Lenovo ThinkPad T480 Series

The Lenovo ThinkPad T480 is a business laptop that is robust yet light enough to accompany users everywhere. Lenovo’s ThinkPad laptop offers a lot of customization when it comes to hardware components. This means that a user can customize the business notebook to fit their personal needs. The secondary battery, which can be added to the main internal battery, is a special feature here. As a genuine business notebook, the T480 has several security features to offer: Besides the almost-obligatory TPM-2.0 module and Kensington lock, the T480 also has many other features, such as NFC, an optional SmartCard reader, and the always-included fingerprint reader. The fingerprint scanner works flawlessly with Windows Hello. The manufacturer relies on a black case with a seemingly rubberized surface. This is why the device is very easy to hold, though it does make the laptop very susceptible to smudges. The chassis is made of tough plastic and is therefore very rigid. The hinges have no problem holding the display lid in a set position and have an opening angle of 180 degrees. When it comes to the dimensions, the ThinkPad T480 is almost identical to its predecessor, the T470. However, the additional battery has quite an impact on the overall weight of the device - the relatively high overall weight of 1.8 kg (3.96 lb) can be attributed to the 48-Wh ancillary battery.

The T480 comes with an Intel Core i5-8350U CPU, an Nvidia MX150 GPU, 8 GB of RAM and a 256GB PCIe SSD. This is why the business notebook can be used not only for simple office work but also for image and video editing and, to a very limited extent, for gaming. Besides that, the 720p lens on the ThinkPad T480 captures images with solid colors and brightness for a built-in webcam. In terms of the ports, only slight changes were made when compared to the Lenovo T470: On the left-hand side, a previously-available USB Type-A port has been replaced by a Docking port, which used to be located on the underside. Many extras from Lenovo can be connected through this port. This is why the number of normal USB-3.0 Type-A ports has been reduced to only two. That being said, the Docking port is connected via Thunderbolt 3. The power jack has also been removed. The ThinkPad T480 is now charged via a USB Type-C port. The ThinkPad T480 is the battery-life king: With its six-cell, 72-watt-hour battery attached, the T480 lasted 17 hours, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi. Because the ThinkPad T480 uses Lenovo's hot-swappable Power Bridge battery system, users can even carry extra batteries with them and swap them in without shutting the laptop down.

Hands-on article by Jagadisa Rajarathnam

Processor: Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8250U, Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8350U, Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8550U, Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i7-8650U
Graphics Adapter: Intel UHD Graphics 620, NVIDIA GeForce MX150
Display: 14.00 inch, 15.00 inch
Weight: 1.63kg, 1.65kg, 1.7kg, 1.776kg, 1.78kg
Price: 1300, 1400 euro
price: 91%, performance: 86%, features: 67%, display: 89%, mobility: 86%, workmanship: 92%, ergonomy: 92%, emissions: 92%

 

Lenovo ThinkPad T480-20L6S01V00

Specifications

Notebook: Lenovo ThinkPad T480-20L6S01V00
Processor: Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8550U
Graphics Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce MX150 2048 MB
Display: 14.00 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 1.776kg
Price: 1400 euro
Links: Lenovo homepage

Price comparison

 

Reviews

 

Lenovo ThinkPad T480-20L5000AMC

Specifications

Notebook: Lenovo ThinkPad T480-20L5000AMC
Processor: Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8550U
Graphics Adapter: Intel UHD Graphics 620
Display: 14.00 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 1.65kg
Links: Lenovo homepage

Price comparison

 

Foreign Reviews

 

Lenovo ThinkPad T480-20L50011US

Specifications

Notebook: Lenovo ThinkPad T480-20L50011US
Processor: Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8350U
Graphics Adapter: Intel UHD Graphics 620
Display: 14.00 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 1.78kg
Price: 1300 euro
Links: Lenovo homepage

Price comparison

Average Score: 83.33% - good

 

Reviews

 

Lenovo ThinkPad T480-20L50010US

Specifications

Notebook: Lenovo ThinkPad T480-20L50010US
Processor: Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i7-8650U
Graphics Adapter: Intel UHD Graphics 620
Display: 14.00 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 1.63kg
Links: Lenovo homepage

Price comparison

Average Score: 86.5% - good

 

Reviews

 

