Lenovo ThinkPad T480 - Review 2022

When it comes to 14-inch business concern laptops, Lenovo offers lite (the 3.vi-pound ThinkPad T480 seen here), lighter (the three-pound ThinkPad T480s), and lightest (the 2.v-pound ThinkPad X1 Carbon). Why would you cull the heaviest of the trio? Because the ThinkPad T480 has non only the lowest starting price at $860 (the model here is $1,859 as tested) merely the but hot-swappable battery, giving you near-unlimited unplugged life if yous're willing to behave spares. You also get a desktop replacement's array of ports, including Ethernet and Thunderbolt 3; a keyboard to die for; and configurability options ranging from an extended battery to dedicated graphics. Information technology doesn't replace the lust-object ThinkPad X1 Carbon as our Editors' Choice, but it's just the state of the art in workhorse business notebooks.

First, Think About the Components

Then, I mentioned Lenovo's $860 ThinkPad T480 starter model above, but perhaps I was existence a piddling disingenuous bringing it up at all. Why? Because yous really should avert that model birthday.

Forget the base model, in this case. Its screen has an unsatisfactory ane,366-by-768-pixel native resolution, along with a 500GB hard drive instead of a solid-state drive (SSD). Both are no-nos for productivity-minded users who want to piece of work with multiple windows open up side by side on a 14-inch screen, or who want their laptop's kicking process, program launches, and disk-intensive activities to accept some snap.

The $1,859 review unit I am looking at here is near the opposite extreme, and may be beyond the budgets of many shoppers and Information technology departments. It's stacked: Information technology has a Core i7-8650U processor, 16GB of memory, a 512GB PCI Limited SSD, and 1080p touch screen. A more than moderate, in-betwixt configuration with Core i5-8250U ability, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a full HD (1080p) non-touch display volition run you around $one,200.

Options include Nvidia's modest, 2GB-equipped GeForce MX150 defended graphics chip, instead of our tester's Intel UHD Graphics 620 CPU-integrated silicon; a 2,560-by-ane,440-pixel non-touch on screen; and an IR face-recognition webcam if you prefer that authentication method to our unit of measurement's fingerprint and SmartCard readers. The IR photographic camera lacks Lenovo's ThinkShutter, a plastic slide that covers the lens if you're concerned virtually online peeping Toms. So merely know that the auto I have here is but a snapshot of a model in the line; many other configurations and configurables are at your disposal.

The Face Is Familiar

While at three.6 pounds it weighs less than its ThinkPad T470 predecessor (iii.74 pounds), the ThinkPad T480 is a fleck heftier than competitors such as the HP EliteBook 840 G5 (3.27 pounds). It measures 0.78 by thirteen.3 by ix.two inches to the HP's 0.7 by 12.8 by 9.2 inches, or the Huawei MateBook X Pro'southward 0.57 by 12 by viii.v inches. Still, it slips easily into almost any briefcase or backpack.

If you know ThinkPads, you already know what this system looks like—a matte-black, soft-touch slab with diagonal ThinkPad logos on the lid and palm rest. Bank check out its left side, and you'll run into a USB-C port (used with the included AC adapter), a Thunderbolt 3 port, the SmartCard slot, and cooling vents that emit rather warm air...

Along the right edge are two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Blazon-A ports (technically, the same equally USB 3.0 ones), HDMI and Ethernet ports, an audio jack, an SD carte slot, and a security lock slot...

Like all ThinkPads, the T480 has passed tough tests against vibration, shock, environmental extremes, and other road hazards. As well, there's virtually no flex if you lot grasp the screen corners or press in the centre of the keyboard deck. Medium-thick bezels environs the brandish, which has a nice, non-cogitating finish instead of the mirror-gloss look of many touch panels.

The webcam captures reasonably bright and detailed, not grainy or noisy, images...

The F4 fundamental mutes the microphone for conference calls. Supplied Dolby software lets y'all switch amongst music, movie, game, vocalism, and automatic modes for audio. The bottom-mounted speakers evangelize with aplenty book and well-baked, well-defined vocals and instrumentals, though not a lot of bass.

Good Visuals, Keen Input

The IPS screen offers broad viewing angles and good dissimilarity. Colors are vivid, though fine details looked a piddling soft to me, as they often do on bear upon screens. I noted plenty of effulgence (though information technology falls off speedily every bit you punch down the backlight setting). Touch operations on the screen were smooth and sure.

I need better words than "polish and sure" to describe the T480's keyboard, which continues ThinkPads' tradition of goodness. It'southward soft without beingness mushy, and the backlit, isle-style board boasts deeper key travel and a improve typing experience than virtually any of its competitors. Its sure, responsive touch is marred by but one flaw: The Fn and Ctrl keys occupy each other's places in the bottom left corner. Fortunately, the Lenovo Vantage utility lets you swap or fix that. Both the TrackPoint embedded pointing stick and the buttonless touchpad are polish and authentic. The pad is prone, as many are, to finger smudging, as you can encounter beneath.

Lenovo backs the T480 with a slightly thin 1-year depot or carry-in warranty and keeps its Windows x Pro software preload free of junk except for Windows' ain clutter, such every bit Candy Vanquish Saga and Disney Magic Kingdoms. The Vantage utility prompts you lot to download and install Amazon Alexa for PC, an intriguing rival to Cortana but no match for Alexa on an Repeat device. Information technology showed a "This PC does not support wake on voice" bulletin, obliging me to click an icon or printing Ctrl+Shift+A before asking questions or giving commands.

No Slouch in Speed

Matched against a crop of 14-inch laptops including its Lenovo stablemates, the T480 powered to first identify in several of our performance benchmarks including the PCMark 8 office productivity test, Photoshop epitome editing workload, and Handbrake video editing exercise (though information technology was basically tied with the Huawei in Photoshop and with the X1 Carbon in Handbrake). Its PCMark score of 3,575 was more than 500 points above the baseline we consider excellent.

Other test results weren't quite as impressive. The T480 and other systems with integrated graphics were trounced by the MateBook 10 Pro and its GeForce MX150 in our 3DMark graphics criterion and Sky and Valley gaming simulations, proving that they're not suited for more than coincidental or browser-based gaming. When all is said and done, these laptops are for productivity, non play.

Run into How We Test Laptops

And, equipped with the small 24-watt-hour battery that fits affluent with the case, the ThinkPad T480 trailed the field in our video-playback battery rundown test. Its unplugged time of 9 hours and 35 minutes is more than enough to become y'all through a workday, and its internal, second 24WHr bombardment lets you extend runtime by swapping in one or more spares with the system powered up. But I'd urge you to consider spending the extra $29 at ordering time for the cylindrical 72WHr battery; information technology adds some weight but should turn the T480 from a follower into a leader in battery life.

A Solid Function Dynamo

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon retains our Editors' Choice for its lighter weight, 17-hour runtime, available HDR screen, and arguably even better keyboard. But execs tend to keep that premium-priced condition symbol to themselves. For mainstream office deployment, the ThinkPad T480 is equally good as it gets. You tin can choose among numerous first-class HP EliteBooks or Dell Latitudes—or you can cull the machine that they're all aiming at.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/laptops/28345/lenovo-thinkpad-t480

Posted by: mitchellroyes1995.blogspot.com

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