Lenovo ThinkPad L480 Core i5 8th Gen (8GB/256GB SSD)
Although the Lenovo ThinkPad L480 functions well as a business laptop, there isn't anything unique about it that makes it stand out from the competition.
Decent battery life
Well-designed keyboard
Subpar display
Bad audio
Mediocre value
New Laptop Price – Rs 1,03,800 (in Indian Rupees)
Refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad L480 Laptop Price – Rs 25,499
Features |
Details |
Bluetooth |
Bluetooth 4.1 |
Brand |
Lenovo |
CPU |
1.6-GHz Intel Core i5-8250U |
Card Slots |
microSD |
Display Size |
14 |
Graphics Card |
Intel HD Graphics 620 GPU |
Hard Drive Size |
256GB |
Hard Drive Type |
PCIe SSD |
Highest Available Resolution |
1920 x 1080 |
Native Resolution |
1920x1080 |
Operating System |
Windows 10 Pro-64-bit |
Optical Drive |
None |
Ports (excluding USB) |
USB 3.1 Gen 1, Headset, Fingerprint Scanner, Ethernet, USB Type-C |
RAM |
8GB |
RAM Upgradable to |
32GB |
Size |
13.2 x 9.3 x 0.9 inches |
Touchpad Size |
3.9 x 2.7 inches |
USB Ports |
4 |
Warranty/Support |
1-year depot repair service |
Weight |
3.9 pounds |
Wi-Fi / Wi-Fi Model |
802.11ac / Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 |
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If you're willing to make some compromises, the Lenovo ThinkPad L480 (INR 57,750 as reviewed, customizable via Lenovo.com) is the kind of laptop that might just work for regular business needs. This laptop is built to last, has a well-designed keyboard, and a respectable Intel Core i5 processor, but it falls short of the competition due to its subpar speakers and display. The ThinkPad L480 can handle the essentials, but before committing, look into your options.
The ThinkPad L480 has a plastic, all-black, functionally dull design. It weighs 3.9 pounds and is 13.2 x 9.3 x 0.9 inches, so it's sizable but not too large. The L480 is not the most portable device given its thickness and weight, but it will do the job. The Dell Latitude 5490, which is its closest rival, measures 13.1 x 9 x 0.8 inches and weighs 3.8 pounds.
The ThinkPad L480 has passed MIL-SPEC testing, which means it can withstand sand damage, mechanical shock, high vibration, high altitudes, solar radiation, fungus, and humidity.
You can find additional specifications for each test category on Lenovo's website. The L480 has a secure lock slot and a Match-in-Sensor fingerprint reader for security purposes.
A Type-C mechanical docking port and a USB Type-C port are located on the left side of the ThinkPad L480. Additionally, there is a microSD card reader, a USB 3.1 connector, an Ethernet port, and an HDMI 1.4 port. A headphone/microphone combo jack, a second USB 3.1 port, and a secure lock slot are all located on the right side.
The 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 display of the ThinkPad L480 is unimpressive. The colors in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 teasers weren't as vivid as they could have been. The glowing-orange environment of the trailer's opening sequence and the giant squid monster's tentacles lacked the same vivid pink hue that I saw on my monitor (an NEC MultiSync PA271W). The shadows on the same squid monster also obscured details and hid the monster's fainter gross, gushy characteristics under a veil of darkness due to L480's dim display.
The ThinkPad L480's poor sRGB color gamut score, which explains the panel's mediocre hues, was 66.3 percent (the average is 112 percent). Even worse, the Dell Latitude 5490 only received 65 percent. The ThinkPad L480's brightness reading of 208 nits on our light meter is significantly less than the average of 306 nits. It outperformed the Latitude 5490's 178 nits, though.
The keyboard on the ThinkPad L480 is reliable; keys have a 1.5-millimeter travel distance and require 70 grams of force to actuate, so key presses are satisfying and prompt. I was able to complete the 10fastfingers.com typing test at a speed of 94 words per minute with a 99.9. curacy rate thanks to the well-engineered travel and actuation. That's much faster than the 85-wpm accuracy rate I typically achieve.
Most of the time, the 3.9 x 2.7-inch touchpad is good, although it struggles to respond to two-finger inputs. The touchpad would occasionally become stuck and fail to capture the text I was trying to select for copying and pasting, requiring me to use a single finger to get it to cooperate. Single-digit inputs were also somewhat erratic because they could occasionally not be recognized if they were made right after a two-finger motion.
The red, nubby pointing stick on the laptop responds to pressure proportionally, so you'll need to exert a lot of force to get the cursor moving quickly. This can be a bit of a hassle, so I often chose the touchpad despite its limitations with two-finger commands.
