I Was Wrong About Thinkpads. - Thinkpad T480

I was completely wrong with my prior Thinkpad recommendation of getting the Thinkpad T470... Because I FOUND THIS.
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[@wubbalubbadubdub3744]

The t480 can actually run 64gb ram. At the time of release 32gb cards didn’t exist but it supports them! & backlit keyboards where a cost option, you lucked out getting one.

[@aChairLeg]

I figured it was a common option, every thinkpad I've gotten has it

[@andrewwigglesworth3030]

Lenovo did that with other Thinkpads too. Their tech specs claim that my X260 can only take 16GB of RAM, whilst in reality it will support 32GB.

[@Peshyy]

Can confirm. Running 2x32GB DDR4-3200MHz RAM with a 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen 3 SSD without any issues.

[@Peshyy]

@@andrewwigglesworth3030 Also confirmed. I have an X270 and it took a 32GB stick without any issues. The only downside is that it runs in single-channel mode and some operations are slower than with 2 sticks running in dual-channel mode. Still such tiny beasts, the X200-series.

[@nodudelikeme]

its a bit overkill lol

[@sasanmottaghipour876]

I had a T480 at my last workplace as a it technician, i loved it, wouldnt get the i7 the performance bump was too smal atop the i5 and ran way hotter. new thermal paste, 4g, 32gb ram, 512gb ssd, lowpower screen, and the extended battery. I could comfortably complete two days of work on a single full charge. and when i had weekends i would carry a second extended battery so i could go without being tethered to a powerplug. That thing was amazing. I have a T14s at my current work, it's nice running a ryzen 4750 gets a bit hot. really miss the replacable battery and larger battery cant even get through a single day without needin to charge. So usually i'll take the m1 macbook instead cuz it will keep charge a whole day. PS. the machines released during 2018/19 had issues with the thunderbolt controller burning out. if you haven't upgraded the firmware yet, please do. Else it might die outa nowhere. Running the lenovo system update software should fetch you the latest firmware. Otherwise you can find it by googling "t480 critical firmware update" Cheers Love the video!

[@aChairLeg]

I actually put that in my script to make sure you update it, but I guess I ended up cutting it for time. Really good point. I'm currently using a t14 with the same ryzen chip and it is a beast! I have the same battery life issues though, and the m1 looks better and better every time I see my battery run low at 2 pm

[@backyard_expert]

How has it performed with Photoshop and it's plugins with the i5 CPU? And do these screens have the full sRGB or Adobe RGB? Or will updating the screens with YOGA screens work on the T480?

[@TheDanielrey3]

Where did you get the extended battery? I cannot seem to find an original one for my t480

[@kgh22]

why not i7 instead of i5?

[@sasanmottaghipour876]

@@kgh22 the i7 ran a Lot hotter , battery life was worse. And performance difference was neglegable.

[@Redd00]

"Me angry, me no like change, change bad, lenovo bad, I no buy lenovo" ~ The most solid argument

[@scribleman4902]

Very easy to understand.

[@megatronskneecap]

People call ThinkPad users business men or nerds but i'm just a regular guy who abuses his laptop and needs reliability no matter what.

[@aChairLeg]

Yeah, my t14 gets really beatup and is still chugging along fine

[@MJ-uk6lu]

I don't get why. They are just old and low end laptops with decent build quality. They are not cheap, mostly can't game, screens are often awful TNs and you get no nerdy features and just basic upgradability. Plenty of Thinkpads are also less upgradable than just regular HP or Dell. Most don't have socketed CPUs, upgradable graphics, M.2 slot, great BIOS. There's also no fast charging, no touch screens, which you can get for similar price from other brands. I can understand that most people may not need that, but Thinkpads just really aren't nerd's choice and haven't been for basically forever.

[@re.pa97]

idk ​@@MJ-uk6lu

[@SaltyMaud]

Wannabe techbro hipsters. Lugging around an e-waste Thinkpad is nothing but a weird self-deprecating flex nobody else gets.

[@Shimpriv]

Well i gotta say i'm impressed with the maintainability of my newly acquired t480. My company was handing 470s for free in a replacement/gift program, so i thought i'd snatch one for a friend who's into older tech. Sadly (for him) i was given a fairly new 480, without all the meme stuff like the dock station port, so i ended up keeping it. I decided to at least clean it, change thermal paste, etc. and i was really amazed with how easy it is to do. Guess i'm keeping it, lol. The only issue i've ran into is the batteries availability. It seems they stopped making original ones all the way back in 2019, so the only available options are Chinese batteries made with no quality control. Might work fine, might feel cute and explode in my face...

[@xlpha888]

Watching this on my own T480 which i bought in Feb 2018. Only yesterday i got the notification that internal battery is dead after 6 years of heavy use. External battery still rocking 3hours of battery life.

[@tegathemenace]

I want to buy but I'm finding it hard to get the i7 with 150Mx graphics card

[@boris---]

I love my T480 i5-8350 refurbished, looks like new for $150 👆🤓

[@aChairLeg]

Love to hear it!

[@cordlesswire]

pfffft, you rich man. t530 with 3630q here. still strong (albeit MBO probably slightly bent under the CPU from 10x repastes since 2013, CPU idling at around 50c, lol). other than that, solid. except battery. changed twice. and palmrest once. and screen bezel also once. OTHER THAN THAT ITS GREAT, OK???

[@richardp3350]

Bought L480 i5 8350 for 140€ today. Nice thing about it is that you can find opencore EFI files for it for that hackintosh Ventura experience without spending like 600-700€ for an M1 MacBook :)

[@Napert]

$150? It's at least $300

[@iseerashonal821]

I saw a t470 with an i7 processor. Wouldn't that be better than the i5?

[@alteredview909]

I have had this laptop since January. One suggestion that I could say that wasn't mentioned in the video is to undervolt the CPU. I don't think I lost performance doing so, since the i7 ran cooler therefore boosting to higher clocks. This has been a reliable machine to work on when I don't feel like using my PC or when I work away from home.

