SpaceX has offered Starlink customers a $199 backpack designed to carry the Starlink V4 satellite antenna, which launched about a year ago. For previous versions of the dishes, SpaceX sold a suitcase, and it initially cost more.
Image source: starlink.com
«The standard backpack is designed to accommodate all the components of a standard Starlink kit, including a Gen 3 router, a standard 5 meter Starlink cable, and a laptop up to 16 inches,” the product description reads. The backpack is compact in size and attractive in appearance, especially compared to the suitcase that SpaceX sold to carry the relatively bulky second-generation saucer.
The Starlink V4 dish is approximately 3.8cm thick and can easily be placed next to your laptop. The backpack is reliable enough to protect the contents “from bad weather,” SpaceX said. It has already gone on sale on the satellite provider’s website, but it will not be delivered to the first customers until two or three weeks later. The backpack promises to be the most popular among subscribers to the Roam tariff plan, which allows you to use satellite communications not only at your home address.
However, the price tag of $199 may scare off buyers – in some American states, the Starlink V4 dish itself was sold for this price last summer. But the suitcase for the second generation equipment set was even more expensive – at the start of sales it cost $250, but then the price dropped to $175. This summer, SpaceX also released the Starlink Mini dish, which is comparable in size to a regular laptop and fits into a regular backpack.