Lenovo Thinkpad T480-20L50000SP

Specifications

Notebook: Lenovo Thinkpad T480-20L50000SP
Processor: Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8250U
Graphics Adapter: Intel UHD Graphics 620
Display: 14.00 inch, 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Weight: 1.65kg
Links: Lenovo homepage

Price comparison

 

Foreign Reviews

 

Lenovo Thinkpad T480-20L5000BMH

Specifications

Notebook: Lenovo Thinkpad T480-20L5000BMH
Processor: Intel Kaby Lake Refresh i5-8550U
Graphics Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce MX150
Display: 15.00 inch, 16:9, 2560 x 1440 pixels
Weight: 1.7kg
Links: Lenovo homepage

Price comparison

Average Score: 40% - bad

 

Foreign Reviews

 

Comment

Lenovo: Lenovo ("Le" from English legend, novo (Latin) for new) was founded in 1984 as a Chinese computer trading company. As of 2004, the company was the largest laptop manufacturer in China and, after acquiring IBM's PC division in 2005, the fourth largest in the world. In addition to desktops and notebooks, the company manufactures monitors, projectors, servers, etc, and specializes in developing, manufacturing and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, enterprise solutions and related services.

In 2016, the company ranked first in the world in computer sales. It still held it in 2023 with about 23% global market share. Important product lines are Thinkpad, Legion and Ideapad.

In 2011, it acquired a majority stake in Medion AG, a European computer hardware manufacturer. In 2014, Motorola Mobility was purchased, which gave Lenovo a boost in the smartphone market.

---

Modern games should be playable with these graphics cards at low settings and resolutions. Casual gamers may be happy with these cards.

NVIDIA GeForce MX150: Pascal GP108 based laptop graphics card and mobile version of the desktop GeForce GT 1030. Offers 384 shader cores and usually 2 GB GDDR5 with a 64 Bit memory bus. Manufactured in 14nm.

Intel UHD Graphics 620: Integrated GPU (GT2, 24 EUs) found on some Kaby-Lake-Refresh CPU models (15 W ULV series). Technically identical to the previous Kaby-Lake GPU called HD Graphics 620.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.

---

Intel Kaby Lake Refresh:

i5-8550U: Kaby-Lake-Refresh based low power quad-core processor. The four cores are clocked between 1.8 and 4 GHz (Turbo Boost) and support HyperThreading. The integrated GPU is clocked between 300 and 1,150 MHz. The SoC is manufactured in a 14nm+ FinFET process.

i5-8350U: Kaby-Lake-Refresh based low power quad-core processor. The four cores are clocked between 1.7 and 3.6 GHz (Turbo Boost) and support HyperThreading. The integrated GPU is clocked between 300 and 1,100 MHz. The SoC is manufactured in a 14nm+ FinFET process.

i7-8650U: Kaby-Lake-Refresh based low power quad-core processor. The four cores are clocked between 1.9 and 4.2 GHz (Turbo Boost) and support HyperThreading. The integrated GPU is clocked between 300 and 1,150 MHz. The SoC is manufactured in a 14nm+ FinFET process.

i5-8250U: Kaby-Lake-Refresh based low power quad-core processor. The four cores are clocked between 1.6 and 3.4 GHz (Turbo Boost) and support HyperThreading. The integrated GPU is clocked between 300 and 1,100 MHz. The SoC is manufactured in a 14nm+ FinFET process.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.

---

14.00:

14 inch display size represents a middle ground between the small subnotebook formats and the screens of the standard 15 inch laptops.

The reason for the popularity of mid-sized displays is that this size is reasonably easy on the eyes, provides good resolutions with usable detail sizes, yet does not consume too much power and the devices can still be reasonably compact. 

In the past, 14-inch devices were very rare, but now they are the standard for laptops after the 15-inchers. 

15.00:

15-inch display variants are the standard and are used for more than half of all laptops.

The reason for the popularity of mid-sized displays is that this size is reasonably easy on the eyes, often allows high resolutions and thus offers rich details on the screen, yet does not consume too much power and the devices can still be reasonably compact - simply the standard compromise.

» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.

---

No weight comment found (one expected)!

---

81.45%: This rating is slightly above average, there are somewhat more devices with worse ratings. However, clear purchase recommendations look different.

» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

Devices with the same GPU

Devices with Same Screen Size and/or Weight