[@Piquliar]

What software do you use to undervolt it?

[@nonchecker]

@@Piquliar throttle stop it usually is. under win11 u have to disable vbs first to get it working.

[@Piquliar]

@@nonchecker I figured, thanks.

[@nodudelikeme]

jsut get the i5 one runs cooler and cheaper

[@listerinekiller]

used market is relative to where you live obviously, but around this same price point p52 and p52s are also going around ebay, which I'd also recommend strongly alongside the t480s t470s. similar servicability and good design. great video btw :^)

[@aChairLeg]

Haha, I wish that was the used market here! P52 is a beast

[@gaffa1606]

Great laptop so far for me - unfortunately one thing that really needs to be brought up is the Thunderbolt firmware issue that can be easily overlooked. It’s a mixed bag - sometimes people can have a breeze with installation while others can have huge difficulty with it.

[@wiley4948]

Dont overlook the thunderbolt issue, it will burn out the chip. Update your firmware.

[@m__y-t-s]

I had a hell of a time fixing this, until I booted Linux mint off usb and ran two short commands. Sorted it in two minutes, done, straight back into windows (to run some stuff I don't feel like using Linux for).

[@enriquejpsa]

@@m__y-t-swhat are the commands that need to be run to fix the issue?

[@the_game_1237]

​@@enriquejpsa sudo fwupdmgr refresh sudo fwupdmgr update Use an Ubuntu 22.04 USB

[@Kacpa2]

or just get A485 whih is the same model but with amd cpus and no thunderbolt abd are free of this issues same as security issues that plague intel chips. Its integrated graphics are almodt as good as dedicated gpu from t480 let alone Intel's pathetic HD graphics.

[@CarlossInsurance]

I actually bought one of these after watching your video on the t470s I have the i7-8650u+MX150 model. One funny thing is that the i5-8350 is actually almost identical in terms of performance and specs, just having a bit less cache and a slight drop in boost clocks compared to the i7.

[@aChairLeg]

Sweet! How's that MX150 for gaming? Is it worth the pretty large price increase?

[@CarlossInsurance]

​​@@aChairLegt's a bit faster than the integrated graphics. From my experience it's a tad slower than the gt 1030. I was able to get a stable 30 fps emulating breath of the wild in cemu at 720p after shader compilation. I also have tried Minecraft on both gpus, and while I don't remember the numbers, the mx150 did feel smoother than the uhd620 at 10 chunks, which is what I usually play at. I think the mx150 definitely benefits it more when you're plugged into the wall though. Edit: I got mine off ebay when a company was offloading a bunch of these with 32gb ram for about $300, so for me it was a great deal, but it seems the dgpu models are rarer so that's probably a rare price for em

[@aChairLeg]

Yep, rarity kills enthusiast models like that. Sounds like a pretty nice setup either way though

[@CarlossInsurance]

@@aratek8446 I run at 1080p with performance mods enabled and have my laptop plugged in when playing. There's a setting where it caches shaders, which I thought was enabled by default but I guess not in your circumstance, so at first the game is pretty unplayable but once you compile everything it's smooth sailing. I'm pretty sure there's places you can download the shaders precompiled, but I don't remember where. I also played with vulkan API instead of opengl.

[@leodark_animations2084]

⁠​⁠@@CarlossInsurancedo you think it could be still worth as a work/notes laptop? I don’t really play anything heavy beside Minecraft with low setting as rn i reach barely 20 fps with intel i7 and the integrated card..

If you want a more modern version of this, you should look at the ThinkPad T15P Gen 2/3 or the T15G Gen 2, the latter has 4 RAM slots and 3 M.2 slots. It's crazy. Although they're also larger.

[@nopainnogame9897]

the price for them is the way different. more than $1000 as I found it

[@jasonvoorhees3282]

Thank you so much! Few problems I noticed from them personally, for storage, they only have m.2 slots, not sata. And the battery is integral instead of swappable, something I don’t appreciate from manufacturers. Any suggestion of other thinkpads would be appreciated.

[@6611chris]

The T480 has a soldered on charging port which will fail within a few years and when that happens the whole motherboard needs replacing. It is a major design fault (cost cutting). The older Thinkpads had a modular charging port that you can just swap out for a new $2 part.

[@realtoastysheep]

Can you not just solder a new one on

[@ahumeniy]

You sure? My T480 is the older i5-7th gen and it's USB type C charging. The ports seem to be secure enough with a metal frame around them

[@CalmSnow_]

Yes, its possible @@realtoastysheep

[@radiolabworks]

I agree, wish they would have brought the 470/570 charging ports over to the 480/580/P52S line. BTW, they did bring that port over to the P52 plain! There are service places, even here in the states, that will replace just the USB-C ports. Naturally you'll be without your laptop for a bit. My P52S needs the main USB-C charging port replacement, but right now I'm using the second USB-C charge port (part of the Thunderbolt portion) for charging. Waiting for a used P52 plain to arrive, so I can use that until my P52S USB-C port gets replaced. Bottom line, you are correct, the USB-C port replacement difficulty is the main 'negative' of the T480/T580/P52S lineup. But if you have the ability to part with it for a few weeks there are service places that specialize in the surface mount USB-C replacements.

[@tnetroP]

I love the T480 and still use one regularly. Mine has several batteries including two extended ones, quad core i5, 32gb RAM and two SSD's (the second one in the WWAN slot). They keyboard is lovely. I actually prefer it being a soft plastic rather than a cold and less robust aluminium. The only negative is the poor screen brightness but that can be changed when I can be bothered to get around to it. I have it docked to a USBC dock for a one cable solution and recently also got an eGPU for a few games. It is in superb condition and when I got it a year or two ago I replaced the keyboard with a backlit one. It was trivial to replace the keyboard and to upgrade the RAM and storage. It's a great laptop.

