Business laptops don’t always get as much love as their somewhat more exciting consumer and gaming cousins, but Lenovo’s latest addition to its ThinkPad line-up, the T480S, has a lot going for it that’s definitely worth talking about.
The TLDR is that the 14-inch T480S ticks all of the boxes a good business notebook should: it’s thin, light, powerful, tough, and has all-day battery life even when you push it hard.
That last bit is incredibly important for busy people who aren’t always near a power point – there are few things more irksome than running out of battery power on the road. That shouldn’t happen with the T480S if you start each day with a full battery.
Portability
While these 14-inch notebooks might not be quite as portable as even smaller ones, they’re also not going to break your back on long trips as they weigh less than 1.5kg each.
Lenovo’s longstanding reputation for making some of the best-looking and most resilient chassis in the business is on full display here: the T480S is not only beautiful to look at, but it’s durable too and the soft-touch rubber finish is a true pleasure to run your fingers over.
Build & Keyboard
Lenovo’s biggest product strengths are twofold: build quality and their keyboards. The above ticks the build quality box, and the keyboard on the T480S ticks the second: the keys are made from durable and high-quality plastic, and the short -but-significant travel and general “clickiness” of each key are designed to satisfy even the fussiest of typists.
And of course, no ThinkPad is complete without that handy and iconic TrackPoint nubbin located in the middle of the keyboard, and it’s present and accounted for here. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but should you give it a try, it may be your go-to pointer over the T480S’s trackpad, even though that too is nice to use with its smooth, silky, and responsive surface.
Display Options
Lenovo has given the T480S series Full HD IPS displays, so expect colours to look amazing and visuals to be nice and sharp and viewing angles exceptional.
One of the models stocked by Tarsus features a MultiTouch panel that works well with Windows 10’s many touch-friendly design features, so go for that one (model number 20L70003ZA) if you or your customers are used to touching their screens to get things done.
CPU, Storage & OS
Under the hood, expect these beauties to run Intel’s 8th-generation Core i5 and i7 mobile processors, and most models have 8GB of RAM – only the 20L80017ZA, which must be specially ordered, ships with 16GB.
The three T480S SKUs TD stocks ship with a 256GB or a 512GB PCIe SSD, model-dependent, so there’s plenty of storage space on offer, plus of course SSDs are super-fast, benefitting the operating system’s general responsiveness.
Naturally, Windows Pro 10 64-bit comes standard on each unit for the business benefits the OS offers, like the ability to join a domain.
Graphics
On the graphics side, these notebooks come with Intel UHD Graphics 620, the graphics chip that’s integrated with the 8th-gen Intel processors available to the range: the Core i5-8250U, the Core i7-8550U as well as their vPro counterparts Core i5-8350U and Core i7-8650U – though vPro models are presently only available through Lenovo’s store.
Intel’s integrated GPU is fast enough to do some light 3D gaming, but that’s not really relevant as these are serious business notebooks. It’s nice that the capability is there, however.
T480s: Available Now
Three of the five T480S models Lenovo produces are available right now through Tarsus Distribution:
- 20L7001SZA
- 20L70002ZA
- 20L70003ZA
The other two (20L7001RZA, 20L80017ZA) can be ordered on request, with a lead time of four weeks.
If you’d like more information on the range, or to speak to a Lenovo expert about them to find out which one might meet your or your clients’ needs best, contact Team Lenovo at Tarsus Distribution.
