CNET

Starlink by SpaceX: How fast is it really?

I put SpaceX’s Starlink internet service to the test to see how fast it really is. The $499 starter kit comes with an antenna dish, router, power adapter, and cables. Plus, for $99 a month, you can expect speeds from 50-150Mbps at low latency — with no data caps. 0:00 Intro 0:39 Unboxing 1:25 What…

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I put SpaceX’s Starlink internet service to the test to see how fast it really is. The $499 starter kit comes with an antenna dish, router, power adapter, and cables. Plus, for $99 a month, you can expect speeds from 50-150Mbps at low latency — with no data caps.

0:00 Intro
0:39 Unboxing
1:25 What is Starlink?
2:11 Setting up Starlink
3:29 Test #1 – Inside apartment
5:12 Test #2 – Parking lot
7:30 Issues with Starlink service
8:52 Test #3 – On top of Mount Diablo

Jesse’s Starlink video:

Aukey PowerTitan 300 Portable Power Station:

135 Comments

  1. Adithya K

    March 31, 2021 at 5:09 pm

    Boss is coming… War one side (in internet services)🤘🤘🤘🔥🔥🔥

  2. Kyle T

    March 31, 2021 at 5:37 pm

    Great review. i wasn’t completely sold on starlink till i watched this, now i cant wait to get my hands on it

  3. Grady Gilchrist

    March 31, 2021 at 5:40 pm

    Thank you 🇿🇦 lead the way..

  4. Tom Cain

    March 31, 2021 at 6:04 pm

    Does Starlink tell you the wind rating of the dish? Living on the coast in hurricane country that’s important to me. Can you put the router into bypass mode to just use it as a modem? I’d rather use my existing mesh router.

  5. BluntsDro

    March 31, 2021 at 6:05 pm

    This how many times he said starlink

  6. Mashrur Rahman

    March 31, 2021 at 6:18 pm

    Wanna hear more from you about Starlink ❤️

  7. Z Blaze

    March 31, 2021 at 6:25 pm

    Wait, your a cnet employee/reviewer and you only have satellite internet options or DSL at your house?

  8. Lew James

    March 31, 2021 at 6:28 pm

    People will be kicking themselves in few weeks if they miss the opportunity to buy and invest in Bitcoin as it’s retracing….BE WISE

    • Frank Williams

      March 31, 2021 at 6:31 pm

      Stocks are good too

    • Frank Williams

      March 31, 2021 at 6:46 pm

      Stocks are good crypto is better .

  9. Don Bohn

    March 31, 2021 at 6:29 pm

    Great review

  10. ファーリアイ・ヌル・

    March 31, 2021 at 6:46 pm

    In the future I can do my weekly MMO dungeon raid at the top of mountain. Hiking while MMO.

  11. Dawood

    March 31, 2021 at 6:48 pm

    I am wander if this is going to work in a different country, like Asia, any idea?
    And how many devices could be connected to?

  12. More Than

    March 31, 2021 at 7:28 pm

    Expectation: Finally, those off-the-grid African or Mongolian kids have access to the awesome knowledge in the Internet.

    Reality: Dude who’s a block away from a Starbucks gets Starlink to post Instagram pics of his cat.

  13. More Than

    March 31, 2021 at 7:36 pm

    Clouds can be an obstruction

  14. John JH Kim

    March 31, 2021 at 7:52 pm

    Thanks for watching! Let me know your thoughts on Starlink 🚀🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️

    • Eric William

      April 1, 2021 at 4:29 am

      @John JH Kim how lucky you were able to contact Starlink customer support 👍🏻 because as we all may already know of, we have been searching answers everywhere on the web of how to get in touch with them since they never responded our call and/or messages at all, and subsequently, we have difficulties with canceling, updating, and making inquiries of our Starlink beta account. Thus, I would really appreciate if you can enlighten us with step-by-step guides to contact them in details on this disccusion thread, thanks..Really appreciate it 🍻

    • John JH Kim

      April 1, 2021 at 5:27 pm

      @todwod Totally pumped for you! The service is only getting better and seems like they are opening it up to more people. Hopefully, you get an invite soon!

