Star Labs Systems Reviews 

MK V lite... Ok so first some disclaimers. I'm not a programmer by any means. I can usually figure things out. I just received my lite after original order placed late September last year. I've had it in my hands for only about 24hrs. I believe in these guys and what they're doing, I don't mind waiting, but this took quite some time.

Initial startup was very fast and efficient. Updates that were needed, happened very quickly. Initially, the keyboard would not work. After some jiggling around, I think the contacts popped into place. I've had it in and out of the keyboard holder, and about 2/3 of time I had to jiggle it a bit before the back lights came on and it was detected. Now it seems to have self resolved. Hoping that continues to work. It took me a while to get the micro sd to work. I've never had to go thru the steps that I had to on this but after going to computer:/// (it was the only place that showed the adapter/card) I did a complete reformat and options choice and boom! I now have 1TB storage there. Several programs I use on my desktop downloaded quickly and efficiently and appear to work without concern. Admittedly I haven't had this long but with my little Linux knowledge, I'm up and running. New users I would say this, restart it. When in doubt, just restart. I had to restart it at least 3 times to get all the hardware to be found and activated. This was a suggestion by forums, which were right on target.

I appreciate the secure nature of it, the purity of open source and a buildable and repairable platform where most are not.

Pros: I received updates from starlabs almost daily as they were getting close to shipping, and updates to shipping were readily available. Initial setup was super fast and even beginners can do it. Large, clear screen. Battery should go thru standard full charge to full discharge cycles but battery seems to last a very long time. Anyone who has used Ubuntu will settle in quickly.

Cons: The order took a long time. Like most Linux items, hardware can be tricky to set up (my micro SD problem) and resolving them is not intuitive. The touch screen alone was awkward on startup. I believe the system was continuing to setup as I was starting to use it, but keyboard and touch pad bypass that. After it went through updates etc, it seems to work fine. A history with Ubuntu helps as again, adjustments are not necessarily intuitive. I don't see these hardware setup concerns as being faulty hardware, so much as setup in the software being slower, glitchy and not super obvious for the non programmer (Ubuntu, take note on this please).

If things change, I will update but it looks like a winner! I'm hoping to have great things to report as time goes on. Best of luck, starlabs! Long live Linux.

Purchased a Mark IV 3.5 years ago. First year was perfect but problems started arising the next year. First the power supply died, then the Intel wifi/bt chip on the motherboard died, and now the hard drive has failed. I truly regret my purchase now. High end laptops are supposed to last much longer than 3.5 years and instead I'm going to have to purchase a new laptop (from someplace other than Star Labtop obviously).

EDIT: Based on Star Labtop reply to my review, I'll leave more data. I worked with Star Labtop service tech for 2 weeks to find out what was wrong with the Intel wifi/bt chip on the motherboard. His conclusion after many attempts to resolve my issue was the chip had failed and I could ship my Mark IV back and accept the risk to replace the chip. Instead, I bought a wifi dongle and used my existing bluetooth transceivers to get around the issue of the failed Intel chip. Regarding the hard drive failure, I've experienced 3 random inode corruption events on the ssd root partition during booting over a 2 month period. After a manual fsck disk repair, the corrupted inode issue reoccurs. Since there's hasn't been any power surges/outages during a write to disk activity and I haven't installed any new SW onto the drive long before the 1st issue occurred, it's highly doubtful SW is causing the corrupted inodes. That only leaves HW as the culprit.

Equipo Comprado en Octubre y no recibido aun en diciembre. Una Verdadera Estafa no comprar nunca aqui

I am so thankful to this company for producing high quality Linux laptops. I bought the Starlite MKIV and Starport. Couldn't be happier with the build quality.

When I contacted them their reply was prompt and helpful. Keep up the good work Star Labs.

Worth noting that dispatch time can be slow. Their products must be in demand and I'm sure they are doing what they can to improve this, must not be easy. You just can't get this level of product elsewhere and it is worth the wait.

5 stars company.
Amazing machines and prices, unbeatable support service

Love my Star Lite Mk IV. Amazing quality for a great price. Perfect little laptop for on the go!

This small, compact, solid and well-built machine is truly beyond my expectations at this price point. To be honest, I was a little sceptical of the Pentium processor, but this thing is quicker than I could have ever imagined. Maybe it's coreboot, but this boots fast and battery life is amazing, all whilst it is completely silent. The 11-inch screen is bright and precise, showing details at a Full HD resolution. The webcam is even 2 MegaPixel's, something that many other manufacturers only include on a more expensive machine. Overall, I'm blown away by such quality from a fairly unknown company. Keep your eyes on StarLabs, as they appear to know what their doing and have built an amazing little machine. Thank you StarLabs!

I ordered by laptop in January this year (2022) it is now July (2022) and I have still not received my order. I have been in contact with their customer support multiple times and so far all I have is smoke and mirror excuses.

Yes, I understand Covid shut down factories, yes I understand there is a global component shortage. The real issue is lack of transparency, all their wording on their status page is designed for obfuscation, no real data. Promises of updates that never appear and previous updates on their status page disappear so their history is cloaked in secrecy.

I have so far had no response to my last email requesting a transparent and honest update of the situation.

I've since had an update from Starlabs following this negative review. I have told them I will keep the faith and await delivery when the manufacture process is complete and I have one in my hands.

If and when that happens I will update this review with an honest review of it's performance and quality of build. The market place does need companies like Star labs to succeed so there is a viable alternative to the mainstream lock in bundles on offer by mainstream big bucks inc.

excellent customer service, quick and friendly. They offer DHL as an option for delivery which i also appreciated (because DHL is superior to eg UPS). The laptops are a good price for a custom build, linux laptop, especially the 11 inch, it's a good option if you want to try linux and dont have a lot to spend.

Great product and service.
StarLabs is a great option for made-for-linux computers. The hardware is great and works nicely.

I also ended up breaking my plug, which led me to activate their support and it was super smooth. From breaking my computer to it being back on my desk it took less than 2 weeks. Support was also super helpful in diagnosing the problem remotely

I can only recommend StarLabs.

Extra bonus: the only hardware in the market (at least that I know of) that comes with IME disabled