[@nopainnogame9897]

hi! any suggestions how to fix the screen brightness?

[@tnetroP]

The panels are fairly cheap and easy to swap for a brighter one. I haven't done it myself but many people do.

[@Zach-jo1bq]

Hello, I have also recently purchased and upgraded a secondhand T480. Something to know when upgrading is to be careful with the clips that holds the top and bottom of the chassis together. I could just be rough with repairing things, but there are now gaps between the bottom and sides where I had broke the clips off when opening the chassis. I believe that the only way to replace the clips is to purchase a whole new top cover and then transfer all of the components onto it, since that is what broke. The laptop still works perfectly fine though.

[@aChairLeg]

I didn't know the t480 had that issue, I took it apart maybe 5 or 6 times for filming without issue, though. You can never be too careful with those damn plastic clips. I had one get messed up on my t14.

[@fookingsog]

Nicely Interesting note on the "Magic Eraser" for refurb!!! I also recommend the "303 Aerospace Protectant" by Gold Eagle Co. for surface restoration!!!

[@gunner75171]

Many people recommend the t480 with the i5 over the i7 due to thermals, but I feel like there are benefits to the i7 having increased cache. I personally bought the i5 model that needed a new keyboard and swapped the heatsink for the dedicated gpu hearsink. I believe the i7 allows for higher memory clock speeds too. So i7 is probably the way to go especially if you get it with just the igpu.

[@aChairLeg]

i7 can get 64gb of ram as well from what the comments have told me

[@mikolajrams4871]

I heard that i7 t480 tend to have throttling issues. My t480 with i5 doesn't seem to throttle at all. It might be possible that on a laptop thermals are as important as raw CPU power.

[@one_step_sideways]

The i7 is easily justified if you get the dGPU version, or upgrade the cooler from 1-heatpipe to a 2-heatpipe (dGPU) one. It's also highly recommended that you use a very good thermal pad for the VRM (you need very little of it) and apply Honeywell PTM7950 (non-SP) to the CPU and the dGPU (not to the PCH die near the CPU die itself, you only need to apply some thermal paste there). I get like 73C on the CPU at 25W with moderate fan speeds. Less so when using the CPU and iGPU or dGPU at the same time. Also, obviously you need to undervolt to -100mV or lower, that's essential for getting an all-core performance boost, which is what you want to have, since Kaby Lake Refresh is an aging architecture and 4 cores is the minimum amount of cores in 2024 to get a usable experience in any OS. And we obviously want to use the T480 for a long time, until it completely becomes unviable and useless with the ever more bloated software. Keep in mind that undervolting can only be done on BIOS version 1.26 or below, version 1.28 disables undervolting due to Plundervolt vulnerability, which basically never ever affects regular consumers. So enable BIOS downgrades in the BIOS. I recommend you simply use version 1.26, and also immediately upgrade the Thunderbolt firmware from version 14.0 to 20.0 and above (the latest is 23.0), if it still hadn't been done.

[@madcat4563]

I got one two weeks ago, and I'm absolutely in love with it.

[@WarlordEnthusiast]

I got a T580 a while ago and I'm not going to change any time soon, it works perfectly for my use and the battery is a godsend. Mine came with a german keyboard but it took literally 2 minutes to swap it to an English one that also happened to be backlit. Also I still adore the keyboard, I didn't realize how bad my PCs keyboard was until I used the T580.

[@doctor_ubis]

I purchased a T480 after watching this video and I have to say, I'm in love! Thanks for brining it to my attention!

[@aChairLeg]

Love to hear it!

[@Arun_being]

Even today.... ?

[@giannux]

I am currently looking for a laptop to replace my X230. Thank you for the video, the hunting of T480 has begun....

[@swecreations]

1:55 One soldered stick of ram hurts upgradeability more than just "slightly". Upgrading to a larger stick of ram means running in single-channel mode, killing performance. It removes probably 80% of all the usefulness of being to upgrade ram.

[@mikionorton2236]

It’ll just run a hybrid basically the first 4/8GB of the upgraded ram (depending on the soldered capacity) will run at dual channel and the rest is single channel. So it’s not as bad as you might think

[@majinshinsa]

I recently got my wife an intel Framework and I agree with why you want one. I'm getting one for myself now to replace a workplace Lenovo when I can get a Ryzen one. The DIY is wicked easy too if you have ever used a screwdriver so it's worth the discount

[@Facade866]

I have been looking to framework Laptops, they are Pricer than non-repairable laptops, but the upgradability makes them cheaper if you want to upgrade a little when you get more spending money, but more laptop companies should make reparability and replacement easier for the end user, but companies are only focused on profitability not a loyal customer base it seems.

[@aChairLeg]

I've never bought a new laptop before, but I would happily get one to support Framework. Just a little out of my laptop budget haha

[@adamwalter2573]

I've started to wonder what is really exceptional in Thinkpads nowadays. Every other brand has the same specs, sometimes even better (VGA, refresh rate) and Thinkpads also have wore ad worse keyboards (not ergonomic, not for longer use). Some event don't have touchpad buttons, so hey Lenovo, what are your products aimed for ? Compared with pre 4xx series, the current models don't even have a firms, steady plastic as TPs had before. I'm trying to find the best model for myself, but every model have pros and cons. Even X1, Carbons and similar have more and more cons.

[@TheHollowBodiesBand]

I recently got an L14 Gen 1, 1 TB SSD, 16 GB of RAM, Ryzen 3. I wanted an affordable, thin, lightweight machine that I could use to take notes in class and write my thesis. I couldn't be happier! I recently even swapped the keyboard for the Spanish backlit

[@nitemanify]

Been using and loving a T470 for a few years now. Great machine. Tempted to pick up a T480 since they're very affordable now and go through all the upgrades so I can have the last upgradable and truly serviceable thinkpad with an amazing keyboard.

