i love my thinkpad T480s to death. got it off ebay for 95$ with shipping without an SSD. dropped in a 512GB ssd and another 8gigs of ram. changed the wifi card and trackpad to a glass one and i unironically use this more than my ROG Zephyrus G16 for everyday workloads. its truly amazing how great thinkpads were back in the day. the repairability is insane
@@siontheodorus1501 Modern laptops do increase power efficiensy and gaming performance with new version releaes mostly so there is no much defference with 8 year old devices in terms of non-gaming tasks. I'm currently using t460p on i7 8700H and 32 GB ram. It performs prety much the same as best modern laptops up to 800 USD,
@@siontheodorus1501 i attempted to separate my personal and school/work laptop which entailed me to spend more time on the thinkpad. I am on nixos on the thinkpad while the zephy has arch installed. i'd say the thinkpad is fairly fast for its age. It holds up pretty well for work on the browser, browsing assigments etc. But would not be feasible for heavy workloads. NixOS rebuild takes a solid minute which i am guessing would take like 20 seconds on the zephyrus
Upgradable memory is coming back to Thinkpads on some lines. P14s Gen 5 has SODIMM slots, whereas at the previous gen was soldered. And the P1 Gen 7 is the first to use CAMM2 modules.
Watching this from my specced out T480. Absolute beast of a machine and with 64GB ram and 1tb NVMe SSD + 512 SATA 2242 SSD placed in the WWAN port. Love the video man!
I lough at anyone who uses more than 16gb. Maybe 32gb has some uses but 64.... HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Do not forget that you need to change the screen panel that is TOTAL shit aaand the thermal solution if you do not have dgpumx150(they come with 2 pipes instead of one) aaaaand do not forget to change the trackpad with glass one. After all this you have a laptop that is VERY GOOD in some ways and total shit for the price if you are good with finding offers.
I was selecting a new work laptop this month and I really wanted to give new Thinkpads a chance but yeah... expensive, non-upgradable, tiny cooling, ... they really fell off. At this end I bought one from a less known company from Germany called Schenker who brands, configures and services TongFang laptops. Their XMG EVO 14 is a aluminium thin beast with 14" 2880x1800 120Hz IPS display, 8845HS, 64GB of SO-DIMM RAM, 1TB of Samsung SSD (and one more empty slot), non-soldered WiFi, great cooling and 80Wh battery and I only paid 1032 euros for it. And it has display hinges on the top just like old Thinkpads! Unbeatable.
I once visited a relative who lived in China. Qinghua Tongfang feels like an ancient brand, crazy to see that they are still around. Now that I think of it, other manufacturers are pretty old so I guess it's not that crazy.
Buying from a rare brand will do too much bad to justify the little savings. You'd sweat to find parts. If you do, they won't be cheap or locally available and involve all sorts of shipping
I think I ordered the same laptop - a "TongFang GX4". I ordered mine without an SSD or memory (because I have plenty of both lying around), only cost me $650. I can't wait for it to arrive - should be any day now. First thing I'm gonna do (after installing memory and a fast m.2 drive) is install Linux 😄🐧
I've used an egpu with my t480. It's fine for me with a 1050ti, but the t480 wouldn't handle any "serious" graphics card, as it only has 2 pcie lanes going over it. For my use case it works beautifully, though. One cable and I'm hooked up to three monitors mouse keyboard microphone webcam etc. Great if youre on a budget like me, if youre lucky you can get an egpu enclosure cheap, some cheap used monitors etc and you've got quite a capable and flexible buildout without having to pay for both a laptop and a desktop!
Thank you for this great idea - I am not a gamer but enjoy old school Thinkpads mainly for MS Office, browsing and general use after clicking into a Thinkpad Mini Dock. One constraint has been multiple monitors and / or higher resolutions than 1920 x 1080. Can you further explain the hardware required and how to use an egpu with old Thinkpads for at least one if two or more external monitors?
I bought a refurbished custom white xps in 2009, it had a fast intel core 2 duo cpu and the best mobile gpu at the time. I forget bc i haven't used it in awhile. But it runs modern pc games and its just a great laptop. I also have a ThinkPad, its my travel tank. It runs Linux great.
I used to work for Nýherji (basically IBM in Iceland) and was able to get a new Thinkpad T470 cheap due to staff discounts and oh my how I love that machine. Only a 2c/4t machine but I love it. First Thinkpad I've ever owned and it is still kicking all these years later!
I bought a ThinkPad P52 instead of a T480 because of the dedicated gpu and it is the best laptop I've ever owned. I came from an M2 Macbook Air, and even though this laptop is older and less powerful, I get a lot more use out of it due to the extra I/O, MUCH better keyboard, and windows allowing me to do some gaming and light editing. The 6 core 8th gen I7 and NVIDIA P1000 gpu still holds up pretty well. Also, the hot swappable battery is brilliant for when I'm on the go and need some extra charge.
Linux can be an option since the T480 has an extra drive bay. Give it a try and if it doesn't work out, just reformat it and use it as an extra SSD. My experience with Linux is it makes old computers into really fast machines as it's a light weight OS. It's a good way to keep those old computers alive. I currently run Linux (Ubuntu) on a Surface Go 2 Pentium, Macbook Air 2015 with fantastic results. The only downside is the camera doesn't work for Surface.
I got a used thinkpad X250 about three years ago. The model is almost 9 years old, but it works great for the tasks I want to accomplish. I mainly use it when I'll be away from home for some time like on a holiday, and with it's small 12.5" screen makes it very portable to carry it everywhere. Just needs new batteries though.
Superb video, had mine for 2 months, stuck 16gb RAM in and replaced both batteries, hotswap now a 61++ battery. Gets me a full day on battery which I love. Oh and only found out last week it's touch screen when I tried to wipe a mark from the screen. :)
4:13 this is a nitpick, but, the "dock" part of the wide connector is actually just ethernet port. Rest of the dock would run off of the usb-c connectors, iirc.
Eric Murphy convince me to get Thinkpad and u specifically the t480 is only available at the moment in our area. Got the i5 8th gen 16gb ram and 500ssd bought it for ₱11,500 Philippines pesos. My only problem is the internal battery pop up not detected and only uses the external battery 2hours max, should i replace the internal battery or just buy new 72ws external battery.