    • John JH Kim

      April 1, 2021 at 5:30 pm

      @Eric William Hey Eric! They probably have limited staff, it honestly took about 4 business days for them to get back to me. But login to your account, click support, then click what you need help with, scroll down and click “NO”, and you’ll be able to message the support team. Be patient though for a response, hope that helps!

    • Stephen Louie

      April 1, 2021 at 10:14 pm

      Testing speed over a WiFi connection introduces additional variables. Use a wired connection for more accurate results.

    • Eric William

      April 2, 2021 at 12:19 am

      @John JH Kim Thank you for your solution 👍 And yes, you are absolutely correct..The key here is to be patient with them..😥 Hopefully, they will improve / have better customer support in the near future 🙏 Anyway, thanks for responding our message, Kim 😊 Will wait for your next Starlink videos on Youtube 😉 Keep up the good work 👍

    • richard mulqueen

      April 2, 2021 at 1:43 pm

      This is a good review covering all the different functions

    • Stormcloak Soldier

      April 3, 2021 at 3:35 am

      How to avail starlink even I’m at philippines

    • Michael Slepts

      April 3, 2021 at 12:35 pm

      Thanks for your review! it’s a pity that starlink was banned in russia (

    • Jason Kim

      April 5, 2021 at 3:16 am

      What a timely unboxing presentation!!! Quite impressive transmission rates but a bit heavy for a small vessel^^.

  15. きみ わん びっち『しょよ〜ちゃん』

    March 31, 2021 at 7:53 pm

    Cool. Just read your article

  16. vacationboyvideos

    March 31, 2021 at 8:43 pm

    5G is better in the way u don’t need a big bulky satellite to have to set up every time you drive your car need to stop and use the web

  17. Steffen

    March 31, 2021 at 9:49 pm

    low latency with 20-40ms sure…

  18. jim

    March 31, 2021 at 9:53 pm

    Thanks for a solid review. We ordered and we wait. I trade in the market everyday. Internet is important for my work as well as my Wife too. I get 500+ mbps now . Problem is the service will suddenly go out for who knows how long. Then I panic if I am in a trade!! Connect wifi with the iPhone and try to get out of the trades. Sucks! I know that the drops with Starlink is an issue now but in the future I believe Starlink will be a dependable service. If I have a 5 min drop I can deal with that. With my previous work I used sat phones and services to communicate from all over. Worked 90 % of the time. Im a geek so I need my tech fix. Thanks again.

  19. william Lidgett

    March 31, 2021 at 10:16 pm

    cloudy skies or grey skies messes with the signel

  20. Filipe Santana Lopes

    March 31, 2021 at 10:48 pm

    99$ is to expensive, comparing to other Internet providers in Europe. So they will have to drop the price of it!

  21. AHMAD KHALIFA

    March 31, 2021 at 10:53 pm

    Good but 100& is a lot of money
    I have the same results 120up 13down for 13$

  22. Raheel Khoja

    March 31, 2021 at 11:06 pm

    Would be curious to know what’s the speed when it’s raining outside

  23. chris warren

    March 31, 2021 at 11:52 pm

    I’m surprised they let you take the satellite away from your house

  24. Alexander Zgura

    April 1, 2021 at 12:48 am

    Signed up yesterday for the wait list here in Orlando.

  25. 123abc

    April 1, 2021 at 1:23 am

    Maybe this will be ready for prime time in a year but right now they shouldn’t be charging customers for this, as they are beta testers and guinea pigs. Not quite ready for prime time.

  26. Umar Baig

    April 1, 2021 at 10:41 am

    99$ seems high for Pakistani. 20-30$ is monthly price for local internet here.