The bottom-mounted speakers on the ThinkPad L480 are simply not loud enough. The audio couldn't even fill the small conference room at full volume. The chimes in Sarah Schachner's "Winds of Cyrene" sounded like they were being played through several wind socks when the volume was turned up to its maximum because of the way the sound was distorted. Similar problems also affected "Dystopia" by Hi-Finesse, which experienced milder but still audible distortion during some of the more intense electronic segments.
The Intel Core i5-8250U processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB PCIe SSD, and Intel HD Graphics 620 integrated GPU are all featured in the Lenovo ThinkPad L480. As I had anticipated, it handled a sizable number of Chrome tabs without complaining. The L480 performed better than the mainstream average of 10,782 on the Geekbench 4 test, which gauges overall performance, scoring 11,405 points. However, neither of those figures compares favorably to the staggering 14,838 for the Dell Latitude 5490. For comparison, the Latitude 5490's processor is an Intel Core i7-8650U.
The ThinkPad L480 finished the Excel Lookup test in 1 minute and 13 seconds, which is faster than the 1:36 average but slower than the Latitude 5490's 59 seconds. The L480 copied a 4.97GB mixed-media file in 23 seconds during the file transfer test, giving a transfer rate of 212 megabytes per second. That is less than both the average of 281 MBps and the Latitude 5490's 267 MBps (256GB M.2 PCIe NVME SSD). The HandBrake test, which gauges how long it takes to convert a 4K movie to a 1080p file, took the ThinkPad L480 18 minutes and 38 seconds. Although slower than the category average of 22:12, that is faster than the Latitude 5490's 16:00.
The ThinkPad L480's integrated GPU played Dirt 3 at 50 frames per second, which is acceptable but falls short of the competition. With a better 69 frames per second on its own Intel 620 GPU, the Dell Latitude 5490 won. We consider anything over 30 fps to be playable, and the average is 71 fps. The ThinkPad L480 scored 68,857 on the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited synthetic graphics test, which is significantly less than the 86,493 average. Latitude 5490 performed significantly better, earning 89,735.
The ThinkPad L480 ran for 7 hours and 56 minutes in the Laptop Mag Battery Test (constant web browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness), which is less than the 8:18 average duration for mainstream laptops and 2 hours less than the Dell Latitude 5490's runtime of 9:54. While battery statistics will vary somewhat depending on how heavily a laptop is used, this gives you a reasonable sense of how long each laptop will last before needing a charger.
The ThinkPad L480's 720p camera isn't very good. The relatively faint, yellow lighting from the ceiling made the selfies I shot in the workplace appear blown out at the top. Fortunately, the webcam preserved every other hue, including the striking contrast between the reds and blues of my plaid, button-down shirt. My hair appeared to be a low-resolution watercolor collage in my test photographs due to a lack of detail. Even so, the camera is adequate for most Skype calls.
The laptop reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit on its underbelly during our heat test, which involves playing a full-screen HD film for 15 minutes. This is several degrees over our 95-degree comfort threshold. With temperatures of 91 degrees on the keyboard and 82 degrees on the touchpad, respectively, they fell within the permitted limit. However, the space directly to the right of the touchpad is somewhat warm all the time. Although it won't be assessed in our test, this area will make your right palm feel a little heated, so take care.
The ThinkPad L480 features some bloatware because it is a business notebook, but not much. With Windows 10, Microsoft bundled a ton of pointless apps, such as Bubble Witch 3 Saga, Candy Crush Soda Saga, and March of Empires.
Lenovo, on the other hand, used a rather light hand, merely incorporating their Vantage software, a helpful tool for customizing your ThinkPad experience. (It enables you to play with screen settings, camera settings, and the majority of other things you would wish to fiddle with.) There is no additional Lenovo bloatware included with the L480 besides that one useful app. The warranty offered by Lenovo is a one-year depot repair service. Check out Lenovo's performance in our Best and Worst Brands list and Tech Support Showdown.
I examined the Lenovo ThinkPad L480 that is offered by TigerDirect for INR 57,750. A 256GB PCIe SSD, an Intel HD 620 GPU, and an Intel Core i5-8250U processor running at 1.6 GHz are all included in one device. The base model, which lists an Intel Core i3-8130U processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive, and an Intel HD Graphics 620 GPU for INR 61,757, is available on Lenovo's website. A backlit keyboard, a fingerprint reader, and a 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD are included in the high-end model. On Lenovo's website, there are two customizable systems.
The Lenovo ThinkPad L480, which costs ₹1,03,800 (in Indian Rupees), is a good laptop, but you may get something better for a little bit more money. It's a competent multitasker with solid durability, but it falls short of any of its rivals, notably the INR 65,500 Dell Latitude 5490, which offers superior performance for a comparable price and has a longer battery life. The ThinkPad L480 is worth considering if you're looking for a usable business laptop at a fair price, but we advise saving your money for something with a little more punch.