StarFighter 16-inch
20 points by white-star
20 points by white-star
Starfighter 16" vs Framework 13 Pro vs Lenovo T14 gen 7
Starfighter is a premium macbook-like ultra-light laptop with a strong Linux focus. There are 14 Linux distros you can have preinstalled (or Windows). The light weight is a tradeoff for repairability.
The Starfighter was designed with last years technology, and is available now. The other two are designed with this year's technology, and will be available later this year.
Weight. Starfighter: 1.6kg, Framework: 1.3kg?, T14: 1.3kg+. The Starfighter, with its magnesium alloy frame, is surprisingly competitive against these 13" and 14" laptops, despite being 16". The 16" Macbook Pro is much heavier at 2.13kg, the 16" framework is 2.10kg.
Display. Starfighter: 16", 3840x2400, 16:10, DCI-P3 gamut, IPS+LED. Framework: 13.5", 3:2 ratio, 2880×1920 touchscreen, sRGB. T14: 14", 2880x1800, 16:10, DCI-P3, OLED. All 120Hz, but Starfighter has a 165Hz option at 2560x1600.
Keyboard. I prefer the Starfighter keyboard layout & key labels, with full size arrow key cluster, Linux modifier labels, ctrl+alt+super on both sides of space bar, no windows or copilot keys. Starfighter has 1mm travel, the other two have 1.5mm travel.
Pointing device. Starfighter and Framework have superior Mac-style haptic trackpads. T14 has a shitty mechanical trackpad that will break down quickly, so you will disable it in firmware, and you will just use the trackpoint and mouse click keys (based on experience of me and others).
Memory. Up to 64GB. Starfighter is soldered LPDDR5, other two are socketed LPCAMM2 (intel) or DDR5 (AMD). T14 has a 96GB option for AMD AI 400.
CPU. Starfighter: last year's Intel or AMD. Other two: this year's Intel Series 3 Panther Lake or AMD AI Pro 300. T14 has an AMD Pro 400 option.
Ports. T14 has 9 ports. Starfighter has 7, missing the ethernet and SIM slot. Framework has 4 ports, with swappable modules.
Firmware. Starfighter has coreboot+edkII (fast boot, highly configurable, open source), 5yrs LVFS updates, intel ME disabled. Framework has proprietary firmware, no way to disable intel ME, complaints about their LVFS support (they are more of a Windows laptop company). Lenovo supports LVFS, haven't seen recent complaints.
Repairability. Framework and T14 have 10/10 ifixit repairability. Starfighter compromises this to provide ultra light weight: only the SSD and wifi are removable/upgradable.
Sadly, I haven't found a Linux laptop that has top scores in all these categories.
T14 has a shitty mechanical trackpad
Never had a problem with my Lenovo trackpads. I tend to use the physical buttons for clicks though which is the single best feature of Thinkpads. They are a hundred times more tactile than the best trackpad click.
The Lenovo click buttons are very nice. Although drag and drop becomes a two handed operation with the trackpad.
The tactile experience of clicking the Lenovo trackpad is the worst I've ever experienced on a laptop. I find it unusable. So like you I also use the physical buttons.
The haptic feedback and click experience on a Macbook trackpad is wonderful. One finger drag and drop is no problem.
Starfighter is soldered LPDDR5
It's cruel of them to use a stock photo from what seems to be their Star BOOK repair guide but their FAQ page matches your citation https://support.starlabs.systems/hc/star-labs/articles/is-it-possible-to-replace-the-ramssdwireless#star-fighter-mk-i-and-mk-ii
I was foaming at the mouth for a 4K Matte display with all those specs and a photo of normal ram slots
Yep, I've heard it takes a bit longer to get coreboot up on a new processor/chipset so usually ships using last years. May be cheaper though?
Might make sense to compare against the Framework 16, although it has a different focus. The FW16 is very cool, but it wasn't what I was looking for, a big 13. The Starfighter is closer to that.
Good point about coreboot. Forgot to mention that coreboot is only available for Starfighter intel. The AMD port is ongoing, and will eventually be available as a firmware upgrade.
The Starfighter is not cheap. It is a totally custom design from a very small boutique company, so it doesn't have the cost benefits of large production runs.
T14 has a 96GB option for AMD AI 400
To save others the search, that one's a separate page, the t0156: https://www.lenovo.com/ca/en/p/coming-soon/thinkpad-t14-gen-7-14-inch-amd/len101t0156#:~:text=Up%20to%2096GB%20DDR5 but is also some lol with 14" 2.8K (2880x1800)
Would it be undignified to drool slightly?
The notebook is carefully designed to look like a Macbook Pro. The website is carefully designed to resemble the Apple web site related to the Macbook Pro. Smart.
The keyboard, of course, has the modifier keys backwards of the Mac. (Which is to say that the Mac has the keys backwards.) This is such a minor thing, but makes it fairly painful to switch back and forth, and to use PC keyboards with Macs or vice versa.
I for one welcome our new Linux overlords. (In the meantime I still have a Mac.)