I don’t about others, but sometimes I do forget to subscribe a great content creator, so the intro does remind me to subscribe, which I’m super glad I did
@ you mean most people aren't smart enough to subscribe after watching something they thoroughly enjoyed ?? Really ?? -__- if so that's thoroughly disappointing.
I have mixed thoughts on that because it's a small channel so needs subs or it'll be another algorithm casualty, and there's been a few times I've assumed I have been subbed to channels when I haven't.
You and me both. Got tired of a beefy laptop with to much for me to use. Need a reliable laptop for daily use and college. This has been the winner so far.
gotta say i really appreciate your videos. easy to link to than once more explain what ive been saying for so long! wish titles were more descriptive but i get u gotta play the algorithm game. good luck!
One of my favorites was the T470p. I had one of those for 5 years, but it was a company laptop. I nearly cried the day I changed my job and had to hand it back.
I have a L490 bought off Amazon renewed for around $250 (when converted from INR). While it is not as serviceable as the T480, it is still very easily serviceable/ upgradable. BTW - do you know that you can use the send USB C port for charging in case your actual charging port stopped functioning ?
That's funny, because if you were in 2019 and asked the ThinkPad community what the last good ThinkPad model was, they would NOT say the T480. They would probably say the T420 or T440p.
i think that it's because within the past 3 or so years, there's been a huge influx of people getting into the thinkpad fad, and these people have little to no knowledge/experience with the ibm/early lenovo thinkpads (or laptops of that era really), so they bear zero sentiment for what made those old machines so great. and maybe also because lots of us who do have that experience and sentiment understand that things change, and that things don't necessarily go in the direction that we wish they do-- we're just being pragmatic. and this is coming from somebody who uses her t61 with the ticking time bomb nvidia gpu on a daily basis!
I once loved an old T430s with Windows 7 Pro. For a refurbished Thinkpad such as a T480, what version of Windows would you suggest for the leanest, fastest operating experience? And / can anyone who prefers Linux suggest the best distribution for this type of machine?
I need a laptop for programming and learning linux and need portable and better battery life should i go with X220 and X230, T480 is a workhorse for today's workload but it has usb c soldered to motherboard unlike older model that can change the charging ports
I have one of the modern ones, a TP Nano. It makes a lot of compromises to be as light as it is ~ 1kg! as in only 2 ports, 3 if you count the 3.5mm jack. I love it though, It's very easy to open and replace the SSD, the battery is easily removable, RAM is soldered. I have Linux and Windows on separate SSD's and swap them. I have dual booted but it's to me easier, cleaner to just keep the worlds separate. Of all the computers I've had its my favorite.
About using eGPUs, but 1st: Thanks for honoring a great series of laptops which have sadly all but disappeared with the newer designs leaving behind a lot of what made the ThinkPad so great. I use Lenovo's own eGPU with my T570: the Thunderbolt 3 graphics dock, which you can still find (overpriced) on ebay. It has an Nvidia 1050 which allows me to play some games much more comfortably as well as help with multitasking more graphic intensive applications, run 2 large monitors and connect to a near desktop experience whenever i het back at my fesk without fiddling with so many cables each time. I love it ❤
After having hinge-based problems with my current laptop (Samsung i3-10110U processor, 8 GB of RAM), I've decided to look for something robust, with great durability, a Thinkpad Laptop. However, I've been overwhelmed with the different options available out there on ebay (furnished/second hand ones). Should I go with a T480 or a newer one, such as the T14s Gen 1?
i have a question - is the t480s lid assembly less flimsy than the t480? I hate the amount of flex around the hinges of my t480, especially when it is closed and i want to carry it with one hand. Also, the old thinkpads used to be able to open with one hand (largely due to the protruding battery) is this still achievable?
I got one with a protruding battery, it's embarrassing😂. But gives the laptop a little stand and provides room for ventilation underneath. This is the most wobble free hinge I've seen. You've been played in some way or done something
@@tegathemenace the hinge is ok, but when i close the thing and grab it between the hignes to slide it in my bag, just by holding it it squeezes the screen to the keyboard. I was wondering if there is some fix, like taping a carbon fibre plate under the screen on the lid assembly or putting some rubber spacers above the keyboard.
I got a t14s gen 3 and got to say it's not that far off from the t480 in terms of *thinkpad-ness* it's pretty repairable and modular yes the ram is soldered but there is reasoning behind it with being without it being soldered it can only reach 4800mhz and it being soldered make it capable of reaching 6400mhz other than the ram and the hot-swappable battery nothing much different
I don't approve of the soldered RAM. AMD's chips advertise support for DDR5-5600, and I don't think the jump from 5600 to 6400 is worth soldering. And even if this is vaporware, I don't think 4800 to 6400 is significant enough either. And as @Aygross points out, this is ignoring lpcamm, which does 7500 today and is expected to hit 9600 in the future. I'll embrace soldered memory once we have M4 pro/max levels of memory bandwidth and sensible memory upgrade pricing
E14 Gen2 has upgradeable Ram, but just 1 Slot, 8Gb are soldered to the Motherboard. And the battery is also not hotswappable, but to be honest - because the battery life is just better than the T470 with the dual Battery setup which i had before, i couldn´t care less. Also it has 2 NVME slots, so storage upgrades are easy and cheap - nobody needs a 2.5 inch drive bay in 2024 with NVME´s beeing that cheap and just soooo much faster.
my T480 (i7 8550u/16gb ddr4) paired w/ RX 6600 8gb in a lenovo legion booststation is a pretty hench setup for gaming, usable for editing, but the u-series CPU is a bit of a bottleneck for editing as its sits down around 2.6ghz when rendering
I have a 16 yr. old Thinkpad, an 11 yr. old Thinkpad and a one year old Thinkpad. All work like new, it will be interesting to see if the newest one lasts as long as the older two.
I also have a ThinkPad. It's a good portable laptop. I use it for work but able to play some games using Steam. I'm surprised the laptop can run some game titles such as Burnout Paradise, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, Saints Row 3, Sleeping Dogs and Split Second Velocity.
Regarding the external GPU idea, the Thunderbolt 3 implementation of the T480 only has half of the PCIe lanes (x2 instead of x4) so it might be a bit of a disappointment.
