Outdoor Revolution has introduced an entire range of affordable air tents for 2021. I picked the Outdoor Revolution Camp Star 600 for review because I found it the most intriguing: it has won the Camping Magazine’s ‘Best Family Tent 2021’ award.
Outdoor Revolution Camp Star 600 Air tent review
The Camp Star range air tents
The Camp Star air tents range has 6 members, the smallest is a spacious 3-berth air tent (Campstar 350), while the biggest is the Campstar 1200.
Between the two, there are 5, 6 an 7+2 berth air tents. The overall aim was to keep the costs as low as possible, so the materials and fabrics are cheap…eeerm…lightweight. Having said that, every Camp Star air tent comes with a carpet (called Dura-thread) and a footprint, so at least you don’t have to hunt them down separately.
As for the fabrics, lightweight is good, the thickness of the flysheet is around 70gsm (120HDE), the HH rating is 3000mm and the seams are fully taped.
Outdoor Revolution Campstar 600 – more than 7 metres long with a versatile porch entrance and large, clear windows.
Outdoor Revolution Camp star 600 – Pros
- large living room
- customisable: optional front canopy, side porch, all the smart outdoor revolution accessories
- footprint and carpet included
- advanced air frame system
The strength of the Outdoor Revolution Camp star 600 is definitely its large living area and its three bedrooms.
Outdoor Revolution Camp Star 600 – large porch with the footprint under your feet, easy access entrance to the living room and to the darkened bedrooms.
The whole tent is quite large, more than 7 metres long and over 25 metres square; and the living room in itself is over 10 square metres. There’s also a porch, albeit not a big one; but you can further extend it with an optional front canopy (sold separately). The front canopy is a universal one, it fits onto most Campstar air tents.
You can make the living room even bigger by the optional side porch.
There are three bedrooms, each is 120 cms wide. They are spearated by a toggled divider.
The tent weighs 31 kgs (plus pump etc.), which is the territory of a two-man lift if you intend to lift it into the roofbox. Do check your roofbox though, because the bag of the Campstar 600 is quite large: 87 x 58 x 42 cm. You’ll need a big roofbox to allow for an at least 42 cms internal height.
As for access and ventillation: the side doors are large and fully meshed. The front door between the porch and the living room is enermous, almost takes up the entire width of the tent and the fully sewn in ground sheet drops flat, so there is no trip hazard when entering the living room. The footprint extends to the porch area.
Full mesh side door on the Outdoor Revolution Camp Star 600. It is compatible with all the Outdoor Revolution goodies such as the Lumi-link lighting system
Pitching is easy, Outdoor Revolution’s airframe system is one of the most advanced systems on the market. The pump is included, but if you think that 5 air tubes are a bit too many for you to pump manually, you can always opt for an electric pump such as this one by Kampa that I can fully recommend – you just set the psi and watch the tent inflating…
Outdoor Revolution Camp star 600 – Cons
- 120 cm bedrooms x 3 – limited versatility
- large carrybag
- a bit pricey
Okay, so I already mentioned the large – 87 x 58 x 42 cm – carry bag. As a comparison, a few other 6-person air tents that I have reviewed recently:
Lichfield Eagle Air 6 – same tent size, much much bigger carry bag (82 x 60 x 60 cm) but it is slightly lighter (28 kgs), despite the Vango Sentinel Exclusive-equivalent flysheet (that’s one category up from the Campstar 600’s 120HDE flysheet)
Vango Joro 600XL Air – 80 x 46 x 46 cms carry bag weighing only 25 kgs, the size of the Vango Joro 600XL is identical to the Outdoor Revolution Campstar 600.
Vango Stargrove II Air 600XL – 80 * 46 * 46 cm and it weighs 25 kgs, again, the size is identical to the Campstar 600.
So as you can see, competition has kept the weight lower, and kept the bag smaller (sort of).
As with all the other 6-person air tents, I believe that 60 cms per head in the bedrooms is just not enough; or it certainly limits the fun factor. You’ll definitely need narrow beds if you intend to use them as a 5- person or 6-person tent, or you don’t use beds/mattresses at all.
Outdoor Revolution Campstar 600 floorplan – 60 cms per head in the bedrooms…
Having only 120cms in width is a bit limiting but may be suitable for up to two kids on a narrow double mattress or on trekking mattresses.
Though the sleeping area is split into 3 bedrooms, you don’t really have versatility: even if you remove one divider, you’ll end up with one bedroom that’s too small, and one that’s unnecessarily big. Unless you have 4 kids, the Outdoor Reolution Campstar 600 will most likely be used as a 4-person tent. But for 4-persons, the bedroom layout is just not ideal. It’s only my opinion though…
Outdoor Revolution Camp Star 600 – Good size family tent that you won’t regret buying, just don’t look at the competition.
Lastly, the pricing…
You may remember the Outdoor Revolution Cruiz 6.0TXL – Outdoor revolution’s previous attempt on a lightweight and affordable 6-berth family air tent. It was only two years ago, I reviewed them here: Outdoor Revolution Cruiz Air Tents Complete Guide.
So, compared to the Cruiz 6.0 TXL for example , which was on sale for £499-£649, the Campstar 600 for £869 feels a bit overly optimistic for me…again, the Cruiz range air tents came out only two years ago and if you were lucky enough you could still buy one last year…
Compared to the 6-berth tents I already mentioned above, prices are as follows (at the time of writing this post):
Vango Stargrove II Air 600XL: £679 (£720 with footprint and carpet) – detailed review here
Vango Joro Air 600XL: £799 with footprint and carpet – detailed review here
Lichfield Eagle Air 6: £889 with footprint and carpet – detailed review here
No wonder, the two Vangos are out of stock almost everywhere – this may be the only chance for the Outdoor Revolution Campstar 600…but, for a £100 more you can buy the Campstar 1200 12-berth air tent with 6 large bedrooms (70 cms per head).
Is the Outdoor Revolution Camp Star 600 recommended? – Verdict
So don’t know. I’d say I recommend the Outdoor Revolution Campstar 600 for its qualities – it certainly is a good tent – if it was not for the competition. While the Campstar 600 is definitely not a buy that you will regret, the competition (looking at the Vango Stargrove II 600 especially) seems better value for money to me.
|| Buy the Outdoor Revolution Camp star 600 at Winfields Outdoors ||
|| Buy the Outdoor Revolution Camp star 600 at Leisure Outlet ||
Outdoor Revolution Camp Star 600 recommended accessories
- Side porch
- Front canopy
- Lumi-link lighting system
- Outdoor Revolution inflatable furniture
- Outdoor Revolution 12V electric pump
