Lenovo’s ThinkPad E480: Review

Lenovo’s ThinkPad laptops have been impressive this year. The focus has been to make it feature-rich. The latest ThinkPad laptop that is currently in the limelight in Rs 35,000 to 90,000 price bracket is the Lenovo ThinkPad E480. Now you might wonder that it is a huge price segment to be mentioned, this laptop has almost 19 variants from what available on the website.

Lenovo ThinkPad E480 was launched in September and we have been using the 14-inch HD display model even before it was released officially. The ThinkPad range has managed to plug up some vital gaps, compared to the new laptops. While featuring all the interfaces it has the latest specs and the tough build that a business user won’t get in a sleek laptop.

Design

Design language across all the 2018 ThinkPad listings has been very similar. It has the same heavy-duty and silent looks with the Black matte-finish body both the sides. The touchpad and keyboard area to look nearly the same.

The body is surely lighter and slimmer than earlier and easy to carry. As expected, ThinkPad laptops are not the most lightweight ones but they came out well on the stealth look. The series aims to attract those who want the most out of a laptop and are not much concerned about looks.

At the top-right corner of the keyboard area, you find a fixed power button on the inner side. The backlit keys make easy to use and avoid you from contracting your fingers a lot. The touchpad with the iconic red accents is also nice to use while enhancing the looks. As a security layer, there’s a fingerprint touch sensor.

You will find everything for connectivity, including USB 3.0 Type-C, 2x USB 3.1, USB 2.0, HDMI, microSD card and headphone and microphone combo jack. LAN port is not available but you get the LAN to USB port along with the laptop so there won’t be a problem.

Display

Basically, the laptop is made keeping in view the business users so can’t expect the display as the best point of the device. It has a 14-inch HD (1366x768 pixels) which is not as much but you get an option with full HD resolution display as well. The 14-inch full HD display is a decent screen to look at. You can watch movies and TV shows on it but shouldn’t expect the best performance. The E480 screen is not an issue but due to the matte coating viewing angles have an issue.

The IPS panel is vibrant but if the display section is bothering you, can go for a better-screen laptop in a similar price series. But you may miss out on some of the features that the ThinkPad laptops deliver.

Performance

When it comes to performance, the series is one of the most powerful ones. Needless to say, the editing apps, presentations, multiple browser tabs and even games run flawlessly in the ThinkPad E480. The device is made of AMD Radeon RX 550 with dedicated 2GB memory to munch all the graphic-intensive work and makes things easier for us.

You will get the laptop iterations that have up to 512GB SSD storage, up to 2TB hard drive (5400rpm) or up to 500GB storage (7200rpm). Unfortunately, there’s only one SSD model with the new ThinkPad E480 laptop. But it's not a bad deal at all for the price they are coming.

The Windows 10 OS remains same as ever, easy to use. With many security options like Windows Hello facial recognition and the inbuilt fingerprint sensor. The E480 has a discrete Trusted Platform Module 2.0 a chip that works in tandem with Windows 10 Pro BitLocker that keeps the whole information encrypted. HD webcam with dual array and Dolby Advanced audio speakers’ performance is flawless.

Lenovo says it easy to operate, deploy and maintain. So if you see from an overall perspective Lenovo ThinkPad E480 performs the way it advertised its functions, power performance and security layers. Even if it is not the best, it’s not bad either.

Battery

Lenovo is presenting ThinkPad E480 as one of the business laptops that you can work while moving. It is understood that battery should be last-longing and has to be promising on this. The firm claims to deliver up to 13 hours of battery life, which is of course in ‘ideal’ conditions and may not run for that long in real life usage.

Verdict

Till date, Lenovo’s ThinkPad laptops have been one of its most interesting and impressive series. The laptops have a legacy you can rely on. The laptops made for power users are reliable. The ThinkPad E480 manages to get the ‘decent’ tag with it. You find an average display, a competent processor and a modern design.

If you are only considering looks and giving portability the topmost priority, then this might not be the most ideal laptop. But if you are a heavy user and won’t mind a slightly thicker laptop that has got all the features, then ThinkPad E480 can be one of your preferences.

When it comes to battery life you may not find it as the best laptop. As said earlier, on the whole, it is not a bad option. You have different variants for the same model that are priced high, with better screens and processors but when it comes to the design and battery performance it is likely to stay the same.