Lenovo ThinkPad L480

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Our verdict

Although the Lenovo ThinkPad L480 functions as a business laptop, there's practically nothing notable that sets it apart from its competition.

To the

Decent battery life

Well designed keyboard

Against

Below average display

Bad sound

Mediocre value

The Lenovo ThinkPad L480 ($706.99 on review, customizable via

Lenovo.com

) is the kind of laptop that's good for everyday business use, as long as you can live with some compromises. This laptop offers decent performance with its Intel Core i5 processor, has a well-designed keyboard and is built to hit, stays however, it falls short of the competition with a weak display and poor speakers. The ThinkPad L480 can handle the basics, but consider a few alternatives before taking the plunge.

draft

The ThinkPad L480 features a bland but functional all-black,

plastic

Design. Measuring 13.2 x 9.3 x 0.9 inches and 3.9 pounds, it's big but not too bulky. Considering its thickness and weight, the L480 isn't the most portable device, but it will do his job.

His closest competitor, the

Dell Latitude 5490

, is almost identical in size and weight at 13.1 x 9 x 0.8 inches and 3.8 pounds.

durability and safety

The ThinkPad L480 is MIL-SPEC tested, which means it can withstand extreme temperatures, high altitudes, sunlight, fungus, moisture, mechanical shock, severe vibration and sand damage.

See more specifications for each test category

Lenovo's website

.As for security features, the L480 has a match-in sensor fingerprint reader and a secure lock slot.

ports

Along the left side of the ThinkPad L480 you will find a

USB Type-C

port and a Type-C mechanical docking port.

There is also a microSD card reader, an Ethernet port, an HDMI 1.4 port and a USB 3.1 port.

On the right side there is a headphone/microphone combo jack, another USB 3.1 port and a slot for a secure lock.

14 inch, 1920x1080 . of the ThinkPad L480

is stunning. In the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 trailer, the colors were less vibrant than expected. The giant squid monster's tentacles lacked the same vibrant pink hue found on my personal monitor (an NEC MultiSync PA271W), and the surrounding glowing orange environment of the trailer's opening sequence didn't pop either.

Additionally, the L480's dim display meant that the shadows on the same squid monster obscured detail, hiding the monster's weaker, gritty, bubbly characteristics under a veil of darkness.

The ThinkPad L480 achieves a low 66.3 percent in the sRGB area

color scale

Test that explains the panel's nondescript colors (average is 112 percent). The Dell Latitude 5490 scored an even more disappointing 65 percent.

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The ThinkPad L480 measured 208 nits of brightness on our light meter, which is nowhere near as bright as the 306 nits average. However, it surpassed the Latitude 5490's 178 nits.

Keyboard, touchpad and pointing stick

The ThinkPad L480 has a solid keyboard; the keys offer 1.5 millimeters of travel and require 70 grams of force to actuate, meaning keystrokes feel satisfying and responsive. This combination of mature movement and actuation allowed me to Achieving 94 words per minute with a 99 percent accuracy rate on the 10fastfingers.com typing test. That's much higher than my usual 85 wpm with a 98 percent accuracy rate.

The 3.9 x 2.7-inch touchpad is mostly okay, but doesn't respond well to two-finger commands. When I tried to select text to copy and paste using just the touchpad, it sometimes got stuck and refused to capturing the text I wanted, which forced me to work with a single finger to play it well. And even then, single-digit input was a bit finicky, occasionally not registering when it came shortly after a two-finger swipe.

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The laptop's red, knobbed stylus moves in proportion to pressure, which means you'll need to use some force to move the cursor at a reasonable speed. This can be a bit of a hassle, which is why I use two fingers despite its problems -Commands for the touchpad.

Audio

The ThinkPad L480's bottom-mounted speakers just aren't loud enough. Even at 100 percent volume, the audio couldn't fill a small conference room. At maximum volume, the sound distorted and made the bells in Sarah Schachner's "

Winds of Cyrene

"sound like they were being played through a few dozen windsocks given how fuzzy they sounded. Similar problems were encountered with Hi-Finesse"

dystopia

,” which suffered from milder, if noticeable, distortion in some of the more intense electronic segments.

perfomance

The Lenovo ThinkPad L480 has 1.6 GHz

Intel Core i5-8250U CPU

with 8GB

R.A.M.

, a

256GB PCIe SSD

and a

intel

Integrated HD Graphics 620 GPU

.As I expected, it could take a hefty load of

Google Chrome

Tabs without breaking a sweat.