  27. Gameplay Tube

    April 1, 2021 at 10:47 am

    Wish I have starlink uhuhu😭😭

  28. Mohamed Naflan

    April 1, 2021 at 11:29 am

    Speeds are decent? 😅😅😅😅

  29. Roger Hong

    April 1, 2021 at 12:02 pm

    When you went outside it clear that the weather was over cast

  30. Mac Everyday

    April 1, 2021 at 12:06 pm

    In india we get 1 gbps for just $45 why would someone choose starlink for more price and low speed.

  31. kwfown

    April 1, 2021 at 12:22 pm

    Bruh, cloud is obstruction @ 6:50, git gud
    /s

  32. Reggie N Happiness

    April 1, 2021 at 2:21 pm

    You should not have to pay for outages. 100 bucks a month is a lot for areas in Africa that don’t have internet

  33. robleake

    April 1, 2021 at 2:32 pm

    I know broadband in the US is expensive but it’s three times the cost of what I pay in the UK plus high initial cost. A lot faster though

  34. Martin Spedding

    April 1, 2021 at 2:39 pm

    I live in a city with a fibre connection and so Starlink is not aimed at me. I was shocked seeing the iPhone and Mac, looks like don’t give employees modern devices

  35. TITUREL75

    April 1, 2021 at 2:56 pm

    🤔 that password…”PapaElon”.

  36. Shaggy Dawg

    April 1, 2021 at 3:35 pm

    Very impressive speed and latency.

  37. SecndPrimar Leon

    April 1, 2021 at 3:48 pm

    He looks like asian james charles

  38. Aleksandr Lobanov

    April 1, 2021 at 5:01 pm

    Is the internet really that expensive in the US?

  39. Paul Ho

    April 1, 2021 at 5:56 pm

    More of him, please. He is daddy.

  40. Ahtzee907

    April 1, 2021 at 6:27 pm

    Alaska needed starlink more than any other state. Wish they started with 70° orbital inclination rather than 53 degrees first. I get it, money first. But there’s almost no existence of great internet options in the arctic circle, with the exception of major towns/cities (of course.)

    Starlink was supposed to be for remote and rural communities who needs it the most. But now they want it in vehicles, urban areas, and even international airports. Which means, congestion and limitations for the remote and rural areas, which they initially supposed to serve. In the future, we will see internet monopolies on a global scale.

  41. David Rodriguez

    April 1, 2021 at 7:36 pm

    Go live there 😂

  42. cherub jennar

    April 1, 2021 at 7:40 pm

    stop whining !!!
    put the DishsyMcFlatface above your roof mannnnnnnn!! 🙁

  43. yss dheeraj

    April 1, 2021 at 9:01 pm

    Asians host
    Well cnet trying something here lol

  44. Unbox Talks

    April 1, 2021 at 9:34 pm

    I haven’t been impressed with the reliability. But it has spurts of fast service when it actually stays on.

  45. Arucard Helsing

    April 1, 2021 at 10:20 pm

    I have one choice ( 6 mb ) so this is a hopefully option for me some day.

  46. goodmaninabadtime117

    April 1, 2021 at 10:28 pm

    I am currently getting between 100-200 mbps download on starlink. Highest speed I have seen so far is 260.

  47. grabber2009

    April 1, 2021 at 10:53 pm

    Future now)

  48. Michael Leonard

    April 2, 2021 at 12:09 am

    I’m a telecom/low voltage tech and honestly this isn’t impressive in the slightest… these numbers are ground breaking for 15 years ago. I’m thankful that internet has taken to the sky and benefit others but I’m not impressed by the tech at all

  49. Ryan A

    April 2, 2021 at 12:42 am

    What’s with extra loud music 🤬

  50. GOK1970

    April 2, 2021 at 7:25 am

    This looks like it will bring mote and more families out in the «wild» for camping/hiking. Kids can play games meanwhile, lol

  51. Ljubo Joseph Lasic

    April 2, 2021 at 7:33 am

    As soon as this is 100% reliable for meetings and large data transfers, I’m moving out of the city for good.