[@one_step_sideways]

You should, simply due to the 4 cores that are also faster.

[@iBendThings]

I just bought a T480 and received it today. What timing!😃

[@Simsonlover222]

i got the t460p for around 160 euros used... i did ram upgrade and everything else was fine... i got the 17 6820 hq or something similar, and i just love the fact that this thing gives you the full pc experience without slowdons or limitations... everything feels snappy and just like a desktop pc... except for gaming and graphic intense software like videoediting (altough, shotcut and capcut works like a charm... this is what i love.... and its a thinkpad... durable, nice feeling... and you got something you can use YEARS AFTER YEARS.... not a single thinkpad that i got broke ... you can get it repaired, reapir it easily... you can service it easily... most smartphones are more expensive and here you get a full working snappy pc experience portable and everything... you can also emulate ps1 ps2 super nintendo n64... browser games gta san andreas half life 1, 2, anno 1800 and many other old games

[@ch3fxexcell3nce]

I have the A485, which is the AMD variant of this, and I love it. My only issue is the M.2 NVME adapter only runs the drive at SATA 3 speeds

[@bariumlanthanum6298]

I have a T480 and love it. Bought it from a friend for 200 CAD when the crappy Lenovo IdeaPad I was scammed $900 CAD out of died during my exam season (although it did get fixed under warranty). It is an overall great laptop, more upgradeable than anything else out today. While it is a bit large and heavy for my tastes, it is still a good laptop for school and travel use. I have the i5-8350u and 16gb ddr4, with 256gb nvme SSD.

[@edwardfletcher7790]

T480 is a great machine 👍 I've got an old X220 that does the job really well too. Are you running Windows or Linux ?

[@David_Quinn1995]

Ideapads are horrible, I learned my lesson with them when I dropped mine breaking the entire frame.

[@David_Quinn1995]

@@edwardfletcher7790 The X220 is an awesome machine I have one myself and it's my rolling release Debian machine.

[@edwardfletcher7790]

@@David_Quinn1995 So they're bad because they break when dropped ?? The HORROR ! 😂 LoL A magnesium chassis isn't exactly in the Ideapad budget.

[@Rundik]

X1 carbon is fine. Bought it cheap used, never needed to upgrade anything. Installed arch and for about 5 years it stays exactly the same. Never needed any maintenence

[@Lyrics-ul7gv]

Brother, Can you tell me what gen is it? And how much I can expect from it? I'm looking to buy a good laptop for my uni purpose at low cost

[@Harsh-wu1bc]

​@@Lyrics-ul7gvbuy x1-360 . I just bought one with I5 6th gen 8 gb ram 256 storage It's touchscreen

[@cgrw1]

I don't regret buying a T470s 16gb i7-7500u for £130, but I probs would have opted for a T480 had I watched the first minute of this video first - great job!

[@briandipierro8865]

I kinda want one now... I been using my Thinkpad X260 as a little recording machine for podcasts and stuff and even doing vocals in my car since it's so tiny. I think this'll be better for more production stuff and editing videos even. I'm thinking on it..

[@aChairLeg]

To be honest, if it's going to be a proper editing workhorse, stepping up to a p50 or p51 wouldn't be a horrible idea. Just depends on how portable you want to be

[@briandipierro8865]

@@aChairLeg Honestly it'd mostly be used for audio recording on the go than anything since I do most video stuff on my PC anyway. I only do really edit video in 720p but I shoot in 1080. I tried editing on the X260 and it's like when I used to edit on my i5 2400 before I upgraded my old PC to the i7 2600. I would loooove one of the Ryzen machines eventually but the lack in upgradability on newer Thinkpads puts me off of them. There was a T495 with a Ryzen CPU at the pawnshop and I did the research but... eh

[@aChairLeg]

In that case, I think you'll be fine with a T480. I ditched my T495 for a T14 pretty quickly, wasn't a big fan. Battery life sucked.

[@amadii8768]

I know the possibility of this is low, but it would be interesting to see this laptop's final form (nvidia gpu aside), it would be interesting to see this upgraded to the 1440p screen, the effect of the improved and beefier cooler, modified trackpad, maxed out batteries and potentially testing it out with an egpu (this machine does have thunderbolt 3), that literary sounds like the perfect one machine setup for students

[@aChairLeg]

Unfortunately, I really can't justify spending that much money on a laptop for a video to FULLY upgrade it... but I do currently have a GTX 1650 hooked up to it

[@dgm778]

E14 gen 2 user here, The fastest and smallest PCIe 4 laptop I've ever had. It weighs nothing and does not destroy your back :D

[@showxating9885]

A refurbished T480s is Quad-Core,16GB DDR4 RAM, and 512GB SSD has a swappable battery and upgradable memory slots and comes in around $260-$280. Features that tick a lot of boxes with cyber professionals. All that in a laptop that's been around for at least 6 years, and it's still competitive.

[@Abhijay_TT]

I’m trying to decide between the T480, T480s and the x1 gen 6. Which one would you recommend and why?

[@JoyffulBoy]

@@Abhijay_TT which did you buy?

[@Abhijay_TT]

@@JoyffulBoy the t480s with an i7

[@andresvaldevit3692]

I got the T14 too and started to learn about these older models soon after. A T480 would have been a lot cheaper at that time and not that much different. All things considering I'm happy with mine, it's my first ever thinkpad, even if it’s not that much upgradable, except for ram and storage, it runs everything I need with a Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U and got it very underpriced from a pawnshop in 2021. I’m going to change the screen at some point though, poorly lit AF

[@OWK000]

My 2017 macbook has the garbage butterfly keyboard also maddenly difficult to replace. Apparently Macbooks peaked in 2012. Thinkpad peaked a little later and they have a great keyboard. Looks attractive.

