Star Labs StarLite Mk IV – 11" Linux laptop with Coreboot

2021-10-2511:52302108starlabs.systems

StarLite 11-inch

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Mk IV

StarLite

Small but mighty.

Star LabTop Mk IV Linux laptop computer opening to show Ubuntu Linux running

Intel Pentium Silver
N5030
processor

Type II Anodised
Aluminum
Chassis

Over-sized
Glass
Trackpad

Up to
3.1GHz
burst processing

It's in the details. The StarLite Mk IV has several new features, including a contoured heat plate, a 2MP webcam and a redesigned trackpad.

Star LabTop Mk IV Linux laptop computer opening to show Ubuntu Linux running

Open-source Firmware. The StarLite supports either American Megatrends (AMI) Aptio V or coreboot.

You can switch between AMI and coreboot firmware at any time.

coreboot configurator. When using coreboot firmware, you can configure the StarLite to your exact preferences. Whether you want to change the TDP (Thermal Design Power) or disable Clock Gating to use Qubes OS, you can do it all from one program.

65w USB-C wall charger with 3 included plugs for the UK, US and EU

Star LabTop Mk IV Linux laptop computer open back showing iconic star logo

The power of a whisper. The Intel® Pentium Silver™ processors boast impressive performance whilst offering low power consumption, and with its fanless design, it will never make more than a whisper - unless you want it to.

Increase of
14%
single-core performance

All matte. No glare. The StarLite Mk IV features an 11-inch ARC display, a true matte display that prevents glare with an Anti-Reflective Coating. It also features a hard coat rated at 3H to prevent against damage.

Star LabTop Mk IV Linux laptop computer open showing wide viewing angle of full HD IPS screen

Powered by the Over-Provisioned Star Drive. The StarLite hosts an Over-Provisioned Star Drive SSD which is incredibly fast, featuring a sequential read speed of up to 560MB/s. Over-provisioning is the inclusion of extra capacity reserved by the SSD controller to manage read and write tasks. This increases performance and IOPS (Input/Output Operations per Second) whilst enhancing reliability and endurance.

Star Drive PCIe SSD showing label with 480GB capacity

Up to
560MB/s
sequential read speed

Up to
540MB/s
sequential write speed

Backlit Keyboard
Keep typing even when the sun sets.

Glass Trackpad
Smooth, precise tracking and gestures.

Dual Speakers
Stereo Sound for clear audio.

Star LabTop Mk III Linux laptop computer open showing backlit Linux keyboard with super key

Lock on, lock off. The StarLite features function lock, that when enabled, the F-keys behave as if you are holding down the Fn key. This gives you quick access to an array of function keys designed to speed up certain tasks, such as media control and adjusting display brightness.

Star LabTop Mk III Linux laptop computer closed showing USB-C, HDMI and USB 3.0 ports

Open warranty. Laptops designed for open-source software need open warranties. Our 1-year limited warranty allows you to take your laptop apart, replace parts, install an upgrade, use any operating system and even your own firmware, all without voiding the warranty.

Regardless of the change, be it a simple SSD upgrade, or a display replacement, the only tool you will ever need is a small Phillips screwdriver.

We cannot take any responsibility or cover any damages caused during disassembly.

Star Drive SATA SSD showing label with 240GB capacity

The new standard of charging. The StarLite charges via the USB-C port and comes with a 60W Power Adapter. Utilising PD (Power Delivery), it is compatible with any USB-C device that uses this standard. The utilisation of Gallium Nitrate charger allows the charger to be 30% smaller and more efficient. It also features a USB-A port that supports QuickCharge, allowing you to charge other devices and power your laptop simultaneously.

Detachable plugs for the UK, Europe, Australia and the USA are available, allowing you to charge your laptop across the world.

65w USB-C wall charger with 3 included plugs for the UK, US and EU

UK Plug
Type G
65w USB-C wall charger with 3 included plugs for the UK, US and EU

EU Plug
Type F
65w USB-C wall charger with 3 included plugs for the UK, US and EU

US Plug
Type A
65w USB-C wall charger with 3 included plugs for the UK, US and EU

AU Plug
Type I
65w USB-C wall charger with 3 included plugs for the UK, US and EU

Star Drive SATA SSD showing label with 240GB capacity

Firmware made simple. The BIOS, Embedded Controller and SSD receive automatic firmware updates via the LVFS. Essential security features are included as standard such as options to disable the wireless and the webcam.