Honestly, I think dual battery is an outdated feature these days. Power banks are cheaper per Wh than laptop batteries, can power things other than your laptop, and can be charged separately from the laptop using USB. It's not worth the extra battery wear and charge time penalty anymore. The main problem I have is that they dropped the overall battery capacity from about 100 Wh to about 50 Wh when they removed it
@someone-mn8or for someone who work outdoor, have dual battery feature is game changer Imagine when you do your work but you must tether to power plug. Just grab the second batery and change it is much easier and quicker than plug the power
@@someone-mn8or Strong disagree, the dual battery is simply more convenient than a power bank. They are also user replaceable and don't have to hang off of the device in any way. It even provides a built in riser for your laptop to help with air circulation on the bottom of the laptop. It was literally the reason I stopped using Thinkpads, the dual battery setup was just such a dream for me. Was very sad when they got rid of it.
My work laptop is a ThinkPad, but not specifically this one. The biggest issue I have with it is the touchpad. Sometimes it just does things of its own, like I'd splash drops of water on a phone screen.
T490s user, I had two of these, really dissapointing. I don't use a mouse either when I use my laptop so it does get annoying. It's.... ok enough that I can daily it, but my old cheap acer laptop had a better trackpad which is disappointing.
@@Warrior7z7 well, yeah.. I don't have any choice. If you buy a laptop you expect everything to work, or if my keyboard and screen was working poorly you'd tell me to buy a keyboard and a separate display?
Year ago I had the choice to get a T480 i5 12GB but got an EliteBook x360 1030 G4 i5 8GB just because it was smaller, lighter, has phenomenal audio, aluminum-built and had touch and pen. No changes, still holds like a champ with Visual Studio/Godot/DaVinci Resolve/UA-cam.
I want to know what you think about the t470 model in 2025.... where I live you don't get the t480 for cheap, will I be fine with the t470 with Linux ? For some coding (web dev and a bit of android app development )
I had a T470 for a few weeks in 2020. It was just horribly slow with the i5 6300U (just a really shitty Dualcore, just avoid 6th/7th Gen Intel) for even the simplest workloads in Matlab or Visual Studio. I then upgraded to the E14 Gen2 AMD with the Ryzen 5 4500U, and its just so much better in every possible way - portability, the Screen, performance, Battery Life (event though the T470 had a dual battery setup, but it was just maxed out all the time) - simply everything. The E14 also has upgradeable Ram (but just 1 Slot), 2 M2 Slots and an Aluminium Case.
I use a T470 for school and research projects and that’s probably what’s it’s going to do best. Anything mildly intensive and it’s quite sluggish but if it’s just for office tasks then still miles better than Chromebook’s imo. I also triple boot windows 7, windows 11 and Debian. Debian runs best with little lag and windows 11 is just downright awful. Windows 7 runs great but still not as fast as Debian. Fans are always silent on debian when doing light tasks or idle. Pretty solid Linux laptop but you can run windows 7 or 10 if you needed to. Wouldn’t recommend 11 though.
I use an egpu with my T470s with Thunderbolt 3. Yes, it greatly increases gpu performance just by pairing a gtx1650. Can play most games at mid-low settings about 50-60fps. A better gpu would of course get more out of it.
In Europe, paid 130 euros for it, the 8250U model with 8GB RAM and 250GB SSD, also no charger. Very happy with it but it does have the random stuck keys problem. Also mine is in excellent condition, very few signs of wear.
@ well, i use x1c6 with 2k display. Just curious ppl always mention t480 and t480s only. The t480s and x1c6, they are same price range but always they said 480 is the best
Alot of people dont know. The fujitsu laptops are some what like the old lenovo makes. Heaps of ports. expanability. and even click mouse buttons. Except no track dot.
I need the NumPad so I got myself the T580 for my private practice. Without the internal battery but with a new 65W charger it only cost me €225. The keyboard is the best one I've used on a laptop, no need to resort to using an external one. I don't think I'll ever replace it.
just got one of these with mx150 and for me that likes to game witj something like gta v and overwatch on the low, it works so well, principally cause i have a lot of portability while gaming laptops sacrifice that😊
I got two of T490S (i7 8th // 16g ram) for 250 each on different timeframes, honestly great laptop for uni, that's what I use it for, I do carry a tablet but their usecases are just different, so it's nice to carry a fully fledged os with me all the time. If I had money I'd honestly just replace both my desktop and thinkpad with a zephyrus G16, (I'd go with the MP16 if I could actually daily macos, which I can't), but because that's not the case, thinkpad ftw it is.
Bought one half a year ago and so far upgraded the display to full hd, stuck 32GBs of RAM in it, a 2TB harddrive and the cooler from the dGPU model. Still need a glass trackpad, but since I use a bluetooth mouse pretty often, that isn't a priority right now 😂
@@theryanthomas I certainly am. While it is sadly not the i7 model it nonetheless runs flawlessly although the batteries are showing their age and abuse a bit. Not more than two hours of juice left 😆
@@ivaylotsankov7292 May I ask why? I always thought if I would have it when it first came out I would be still using it probably and would plan to use even more for the near future. And everyone says it is good for getting the job done. So at this point someone saying otherwise is valuable for me. I am curious :)
I just jumped the gun and bought the s10e - I hope its a W. And also, really love the way you make videos and specially the topic you cover. And honestly its perfectly the niche I look for on youtube. oh and ye Looking to buy that too xd. t480s are really something.
Are you able to get Framework laptops in the UK yet? I bought one (the 13" model) a couple of years ago with the intention of making it the last DJ laptop I'll ever need since it's completely repairable and modular. If it's available in your part of the world, I highly recommend it!
One big issue with Thinkpads that is never raised is that they usually have a bad display quality. I am driving daily a Thinkpad X220 from 2011. It has a nice IPS screen, albeit small and a low resolution. But it's bright, and the colors are nice. Every other Thinkpad that I have tried had a really subpar display, even a T480 (I ended up reselling it). It's shocking that people value their eyes so low.
Not sure if the p53 is about the same dimensions and weight as the p52, which I have and is I'd say, decent. It's definitely a brick of a laptop, but if you don't carry a lot in your backpack it's fine. Definitely not comfortable holding it in your hand or laying it on your lap though. Laptops of that type are more portable desktops than laptops in terms of usability.
