Transcript
Hi guys, today I'll be doing a review of the Starlink Mini I got around January this year. I purchased it for about ₦318k, which included the product price itself and also the shipping fee. Uh, now this might not be within most people's budgets, but trust me, if you're heavy-duty network user, you play games, you do software engineering tasks, you watch movies a lot like I do, then it might be a very, very good fit for you. Subsequently, I've been paying, uh, ₦57,000 per month for this subscription. That's the, I think, the most, uh, the basic subscription they have there, which is a residential plan, uh, and that gives me access to unlimited, uh, data. When I say unlimited, it is actually unlimited, not like when you use this to maybe, um, 100 gig, they limit you. Nah, that doesn't happen. I have used, uh, the subscription up to 1.5 terabytes and it still didn't stop me from using it even more. I play games a lot, right? So, uh, my network usage is pretty heavy. I watch a lot of movies online as well. So this so far for me is like, uh, it has been a very, very like good financial decision, especially when it comes to internet subscriptions. We all know how dirty that can be for Nigeria. I would have shown you what the router looks like, but it is mounted on my roof already. The next alternative is I would show you the statistics from my mobile device and also what the box looks like and what you might be able to expect when you purchase yours. So this is what you get when you purchase, um, you get your new Starlink, you get just this kind of box, although it should be sealed. By the way, mine is no longer sealed because I've been using it for quite some time now. So, um, it should come with a mount that, um, you can use to just lay it on a flat surface. For a long time, I was using it on my fence, so I put it on my fence initially before I mounted it on the roof. So, uh, this is what you would expect. It comes with a manual, of course it comes with the manual, nobody reads this so yeah. Then, um, it comes with this pack that is, that was used for the, um, networking, uh, sorry, for the power cable, which I would attach a picture on your screen right now. Then, um, this is the mount I was initially using when it was on the fence, this here. Then it comes with, I think this is called an Allen key, just to tighten in, uh, tighten the, uh, the device on the pole before you mount it on your roof, so to say. Yeah, then, um, yeah, the installation is pretty straightforward. It's, uh, easy. It's nice. Since I set up there, I have, I have not even had the means, I've not even had the need to just look at it like, uh, just to monitor what could be going on or whatever. I've just been using it and it just works. Now, the drawback most people might have with the Starlink router is the, uh, the range for the Wi-Fi. Some people have a very big apartment, some people have their router mounted in a very high altitude, like a very high location, so the network speed is— the network speed and, uh, connection is just— it's just reduced. So some people might want to go for a range extender and all sorts of things, right? But if you just want to keep things straightforward, the alternative would be getting a TP Link. Yeah, so this is what I'm using, which is, um, a wireless router that also has wired connection. It comes with, um, I think, yeah, it comes with about 4 ports for me to connect. Then this here is the input port, then these other ones are for your other devices, right? Uh, you might want to read the manual for installation. This in itself is not too tricky to set up, but if you're not really someone that deals with, uh, network or kind of tech savvy in a way, you might find it difficult. So the next thing I want to talk about is, uh, still on the subscription plan. Now, unlimited data in Nigeria is something else. ₦57k gives you unlimited as well in Nigeria, but when you get to certain network speed, you get capped. Like, you just wouldn't be able to really use it anymore. They would ask you to pay more. Uh, ₦57k might sound like a lot, but on the long run, you spend up to that amount using the available network providers in Nigeria. So it's up to you to make a better financial decision. Just to give you perspective, when I got mine, this is the entire receipt I got here. And so far this month, I have used 207GB since, since July 2022. I've used 207GB as you can see, and last month I used 1.25TB. So if you ask me, should you get a Starlink Mini? A better question would be, why have you not gotten a Starlink Mini? Thank you for watching. I'll see you on the next one. Cheers!