[@Novskyy621]

Got a refurbed T490 few days ago for 300€ and its amazing! It looks like new and both ssd and battery are still over 90% so i don't have to swap. Also ordered an AMD Framework 13

[@Olliedawwg]

I use one for work & also supply them to staff at my job, great laptops. Super easy to repair/upgrade

[@albyx]

next to my M1 MBP M1 Pro 14", I've always loved Lenovo laptop keyboards. I've loved them since they were adopted over from the old IBM enterprise machines.

[@TerrorSyxke]

Next to the looks and profit first and the planet and humans last, know what your buying into, a planned obsolescence product made with the cheapest labor that Foxxconn can provide and Apple doesn't give any regard to privacy either they collect your data and if your in China hand it all right to the government like the protestors that used imessage, Apple isn't worth hurting humans and the planet more, it's just benifiting a company that lost its way over a decade ago

[@red-republican]

Surprised you covered the gaming section without mentioning Thunderbolt 3 -- you can supplement this pretty well with an external graphics dock (which Lenovo made as well; the old GTX 1050 inside it is still good enough for my partner to play most non-AAA titles on).

[@jeefonyoutube]

I've been using my t480 with the mx150 for a number of years now. I switched to the framework 13 with the 12th gen i7-1280p but I'm switching back. I just really missed using this laptop

[@Thegak101]

I've been dailying the t480 for a couple years now and it really is a great value especially now that its fallen to arouns 150$. But I'd like to point out some flaws that I've noticed over time. There is a common problem that plagues the t480 where sometimes when the laptop is put to sleep then reopened it will wake from sleep then shut down. If you try to turn it on again it will continue to shut down until its plugged in a couple min. This can happen even when the battery is at 90%. Its super aggrivating and also you can lose your work easily. Mobile 8th gen is really starting to show its age in the last few years (assuming you are on windows w linux ymmv). If you want a decent multitasking experience while plugged into external displays spend a little more (if you can) and shoot for a used thinkpad/elitebook/latitude in the 10th/11th gen range or go for ryzen. The screen is booty but its a thinkpad you probably already knew that. Ultimately its held up so well. Honestly my favorite laptop keyboard up there with the t440p, and its an absolute tank. The screen shows signs of wear but the body is pristine even though I bead the crap out of it. If you want a crutch device or a throwaround laptop for a child or manchild thing is great. Also perfect port selection imo.

[@aChairLeg]

Strange, I didn't have that power issue on my t480. I did have a loose battery cable I had to mess with a little cause it was randomly powering off on me. I never use my laptops for more than two chrome tabs at once typically. I might need to change up my testing and add using it with a couple external displays using it more like a desktop to see how it handles being a desktop replacement. There's also the thunderbolt issue, but I believe I cut it out of the video for time sake

[@Thegak101]

@@aChairLeg ah I do the old 9 chrome tabs then make a new desktop because those tabs were work related then a new 9 chrome tabs of shopping for some random thing I probably don't need but needing to research every aspect of it yk. I also did a TON of snes and PS1 emulation on it and it was great even plugged into my external tv. My first playthroughs of Chrono trigger and Castlevania SOTN were on that thing.

[@aChairLeg]

@@Thegak101 Another man of culture I see. I always have at least 20 tabs open on my main PC, most usually video related. I love how easy it is to emulate old consoles nowadays, even on slightly older hardware.

[@the_derpler]

I have a t490s that I'm posting on. Bought it for $300 on craigslist, it's done quite well for me, but I will admit the 1080p screen quality is so bad that its hard to read text on. I'm thinking to upgrade.

[@ousi00]

I bought my wife a T14 and she's very happy about that :) The X1 Nano while light it still feel very sturdy. No flex and doesn't feel delicate. Unlike a Macbook...

[@DJRanoia]

I got my i7 for about $260 with shipping Oct 2022. I spent about 200 more on mods getting a new lid cover, keyboard top shell, oem internal battery, oem max size external battery. I would like to get more ram and bigger ssd but no rush on opening it back up. This is my Linux machine for development for fun and it’s a lot of fun to use.

[@one_step_sideways]

Did you also upgrade the cooler to a dGPU version and apply a good thermal pad on the VRM and PTM7950 on the CPU/dGPU (not the PCH die)?

[@foss_sound]

Had a T480, but it was too clunky and just a big brick. For my office usage a T470s is perfect. And costs 200€ 18 months ago with 24gig RAM and 1 tb nvme. Love it.

[@stefanospinelli7385]

Nice video review, I have the T480 with i5-8350U. I use it with Ubuntu 22 for virtual machines, Flutter and Node.js development, and it works great (after upgrading to 32GB of RAM instead of 8GB). The keyboard is among the best I've ever used, the screen does its job but there are better options out there. The only downside is that the speakers are really bad, so make sure to have good headphones or external speakers for music or movies. Other than that, with the T480, you can't go wrong in terms of quality and price. I say this even though my main computer is a MacBook Pro with M1 Pro; I fell in love with the T480 and prefer it for various tasks over the MacBook.

[@flauntyy]

Just to counter point of the end of the video, it's pretty obvious, but I feel like a majority of laptops aren't manufactured like this, simply because it doesn't help their market. By making products that have full functionality, are modular, and can do 80% of all work required for Enterprise, you lose the desire to come back and purchase another product in a yearly cycle (seemingly how they're released). That's pretty obvious, but also considering that there isn't a major cost when it comes to maintenance, buying used enterprise products, and getting a laptop that is 5* the performance it's being charged at initially, you make even less of a selling point for buying newer laptops they're releasing. Lenovo probably loses insane margins by having products like these exist, and I don't understand how they can really make stuff like this without cannibalizing themselves. Not our problem, though.