@@Spiderman3ist if you don't really plan on carrying it you should be fine yeah. I bought my p52 as a cad machine for school, which was quite doable even though I was carrying it on my back almost every day.
When W11 or the next one stop working, may I suggest you to try a Linux distro?. You would probably see better battery life and performance, that way it will last almost forever (from a X390 user)
I have a T16 Gen2 and while it's a whole lot sleeker than e.g. the T480, it certainly doesn't feel as durable and repairable than the older Thinkpads. Fortunately the RAM is somewhat upgradable (one soldered, one available DIMM slot), M.2 slot and the battery and keyboard should be easy to replace. Not so sure about the screen, though. 2 USB-A and 2 USB-C, RJ-45 Gigabit and combojack may not seem like much, but it's just enough to be able to avoid dongles (for the most part).
My T490 has been nothing but reliable. It's fast, the display is nice, and the fingerprint reader works with fprintd (fingerprint drivers for Linux) without a hitch. It's held up nicely, and I'm actually thinking about downgrading to a X270 as it's the last X series with upgradable RAM and I consider the last great ThinkPads as the **70 series. I did buy a cheap X280, that thing has been nothing but problematic (issue with the laptop itself with the keyboard and one of the charging ports are broken), but if I can get it fixed, it will be my new daily due to it being max spec (16GB RAM 8th gen i7).
I'm watching this on my T480, i5 8250u, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD SATA, and an external gpu setup with the thunderbolt3 port, with and rx 580. It runs pretty ok, but the gpu can onlt go upto 75 - 80% utilisation , while the cpu is always maxed out. Might be solved with the i7 Version.
I have a nice little T480s with 16gb ram, i7 8550U and a 256gb SSD ... I wish Lenovo had designed it so you could add on the MX150 graphics upgrade without having to replace the motherboard.
I was very dissapointed to learn Lenovo doesn't do the X1 Extreme anymore... my Gen 1 X1E is needing to be replaced but there's no alternative out there that I know of... high end laptops now come with non upgradable memory, no smartcard slot and now also forced A.I. bullshit
I just got one for about $150. Perfect working condition. I wish I could afford the i7 with dedicated gpu but the performance gap in CPU didn't justify the price. Maybe the GPU would make gaming better but that's not my priority. Its great for basic design work. I feel the GPU bottlenecks the CPU. Forget anything 3d lol Overall great keyboard, struggling touchpad(maybe because it's used). And excellent battery. 10hours of movies. The sound is a bummer because they put the speakers underneath 🤦 Highest speed I've seen is 3.6ghz at which it starts to throttle. Don't mind the 4.0 in the description, you'd need to live in Siberia for that.😂
ThinkPad videos ftw
Facts, and I don't even use ThinkPads.
@@martinszulc8192 I'm nearly on a 4th one
i love my thinkpad T480s to death. got it off ebay for 95$ with shipping without an SSD. dropped in a 512GB ssd and another 8gigs of ram. changed the wifi card and trackpad to a glass one and i unironically use this more than my ROG Zephyrus G16 for everyday workloads. its truly amazing how great thinkpads were back in the day. the repairability is insane
what spec option did you get?
@@nicky9841 its the i5-8359U with 8 gb ram (mine had 4 gigs slotted in, so 12 gb of total ram)
why do you use it more often than your zephyrus and is it still fast enough for normal workload?
@@siontheodorus1501 Modern laptops do increase power efficiensy and gaming performance with new version releaes mostly so there is no much defference with 8 year old devices in terms of non-gaming tasks. I'm currently using t460p on i7 8700H and 32 GB ram. It performs prety much the same as best modern laptops up to 800 USD,
@@siontheodorus1501 i attempted to separate my personal and school/work laptop which entailed me to spend more time on the thinkpad. I am on nixos on the thinkpad while the zephy has arch installed. i'd say the thinkpad is fairly fast for its age. It holds up pretty well for work on the browser, browsing assigments etc. But would not be feasible for heavy workloads. NixOS rebuild takes a solid minute which i am guessing would take like 20 seconds on the zephyrus
Upgradable memory is coming back to Thinkpads on some lines. P14s Gen 5 has SODIMM slots, whereas at the previous gen was soldered. And the P1 Gen 7 is the first to use CAMM2 modules.
ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 (16" Intel) Starting At £2,080.49 wow!
@@barknbryce6993 the t480 also wasn‘t exactly Cheap when it was New
@@barknbryce6993 use some braincells little bro please
The T14G5 has it too!!!
Watching this from my specced out T480. Absolute beast of a machine and with 64GB ram and 1tb NVMe SSD + 512 SATA 2242 SSD placed in the WWAN port. Love the video man!
WTF ARE YOU DOING WITH 64 GIGS???
Umm, watching some youtube i think? @@stefxc
I lough at anyone who uses more than 16gb. Maybe 32gb has some uses but 64.... HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Do not forget that you need to change the screen panel that is TOTAL shit aaand the thermal solution if you do not have dgpumx150(they come with 2 pipes instead of one) aaaaand do not forget to change the trackpad with glass one. After all this you have a laptop that is VERY GOOD in some ways and total shit for the price if you are good with finding offers.
I was selecting a new work laptop this month and I really wanted to give new Thinkpads a chance but yeah... expensive, non-upgradable, tiny cooling, ... they really fell off. At this end I bought one from a less known company from Germany called Schenker who brands, configures and services TongFang laptops. Their XMG EVO 14 is a aluminium thin beast with 14" 2880x1800 120Hz IPS display, 8845HS, 64GB of SO-DIMM RAM, 1TB of Samsung SSD (and one more empty slot), non-soldered WiFi, great cooling and 80Wh battery and I only paid 1032 euros for it. And it has display hinges on the top just like old Thinkpads! Unbeatable.
I once visited a relative who lived in China. Qinghua Tongfang feels like an ancient brand, crazy to see that they are still around.
Now that I think of it, other manufacturers are pretty old so I guess it's not that crazy.
Buying from a rare brand will do too much bad to justify the little savings.
