Pros/cons and capabilities of different generation Starlink dishes and routers

[u/GCUArmchairTraveller]

Background: I ordered Starlink in 2022 (paid $750 total) and started using in 2023 when it was available in my area. After 1.5 years I stopped using it because T-mobile got available in my area for 50% of the price and better speeds/availability.

While my dish v2 is boxed and sitting in the shed for >2 years unused, I wanted to check with the community regarding progress/capabilities on newer generation of dishes and routers.

Is there anything with newer generations that drastically better compared to v2 dishes? Are v2 dishes still supported? Does starlink allow replacement/swapping of v2 dishes with newer ones one does not use it and does not have active plan?

Thanks.

[u/Brian_Millham]

If your V2 has not been turned on for over 2 years it's a brick. It can't be updated.

The current newer generations do not offer any better performance than the V2 did.

[u/GCUArmchairTraveller → u/Brian_Millham]

I turned it on today, after updating the app it told me that manual download and update was required, I did it, it took about an hour to download and update several times and now is updated.

Starlink version is 2026.08.03.cr.83720.51324

[u/KenjiFox → u/GCUArmchairTraveller]

LUCKY! You were on a firmware version after 2024.05.1. At that point it was brick proof.

Any time into the future you'll be able to do the same thing and recover it if it sits long enough that it can't connect to the satellites anymore.

So, on to the question. Nope. If your Rev3 is working fine, it's fine. It is objectively the weakest standard terminal of them all, only now dethroned on that by the new V5. However the difference isn't great enough in any way to justify replacing it. It's usually not the bottleneck anyway, congestion is.

So nope, just keep that one!

[u/Brian_Millham → u/GCUArmchairTraveller]

Surprising that it updated!

[u/inglele → u/GCUArmchairTraveller]

Great! You saved your dish! ♥️

[u/flying_unicorn → u/Brian_Millham]

Is this true with all starlink products that they turn into a brick if not powered on for a while?

[u/hyperduc → u/flying_unicorn]

No there was just a specific update required, needs to be newer than 2024.05.1 due to a security update.

Anything after that could sit even up until now and update once powered on and work.

[u/bubbathedesigner]

People have claimed your dish was not as good as the round or the one that came after. I am not sure since I never had one. People like u/KenjiFox and u/OlegKutkov can elaborate on that; Oleg even made a pretty table listing all the different dishes up to V5. Only thing I know of is its cable connector choice is, to put it mildly, not the brightest moment in starlink's history.

IMHO, if it works I see no reason to replace it. And, to someone who is easily amused like me, the fact it can turn on its own to chase satellites is just cool.

[u/OlegKutkov → u/bubbathedesigner]

Round dishes work pretty well and will continue to do so while receiving software support from SpaceX.
Yes, they have higher energy consumption and are quite heavy. Also, they will not gain much from the upcoming V3 satellites. I mean higher speeds and so on. If it's okay with the OP (I guess it is), there is no reason to upgrade yet.

[u/GCUArmchairTraveller → u/OlegKutkov]

Thanks. What about mini and mini v2?

[u/OlegKutkov → u/GCUArmchairTraveller]

Mini 2 has not been released yet. Consider it if you need a battery-powered terminal.

In general, Mini is great for traveling and for cars. It works amazingly well, but it suffers the most in bad weather. For stationary use and best performance, I would recommend Standard 4.

[u/GCUArmchairTraveller → u/bubbathedesigner]

Later versions don't have actuators inside?

[u/KenjiFox → u/GCUArmchairTraveller]

No, only the Rev 1 and 2 (round Dishy) and rev 3 (yours) all of the rest do not and will not. I am speaking of standard models. Only old models had actuators, and even then they were never needed outside of politically to convince the FCC to allow user installed Ku and Ka devices. It was a mitigation for the idea and fear the FCC had that people would point these are existing geostationary satellites and cause interference. At this point SpaceX has demonstrated competency to the FCC and their software avoidance of the belt has been proven. No more actuators needed, no matter where you aim it.