[@huh5950]

I personally decided to go for a dual thinkpad approach. A Yhin and light and an upgradable one, best of both worlds and lets be honest, since the upgradable older ones cost so little I invested on a ehin and light used relatively new one (3 year old x1 carbon) and then Ill easiky save uo for an older upgradable one (might have made a mistake taking a t450s since theres more upgradable ones but it was 100 bucks, Im happy, thats all that matters)

[@aymanazmi8809]

I recently bought both a T480 & a T490, & for some reasons I ended up liking the T490 more ( smaller form factor, better display brightness, light weight, better speakers, etc), but to be frank I’ve always wanted the T480 particularly because of the possibility of maxing out the RAMs & SSDs, & mostly because of the possibility of adding a 72 WH external battery which could significantly increase battery life, so I’m a bit torn here, both have there own pros & cons… Upgrading from my T430 here

[@ruzaqir354]

i got the i5 8350U .Got it for like 250 dollars. I bought another external battery the 48WH one and then change the 256gb nvme to 1tb nvme. now its being my daily driver doing data analyst. Editing alot alot of spreadsheet but still can use it for like 5-9 hours depend if u play music or u doing other thing on the laptop.

[@frederikbh1]

I have been on the t480 life for a while and I still love my machine. However, after spending AN HOUR installing (compiling from source code) 4 python packages I realized I have to upgrade to a modern workstation PC. If you mainly remote into other machines or otherwise do very light work, the t480 is the best value laptop you can get and has my recommendation. For use that requires a faster CPU or dGPU, I recommend you go for something more modern.

[@silencer51]

Still running a i7 T480 with 2 nvme drives, 32 gigs of RAM, the glass trackpad from the X1 Carbon Gen 6, a 4K 400nit panel and modded bios with undervolting, disabled CFG lock and other goodies. It also runs MacOS pretty well.

[@envibit]

Can you share MacOS install details?

[@MicahWeir]

Have you heard of the P53? It's from 2019 and is a unique laptop as it's built just like the T430. The teardown process is the same. It has 4 upgradable RAM slots. Two are underneath the access door on the bottom while the other two are bekow the keyboard. With a few screws the bottom comes off revealing the wifi card, optional wwan card, two nvme slots, and the earlier mentioned two ram slots. If you have a quadro gpu like I do, you have a hdd slot but if you have a nvs card, you get instead a third nvme slot. In my opinion, it's the very last true ThinkPad. In 2020 they overhauled it making it awful. Oh and it also has DEDICATED trackpad buttons and the same bezel as the much earlier ThinkPads. Also has ports on the back like the classic ones.

[@matthieurochette]

I got the T480, made it my home-hosted server instead of selling it. I don't think I'll ever get rid of it.

[@one_step_sideways]

Yes, make sure you also undervolt and underclock (limit the TDP to around 18W instead of the clocks) for power efficiency. Being able to readily upgrade it to 64GB RAM is great, and so is being able to install two SSDs. The I/O is also very good, as the Thunderbolt port is USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbit) and can be used with high-end hubs that support 10Gbit, not to mention Thunderbolt itself.

[@rowdytriesstuff9173]

I’m still using a e550 at work and everyone else has been through 4 or 5 surface pro’s etc. mine still does everything I need. Great value

[@ostettivictor]

Just bought the Lenovo Thinkpad X380 Yoga after seeing your video for edting photos on the go as i am at a stadium or a politician coverage for the newspaper i work. Hope it will turn great, thanks for the video

[@A4orce84]

I am currently looking at the T480 and the X1 Carbon 6th Gen (From the same year). Did you look at that model as well because it seems it's at a similar price point ? Great video, keep up the great work!

[@aChairLeg]

It's been a while since I've used one, but I remember liking the x1 carbon series quite a bit. I'll most likely do a video on them in the future though

[@gabrielvocruz]

X1 overheats

[@walldoo99]

I find it amazing how many people are using my magic eraser trick now. I've been posting that in the Lenovo comments for 10 years +, but you will want to buff it out with a microfiber cloth. I picked up a T480 yesterday for $45, i7, 32 gb ram, 1080 display, but no charger or hard drive.

[@aChairLeg]

To be honest, I have no idea where my idea to do that came from. I've polished tech before with my detailing stuff, but never stuff with a matte finish. It's a great tip either way!

[@Mayo_Heavy_Industries]

We have a bunch of t480's at work and they're great, I've experienced a few weird things trying to put Linux on them but it seems to be a specific computer issue where a couple of the t480s just say no. Great review though, hope you get your hands on a framework as my next upgrade is looking to be the framework 16, hoping to be able to replace my desktop with it too

[@edwardfletcher7790]

I don't know what distros you've tried, but I've got 100% functionality on my 2011 X220 with Debian and XFCE. KDE & Mate are pretty, but have a lot of bloat.

[@zaandam0172]

@@edwardfletcher7790 Yeah but I use less ram than GNOME and that's issue, I didn't know that. KDE is so much more, I like GNOME but KDE is different, lots of good KDE apps.

[@fookingsog]

This sounded like Napoleon Dynamite doing a Laptop Tech Review at 4x Speed!!!😂🤣😆

[@raginald7mars408]

and ALL In Comprehensible!

[@Nanyael]

I wanted the T480, instead I buy the T480s for the weight. It's almost the same, but no upgradable CPU, no 2.5" sata, one Nvme slot and only one RAM slot upgradable . i7, 16Gb ram and 512 SSD ❤

[@SeshanTM]

You should take a look at the ryzen version called the Thinkpad a485

[@aChairLeg]

...what the hell. I knew about the T495, but not this! I might get one just to make a short out of in the future because that's pretty cool. Not many laptops I know of with early Ryzen chips.

