A remote work day on battery
By Roaming Dish Editors. Updated October 18, 2026. How we work these numbers out
A workday of video calls keeps the Mini near the top of its range. Plan on 40 W for eight hours, about 320 Wh at the dish, before your laptop takes its share.
1,070 Wh × 90% usable × 90% for USB-C ÷ 40 W = about 22 hours of video calls. The dish's draw is from its spec sheet. The two percentages are our estimates.
How long it runs
| Setup | Hours per full charge |
|---|---|
| 1,070 Wh station, video calls Mini at 40 W (video calls), USB-C | 22 h |
| 768 Wh station, video calls Mini at 40 W (video calls), USB-C | 16 h |
| 288 Wh station, video calls Mini at 40 W (video calls), USB-C | 6 h |
| 72 Wh USB-C power bank, video calls Mini at 40 W (video calls), USB-C | 1 h |
Usable capacity taken as 90% of the rating. Connection losses are our estimates. Try your own battery.
The workday budget
The top of the Mini's official range is 40 W, so eight hours of calls is about 320 Wh at the dish. Getting that out of a battery over USB-C takes roughly 395 Wh of rated capacity, using our 90% usable and 90% connection estimates. Mini spec sheet
Your laptop and phone come out of the same battery. Check the wattage on your laptop charger, multiply by the hours you work, and add it to the dish figure. The calculator on the home page covers the dish only.
Picking the station
Stations around 1,000 Wh give a full workday with a good margin. Around 300 Wh, the dish alone uses most of the battery and the laptop does not fit.
Whatever you buy, check that the USB-C port is rated for 100 W. Two USB-C ports at 100 W each let the dish and a laptop charge at once.
Connection quality
The Mini's built-in Wi-Fi covers up to 112 square meters and up to 128 devices, enough for a campsite table or a small cabin. Mini spec sheet
Where to set up
The Mini's field of view is 110 degrees, so it wants open sky above it more than a perfect view of the horizon. A dish under trees will drop calls even with a full battery. Mini spec sheet
Put the dish where it can see the sky and run the cable to where you work. The official USB-C cable is 5 m, and the DC cables come in 15 m and 30 m lengths, which gives room to keep the battery in the shade with you.
A two-battery day
If one station will not cover the dish and the laptop, split them: the dish on the station, the laptop on its own battery. The laptop's battery is often enough for half the day without any help.