Ro, the superstar looks like an awesome plane, yes the electristar has more bells and whistles but to run either with Lipo you will need
a new ESC and A lipo pack which isn't cheap for these planes. Also a Lipo charger. You could easily get away with a 3800 NIMH 7 cell pack for the S. star and dramatically increase runtime and performance.

As you are a new flier longer flights are not that good of a thing. You will find yourself becoming fatigued rather quickly when you first start. I have about 50 flights since I soloed and I keep my flight times to about 8 mins.

Take a while and learn on the smaller motor and shorter flight times and upgrade when you become a proficient flyer.

Please look around and talk to a local club about getting instruction. It will help tou to learn fast, proper, and help save your investment, not to mention all the new frieds you will make.

Where about in NJ are you.