  52. Damian Boj

    April 2, 2021 at 9:54 am

    Its game changer for people on ships in middle of ocean, on small island, and in the middle of nowhere! You cant compare it to normal leaving places, but still even there its competitive, that means in places where now you have NO INTERNET its like a magic!

  53. richystar2001

    April 2, 2021 at 10:35 am

    This may end up as a trillion dollar waste of time when 60 000 satellites start crashing into each other.

  54. j x

    April 2, 2021 at 10:47 am

    Awesome video

  55. Amos Nymos

    April 2, 2021 at 10:57 am

    A 100 mbps costs only about $10 pm in India

  56. Goddess Hylia

    April 2, 2021 at 11:58 am

    For 60 a month you can get T-Mobile Home internet and have speeds faster then 150 down

  57. jjcoolaus

    April 2, 2021 at 12:54 pm

    Considering the expense, you’d have to need it. If cable or VDSL were available to you then they would be cheaper. However starkink is cheap for satelite internet

  58. Taurus

    April 2, 2021 at 1:41 pm

    SpaceX engineers are wizards. For real.

  59. Shrinath

    April 2, 2021 at 2:06 pm

    What is Starlink?
    Basically, Internet from the sky.
    Me: Skynet

  60. Romeo

    April 2, 2021 at 3:03 pm

    This dude has speedtest ready to go on his pc but uses his phone, wtf

  61. hugivirics

    April 2, 2021 at 3:13 pm

    Ping 27 is amazing 👏. I haven’t seen anything better than ping 54 on my starlink. I live in Manitoba Canada 🇨🇦. Could be why 🤷🏾‍♂️

  62. Gavin Njoroge

    April 2, 2021 at 3:43 pm

    do you know how theseis revolutionazing the worldso dope

  63. Michael Carlson

    April 2, 2021 at 5:05 pm

    Did anyone else notice the bot tried shooting the chicken? Lol

  64. philippe Van der Gucht

    April 2, 2021 at 5:25 pm

    Is the AP wifi 6 compatible?

  65. DreaD

    April 2, 2021 at 6:05 pm

    Dude, you can expect so many devs to just be remotely working now from like the woods or something. This is a game changer.

  66. Alex 1985

    April 2, 2021 at 6:58 pm

    with promised(soon) speed 400mbpers you can switch up to 15 users per one plate with enough high speed of 25 mbps (normal, if you are not a gamer) it will cost just 6.67usd per user per month

  67. Ron Dean

    April 2, 2021 at 7:45 pm

    it on order now, with a June date for my area. I live in a rural area and have been living with 2mb speed for years but it drops to 648 k every now and the which takes 2mins to load a screen so this is a game changer for me. You were lucky to move up to the top of the mountain because the system is tied to your location zone that you supply when ordering and it will only work in that zone?

  68. sweiland75

    April 2, 2021 at 8:16 pm

    Starlink bandwidth: 90% speed tests, 10% video gamers

  69. Makhago Peter

    April 2, 2021 at 8:30 pm

    And we are getting.. wooooh!

  70. Mariano Tufro

    April 2, 2021 at 8:36 pm

    Filling the sky with ugly satellites that obstruct the stars? No thanks.

  71. Amine Mebarki

    April 2, 2021 at 8:40 pm

    I may ask a stupid question, but is the Access for free?

  72. Adv. LORD VOLDEMORT

    April 2, 2021 at 9:52 pm

    It’s not about starlink they r perfect u put the disk at very wrong place.

  73. K

    April 2, 2021 at 10:15 pm

    👍🏻

  74. YanZ M

    April 3, 2021 at 2:47 am

    Best for remote working 👌

  75. KONG OP

    April 3, 2021 at 5:28 am

    per month $13 dollar for 150mbps upload & download. AND latency MS 4 in 🇮🇳 India . on optic fibre

  76. Bello Ahmed

    April 3, 2021 at 6:27 am

    Awesome speed. When will this get to Africa. We all tired of buffering

  77. Shubham Bhasin

    April 3, 2021 at 7:57 am

    Starlink doesn’t support mobility. Starlink is locked to the designated area cell.