[@SeshanTM]

@@aChairLeg yea it’s pretty close to the price of a t480 too so that’s a plus

[@zh9732]

A downside for those who buy the "official" refurbished ones, not all businesses seem to have applied the updates to keep the type c port from burning out. It sucks, because it gimps your laptop down to one port. I've only seen it a couple times, but it's something to watch for while the return window is open

[@frankstonwitchhouse]

I use a x270 when travelling and it does the job pretty well on a budget of under 200 AUD

[@paullyashenko1201]

few years ago got two x270 (i5 and i7), one spare for me, the other one (i7) for mom. works perfectly as a 2nd laptop. put nvme instead of the simcard modem, installed linux there. two batteries. all possible ports. charges via type-c. nice touchpad. touchpad buttons right under the keyboard are underrated - so convenient. runs all games from childhood: nfs u2, mw; gta sa, even minecraft is ok. ride bicycle with it in a backpack - literally don't care if i drop it. best second laptop so far.

[@profewiase]

I bought the t490 coming from the t470 and i really love it. 16gb, 256 storage and an i5 8th gen, is good enough for me to do some small 1080p video editing and photi editing too.

[@one_step_sideways]

T490 is nowhere near as upgradable as T470 and T480 are. The T480 is basically the same as the T490, as it still has 8th generation, it retains undervolting (the last laptop to do so, as Whiskey Lake (8x65U processors don't have it) for extra performance, and yet it has all the upgradability that it does.

[@profewiase]

@@one_step_sideways it's an upgrade from T470 but not T480. T470 has dual core and 490 has quad core so performance wise is wide. Also it's light and thinner and speakers sound better that the t470.

[@SquidFace_]

Picked up and have been running a T490, runs PS2 era really well (Battlefront and Battlefront 2 run beautifully) and some PS3 games (Warhammer Space Marine has been great on it). Been daily driving it and taking it everywhere with me, working in IT the ports are stunning to have after being stuck with a new Dell Latitude that only had USB-C, have become a true ThinkPad convert

[@Facade866]

Around 2 years ago I was looking at what laptop I should get but I bought a weak and bad laptop so I am now stuck with a Geobook 240 to play games because I was a little broke at the time, then 6 months later the steam deck released and it made me regret buying a 240$ laptop that cut into my funds of buying a steam deck (I got the 400$ model because I was still broke), so now it has been reduced to a paperweight.

[@TheRVSN]

3:05 Love that "POWER" arrangement.

[@The1mariosonic]

Wished I was able to get my T480 for a cheaper price. I picked mine up for around $450 when they started offloading these off lease on ebay so I wasn't able to get as a good of a price, though mine came with 72W battery, the charger (it's a bit beat up tho but works), and 32 GBs of RAM installed + MX 150. Love the keyboard and getting similar battery life as my T460 when it was still new back in 2016. Works well enough for my use cases of mainly schoolwork with the occasional light game, and quad core certainly feels like a big jump over the dual core of the T460.

[@aChairLeg]

Honestly, for the battery and GPU I wouldn't consider that to be a bad price at all. At the end of the day, there's not much else like it out there, and if it served you well you're good.

[@Sherolox]

Unrelated, but I'm always surprised at how many people with Kiseki-related profile pictures I find throughout the tech space.

[@johnkeo358]

id recommend upgrading the batteries, you can get both the internal and external batteries for under 80 bucks

[@MrKillswitch88]

Dual core Thinkpads are only really good for two things very light duty tasks and collecting but beyond that current computing is getting to be fairly inefficient requiring at least an quad core for which even far back as Sandy Bridge is still viable for daily use. What really hurts most thinkpads is lack of upgrade options and for some models the cooling truly sucks. I switch over to Dell Precisions for daily use as the older models still have the option of using the slice pack (secondary battery) and has an mxm slot allowing for gpu upgrades plus the cooling is overall much better.

[@bariumlanthanum6298]

Dell Precisions are amazing. I own a 5570, the performance is crazy.

[@aChairLeg]

I'm planning on getting myself a Precision soon hopefully. I had one for work recently and wanted to throw it at a wall weekly, so I kept pushing it off. I think it was just our software though, not the laptop.

[@MrKillswitch88]

@@aChairLeg If you know what model and the specs maybe I could help but if it really is your employers then there probably isn't much that can be done. I've noticed over the years business tend to go all in on the 15inch models while massively under cutting the specs for the 17inch models so maybe you've gotten one of the poverty spec models. On the high end these are beasts even when compared to gaming laptops and outlast the consumer crap by years.

[@AlistairBrugsch]

I just rescued a poor t470p (i7 quad core, dGPU) from my office scrap pile and despite it being wonderful, I already I see I need to jump to a t480... but a 4/8 i7 with dGPU and a decent screen is probably going to be a hard thing to find...

[@alex.prodigy]

i know the CTRL and FN keys can be reversed in the BIOS settings but their placement is still annoying to me for some reason 🙃

[@aChairLeg]

haha that used to drive me crazy, but I guess I've gotten used to it

[@spliffen]

My thinkpad L490 seems to be a real close match, might be worth considering as well

[@pleasantivan]

I bought an X270 (a very similar beast) for my studies and writing. For a bit over 140 bucks I simply can't get enough of it. I do all my gaming stuff on my desktop rig (when I have time for that anyway) so using the laptop the way it was (and is) supposed to be used is a real joy. Typing this comment on it, actually.

[@giacomol02]

Hi I'm actually looking to buy an x270 soon, Im choosing the 200 series for their small size (12") but can you tell me the pros and cons of it? Do you feel it's age? I mean it has a 7th gen Intel so maybe it's slow, is it? Thanks in advance!

[@pleasantivan]

@@giacomol02 it isn't. The most amazing thing about it is that it somehow boots quicker and feels snappier than my (relatively bloated and Windows 11-cursed) desktop computer. I only use the Pad for browsing the web, watching KZbin videos and daily student stuff like texting, writing essays and the like - and it handles all of it with no issues.

[@David_Quinn1995]

laptops do depreciate a ton, it gives me all the more reason to not upgrade my laptop was $80 2 years ago and its just fine for my use.

[@heavyflavor4159]

my largest problem with older thinkpads is that they cannot drive 4k screen at 60 fps via hdmi

[@FVBmovies]

Fn and Ctrl button function can be swapped inside BIOS for anyone wondering.

