SpaceX has quietly launched the Starlink V5 residential dish, a new home internet terminal designed to be smaller, lighter, and more power-efficient than the previous V4 model.
The new dish is now available in select areas in the United States for residential customers. Starlink says availability will expand to more locations over time as production increases.
The biggest change with the Starlink V5 is its compact size.
The V5 dish measures 384mm x 306mm x 34mm, compared with 594mm x 383mm x 39.7mm for the V4 dish. It also weighs 1.1kg, or 2.4 pounds, while the V4 weighs around 2.9kg, or 6.4 pounds.
This should make the new model easier to handle and install, especially for rooftop setups.
Starlink will bundle the V5 dish with the Router Mini and a pipe adapter for rooftop installation. However, the V5 is not designed for in-motion use.
The Starlink V5 also uses less power than the older residential dish.
According to Starlink’s comparison page, the V5 consumes an average of 35W to 50W, while the V4 uses around 75W to 100W.
That lower power draw could reduce electricity usage for home users and may also make the dish more practical in setups where power availability is limited.
The V5 does not bring a clear speed upgrade over the V4.
Starlink lists the V5 with peak download speeds of 375+ Mbps, while the V4 is listed at 400+ Mbps. Actual speeds can still vary depending on the user’s service plan, time of day, network capacity, and local congestion.
This means the V5 is mainly a hardware efficiency update rather than a major performance upgrade.
The V5 follows the V4 residential dish, which launched in 2023.
Elon Musk recently showed the new dish in a video post on X and said SpaceX plans to produce it in much higher volume than current terminals.
Starlink has also been working on other hardware and network upgrades, including a next-generation mobile network planned for mid-2027 and a higher-end Performance dish designed for gigabit speeds.
The Starlink V5, therefore, appears to be aimed at making the standard home kit easier to install and cheaper to run, rather than pushing speeds higher.
SpaceX confirmed that the new dish is rolling out first in certain US regions.
According to Engadget, one early example seen through a Reddit post was Drummond, Montana, where the V5 dish appeared with Starlink’s cheapest $55 per month 100Mbps Residential plan. The higher Residential and Residential Max plans were still tied to the V4 dish and Router 3 at the time.
For now, availability may depend on location and the service plan being offered.
Get the latest tech news, telecom insights, and product launches wherever you prefer.
Add ProPakistani to Preferred Sources and see more of our stories in Google Search and Top Stories.