After appearing on X (formerly Twitter) last month, the Starlink Mini is now available for purchase. The new Starlink kit will connect you to the same satellite constellation as the beefier satellite dishes, but it’s small enough to carry around in a backpack. It’s more expensive than the standard version and speeds won’t be as good, but it has everything you need to take your internet connection with you wherever you go.
Starlink Mini has a built-in stand, and more mounting accessories are coming soon. The antenna includes a DC power cable, and the built-in Wi-Fi router can connect up to 128 devices. Starlink will offer a 30-day trial of the service, but the Mini antenna costs $599 up front. That’s $100 more than the standard antenna and a much higher price than SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been asking for. reclaimedI had previously said that the portable antenna would cost half as much as the standard version, so that was far from the truth.
Starlink Mini measures 11.75 by 12.2 inches and weighs 2.4 pounds, much smaller than the standard plateIt measures 23.4 by 15.07 inches and weighs 7 pounds. The Mini uses about half the power of its bigger sibling, and that comes with potential connectivity issues. Starlink promises download speeds of between 5 and 50 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 10 Mbps. In the U.S., latency should be around 30 to 40 ms, but in other regions, it could be 60 to 90 ms.
Starlink Mini doesn’t have a contract, but the plans are a bit confusing. There are two options: a $50-per-month Roam plan and a $150-per-month Regional option. The Regional option has unlimited data, but it’s not as good for frequent travelers. If you leave North America or use the antenna while on the move, Starlink says you’ll have to pay $2 per gigabyte of data used.
Credit: SpaceX
The Roam plan has a lower monthly price, Exclusive to Starlink MiniBut it only comes with 50GB of data per month. Once you use up that capacity, you'll have to pay for more gigabytes as you use the device. The good news is that you can use it wherever you want, even if you're on the go. Whichever plan you choose, a flat $20 shipping fee will get you the compact kit in about two weeks.
When Starlink debuted, speeds and latency were impressively similar to cable internet. As more users joined the service, it began to slow down. Capacity has begun to grow again as the service continues to grow. SpaceX continues to add satellites to the constellation. The company's expansion plans depend on the success of SpacecraftThe company's super-heavy-lift rocket will be capable of deploying larger, more powerful Starlink satellites when it's ready for launch, but it's still in the testing phase. A fifth Starship test launch is expected as early as August, but it's not known when it will be able to start carrying payloads.