You'd sweat to find parts. If you do, they won't be cheap or locally available and involve all sorts of shipping
I think I ordered the same laptop - a "TongFang GX4". I ordered mine without an SSD or memory (because I have plenty of both lying around), only cost me $650. I can't wait for it to arrive - should be any day now. First thing I'm gonna do (after installing memory and a fast m.2 drive) is install Linux 😄🐧
I've used an egpu with my t480. It's fine for me with a 1050ti, but the t480 wouldn't handle any "serious" graphics card, as it only has 2 pcie lanes going over it. For my use case it works beautifully, though. One cable and I'm hooked up to three monitors mouse keyboard microphone webcam etc. Great if youre on a budget like me, if youre lucky you can get an egpu enclosure cheap, some cheap used monitors etc and you've got quite a capable and flexible buildout without having to pay for both a laptop and a desktop!
Yes it runs the GPU on almost 100% easily on games. Maybe because I'm using emulators.
How much is an egpu and does it use power a lot?
Thank you for this great idea - I am not a gamer but enjoy old school Thinkpads mainly for MS Office, browsing and general use after clicking into a Thinkpad Mini Dock. One constraint has been multiple monitors and / or higher resolutions than 1920 x 1080. Can you further explain the hardware required and how to use an egpu with old Thinkpads for at least one if two or more external monitors?
I opted for the XPS 9570 in 2018 and I'm still using it daily. I do want to add one of these to my collection though.
Not for me, the GPU stopped working about 3 years in..
I bought a refurbished custom white xps in 2009, it had a fast intel core 2 duo cpu and the best mobile gpu at the time. I forget bc i haven't used it in awhile. But it runs modern pc games and its just a great laptop. I also have a ThinkPad, its my travel tank. It runs Linux great.
I used to work for Nýherji (basically IBM in Iceland) and was able to get a new Thinkpad T470 cheap due to staff discounts and oh my how I love that machine. Only a 2c/4t machine but I love it. First Thinkpad I've ever owned and it is still kicking all these years later!
Wow, 10 seconds into the video and he actually shows the particular model he's talking about. Thank you.
I bought a ThinkPad P52 instead of a T480 because of the dedicated gpu and it is the best laptop I've ever owned. I came from an M2 Macbook Air, and even though this laptop is older and less powerful, I get a lot more use out of it due to the extra I/O, MUCH better keyboard, and windows allowing me to do some gaming and light editing. The 6 core 8th gen I7 and NVIDIA P1000 gpu still holds up pretty well. Also, the hot swappable battery is brilliant for when I'm on the go and need some extra charge.
Linux can be an option since the T480 has an extra drive bay. Give it a try and if it doesn't work out, just reformat it and use it as an extra SSD. My experience with Linux is it makes old computers into really fast machines as it's a light weight OS. It's a good way to keep those old computers alive. I currently run Linux (Ubuntu) on a Surface Go 2 Pentium, Macbook Air 2015 with fantastic results. The only downside is the camera doesn't work for Surface.
I got a used thinkpad X250 about three years ago. The model is almost 9 years old, but it works great for the tasks I want to accomplish. I mainly use it when I'll be away from home for some time like on a holiday, and with it's small 12.5" screen makes it very portable to carry it everywhere. Just needs new batteries though.
Superb video, had mine for 2 months, stuck 16gb RAM in and replaced both batteries, hotswap now a 61++ battery. Gets me a full day on battery which I love. Oh and only found out last week it's touch screen when I tried to wipe a mark from the screen. :)
4:13 this is a nitpick, but, the "dock" part of the wide connector is actually just ethernet port. Rest of the dock would run off of the usb-c connectors, iirc.
Pretty sure it has direct pcie connection so more bandwidth for multiple usbs etc
Eric Murphy convince me to get Thinkpad and u specifically the t480 is only available at the moment in our area. Got the i5 8th gen 16gb ram and 500ssd bought it for ₱11,500 Philippines pesos. My only problem is the internal battery pop up not detected and only uses the external battery 2hours max, should i replace the internal battery or just buy new 72ws external battery.
I don’t about others, but sometimes I do forget to subscribe a great content creator, so the intro does remind me to subscribe, which I’m super glad I did
Is that the FHD screen (with touch?) or the 1440p screen?
FHD no touch
@@theryanthomas Thank You
@@theryanthomas Also on the T480s?
Please stop begging for subscribers in every intro. Your work is good enough for people to subscribe naturally. Doing that devaluate it.
Statistically incorrect. I get it's annoying but I'm not leaving 90% of my new subs on the table because 10seconds is annoying
I disagree, it makes me really happy watch older videos and see how much your channel has grown. Keep doing what feels better for you.
@ you mean most people aren't smart enough to subscribe after watching something they thoroughly enjoyed ?? Really ?? -__- if so that's thoroughly disappointing.
I have mixed thoughts on that because it's a small channel so needs subs or it'll be another algorithm casualty, and there's been a few times I've assumed I have been subbed to channels when I haven't.
Dude he just asked once that's not begging
Right on time
I just recently searching for which thinkpads i should buy
I bought t495 at $245
You and me both. Got tired of a beefy laptop with to much for me to use. Need a reliable laptop for daily use and college. This has been the winner so far.
gotta say i really appreciate your videos. easy to link to than once more explain what ive been saying for so long! wish titles were more descriptive but i get u gotta play the algorithm game. good luck!
I bought 380 for my brother last year and works perfectly. Even though it was refurbished i still got 1 year of warranty period. 5 years of warranty 🔥
One of my favorites was the T470p. I had one of those for 5 years, but it was a company laptop. I nearly cried the day I changed my job and had to hand it back.
I have a L490 bought off Amazon renewed for around $250 (when converted from INR). While it is not as serviceable as the T480, it is still very easily serviceable/ upgradable. BTW - do you know that you can use the send USB C port for charging in case your actual charging port stopped functioning ?
That's funny, because if you were in 2019 and asked the ThinkPad community what the last good ThinkPad model was, they would NOT say the T480. They would probably say the T420 or T440p.
Idk I still think the T440p is peak Thinkpad, one of if not the last Thinkpads with socketed CPUs and completely modular.
i think that it's because within the past 3 or so years, there's been a huge influx of people getting into the thinkpad fad, and these people have little to no knowledge/experience with the ibm/early lenovo thinkpads (or laptops of that era really), so they bear zero sentiment for what made those old machines so great. and maybe also because lots of us who do have that experience and sentiment understand that things change, and that things don't necessarily go in the direction that we wish they do-- we're just being pragmatic. and this is coming from somebody who uses her t61 with the ticking time bomb nvidia gpu on a daily basis!
