Star Labs finally launches the StarFighter Linux laptop with premium specs (and pricing)

Star Labs has been selling Linux laptops and mini PCs since 2017. While most of the company’s products have featured budget or mid-range hardware, Star Labs introduced a premium laptop called the StarFighter in 2022… and then never managed to ship that laptop. Until now.

The Star Labs StarFighter is a Linux laptop with a 16 inch high-res, high refresh-rate display, Intel and AMD processor options, and a relatively compact design. It’s also an expensive laptop, with starting prices ranging from $1878 to $3573.

The starting price is for a model with an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H Meteor Lake processor and a 16 inch, 2560 x 1600 pixel, 165 Hz IPS LCD display with a matte finish and 32GB of LPDDR5x-7500 onboard memory.

You’ll have to pay a lot more if you want a higher-performance model though. Star Labs offers two higher-priced models that both have 3840 x 2400 pixel, 120 Hz displays:

• Intel Core Ultra 9 285H + 64GB RAM for $2843
• AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS + 64GB RAM for $3573

I honestly have no idea why the AMD model costs over $700 more than the version with an Intel Arrow Lake processor. It has an AMD chip that’s a few years old at this point, and which scores lower than the Intel processor in CPU benchmarks.

All three versions of the laptop ship standard with a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD, but you can pay extra for additional storage or bring your own – there are two M.2 2280 slots inside the laptop for storage, plus an M.2 2230 slot populated by an Intel AX210 wireless card with support for WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.

Some other features that all models have include a magnesium alloy chassis, two M.2 2280 slots for storage, a backlit keyboard, a glass-covered haptic trackpad, upward-facing stereo speakers, and an 80 Wh battery.

The StarFighter laptop measures 357 x 244 x 20mm (14.1″ x 9.6″ x 0.8″) and weighs 1.6 kg (3.52 pounds).

Ports include:

• 2 x Thunderbolt 4 (or USB4 on the AMD model)
• 3 x USB Type-A
• 1 x HDMI 2.0
• 1 x microSD card reader
• 1 x 3.5mm audio

The notebook comes with a 65W USB Type-C power adapter.

One other interesting thing about this laptop? The 1080p webcam is physically removable. There’s a magnetic connector that lets you attach it to the top of the screen when you’re using it. But instead of sliding a cover over the camera to protect your privacy when you’re not planning to be filmed, you can physically disconnect the camera and store it in a slot in the computer’s chassis.

There’s also a wireless kill switch that disables WiFi and Bluetooth.

Another thing that sets this laptop apart from most is that not only does it ship with popular a Linux distribution like Ubuntu, but Star Labs offers a range of Linux distro options including elementary OS, Fedora, Linux Mint, Manjaro, MX Linux, Zorin OS, and Qubes. You can also pay for a Windows license if you really want one.