Thoughts on Lenovo Thinkpad E480

[Darkbound]

Hey guys I am considering buying Lenovo Thinkpad E480, price seems good and I dont need uber performance out of it, I am mostly concerned with the build quality, size (13 to 14", <1.8kg, <0.78" height) and the battery life.

I am also open to other suggestions, I was looking at Acer Swift 3 prior to the Lenovo, but the Lenovo offers 36 months warranty (in my country) and the Acer is 24 months.

 

Ideally I am looking for

i5-8250u (dont need an i7)

4GB RAM (I want to add another 4gb to make it 2x4, afaik most 8GB ones come with 1x8GB)

256 SSD

13.3" screen ideally

Real battery life of around 8 hours (the Lenovo claims 13 hours measured with MobileMark 2014, but I have no idea how accurate that is)

 

I've read that Thinkpads are generally of great quality, but the E480 seems to be the entry level of Thinkpad so I dont know if I am going to be a victim of marketing, or it has at least some of the Thinkpad legendary quality.

 

I am mostly concerned with battery life, as I said I am looking at real battery life of around 8 hours with no heavy loads, mainly browsing, word, excel.

[genexis_x]

It's a good 'consumer' Thinkpad with 3 year warranty and good keyboard. Not much to complain, go for it.

[Darkbound]

Thanks ZM Fong, what about the battery life? What should I realistically expect from it?

[genexis_x]

26 minutes ago, Darkbound said:

Thanks ZM Fong, what about the battery life? What should I realistically expect from it?

Good, but not 'excellent'. 8 hours from NBC review.

[Darkbound]

Thanks, are there any 13.3" laptops that I can consider with similar specs/price/quality or I should just go ahead with the E480? 

[genexis_x]

5 hours ago, Darkbound said:

Thanks, are there any 13.3" laptops that I can consider with similar specs/price/quality or I should just go ahead with the E480? 

Mind providing some links of online stores in your country? I need to know availability

[Darkbound]

https://ardes.bg/laptopi/laptopi/displey-ot-12-do-14/teglo-do-1.5

https://laptop.bg/laptops-all

https://plasico.bg

 

But they are not in English

[genexis_x]

Forgot to ask, what's your budget?

[Darkbound]

1700-1750 in my currency for a laptop with everything I am looking for (the E480 costs about 1350, when I add the SSD and 4gig ram we get to about 1700), thats about $1100, but laptops are way cheaper in US than here. So i'd say equivalent on US market would be in the $800-900 range

[genexis_x]

Looks like the best options are E480 and Swift 3 14. HP Probook 430/440 G5 also not bad.

[Darkbound]

I found Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon 5th Gen, still wrapped in box, its a liiittle over my budget but I can manage, will cost me about $170 more than the E480, and still has 3 years warranty.

The spec is

8GB RAM

i5-7300u

256gb ssd

I am wondering if its worth it and if there is really a huge difference between i5-8250u and i5-7300u. Seems like the X1 was very expensive when it was brand new.. there are a few questionmarks around the warranty, I did check it on Lenovos website and it does have that warranty, but I've had previous experience with a laptop that had to go for warranty service, they oculdnt fix it and gave me back my money, not sure if that is an option here.

Other than that, I have decided to go with the E480, until I found this Carbon.

[Jrasero]

59 minutes ago, Darkbound said:

I found Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon 5th Gen, still wrapped in box, its a liiittle over my budget but I can manage, will cost me about $170 more than the E480, and still has 3 years warranty.

The spec is

8GB RAM

i5-7300u

256gb ssd

I am wondering if its worth it and if there is really a huge difference between i5-8250u and i5-7300u. Seems like the X1 was very expensive when it was brand new.. there are a few questionmarks around the warranty, I did check it on Lenovos website and it does have that warranty, but I've had previous experience with a laptop that had to go for warranty service, they oculdnt fix it and gave me back my money, not sure if that is an option here.

Other than that, I have decided to go with the E480, until I found this Carbon.

I would say yes the 8250u w/ quad cores will see a huge bump in performance over 7th gen, but it depends what you are doing with the laptop.  The X1 6th gen even with a lowered resolution and lowered settings will struggle with a lot of games.  The TB3 ports are nice but the system's lack of of dual fans is worrisome for EGPU or even heavy processing tasks for the CPU.  Really the X1 is a glorified business netbook, nothing wrong with that but for most business users dual cores is plenty.  If you don't need quad cores the yeah a 5th gen X1 is awesome since IMO they have the best keyboard, are built like tanks, and weight a mere 2.5 lbs.  If you can find a 5th gen for $1000 I think that is pretty solid

[Darkbound]

22 hours ago, Jrasero said:

I would say yes the 8250u w/ quad cores will see a huge bump in performance over 7th gen, but it depends what you are doing with the laptop.  The X1 6th gen even with a lowered resolution and lowered settings will struggle with a lot of games.  The TB3 ports are nice but the system's lack of of dual fans is worrisome for EGPU or even heavy processing tasks for the CPU.  Really the X1 is a glorified business netbook, nothing wrong with that but for most business users dual cores is plenty.  If you don't need quad cores the yeah a 5th gen X1 is awesome since IMO they have the best keyboard, are built like tanks, and weight a mere 2.5 lbs.  If you can find a 5th gen for $1000 I think that is pretty solid

I dont need it for any CPU intensive tasks, I will be writing doc files, browsing internet, watch movies on it, no games. I have a good desktop for that.

But with the E480 I will be buying the SSD and the RAM separately, so whatever happens with it, Ill still have the ssd and ram left. The carbon 5 will cost me about $1300, the E480 with the upgrades will cost me about $1100. Called a Lenovo service today, they said that there should be no problems with warranty as long as the guy gives me proof of purchase and the warranty card. He also has a 4th gen carbon with 2 years of warranty left, will cost as much as the E480.