SpaceX preps portable Starlink Standard Gen4 dish and rugged Mini with battery for IPO release

SpaceX will have more to show for its record-breaking IPO, it seems, as the next Starlink dish generation firmware has been unearthed, and Elon Musk is confirming that there will indeed be new Standard and Mini kits coming.

SpaceX is gearing up to release two new Starlink dish terminals that are thinner and more travel-friendly than their predecessors, with one of them rumored to go fully off-grid with its own battery. Elon Musk has never been shy about using a product demo to double as a PR event, and his latest appearance for a SpaceX AI satellite briefing was no different.

Sitting conspicuously on the table in front of him were two brand-new Starlink dishes that he confirmed are "the new Starlink terminals, which we make in much higher volume than the current terminals." That was pretty much the extent of Musk's commentary, but the hardware did plenty of talking on its own, as both units looked noticeably slimmer and more compact than the existing Standard and Mini dishes currently on sale.

2026 Starlink Standard V4 and Mini dish specs and release date

• Release: expected Q2–Q3 2026
• New Standard (rev5): smaller form factor, closer in size to the current backpack-friendly Mini
• New Mini Rugged: built-in battery, USB-C charging, additional telemetry stream

The slimming of the new Standard dish had already been telegraphed by the Ukrainian Starlink teardown expert Oleg Kutkov, who spotted a new "rev5" board string in the latest Starlink firmware, alongside multiple "prod" variants suggesting active production. The current V4 Standard, introduced in late 2023, appears to be getting a proper successor that shrinks toward Mini territory in terms of footprint.

Even more intriguing is what Kutkov also found in said firmware: a MINI1_RUGGED_PROD1 device string, pointing to a tougher variant of the Mini dish. Separately, a University of Victoria research team identified firmware code referencing PowerSource_BATTERY, PowerSource_USBC, and DishBatteryStats, which are fields to monitor state of charge and active charging.

The current Mini that is available on Amazon for $360 requires an external power supply or third-party battery pack, so a version with a self-contained power source would be welcome news for field deployment, emergencies, and anyone who wants truly untethered satellite Internet without carrying a tangle of adapters.

SpaceX has not officially confirmed specs or pricing for either model, but with Musk showcasing them on camera and confirming they are already in production, a launch may be timed to coincide with or follow the long-anticipated SpaceX IPO.