I once loved an old T430s with Windows 7 Pro. For a refurbished Thinkpad such as a T480, what version of Windows would you suggest for the leanest, fastest operating experience? And / can anyone who prefers Linux suggest the best distribution for this type of machine?
I need a laptop for programming and learning linux and need portable and better battery life should i go with X220 and X230, T480 is a workhorse for today's workload but it has usb c soldered to motherboard unlike older model that can change the charging ports
Jusst ordered a 16gb i5 T480s off ebay today, lol - got it for £150!
That is an absolute bargain
@@themarksmith That is a steal you got there!
I'd happily pay that. That's the max I would pay. It's only great if the price is right.
I have one of the modern ones, a TP Nano. It makes a lot of compromises to be as light as it is ~ 1kg! as in only 2 ports, 3 if you count the 3.5mm jack. I love it though, It's very easy to open and replace the SSD, the battery is easily removable, RAM is soldered. I have Linux and Windows on separate SSD's and swap them. I have dual booted but it's to me easier, cleaner to just keep the worlds separate. Of all the computers I've had its my favorite.
I was literally just rewatcing your old video on why you still use an old thinkpad and then you upload this today XD
i copped a thinkpad due to that vid for 170 16gb t480s
im using a second hand thinkpad x1 carbon gen 8 and i havent had any problems yet, im happy with my machine
i love how lightweight it is
Is the thinkpad E470 any good?
It's December 2024 and I bought a Thinkpad P1 Gen 3. I had no idea about any of this! But am happy I bought it now..
Have you tried running linux on the t480? It is honestly really good mostly for the meticulous support and the higher performance you get
About using eGPUs, but 1st: Thanks for honoring a great series of laptops which have sadly all but disappeared with the newer designs leaving behind a lot of what made the ThinkPad so great.
I use Lenovo's own eGPU with my T570: the Thunderbolt 3 graphics dock, which you can still find (overpriced) on ebay. It has an Nvidia 1050 which allows me to play some games much more comfortably as well as help with multitasking more graphic intensive applications, run 2 large monitors and connect to a near desktop experience whenever i het back at my fesk without fiddling with so many cables each time. I love it ❤
After having hinge-based problems with my current laptop (Samsung i3-10110U processor, 8 GB of RAM), I've decided to look for something robust, with great durability, a Thinkpad Laptop. However, I've been overwhelmed with the different options available out there on ebay (furnished/second hand ones). Should I go with a T480 or a newer one, such as the T14s Gen 1?
loving this channel more and more
i have a question - is the t480s lid assembly less flimsy than the t480? I hate the amount of flex around the hinges of my t480, especially when it is closed and i want to carry it with one hand. Also, the old thinkpads used to be able to open with one hand (largely due to the protruding battery) is this still achievable?
I got one with a protruding battery, it's embarrassing😂. But gives the laptop a little stand and provides room for ventilation underneath.
This is the most wobble free hinge I've seen. You've been played in some way or done something
@@tegathemenace the hinge is ok, but when i close the thing and grab it between the hignes to slide it in my bag, just by holding it it squeezes the screen to the keyboard. I was wondering if there is some fix, like taping a carbon fibre plate under the screen on the lid assembly or putting some rubber spacers above the keyboard.
I got a t14s gen 3
and got to say it's not that far off from the t480 in terms of *thinkpad-ness*
it's pretty repairable and modular
yes the ram is soldered but there is reasoning behind it with being without it being soldered it can only reach 4800mhz
and it being soldered make it capable of reaching 6400mhz
other than the ram and the hot-swappable battery nothing much different
Lol so other than the two things that makes it special . Also camm reaches higher speeds
I don't approve of the soldered RAM. AMD's chips advertise support for DDR5-5600, and I don't think the jump from 5600 to 6400 is worth soldering. And even if this is vaporware, I don't think 4800 to 6400 is significant enough either. And as @Aygross points out, this is ignoring lpcamm, which does 7500 today and is expected to hit 9600 in the future. I'll embrace soldered memory once we have M4 pro/max levels of memory bandwidth and sensible memory upgrade pricing
@@someone-mn8or yea but I mean there is some kind of reasoning for it
and they didn't just do it just so the user can't upgrade the ram
E14 Gen2 has upgradeable Ram, but just 1 Slot, 8Gb are soldered to the Motherboard.
And the battery is also not hotswappable, but to be honest - because the battery life is just better than the T470 with the dual Battery setup which i had before, i couldn´t care less.
Also it has 2 NVME slots, so storage upgrades are easy and cheap - nobody needs a 2.5 inch drive bay in 2024 with NVME´s beeing that cheap and just soooo much faster.
I was looking for the t480 in early march but it was hard to find in my part of the world so i went for the t495s and i love it. Thinkpad all the way
my T480 (i7 8550u/16gb ddr4) paired w/ RX 6600 8gb in a lenovo legion booststation is a pretty hench setup for gaming, usable for editing, but the u-series CPU is a bit of a bottleneck for editing as its sits down around 2.6ghz when rendering
7:19 what scaling you are using on your machine?? Looks good and sharp to me.. our company provides us with ThinkPad and I love it.
looks like 100%
1080p @ 14" is pretty sm0l
100% seems too small on this.
Anything other than 125% scaling is too big or too small on 14 inch
@@ShreN_ depends entirely on your resolution and eye sight
I need to know where do you get your wallpapers from
Description
I have a 16 yr. old Thinkpad, an 11 yr. old Thinkpad and a one year old Thinkpad. All work like new, it will be interesting to see if the newest one lasts as long as the older two.
is this still worth it for web browsing and osrs?
It is truly remarkable, I still have my X240. It was getting slow so I switched the OS to Chrome and it is fine now.
T480 user here. It is simply amazing
I also have a ThinkPad. It's a good portable laptop. I use it for work but able to play some games using Steam. I'm surprised the laptop can run some game titles such as Burnout Paradise, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, Saints Row 3, Sleeping Dogs and Split Second Velocity.
personally i really dig the x280. i got it as an ultraportable for school and i've just fallen in love with it.
Regarding the external GPU idea, the Thunderbolt 3 implementation of the T480 only has half of the PCIe lanes (x2 instead of x4) so it might be a bit of a disappointment.