Built for Linux. Star Labs offer a range of laptops designed and built specifically for Linux. All of our laptops come with a choice of Ubuntu, elementary OS, Linux Mint, Manjaro, MX Linux or Zorin OS pre-installed; regardless of the distribution used, our laptops run flawlessly. To support the development of these distributions, a portion of the sale price will be given to the developers of the distribution selected*.

* elementary OS, Manjaro, MX Linux and Zorin OS only.

Star Lite Mk IV Linux laptop computer closed showing laser etched serial number and product name

Ubuntu, elementary OS, Linux Mint, Manjaro, MX Linux or Zorin OS

Choose your pre-installed distribution

Star Lite Mk III Linux laptop computer opening to show Ubuntu Linux running

Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS
Ubuntu, Kubuntu or Ubuntu MATE.

Star Lite Mk III Linux laptop computer opening to show elementary OS Linux running

elementary OS 6 "Odin"
Pantheon.

Star Lite Mk III Linux laptop computer opening to show Mint Linux running

Linux Mint 20.2 "Uma"
Cinnamon, MATE or Xfce.

Star Lite Mk III Linux laptop computer opening to show Manjaro Linux running

Manjaro 21.0 "Ornara"
Xfce, KDE Plasma or GNOME.

Star Lite Mk III Linux laptop computer opening to show MX Linux running

MX Linux 21 "Wildflower"
Xfce, KDE Plasma or Fluxbox.

Star Lite Mk III Linux laptop computer opening to show Zorin OS 15 running

Zorin OS 16 Core or Pro
Core, Education, Lite or Pro.

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Comments

By gadgetoid 2021-10-2512:032 reply

I tested the Mk III back in Dec 2020 before it dropped out of existence (parts shortage I think.) Due to relocating during the Covid chaos I actually daily drove it as my workstation for a few months (using VSCode/Slack/Discord and writing C++ for RP2040 and running more MicroPython recompiles than I'd care to imagine). The keyboard left a little to be desired (inconsistent actuation force), but having a Linux-first, mini laptop at that price point was compelling. The decent resolution (1080p at 11") screen, SATA SSD (rather than eMMC) and backlit (!!) keyboard made it worthwhile and I still use it for work.

If they've revised the keyboard/trackpad in Mk IV then it could be a pretty solid little machine.

I also had some weirdness with the USB Type-C power adapter (ha I wish this was the only hardware I could say this about) but that may or may not have been fixed (in the Mk III) with a recent firmware update. Though it did take them the best part of the year since my vague and difficult to reproduce bug reports. A 12v barrel jack supply was rock solid. No surprise there.

I know it's no Framework, but it's nice to have a System76-a-like this side of the pond.

By Abishek_Muthian 2021-10-267:53

Since linux+hardware discussions usually leads to the >$1000 laptops e.g. System76/Framework (both of which I highly recommend) or Thinkpad; I'm hijacking the top comment to mention to those who are looking to get into Linux from Windows or macOS that Linux Operating System almost certainly works well with your existing hardware or any entry-level computer too.

In fact I've been buying entry-mid level low TDP laptops with good IO for several years now and put the cost saved in massive memory + storage upgrades for that laptop. Due to the accessibility of such laptops worldwide, I find that support/bug fixes to Linux OS/kernel arrive faster as well.

For small form factors, Converting a 11" Chromebook to Linux laptop can be done with some effort[1] and the compatibility varies with the chipset. But due to Google subsidies, such portable laptops costs way lesser than purpose built Linux hardware.

[1] https://mrchromebox.tech/

By sam_lowry_ 2021-10-2513:133 reply

I use Pinebook Pro as daily driver for a couple of month, and my only complaint was about the keyboard. Even the screen is bearable.

By rjzzleep 2021-10-2513:362 reply

The SoC is really slow, do you mostly use it as a terminal to your servers? What's your rational behind getting it? The price and it being "open"?

I was running one of those 7" OneMix laptops for a while. They have 16GB ram and a 512 SSD. Apparently they have switched to 10" form factor now[1].

[1] https://www.1netbook.com/product/onenetbook-4-platinum/

By sam_lowry_ 2021-10-2513:481 reply

The SoC is not that slow if you only use Firefox to read Hacker News and Stackoverflow, and the rest of the work happens in the terminal.

