When it comes to Linux pre-loaded laptops, I have looked at hardware from most of these vendors over the past 22+ years of Phoronix. One vendor I haven't had the chance to personally test until now is the UK-based Star Labs. That changed recently and over the past few weeks I have been testing out their new StarFighter laptop that offers great Linux support and comes pre-loaded with Coreboot and streamlined firmware updates via LVFS. For those after a high-end mobile workstation, the Star Labs StarFighter offers a lot of performance potential while being open-source friendly and with Coreboot in tow.
The StarFighter isn't Star Labs first foray into Coreboot-based devices but over the past six years we've covered a lot of their Coreboot happenings as well as embracing the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) with Fwupd for easily deploying new firmware updates. Star Labs doesn't manufacture their own laptops but relies on Clevo as an ODM but with Coreboot allows for a nice differentiator compared to many other similar laptops out there for Linux users.
Star Labs' StarFighter comes in both AMD Ryzen (Ryzen 7 8845HS) or Intel Core Ultra 5 / Core Ultra 9 options with the review model supplied by Star Labs being based around their Core Ultra 9 285H model. The Core Ultra 9 285H Arrow Lake SOC sports 16 cores between 6 P cores, 8 E cores, and 2 LPE cores while featuring a maximum turbo frequency of 5.4GHz. Quite a lot of performance potential out of this Arrow Lake mobile SOC with a 45 Watt base power rating and turbo up to 115 Watts. The Core Ultra 9 285H features Intel Arc Pro 140T integrated graphics.
The Core Ultra 9 285H Star Fighter laptop comes with 64GB of LPDDR5X-7500 memory pre-installed for sufficient memory capacity for most of today's computing needs.
With the Star Fighter there is a 16-inch display at 3840 x 2400 resolution with 120Hz refresh rate to offer for a very nice viewing experience. This matte IPS display has been very nice over my use of the Star Fighter the past number of weeks.
While the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H does support PCIe Gen 5, a PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD is used with the StarFighter. The Gen4 driver can help with lower power and better thermals while the 1TB Samsung 990 EVO Plus drive used still delivers nice balanced performance.
The chassis for the Star Fighter laptop is made of AZ91D Magnesium Alloy with a Micro Arc optimized finish. Connectivity on the laptop includes two USB-C, one HDMI 2.0 output, and three USB-A. The USB-C on the Intel Core Ultra models support Thunderbolt 4. There is also a microSD slot and 3.5mm combo audio jack.
The StarFighter relies on USB-C charging and included with the laptop was a 65 Watt USB-C charger. That was a bit surprising considering the Core Ultra 9 285H alone has a 80 Watt PL2. So with the default 65W charger it's possible for the StarFighter to draw more power than what can be supplied by the USB-C charger or allowing for more headroom if upgrading to a larger charger. The StarFighter laptop has an 80Wh battery and rated for up to an 18 hour battery life depending upon usage conditions and settings.
All of the hardware components for the StarFighter were selected for a first-rate Linux experience, including Intel AX210 WiFI 6E support. For those concerned about privacy, the 1080p@60 HD web camera is removeable.