Star Labs Systems, a UK-based Linux hardware startup, has finally launched the StarFighter laptop — a high-performance laptop built with premium materials and designed primarily to run a Linux operating system.

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[–] 79 points 4 months ago* (22 children)

Unfortunately, the StarFighter uses soldered RAM, so users cannot upgrade it down the road

And like that, any interest I had in that system is gone.

In 2026, it's unforgivable for any system to have soldered components. I'm not about to spend premium pricing(in this case it's almost $1900 USD starting) on a system that if a ramstick dies I have to replace the entire main board.

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  • [–] 31 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Especially when Framework exists, and to a lesser extent, Valve's hardware.

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago (13 children)

    While I'm with you, there is one advantage: RAM can work on higher speeds when soldered and few actually upgrade it when not soldered.

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  • [–] 22 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    I agree with that. My issue isn't upgrading it, It's a laptop. It's unlikely I would upgrade it anyway just because of the compact design. My issue is strictly the repairing/replacing a damaged component point of view. Soldered components easily turns a repair job from "does this person have access to YouTube?" to a "do I still know a shop that's willing to still use a soldering iron?"

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    A soldering iron isn’t going to get the job done for high density BGA packages. Example chip:

    All those dots are balls of solder. The chip needs to be placed on the board in exactly the right position and orientation, and then the whole thing placed in a reflow oven so that the solder balls can melt and flow appropriately without bridging any connections.

    Doing this at home without the right tools is essentially impossible. With the right tools, it’s merely quite difficult. Reflow soldering takes experience and carries the risk of damaging other components on the board which may not survive the temperatures in the reflow oven, so need to be removed first. Plus the reflowing procedure itself is guided by a temperature profile which would have been developed through experience in the factory with specific adjustments for the thermal characteristics of this board. Get the profile wrong and you may break other connections when the solder fails to flow, or have other chips on the board come loose.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah, thats true but framework solved this with LPCAMM2 modules, which have much higher write speeds that sodimm. And just because "few actually upgrade it" doesnt mean all ram should be soldered, as having unsoldered ram caters to a completely different consumer market.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Didn't they go with soldered RAM with their desktop PC, though?

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago*

    They did but there was no alternative for the "AI Max", it has much higher requirements for bandwith than traditional CPU RAM. They were investigating the possibility for LPCAMM2 or LPCAMM for that system but it was not feasible to maintain that bandwith while retaining data integrity. For the Desktop it was the right choice. It was designed for local inference applications and there the memory bandwidth is absolutely crucial.

    For the new Framework 13 Pro however with an Intel based SOC they have now successfully implemented LPCAMM2.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    I understand, but I had to trash a great laptop because the soldered ram died. Never again.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    If you took it to a place that does board repair place I'm sure they'd replace it for you.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago

    In Australia there's a company called microtec engineering.

    We send crane to boards and displays etc to them for repairs.

    10k for a new component or 2k to freight repair and return.

    And often a life saver on machines that are so old the manufacturer has discontinued parts.

    We had that repaired last year by them.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    The laptop was announced back in 2022, they've had some problems with suppliers which is why it's a bit odd for a 2026 laptop.

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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

    Painful price point. Thats about as much as my current desktop PC, all peripherials included.

    Edit: before ram prices went mental, but post GPU price shift

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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Am I alone as an EU citizen that I don't bother with buying anything from the UK since brexit was finalized? I can't be bothered to look up whether the customs crap has been resolved or not and I don't feel like finding out either. It's basically the same to me as made in the US.

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago

    This is actually impressive. Y'all dunking on it probably don't realize just how tiny this company is, yet they somehow managed to pull this off without being just another Clevo reseller. It's a whole custom chassis that actually looks sick, and a sane keyboard layout.

    Unfortunately, this is probably the worst possible time to launch a laptop. Those prices are wild, and I say that as someone willing to pay a premium for Linux support. I also already upgraded recently, so it'll be a pass from me for now... But I wish them the best of luck!

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago

    And y'all in the comments wonder why Linux doesn't get the support it deserves.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    Why does it seem to be impossible to find smol laptops these days?

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    Framework has you covered there.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Even the Framework 12 is bigger than I'd like.

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  • [+] 2 points 4 months ago (11 children)
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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (6 children)

    Same! I heard Raspberry Pis kind of use Risc-V. But I don't understand enough to know which of their devices do.

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  • [+] 2 points 4 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago* (2 children)

    Oh man, this thing is long. I just need to know what I can use to host a Valheim server with.

    There is no way thing can run a Valheim server:

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    LMAO. Good luck with that. Absolutely absurd price point.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    This is great for business users!

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