I am more bothered by unreliable suspend to ram. It kind of works, but then it does not for me.

By Syonyk 2021-10-2522:32

The PBP CPUs aren't fast, but they're certainly "enough" for daily driver use if you're not insanely demanding. I use one as one of my daily drivers, and it handles web (Firefox and Chrome), Element, Marktext for editing blog posts, and various other things perfectly fine. It's not fast by any means, but it's entirely adequate. Photo editing takes a couple ticks to process, and I wouldn't try video editing on it, but neither do I do video editing, so...

Battery life is excellent (8-12 hours depending on what you're doing), the 2021 trackpad firmware solves the fact that the trackpad was beyond vile, and other than wifi glitching every couple weeks and needing a reboot, I've really got no complaints with it. Plus, it's $200, and very light.

If you're the sort of person who "needs" 64GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD with a 6C/12C workstation processor in a laptop, it's not at all useful, but it's quite a bit more capable than most people realize, and that I have no fan noise, and it doesn't roast my legs in normal use, is really quite nice.

By geokon 2021-10-2514:192 reply

I thought the Pinebook Pro screen was fantastic. 14'' feels spacious after 13.3 :) The keyboard you sorta get used to. My main problem was the 4GB of RAM that couldn't really run Emacs and Firefox simultaneously. Do you code without a browser on the side?

I've tried to have an emacs-only workflow - but lots of stuff is complicated. CIDER will now open/browse ClojureDocs, but there is still no way to display JavaDocs without a browser. I also dunno how to browser Github short of cloning every repo I use.

I'd appreciate any tips :)

However, that said, I never found the processing power problematic

By throw10920 2021-10-2515:533 reply

I'm not the GP, and I don't necessarily have a solution for you, but I'm curious about your workflow.

My 19-tab Firefox (with Gmail open) is consuming 1.2 GB, and my fully-loaded Spacemacs is ~250 MB. What's your memory consumption look like, and how many tabs do you usually have open?

Suggestions for reducing memory usage: check about:performance for high-memory tabs, use uBlock and NoScript to block large images and JavaScript from loading by default, set permissions.default.image to 2/3[1] if you have lots of image-heavy sites, I suppose?

You might just have to resign yourself to using a small number of tabs. Firefox doesn't give you a lot of knobs to tune memory usage with, and already is lighter on RAM than Chrome (at the expense of CPU/latency).

[1] http://kb.mozillazine.org/Permissions.default.image

By nanomonkey 2021-10-2516:26

Emacs has some browsing capabilities itself. I've used `eww` in the past with some success.

By gadgetoid 2021-10-2513:25

A good, cheap keyboard would be a game changer for low-end devices, it's definitely the bit I find hardest to compromise on.

By LeonM 2021-10-2514:533 reply

During a vacation last week I brought a very cheap, small laptop (~250 euro, 11" ACER) with me as an emergency laptop. Just in case something would happen at work that would require my assistance.

Naturally, one of our services crashed during my second day away (this service had been running flawlessly for 3 years prior). So I spend a bit of time using the tiny cheap laptop.

To my surprise, the tiny laptop was refreshingly nice to work with. There is something elegant about a tiny little fanless machine that you can just throw in your backpack without any worries (unlike with my multi-thousand dollar portable workstation).

The keyboard on this particular laptop was actually very nice, though the screen and trackpad are just utter crap. Though the screen was small and low resolution, it was just fine for email, some SSH sessions and light browsing.

Anyway, long story short: I am now looking at buying a small, fanless laptop with a decent trackpad and screen. The StarLite would be a good contestant.

By dejawu 2021-10-2515:583 reply

I recently got myself a 2017 Macbook (the fanless 12" one with only one USB-C port). I'd highly recommend it - it only ran me about $400. If anything, thanks to more mature USB-C and wireless ecosystems, it's nicer to use now than it was when it was new and cost $1700!

By stevecat 2021-10-2518:17

I love my 12" Macbook, I'm using it to write this reply, but goodness is the keyboard awful. I have a can of compressed air at hand at all times to blast the keys when they get stuck.

I'm about to (if the shipping notification is anything to go by) upgrade to a 14" MBP but I really hope Apple release something in this size again. It's such a pleasant laptop to use; I even work on my (2D) C++ video game on it.