[@robinrai4973]

Cool, I prefer the Latitude 7400 2in1 for the same price as it has the same processor, a nicer also milspec rated build, and touch/pen support at the cost of upgradability. It also has a special one watt screen and the laptop had an option 78 watt hour battery so you can get 10-20 HOURS of battery life despite it being a very thin portable thing

[@Todbrecher]

a used/refurbished T480 is not even an actual budget laptop. "budget" usually means drawbacks, and I didn't find any yet, as a Linux power user who also uses it to manage a homelab. It even has Thunderbolt port. Like come on, what else do you expect form a laptop if you're not needing a heavy workstation or gaming laptop.? upgraded it with a touchscreen and another 32GB of RAM.

[@corombb]

T490/T495/T14 G1+G2 (all same chassis and parts, just different CPU gens) are great options despite the differences, and what they lose in max possible capacity they regain with improved power efficiency and faster charging. I've got a 1440p120hz screen+Intel AX210 swapped into my T14 AMD Gen1 (requires soldering mods) and it's a tank. Probably gonna run it until T14 AMD G4 come down

[@one_step_sideways]

They don't actually have good power efficiency, especially the T490 with Whiskey Lake processors. My T480 has some great battery life after upgrading it to a 72Wh battery (don't have an internal battery) and swapping the screen to an IGZO panel (from the T490), which I got brand new for just $53 from my local e-tailer. The battery charges at a max speed of 31 watts, so it charges from 15% to 85% in less than 2 hours, and the 67W GaN charger I have is plenty enough for it, though I'd want to use a 100W charger to fast-charge my laptop, phone and powerbank all at the same time, with an optional 4th device that I can charge at 10-12W using either the USB-A or the USB-C port, which also helps a lot sometimes when you're starved for ports, like with the 67W charger when I charge 3 devices at the same time. The thing that T490 and other ThinkPads don't have is: - RAM upgradable to 64GB at 2x8R layout for better performance - two RAM slots, because I can't stress the importance of running all of your RAM dual-channel enough, the T480 is going to be _faster_ than T490 as you fill up the RAM with heavy apps - upgradable and swappable battery - swappable wireless chipset - upgradable heatsink to rule out all throttling and be able to overclock the CPU - bezels big enough to withstand impacts better For actual power users, these are important things, so important that they'll have to sit on the cheap T480 intentionally because there's really no reason to pay more for less. I would like to wait for the T14 Gen 5 to start hitting the used market in droves, that looks like an interesting 14" workhorse laptop with two slots, though it's not completely back to the ThinkPad roots like with the T480.

[@bishalgiri7487]

I bought the thinkpad x1 carbon g12 32 gb ram, ultra 7 processor, 512 gb storage and all other features were default. I wish i knew this earlier before i made the purchase. I spent stupid money on that laptop.

[@BadmanOfBanterbury]

My Thinkpad being a reliable impromptu weapon is an essential feature, in my neighborhood.

[@chrispotterfan]

it's sad how the newer thinkpad models are aweful in build quality and upgradability for a premium price for sure

[@meal_team_six]

I think I can top this. If you like the T480, you should look at the X1 Extreme Gen 3. imho, it is the last great Thinkpad and has all the great features of the T480 with the exception of the hot-swappable battery. But it has a 10th gen processor, up to 4k color 15" calibrated display, up to 64gb ddr4 ram with 2 sodimm slots, full sd card slot, 1650ti dgpu, and the awesome 1.8mm (did I mention awesome) Thinkpad keyboard typing experience.

[@aChairLeg]

Damn that's a hell of a setup. Little pricey, but give it a few years and I'll be making a video on the new last real thinkpad haha

[@lacsarlacsar3566]

the X1E or P1 gen3 are nice, but i'd rather get the gen5, since it has the 16:10 screen AR, and the bezel are thinner as well.

[@mecyanned]

9:27 i see that some models of the t480 had a dgpu

[@TruthDoesNotExist]

I wish lenovo still had the trackpad buttons on the bottom like n the t430 and 20, the new trackpads without physical buttons feel mushy and are harder to press, I wonder if the glass trackpad has this issue too

[@aChairLeg]

Honestly, I'm fine with it being a relic of the past, I prefer just having the top ones. But the p50 and p51 still had them, so that's always an option for a while

[@Woody10719]

Im sitting here using my Asus Vivobook 14 from 2018.. I just upgraded the ram and added a 1tb sata ssd drive to go along with 256gb ssd. thinking I did well. I wish I saw the T480 when i was buying a new laptop

[@МелашРо]

bought T480 this November for 300 euros in France. Think it is a good deal for 8/256 with tactile screen. Second hand but good

[@northernswedenstories1028]

I found a t480s for about €200. One speaker doesnt work but immaculate otherwise. Pure workhorse for the last year. Upgraded ram to 16gb very easily. Got me through the last of my computer science masters

[@TheCodeTinkerer]

In maybe 10 years the Framework will be the modern concept of the Thinkpad legacy and hopefully be plentiful 2nd hand.

[@tyleralberico]

I use an LG Gram personally, but I started a new job and they sent me a ThinkPad. I get it now.

[@peterbroad6793]

ThinkPad T480 was the last upgradeable ThinkPad and it is Windows 11 compliant with an 8th gen processor.

[@kittenfrompicture]

The only thing stopping me from getting T480 is UHD 620. It's just so bag igpu, i thank God, amd has taken us out this pit.

[@undefinedCat]

find a ThinkPad with mx150 GPU or a485

[@toydotgame]

3:44 yeah to say i wasn't ready for that would be an understatement LMAOOOOO (also t480 sweep i am totally getting one like instantly)

[@mettabrand7770]

Hi bro! Thanks for your video. My best cheap laptop is Thinkpad X220 since 2 years as my main laptop.