On the Geekbench 4 test that measures

overall performance

, the L480 scored 11,405, which is higher than the mainstream average of 10,782. However, both numbers are much lower than the Dell Latitude 5490's whopping 14,838. For reference, the Latitude 5490 has an Intel Core i7-8650U CPU.

The ThinkPad L480 took 1 minute and 13 seconds to complete the process

Excel lookup test

, which is ahead of the Latitude 5490's average of 1:36 but behind the 59 seconds. In the File Transfer test, the L480 copied a 4.97 GB mixed media file in 23 seconds at a transfer rate of 212 megabytes per second .That's below both the 281 Mbps average and the 267 Mbps of the Latitude 5490 (256GB M.2 PCIe NVME SSD).

The ThinkPad L480 took 18 minutes and 38 seconds on the HandBrake test, which measures the time it takes to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. That's faster than the 22:12 category average, but behind the 16: 00 of the Latitude 5490.

As far as graphics performance goes, the ThinkPad L480's integrated GPU delivers Dirt 3 at 50 frames per second, which is okay but falls short of the competition. With its own Intel 620 GPU, the Dell Latitude 5490 triumphed with a stellar 69 fps. Average lies at 71 fps, and we think anything above 30 fps is playable.

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On the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited synthetic graphics test, the ThinkPad L480 scored 68,857, which is well below the average of 86,493. The Latitude 5490 fared significantly better, scoring 89,735.

Lenovo ThinkPad L480

battery life

On the Laptop Mag Battery test (continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness), the ThinkPad L480 lasted 7 hours and 56 minutes, which is less than the 8:18 mainstream laptop average and 2 hours shorter than the Dell runtime Latitude 5490 of 9:54. While battery numbers can vary slightly depending on the intensity of laptop use, this gives a good idea of how much time you can get out of each laptop without a charger.

cam

The ThinkPad L480's 720p camera isn't great. In the selfies I took in the office, the images above looked faded due to the relatively faint yellow lights from the ceiling. Luckily the webcam left every other color intact, such as the contrasting reds and blues of my plaid shirt. My test shots lacked detail; my hair looked like some sort of low-res watercolor collage. Still, the camera is fine for the average Skype call.

heat

During our heat test, which consists of streaming a full-screen HD video for 15 minutes, the laptop reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit on its underside, which is several degrees above our 95-degree comfort threshold. The keyboard and touchpad were in the middle 91 and 82 degrees, respectively, are within the acceptable range. However, the area to the right of the touchpad always gets a little hot. This area isn't measured in our test, but your right palm does get a little warm, so be careful.

software and warranty

Being a business laptop, the ThinkPad L480 has quite a few

bloatware

, but not by much. Microsoft has a lot of useless software over

windows 10

, including Bubble Witch 3 Saga, Candy Crush Soda Saga and March of Empires.

For its part, Lenovo has gone with a rather light touch, using only its Vantage software, a useful utility for fine-tuning your ThinkPad experience. (It lets you tinker with display settings, webcam settings, and most other things you might want to play around with. ) Aside from that one useful app, the L480 comes with no bloatware from Lenovo.

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Lenovo offers a one-year depot repair service as a company warranty. See how Lenovo is doing on our

Technical support showdown

and

Best and worst brands

ranking.

configurations

I reviewed the $706.99 iteration of the Lenovo ThinkPad L480 available from TigerDirect. It features a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-8250U processor with 8GB RAM, a 256GB PCIe SSD, and an Intel HD 620 GPU. On Lenovo's website, the base model costs $756 and has a 2.2GHz Intel Core i3-8130U CPU; 4GB RAM; a 500GB 7200rpm hard drive; and an Intel UHD Graphics 620 GPU. The high-end iteration brings you a 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, a backlit keyboard, and a fingerprint reader. Both systems featured on Lenovo's website are customizable.

bottom line

The $706.99 Lenovo ThinkPad L480 is solid, but you could do better if you're willing to spend a little more. It's a capable multitasker with good durability, but it can't beat any of its competitors, including the $799 .

Dell Latitude 5490

, which offers longer battery life and better performance for a similar price. If you're looking for a functional business laptop at a reasonable price, the ThinkPad L480 is worth a look, but we'd recommend spending your penny for a little more pizzazz to save.

Photo credit: Laptop Mag

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