T480 user, i choose T480 because dual battery setup which not available on T490
Then i install Fedora its run like a charm
Honestly, I think dual battery is an outdated feature these days. Power banks are cheaper per Wh than laptop batteries, can power things other than your laptop, and can be charged separately from the laptop using USB. It's not worth the extra battery wear and charge time penalty anymore. The main problem I have is that they dropped the overall battery capacity from about 100 Wh to about 50 Wh when they removed it
@someone-mn8or for someone who work outdoor, have dual battery feature is game changer
Imagine when you do your work but you must tether to power plug. Just grab the second batery and change it is much easier and quicker than plug the power
@@someone-mn8or Strong disagree, the dual battery is simply more convenient than a power bank. They are also user replaceable and don't have to hang off of the device in any way. It even provides a built in riser for your laptop to help with air circulation on the bottom of the laptop. It was literally the reason I stopped using Thinkpads, the dual battery setup was just such a dream for me. Was very sad when they got rid of it.
If you want to clean up the lid use a Magic Eraser. Does wonders to my T480.
My work laptop is a ThinkPad, but not specifically this one. The biggest issue I have with it is the touchpad. Sometimes it just does things of its own, like I'd splash drops of water on a phone screen.
I had the T14 and sameee, it was annoying!! and also thermals are not that good! The vent being on the right was also horrible!
@pedromessias465 Yup, I just checked. Mine is also T14 😂
T490s user, I had two of these, really dissapointing. I don't use a mouse either when I use my laptop so it does get annoying. It's.... ok enough that I can daily it, but my old cheap acer laptop had a better trackpad which is disappointing.
Just use a mouse.
@@Warrior7z7 well, yeah.. I don't have any choice. If you buy a laptop you expect everything to work, or if my keyboard and screen was working poorly you'd tell me to buy a keyboard and a separate display?
Year ago I had the choice to get a T480 i5 12GB but got an EliteBook x360 1030 G4 i5 8GB just because it was smaller, lighter, has phenomenal audio, aluminum-built and had touch and pen. No changes, still holds like a champ with Visual Studio/Godot/DaVinci Resolve/UA-cam.
I want to know what you think about the t470 model in 2025.... where I live you don't get the t480 for cheap, will I be fine with the t470 with Linux ? For some coding (web dev and a bit of android app development )
I had a T470 for a few weeks in 2020. It was just horribly slow with the i5 6300U (just a really shitty Dualcore, just avoid 6th/7th Gen Intel) for even the simplest workloads in Matlab or Visual Studio.
I then upgraded to the E14 Gen2 AMD with the Ryzen 5 4500U, and its just so much better in every possible way - portability, the Screen, performance, Battery Life (event though the T470 had a dual battery setup, but it was just maxed out all the time) - simply everything.
The E14 also has upgradeable Ram (but just 1 Slot), 2 M2 Slots and an Aluminium Case.
I use a T470 for school and research projects and that’s probably what’s it’s going to do best. Anything mildly intensive and it’s quite sluggish but if it’s just for office tasks then still miles better than Chromebook’s imo.
I also triple boot windows 7, windows 11 and Debian. Debian runs best with little lag and windows 11 is just downright awful.
Windows 7 runs great but still not as fast as Debian.
Fans are always silent on debian when doing light tasks or idle. Pretty solid Linux laptop but you can run windows 7 or 10 if you needed to. Wouldn’t recommend 11 though.
I use an egpu with my T470s with Thunderbolt 3. Yes, it greatly increases gpu performance just by pairing a gtx1650. Can play most games at mid-low settings about 50-60fps. A better gpu would of course get more out of it.
Really interesting. Thank you for the insight.
In Europe, paid 130 euros for it, the 8250U model with 8GB RAM and 250GB SSD, also no charger. Very happy with it but it does have the random stuck keys problem. Also mine is in excellent condition, very few signs of wear.
T480s vs x1c6, which one u pref if you choose 8th gen Intel thinkpad ?
I've been super happy with my X1C6 generation. Just make sure you get the 16GB Model.
@ well, i use x1c6 with 2k display. Just curious ppl always mention t480 and t480s only. The t480s and x1c6, they are same price range but always they said 480 is the best
Alot of people dont know. The fujitsu laptops are some what like the old lenovo makes. Heaps of ports. expanability. and even click mouse buttons. Except no track dot.
I brought one and got myself in a frenzy thinking these are collectables so i almost immediately brought another one lol 😂
ryan putting out banger after banger, thank you for what you do rt!!
16:9 tho. fingerprint scanner is an optional extra, and less secure than a security key
I call my ThinkPad the tank. I have ventoy as my OS manager, I have Windows and Pop OS. I love it.
What is the cost of this laptop?
Ebay
Nice Video! :)
The I/O is not identical though, the T480 has a smartcard reader as well, it can even be seen in your video at 4:00.
Great work ryan! Videos are great
I need the NumPad so I got myself the T580 for my private practice. Without the internal battery but with a new 65W charger it only cost me €225. The keyboard is the best one I've used on a laptop, no need to resort to using an external one. I don't think I'll ever replace it.
just got one of these with mx150 and for me that likes to game witj something like gta v and overwatch on the low, it works so well, principally cause i have a lot of portability while gaming laptops sacrifice that😊
I got two of T490S (i7 8th // 16g ram) for 250 each on different timeframes, honestly great laptop for uni, that's what I use it for, I do carry a tablet but their usecases are just different, so it's nice to carry a fully fledged os with me all the time. If I had money I'd honestly just replace both my desktop and thinkpad with a zephyrus G16, (I'd go with the MP16 if I could actually daily macos, which I can't), but because that's not the case, thinkpad ftw it is.
Bought one half a year ago and so far upgraded the display to full hd, stuck 32GBs of RAM in it, a 2TB harddrive and the cooler from the dGPU model. Still need a glass trackpad, but since I use a bluetooth mouse pretty often, that isn't a priority right now 😂
This is what the ThinkPad life is all about. Hope you're enjoying it mate
@@theryanthomas I certainly am. While it is sadly not the i7 model it nonetheless runs flawlessly although the batteries are showing their age and abuse a bit. Not more than two hours of juice left 😆
What a legend. I wanted one but things happened and I ended up with a e14 gen 3 which is awesome. But I still miss the possibility of using a t480.