By schleck8 2021-10-2516:47

I've used a Macbook Pro several times while daily driving a Windows PC and Linux occasionally, and I have to say that I didn't like it in the slightest. Not only did the model I use have two design flaws (flexgate and butterfly switch issues) and the whole device weirdly buzzed and vibrated, but the OS in general felt like a supervised playsession at times, e. g. not allowing for portable apps and making sideloading hard. It only having usb c ports made everything even worse. Being forced to use a dongle or hub each time I want to connect an external harddrive is just awful (the alternative being not using the included cables and buying a seperate one for everything).

By 91edec 2021-10-2516:182 reply

It would be interesting if Apple bring back this laptop with their M1 chips. I guess an Ipad Pro sort of fills this role hardware wise.

By r00fus 2021-10-2516:37

One could argue the M1 Air is essentially the replacement for the 2015+ MacBook (better perf, battery life, ports screen, but slightly bigger).

By doublepg23 2021-10-2518:50

I just sold a Early 2015 model and I agree. The M1 would be perfect for this machine. The form factor of the MacBook Air is still quite a bit bigger, it's truly wild how thin and light the 12" was.

By GekkePrutser 2021-10-2520:15

Yep I got my Chuwi 14" for the same reason. To use in situations where I'm not very comfortable using an expensive laptop.

And like yourself I was impressed with the speed, display and battery life. I would have been disappointed if it had cost me 1000 euro. But for 180, wow. It's much better than I thought it would be.

Even 4 years later I still use it a lot. I'm not really a laptop guy anyway, I prefer desktops so this is in fact my only personal laptop in active use.

By necrotic_comp 2021-10-2515:081 reply

what was the model of the acer ? I have an asus 1015e that is my favorite computer I've ever had, but it's very old at this point and essentially unusable because its disk is so slow and it has very little memory.

I'd love to replace it with something more usable.

By LeonM 2021-10-2515:401 reply

It's an Acer Aspire ES1-132 series N16Q6. I don't think it's still for sale. I also would not recommend it, the screen is really bad (though was to be expected for the low price), the trackpad is quite bad also.

I run Linux on it with i3wm, so I don't bother with the low hardware specs, I rarely use the trackpad. A better screen would be nice though, hence that I am interested in the StarLite.

By rbanffy 2021-10-2516:02

I have a similar one that I bought for exactly the same reasons - something I wouldn’t be too sad if ran over by a car.

It’s now with my daughter, as her homeschooling computer (schools have since returned to normal where I live, but the kids still use Teams and other apps to keep in touch). It’s definitely recommended.

By codezero 2021-10-2519:562 reply

I've been beating myself up trying to understand why cheap 11" laptops aren't more common.

Ten years ago the atom based "netbooks" were ~$200-300. Yes, they had almost no RAM, eMMC storage, and archaic wifi chips, but it's been 10 years, and I'm surprised they can't still put out a Pentium Silver system with even slightly modern internals for around the same price now.

My best guess is volume. The netbook experiment failed and nobody is going to invest in a large enough volume of devices to make the costs worthwhile. Also, tablets and phones can do what you'd probably do on this device anyways, except for the form factor.

Still, it bugs me. This device has nice specs, but as others have pointed out, it looks like it's probably just been thrown together from a reference which also makes me worry about whether this company will be around long enough to service it if something goes wrong a year from now.

I guess I should just suck it up and buy a used 11" MacBook - there is one with an NVIDIA dgpu that my wife had at one point and it was quite a little power house.

By paxys 2021-10-2520:291 reply

The Netbook category was taken over by Chromebooks

By codezero 2021-10-264:34

But they’ve never gone under about $200 MSRP despite not really delivering better or more advanced hardware on par with the advancement of the market.

By fulafel 2021-10-2520:231 reply

There are popular 10-12" Chromebooks & hybrid tablets with flippable or attachable keyboards.

By codezero 2021-10-264:351 reply

Prices just seemed to hit an arbitrary floor without the technology being of higher quality to justify the still high price. Couldn’t a Chromebook have three or four year old tech at this point costing a half of the price?

By fulafel 2021-10-265:00

The tech is definitely higher quality, and so are current requirements from users and apps. People hated the cheapest netbooks for a reason.