In a recently published YouTube video, Dirty Tesla unboxes, sets up, and details his initial thoughts on SpaceX’s second-generation Starlink dish and user terminal.
It looks like SpaceX is shipping the all-new rectangular Starlink dish to customers who pre-ordered their kits well before the new dish even launched, at least in the U.S.
Dirty Tesla ordered their Starlink package back in February, around the time the beta first became available in their region.
The 2nd-gen Starlink dish is significantly lighter than the original ‘Dishy McFlatface’ at 4.2 kg (9.2 lbs), as opposed to 7.3 kg (16 lbs) for its predecessor.
Dirty Tesla resides in Livingston County, rural Michigan, putting him squarely in the middle of Starlink’s target audience. Up until now, Dirty Tesla relied on an LTE connection that offered a 14.6 Mbps download speed, a 6.28 Mbps upload speed, and 46ms of latency.
During the unboxing, the YouTuber showcased the V2 Starlink dish’s significantly smaller physical footprint and removable cable, which looks a lot like it has a micro USB connector on the dish end. The standard cable that comes with the new rectangular dish is now shorter than before at 75 feet (versus 100 feet), with upgrades available.
Dirty Tesla
Setting Starlink up is pretty simple — all the YouTuber had to do was power on the dish, and give it 2-3 minutes to find its bearings and orient itself. Dirty Tesla initially chose to set Starlink up in his yard, which is far from the ideal position for the dish, before moving it up onto his roof the next day.
“I am very impressed,” he said during his initial review after Starlink came online. “This is a huge upgrade for me, for rural people.” $100 USD per month with no data caps is also a pretty solid deal, especially considering the speeds Starlink offers.
The YouTuber saw download speeds of around 147 Mbps (with a peak of over 200 Mbps) and upload speeds of 10-13 Mbps (with a peak of 40 Mbps), and 45ms of latency.
“This technology is a game-changer,” said Dirty Tesla in conclusion.
As of September, Starlink has exceeded 600,000 pre-orders. SpaceX is continuously working to make the service more reliable and improve speeds, with plans to hit 1 Gbps download speeds in the near future.
Starlink is warning customers of shipping delays for the new dishes, caused by the ongoing semiconductor shortage. For the time being, the new dish is only available in the U.S.
You can visit Starlink.com to check out the new rectangular dish for yourself (provided you’re in the U.S. — IP addresses outside the U.S. still see the old design).
