Starlink mini vs Standard

[Julialuck]

Has anyone tried both the standard and the mini? We are about to order Starlink to stay connected while camping, just not sure which will be the best option. Will mostly be used for streaming at night.

 

[Janet H]

I have a Gen 2 dish and recently got a mini as an add-on for travel. There's a lot to love about the mini - small, sips power rather than guzzling it and can be paired with an existing account at a lower price including roaming and the ability to turn off billing on a monthly basis. Some caveats:

Unless you opt for the full rack rate, there are some data caps.
It's a little slower than my Gen 2 dish. I'm finding speeds are adequate for streaming but about 30 percent slower than my larger dish. Between 80-90 mbps down and 15-20 up.

I don't generally stream, but instead use it for work and video conferencing - it's been fine.

You still need a view of the sky or part of the sky... trees slow it down. I understand that the Gen 3 dish does better with obstructions than the mini.

Give some thought to the router issues: On the mini, the router is built into the dish. If the dish is far from your devices, you may need to add an additional router/mesh network. It's Ethernet ready so you can do this but consider how you'll cable this up.

Consider where you'll mount the dish. I get it out when I need internet and put it away when I'm done but your use case may differ.

 

[brandtb1919]

I opted for the standard because it has better sensitivity specs (larger) due to the fact that I seem to hardly ever get a campsite with no trees. Our standard Gen 3 still provides pretty decent speed with about 30% tree coverage.

 

[Timmer]

At my recreational land I have the full-sized standard device and it comes with a large, separate wifi unit. I have that system on the Residential plan which allows for more data. I will note that the wifi device is inside a metal shed. I assume it's not waterproof and has to be inside. Unfortunately, the shed kills the wifi signal so it provides no coverage outside whatsoever. I installed a separate weatherproof access point outside that is wired to WIFI device inside. With that I have great coverage, even in the woods far away from the shed, as well as inside a camper about 100 feet away.

Just over the holidays I purchased a mini and Roam plan. I purchased the mini for 3 reasons. First, I will be using this unit when camping and ice fishing, and the smaller unit seemed more logical for porting it around. Next, it was on sale over the holidays and was way cheaper than the bigger device. Lastly, it only has a single power cord. The generator I have for ice fishing has 2 receptacles. I can use one for the fish house and one for Starlink and I then don't have to run any wires from the Starlink into the fish house. The reason the mini unit only has one power cord is because it does not come with a separate wifi device. What provides the wifi is a mystery to me. It's either built into the dish or the small wall plug in. I have only gotten as far as activating it and testing internet for a few minutes. When testing, I did make sure I had connectivity from within my house when the device was outside, mimicking my intended configuration when ice fishing, and that worked fine.

Also, don't confuse the devices with the plans. My understanding is you can have the full-sized dish with either plan. Their website states that you can pause service for either plan at anytime. However, when I followed their instructions for pausing with my residential plan, I didn't have the pause options as noted in the instructions. I ended up installing security cameras on my land which required full-time internet, so I never pursued the pausing any further. I definitely will be pausing my Roam plan when not in use. Hopefully the instructions work for that plan. Interestingly, when copying and pasting data for the plans below, I noticed that only the Roam plan shows Pausing as a feature. I can still find data on their website that says either plans can be paused. This is conflicting information.

RESIDENTIAL KEY FEATURES
Unlimited Data
Fixed Location

ROAM KEY FEATURES
Countrywide Coverage
In-motion Use
International Travel
Coastal Coverage
Pause Service
TWO PLAN OPTIONS AVAILABLE:
- 50GB *Users on Roam 50 GB are limited to 50 GB of data and can pay by the GB for additional data.
- UNLIMITED