  78. ozerimar1 fluffy1

    April 3, 2021 at 10:35 am

    Wait till the signal gets loaded down with more users than do your speed and latency tests. The fastest data transmission will always be terrestrial. I think elon starlink is more of a smokescreen from a snake oil salesman.

  79. Daniel Perez

    April 3, 2021 at 12:47 pm

    no data caps.. sign me up and take my money space x..

  80. Aaron Harvey

    April 3, 2021 at 1:51 pm

    Nice review. I would love to have the opportunity to be a tester of this device and service.

  81. Jedd Joseph

    April 3, 2021 at 2:16 pm

    Cnet doing pretty well with this youtube thing

  82. Jesus Villafranca

    April 3, 2021 at 3:36 pm

    Instructions: “Place it on clear view of sky”
    Goes ahead and place it above ground on two boxes 😒

    Just mounted at the ceiling, highest point on the off the ground and as much as clear sky as possible.

  83. Sacto1654

    April 3, 2021 at 3:40 pm

    It should be noted once the _initial_ system is operational by the end of 2021, you should get more like 500-700 mbps download speeds.

  84. Tom Tom

    April 3, 2021 at 4:39 pm

    Awesome report! Thanks!

  85. Baby Yoda

    April 3, 2021 at 5:11 pm

    well how you meant to install the app without internet

  86. Walter Godsoe

    April 3, 2021 at 5:42 pm

    $99 a month for what I have seen is way too much

  87. Aroz

    April 3, 2021 at 6:27 pm

    Pre ordered it yesterday!! Looking forward to gaming with my buddies :))

  88. Nekminute

    April 3, 2021 at 7:04 pm

    time to live in an RV

  89. Gary White

    April 3, 2021 at 7:09 pm

    My earthlink dsl is downloading at 2.01-2.40 mbps….

  90. Chris B

    April 3, 2021 at 7:30 pm

    I live in an area where we have many ISP’s… but I bought Starlink because all the ISP’s suck and have neglected our QOS for years while increasing rates over time.

    Time to cause some disruption to the current monopoly

  91. Ahmad Maqbool

    April 3, 2021 at 10:27 pm

    Cut the trees down

  92. QUICK-STAR

    April 3, 2021 at 10:39 pm

    You can’t have a dish on a porch with walls and trees around it! Well, you look smart….maybe that will fool people!

  93. SimpleOne2

    April 3, 2021 at 10:51 pm

    I thought Starlink only worked at your address where you purchased it. Is this not true?

  94. theman5072

    April 3, 2021 at 10:57 pm

    Link to exact number of starlink satellites?

  95. underthex

    April 4, 2021 at 12:45 am

    This is perfect for RV life

  96. zeighy

    April 4, 2021 at 1:19 am

    “sorry I couldn’t bring my PC desktop” but you were testing playing games on your mobile phone earlier……………………………………………………. idk why it matters if you are using your laptop to play games at this point.

  97. niel nielsen

    April 4, 2021 at 2:19 am

    you miss playing Diablo on Diablo.

    Diablo is an action role-playing hack and slash video game developed by Blizzard North and … He had named the game idea Diablo based on Mount Diablo,

  98. Mitch Rapp26

    April 4, 2021 at 2:51 am

    Now the question is….does it have covid in it

  99. RiverHigurashi

    April 4, 2021 at 3:07 am

    What if you don’t have a patio/lanai in your apartment? 🤔

  100. Faysal Osman

    April 4, 2021 at 4:03 am

    I am actually looking really forward to starlink than the 5G Verizon and T-mobile are talking about.

  101. FARIS art

    April 4, 2021 at 4:33 am

    Amazing

  102. Car Jac

    April 4, 2021 at 11:44 am

    i bet we would see a lot of these in the next burning man.

  103. JimL

    April 4, 2021 at 1:03 pm

    Excellent latency, especially considering the propagation delay.

