waiting to be fully processed.

Hope these tips assist you in the set up process. It's not as bad as you might be thinking, especially since you already know the iOS system anyway.

Enjoy your new toy.

I received my iPhone 12 Pro Max last night and just wanted to mention something I experienced. After powering the phone on and waiting a couple of minutes, I triple pressed the side button to start VoiceOver. I felt a vibration from the phone, but didn't hear anything. I pressed volume up a couple of times and was able to hear VoiceOver. For some reason, it seemed as if the volume was turned down completely on my phone. I just thought I'd mention this in case someone else experiences the same and thinks that VoiceOver isn't working.