Do not. t480 is kinda no no.
@@ivaylotsankov7292 May I ask why? I always thought if I would have it when it first came out I would be still using it probably and would plan to use even more for the near future. And everyone says it is good for getting the job done. So at this point someone saying otherwise is valuable for me. I am curious :)
I have a t520 from 2011 that i still use on a regular basis . I use it when i need to type out w few pagrs , much much better keyboard then my new t14
I just jumped the gun and bought the s10e - I hope its a W. And also, really love the way you make videos and specially the topic you cover. And honestly its perfectly the niche I look for on youtube. oh and ye Looking to buy that too xd. t480s are really something.
are you using the S10e as your main device ? if so, is it worth it to downgrade to ? importantly battery life
Are you able to get Framework laptops in the UK yet? I bought one (the 13" model) a couple of years ago with the intention of making it the last DJ laptop I'll ever need since it's completely repairable and modular. If it's available in your part of the world, I highly recommend it!
They're 5x the price of an old ThinkPad though
One big issue with Thinkpads that is never raised is that they usually have a bad display quality. I am driving daily a Thinkpad X220 from 2011. It has a nice IPS screen, albeit small and a low resolution. But it's bright, and the colors are nice. Every other Thinkpad that I have tried had a really subpar display, even a T480 (I ended up reselling it). It's shocking that people value their eyes so low.
I have the T470 since I was unable to find a T480 (non S) since I really wanted the external battery
I love my thinkpad.
My boss gave me a free p53, the thing is a chungus but it has 3 nvme slots, 4 sodimm slots, a removable wifi card, etc.
I'm torn between the P53 and T480, the P53 seems a lot better but man is it HUGE.
Love your content btw, keep up the good work!
Not sure if the p53 is about the same dimensions and weight as the p52, which I have and is I'd say, decent. It's definitely a brick of a laptop, but if you don't carry a lot in your backpack it's fine. Definitely not comfortable holding it in your hand or laying it on your lap though. Laptops of that type are more portable desktops than laptops in terms of usability.
@@treinenliefde Noted, I guess I'll go with the P53 - I dont plan on carrying it around.
@@Spiderman3ist if you don't really plan on carrying it you should be fine yeah. I bought my p52 as a cad machine for school, which was quite doable even though I was carrying it on my back almost every day.
Apples and oranges t480 standard biz laptop p53 workstation/desktop replacement
Lovely video! Thanks :)
Just recently got a T480s i5 for $50 and a T14Gen1 Ryzen 7 for $125 I love them both and prefer the keyboards over my desktop keyboard!
That year in general. I kind of want to get a P52 for similar reasons, as much as I'm enjoying my Snapdragon T14s.
What is the golf game you play in all of your videos?
Great video my dude. I see you're a Nothing Ear fan. I have 4 sets of their headphones 💸.
When W11 or the next one stop working, may I suggest you to try a Linux distro?. You would probably see better battery life and performance, that way it will last almost forever (from a X390 user)
He's a UA-camr, they generally need software that doesn't work on Linux.
I have a T16 Gen2 and while it's a whole lot sleeker than e.g. the T480, it certainly doesn't feel as durable and repairable than the older Thinkpads. Fortunately the RAM is somewhat upgradable (one soldered, one available DIMM slot), M.2 slot and the battery and keyboard should be easy to replace. Not so sure about the screen, though. 2 USB-A and 2 USB-C, RJ-45 Gigabit and combojack may not seem like much, but it's just enough to be able to avoid dongles (for the most part).
My T490 has been nothing but reliable. It's fast, the display is nice, and the fingerprint reader works with fprintd (fingerprint drivers for Linux) without a hitch. It's held up nicely, and I'm actually thinking about downgrading to a X270 as it's the last X series with upgradable RAM and I consider the last great ThinkPads as the **70 series.
I did buy a cheap X280, that thing has been nothing but problematic (issue with the laptop itself with the keyboard and one of the charging ports are broken), but if I can get it fixed, it will be my new daily due to it being max spec (16GB RAM 8th gen i7).
I'm watching this on my T480, i5 8250u, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD SATA, and an external gpu setup with the thunderbolt3 port, with and rx 580. It runs pretty ok, but the gpu can onlt go upto 75 - 80% utilisation , while the cpu is always maxed out. Might be solved with the i7 Version.
I have a nice little T480s with 16gb ram, i7 8550U and a 256gb SSD ... I wish Lenovo had designed it so you could add on the MX150 graphics upgrade without having to replace the motherboard.
I have the T480 and an eGPU!
I was very dissapointed to learn Lenovo doesn't do the X1 Extreme anymore... my Gen 1 X1E is needing to be replaced but there's no alternative out there that I know of... high end laptops now come with non upgradable memory, no smartcard slot and now also forced A.I. bullshit
I see that LinusTechTips screwdriver
What's wrong with the T14?
How about battery life for internet browsing only
T440p clearly still better. Unless you need a more efficient GPU/CPU. Keep in mind this is the last model with removable CPU and libreboot.
the last thinkpad with a removable cpu was the thinkpad w541
@@iMac81 oh I meant as in T series. But ya W541 also insane. Also libreboot!
I have two used think pads. Still awesome machines.
holy, I have the same one! I got it for free in 2019 and it still works to this day, I installed win 11 pro on it.
I got one of those for 150€ a year ago. Mine has 16gb ram and a 256 gig ssd. Powerful enough for Uni
It's not a ThinkPad if it doesn't run windows. Still, it was a great video.
it definitely runs windows
external gpu sounds good on paper but when using it is a nightmare and wish you picked different solution at the first place.
I just got one for about $150. Perfect working condition.
I wish I could afford the i7 with dedicated gpu but the performance gap in CPU didn't justify the price.
Maybe the GPU would make gaming better but that's not my priority.
Its great for basic design work. I feel the GPU bottlenecks the CPU.
Forget anything 3d lol
Overall great keyboard, struggling touchpad(maybe because it's used). And excellent battery. 10hours of movies.
The sound is a bummer because they put the speakers underneath 🤦
Highest speed I've seen is 3.6ghz at which it starts to throttle. Don't mind the 4.0 in the description, you'd need to live in Siberia for that.😂
The last great thinkpad changes every few year. it was the x50, x220, t410, t480, and soon to be t14g5 probably.