Intro Hey guys welcome back to the channel
So if you’ve been watching the news recently and wondering what Starlink is and why Elon
Musk has been rapidly shipping them to Ukraine then you’re probably not alone
Combine this with the fact that more and more people are moving out of cities, and I felt
like it was the perfect time to test out Starlink and I wanted to give you guys my honest thoughts
on whether this is worth getting.
So let’s jump straight into it...
What is it?
So just in case you’re not aware, Starlink is a satellite internet network operated by
SpaceX which provides high-speed, low latency internet access to coverage areas where traditional
hardwired fibre connections do not yet exist.
This is why it’s so important in Ukraine right now, and also why more and more people
who live rurally are turning to it
Ordering So first off I just wanted to quickly walk
you through my ordering experience...
You’ll notice when going onto the Starlink website that it’s actually really simple
and the first thing I did before even considering ordering was to check the coverage where I
live You do that by just clicking on this pin at
the top left corner of the screen, which will bring up the global coverage map for Starlink
So there’s 2 things which I was checking, firstly the actual coverage of Starlink which
is indicated by the light blue colour, but then its also important to check the waitlist,
which as far as I can tell, means that Starlink does actively cover that area but because
of high demand, its too oversubscribed for new users and they don’t want to compromise
network speeds.
Starlink deliberalty limits this so that the network can maintain fast speeds, so until
a user ends their subscription or more satellites are put up then this is essentially the waitlist.
Fortunately if you look at the UK the coverage, its currently really strong and there’s
currently no waitlists as far as I can see.
So once you’ve checked that all you need to do is order the Starlink which is super
simple You literally just type in your service address
and then put ion your order details.
Obviously you don’t get a choice of colour when you order the Starlink it’s just the
standard kit which costs £580 or $599 and of course the ongoing fee of £100 per month
or about $110.
You can also choose to add portability which means you can move the dish around from location
to location and pay an extra £25 per month - which will be awesome for all those van
life lovers out there!
One thing to mention here is if you want a hardwired connection into the Starlink router
then you’ll need to buy that kit separately which costs and extra £35 which I did, just
so I could ensure a stable connection for my main laptop.
The only thing that did annoy me a bit was that there’s no estimated delivery date
provided when ordering - just a message to say that you usually receive an email within
2 weeks of ordering confirming your delivery date.
What I would say though, is that mine actually came within a week so I was really impressed
with the delivery speed and it exceeded my expectations in that sense.
Unboxing Starting off with the unboxing next, the kit
comes in this large dark blue box which to be honest wasn’t exactly the sturdiest thing.
So let’s open this up and see what’s inside…
So if we take off this bit of plastic here, then first up we have the base of the dish
wish feels pretty strong, which is great, and it looks like it also has some holes in
it on each side to secure it to the ground which could come in handy.
It’s worth mentioning that you can actually buy a few different mounts for the dish separately
if you want to secure it permanently to the roof but that’s not personally something
that I ordered.
So just taking off this smaller bit of plastic now which separates that stand from the dish
itself I mean I say dish but to be honest this doesn’t
really look anything like a dish to be honest, it’s essentially a flat rectangle and its
not even curved.
So just lifting this out it’s actually a bit heavier than I was expecting which is
a good thing as it’s going to be more resistant to weather conditions.
So let's have a look at the router next which is pretty much a standard router size really.
There’s no on/off button it literally just has 2 sockets in the bottom.
One for the feed from the dish and the other for power.
And then of course we have the power cable which is pretty simple and finally the dish
cable which is 75ft or about 22m long and the cable connector looks like a micro USB
but its actually a proprietary connector that Starlink uses which I think is called micro
B. So that’s it for the unboxing - there’s
not really any instructions in here apart from what’s on the piece of card protecting
the dish - which essentially just tells you to plug everything in and then download the
app!
Setup So lets talk about the setup now...
Apart from connecting the dish to the stand like I’m doing here there’s not really
any other physical setup to do with the dish As you can see I’ve placed it outside now
in an area where it’s unlikely to be blocked by trees and I’m just going to run this
cable all the way inside and into the back of the router
So now the router is on I’m going to switch to the Starlink app which was a really quick
process - you just need to login to your Starlink account and then the dish will connect
As you can see here it’s automatically rotate to lock onto a satellite which is cool
So now that its connected I’m just going to run a speed test
Speed Test The first test I ran got to about 35mbps download
and 13mbps upload which was seriously worrying, but that was the phone to the internet so
that essentially degradation of the wifi signal, the actual router speed was getting around
230mbps in download speed which definitely exceed my expectation.
When I tested it again a few mins later, the download speed this time phone to internet
was 122mbps download and 30mbps upload which was way faster.
And this time the max download speed of the router was just under 200mbps so that’s
great I tested this on Google speed test as well
which was giving about 139mbps down and 8mbps up phone to internet and then again on speedtest.net
and the the download sped was 246mbps and the upload was 13mbps.
Now obviously compared to gigabit internet then this isn’t very good, but for a lot
of rural houses in the UK that have a max hardwired speed of 30-40mbps or rely solely
on a 4g connection then download speeds of over 200 just blows this out of the water!
And remember with the hardwired ethernet connector that I bought separately you wont get any
degradation over wifi if you want to plug this directly into your TV, work laptop or
game console.
Now of course this variable signal strength is very much based on the weather conditions
so I tested the dish in some overcast rainy conditions as well.
So you can see here so its pretty cloudy and rainy so I guess you’d call this a medium
to bad day for weather in the UK and the speeds held up really well.
I was getting 162 down and 35 up on the Starlink app itself and then 207 down on Google speed
test and 162 on Speedtest.net.
Now it’s Spring here in the UK so I can’t really test or simulate wintery conditions
but the Starlink app also has a feature which lets you warm the dish to remove frost / snow
buildup in the winter which is very cool.
One of the really important things to remember about Starlink is that there’s no data caps
unlike other internet providers!
So what you think you’re getting you might not actually be getting especially at peak
hours, so check your speeds with your current ISP and you might me surprised!
One final thing to say here is that in the future we’ll actually have Starlink premium
/ business, which I wanted to test but wasn’t yet available in my area.
This new premium version of Starlink promises lightning fast download speeds of around 500mbps
but the cost jumps pretty drastically to $2,500 for the dish kit and $500 a month ongoing
cost.
Obviously this is targeted and businesses and super users so the cost is significant,
but it does give you a taste of where the technology is going in the future.
Summary So guys in summary I’m a huge fan of the
Starlink.
It’s genuinely blown me away and massively exceeded my expectations!
To be totally honest, having read a couple of negative reviews in America, I didn’t
think it would be very good, or actually do the speeds it claims online.
But if you don’t have access to a fixed fibre connection then this is definitely the
next best thing and I can’t recommend it enough.
£100 per month is quite expensive and I’m not a huge fan of the bright white colour
as it sticks out like a sore thumb outside, but if you look at the alternatives then this
is a brilliant option for people.
So guys, that’s it for this review.
I hope you guys enjoyed the video, remember to give the video a like and subscribe if
you did And let me know your thoughts on the Starlink
in the comments below See you guys next time.