  104. FireScull

    April 4, 2021 at 1:27 pm

    I live in Ontario Canada, and Starlink has yet to be open to people in my area, but when it does, OH MAN! My internet speeds are super slow, with around 20 Mbps Download, and 5 Mbps Upload speeds, not to mention like 70-90 fps on average NA servers on games.

  105. Calvin Wong

    April 4, 2021 at 1:43 pm

    Need to lower the monthly charges! 😀 so everyone can enjoy!

  106. MrRene1968

    April 4, 2021 at 2:00 pm

    I pay 130 dollars a month for 60 Megbits/3 Megabits to my cable company. Starlink outperforms it. Sometimes I only get 20 Megabits/1.5 Megabits.

  107. RecarroJames

    April 4, 2021 at 2:58 pm

    How does one become a Beta tester?

  108. Halim Aydoğan

    April 4, 2021 at 3:31 pm

    Türktelekomdan iyi olduğu kesin

  109. Devin Watson

    April 4, 2021 at 8:09 pm

    Interesting tests. Most rural highspeed providers in Ontario (if even available) have bad reputations and reviews, they’re fleecing people. Starlink’s speeds and unlimited cap will practically guarantee we get one for my mother so she can enjoy Netflix ect. She doesn’t even live far from town but they’ve simply not expanded the coverage in twenty years with no plans in sight. Awful satellite pricing from Bell ect.. there’s another company that occasionally puts flyers in peoples’ mail holding out the promise of highspeed but then you look them up and there’s scores of consumer horror stories with folks warning in all caps whatever you do don’t fall for it ect… exclamation marks everywhere.. hopefully it all comes together!

  110. BudgetArms

    April 5, 2021 at 12:05 am

    I’ll say to my friend that I’m going to game on a mountain, I’ll see how they react

  111. BudgetArms

    April 5, 2021 at 12:08 am

    Me and the boys gaming on a mountain.

  112. Andrew Magdaleno

    April 5, 2021 at 12:47 am

    You can now work remote from anywhere. One huge game changer.

  113. HAILELLEUL TESERA

    April 5, 2021 at 3:52 am

    Elon musk is a real genius

  114. CCFlex

    April 5, 2021 at 4:57 am

    my xfinity only $60 per/m and have the same speed. have any possible faster in the future?

  115. Orange TV

    April 5, 2021 at 8:31 am

    Oh my even just 50 mbps here in Philippines, I would be really happy.

  116. Yoga with Carlos

    April 5, 2021 at 8:57 am

    42,000 more poluting items into space, awesome!

  117. Yoga with Carlos

    April 5, 2021 at 8:59 am

    Space junk!

  118. Michael Boys

    April 5, 2021 at 12:38 pm

    Considering starlink is in beta, those are some impressive results.

  119. SteichenFamily

    April 5, 2021 at 3:29 pm

    What good is an internet service that tethers you to a satellite dish? If I can’t pull out my phone and use it while hiking in the mountains, it’s worth nothing to me.

  120. Robert Spielman

    April 5, 2021 at 4:53 pm

    We’ve got DSL in rural Vermont that tops out at 7 mbps dl/1.5 mbps up for $80/month. So preordering Starlink was a no brainer: 10x speeds for only $10 more.

  121. RYANVISION

    April 5, 2021 at 4:58 pm

    I’ve been on Starlink for over a month now on a rural ranch property in CA with no other ISP options. It’s been working great for streaming, Zoom meetings, VoIP, etc. Zero issues, zero complaints, and it keeps getting better/faster.

  122. Elena Wong

    April 5, 2021 at 6:47 pm

    Wow, first time hearing about this

  123. Cody Dalipi

    April 5, 2021 at 6:50 pm

    I’m from Toronto, Ontario 🇨🇦 and I can’t wait to cancel my Bell Canada internet subscription. 🤩

  124. منير منير

    April 5, 2021 at 11:49 pm

    I hope that this device will be available in Algeria, especially this video, and your work is serious and hard. Thank you

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