Starlink released a new version of hardware called the Performance Kit that costs about $2000 and has a bunch of boat-friendly features that have been a long time coming. Here's my initial unboxing and impressions.

Unboxing Video

I did a full initial unboxing video available below.

Specs

What excited me about this new setup is the specs both for the dish, the cabling, and the power supply. Up until now, even with the Flat High Performance dish, the units never really seemed to be designed with the marine environment in mind, in particular for waterproofing and longevity.

Officially, this dish is the Performance Gen 3, but it comes marketed as the Performance Kit. The summary of the dish from Starlink is "Designed for resilient connectivity in remote areas and harsh environments, extreme weather, high-vibration settings, and in-motion usage."

There's even a Durability Guide that talks about each aspect of the performance kit, which is pretty fun reading (for nerds like me).

Official specifications are available here, but I'm going to summarize the ones that I think will be good for boats.

IP69K waterproof rating - this is the highest water ingress rating you can get, and means that the dish can handle high pressure and high temperature spray from various angles. Starlink says "Suitable for 1 meter of water submersion for up to 30 minutes and pressure washing." Having had my own challenges and failures with previous versions due to water, weather, and snow, this is a very nice improvement that I think will benefit boaters quite a bit.

Advanced Power Supply - includes the ability to power it via AC or DC power (yes!) , rack and wall mountable, battery backup wiring option, and lots of diagnostics and monitoring. The ability to power it via AC or DC is perfect for boats and RVs, and its great to see that Starlink is providing this directly. I'll be testing both methods and looking at power consumption very soon.

The power supply has PoE (power over ethernet) on both ports, which means that you could power not only the Starlink, but your router as well, which is a really nice touch. Power to the router is a max of 40W.

Designed for 10-year mission life - while I don't expect many people will actually use this for 10 years, as the technology will have changed a ton by then, it indicates that Starlink is designing this for a longer use pattern, and it won't likely be obsolete or fall apart as faster as their original systems.

Let's take a look at what is in the box.

Getting Started Card

Pretty standard getting started card. Plug a bunch of stuff in and magic happens. They do also provide a diagram and measurements for the wall mount option on the power supply. To unlock the base is backwards from the way my mind thought it should be - you rotate the dials as if you're tightening them - you can see me struggle and fail in the unboxing video on this part.

Power Supply

Probably the second most exciting thing to me about the kit is the power supply and its ability to handle DC input. The specs say a peak power of 305 watts, with an average of 91.6 watts. On 12 volt DC power, that would mean a max of 25 amps, and an average of 7.63 amps, which is in the range of the current generation rectangular dish.

The power supply also has the ability to send PoE out the ethernet port to provide power to your router. Many routers, such as the Peplink BR2 Pro 5G I use today, can be powered this way, and will simplify installs with less cables and connections. I will likely continue to run my router via its dedicated DC power connection as it is the most efficient in terms of power conversion.

I do like how all of the connection points on the power supply are on one side, and if mounted on a wall, are pointed down. Even though these connections are IP68 waterproof rated, I like having them all pointed down in the event water does get near the power supply.

The connections themselves are protected by inserts that you could leave in to maintain a seal, and are quite deep in the body of the power supply.

The wall mount for the power supply is quick and easy to use, and snaps back into the bracket easily. Some of the older setups were really stiff and had very tight plastic clips that made it difficult to get routers and power supplies in/out.

Starlink Cable

This cable is part of the reason we get the new IP68K water rating. It is a 5 meter / 16.5 foot cable.

On one end is this spring loaded, stainless steel encased connector that goes directly into the dish. On the other end is a waterproof ethernet connector that goes into the power supply. This end feels extremely well built, and the spring action is really satisfying.

Plugging the Starlink end of the cable into the dish is easy and clear with the indicator lines, and the little flanges on the side make it easy to reach in and twist to remove. Many of the previous cables were hard to know if they were inserted fully, many came out very easy, or were funky to remove. I'm glad they spent time improving this.

The connectors are still quite big on either end, and while there seems to be a field replacement kit coming in the fall, it appears it might only be applicable to older units. I hope they offer one for this cable as well, as this has been one of the worst parts of installing Starlinks for customers - the crazy proprietary and large funky ends that require large holes or terrible patch jobs.

Power and Ethernet Cables

There is an included ethernet cable which has a Starlink-ized end with the tiny tab similar to the current rectangular dish cabling, and a standard ethernet end on it. This is to connect the power supply to the router of your choice. Remember, by default, this kit does not come with a router unless you specifically select it at check out - it's free, but Starlink also realizes many people would prefer to use their own router with this pro level kit, and doesn't force you to have another bit of electronics lying around if you don't want it.

The AC power cable is pretty short, and comes with a proprietary end, but is waterproof like the rest of the cables.

The DC power cable looks like it could be somewhat standard - it seems familiar to me, but I can't quite place it. The wiring feels very solid - I'll get more into this when I cut an end off to add DC terminals during installation.

Performance Dish Gen3

I get excited about tech a lot, but this particular part of this kit is beautifully built an executed, more than a lot of things I've seen recently. The dish itself is pretty heavy at 11.5 pounds. The standard dish is only 6 pounds, so this has some heft to it.

The entire bottom and edges are made of grey powdercoated aluminum.

The aluminum comes up around the edge of the dish on the top and provides complete protection all the way to that point.

Water appears to be able to get in between the aluminum and the dish, but in the front bottom corners, there are holes where I assume that water can drain out. This dish has higher snow melt capabilities, and in the specs and durability guide, they mention that having it mounted at an angle is important to facilitate drainage.

The dish surface itself has some sort of matte coating on it that ends before the actual edge of the dish. Not sure what that is all about, but I'm sure we'll learn more as folks dig into it.

One thing that was a bit disappointing about the purchase experience is that the mount is not shipped in the kit. You can select between a flat and wedge mount at check out, included in the price, but it ships separately. I chose the wedge mount, and it's almost a week delayed behind the dish. For now, I'm going to make something with standoffs to get things mounted and working.

I do like the stainless thread inserts as a mounting platform. They look very strong, and will allow 3rd parties to come up with alternative mounts with a fairly easy hole pattern. This is an improvement over the standard rectangular dish mounting system.

The Starlink cable connection looks really well thought out so far. I like the stainless steel, clear markings, and waterproof rating.

Wrap Up

I've used Starlink dishes since Feburary 2021 and have always had gripes about the hardware not being fully marine capable, or just not thought out in a way that is useful for boaters. That's only 4 years, but it seems like a lot longer because we're trained to expect new versions of things every year (thanks Apple), and that products will work in various markets.

I was hopeful for the Starlink Flat High Performance dish, but that was just a quick iteration on the Business Performance dish with a maybe-better (it wasn't) cable connector. That product came out only a couple of years ago, and is still a really good option, although it is quite power hungry.

The Starlink Performance Kit has really impressed me with the quality cable connector that is super waterproof at the dish end, the power supply that can be run by AC or DC power, and the dish itself that seems to be built to withstand extreme weather conditions.

I will of course be testing this setup right away, and will post updates as results come in.

What do you think of this new hardware? Will you be buying it? Leave your questions and comments below.