Lenovo laptops outsmart the competition when it comes to offering the best specs at the most feasible price. Speaking of Lenovo laptops, these are the best budget business laptops that you could buy without breaking the bank. Lenovo ThinkPad series comes on top and offers the best features to business users. But if you want to get your hands on the latest technology and save money as well, the ThinkPad L480 is an ideal choice among Core i3 Laptops.
Lenovo ThinkPad L480 is an entry-level laptop in the ThinkPad line that offers the basic goodies of Lenovo. Besides a sturdy chassis and comfy keyboard, it provides generous connectivity and satisfactory battery life. It delivers a decent performance for its price, but you must not expect much from it.
Lenovo has cut the right corners to lower the price while preserving the ThinkPad touch on this affordable business laptop. Still, this is a quality laptop with modest hardware and modern features that many users will adore. At a glance, it appears like the other budget-friendly Lenovo laptops that we have seen over the years.
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Specs sheet
Processor: Intel Core i3-7130U (7th Gen.) / 2.7GHz
Display: 14-inch HD (1366 x 768) Resolution
Battery Life: Up to 12 hours
Weight: Around 3.7lbs (1.7kg)
RAM: 8GB Storage: 256GB SSD
Graphics: Intel HD Integrated
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Design
Lenovo laptops are more famous for their consistent performance rather than their design. And the same can be said about the Lenovo ThinkPad L480 which features a modest yet sleek body design. It features an all-plastic body design which looks boring but fulfils the needs of business users.
With a 13.2 x 9.3 x 0.9 inches body, it weighs only 3.7lbs (1.7kg) and we didn’t find it bulky or oversize. In fact, this is one of the most portable Lenovo laptops that you would find in this category. The company has certainly worked on the weight, thickness and stiffness while cutting the corners.
Display
This is the point where Lenovo has let its guard down to keep the price low. Obviously, we were not expecting a touchscreen on a business laptop with such a price tag. But this is something that most business users intend to have these days to get the most work done in limited time. However, Lenovo has also released a dedicated higher-end iteration which you can buy at a higher price.
The model we evaluated for this review came with a 14-inch non-touch display and a screen resolution of 1366×768. Another drawback is its low screen brightness which we found to be 196 nits, less than the average industry standard. However, if your work does not involve graphics and image editing, you would find Lenovo ThinkPad L480 ideal for business.
The display delivered colourful images with details which we found good for casual tasks. You would have no issue while browsing on the web, word processing or working on data files.
Keyboard
Lenovo laptops offer the most comfortable keyboards when it comes to laptop keypads and user experience. This is the same keyboard that Lenovo has offered with almost all the 14-inch ThinkPads. The keys are appropriate in size, have generous space between them and offer a decent key travel with nice clicky feedback.
Amidst the keys, there is the iconic red TrackPoint which you could use as a mouse. The TrackPoint is useful when you do not have the room to move your arm while sitting on a flight.
Touchpad
The touchpad is another area where Lenovo has cut the corners to stay on budget. Still, this is a reasonably good touchpad for a Core i3 business laptop with the latest features. The area of the touchpad is 4 x 2.75 inches which is very generous considering the size of this business laptop.
The surface is made of plastic which offers a bit of resistance, but we didn’t find it irritating. It responds well to commands, whereas Lenovo has added the mouse buttons on the upper side of the trackpad.
Connectivity
Port selection on this ThinkPad is like other modern Lenovo laptops, and it offers speed charging. Lenovo has equipped it with the traditional and modern ports to give you access to speedy data transfer and to connect older devices as well. There are two USB 3.1 ports (one always-on) and two Type-C USB ports which supports data transfer and each works as DisplayPort and Power adapter.
Additionally, there is a full-size microSD card reader (4-in-1), with an HDMI output, an RJ-45 Ethernet port and a 3.5mm headphone/mic connection. Also, there is Bluetooth 4.1 and Intel 8265 802.11ac (2×2) for wireless connectivity.
Performance
Lenovo has armed the ThinkPad L480 with modest yet satisfactory hardware to endure speedy performance. There is the 7th generation i3-7130U processor paired with an 8GB memory, which is coupled with 256GB SSD storage. This is a moderate combination of specs for an entry-level business laptop from the ThinkPad series.
We evaluated Lenovo ThinkPad L480 by running the Office Suite, opening a few Chrome tabs, and streaming a high-quality video. It delivered excellent performance when we used it for browsing and word processing but experienced a few lags while multitasking.
We found the ThinkPad L480 a good choice for business users if you are looking for modest Lenovo laptops. It can handle your everyday computing workload, such as presentations, excel sheets, data files and can play videos in 768p resolution.
Battery life
The battery on this ThinkPad is a big selling point which puts it among the best business Lenovo laptops. Lenovo claims that the ThinkPad L480 could deliver a battery life of up to 12 hours. This is quite a juice on a single charge from a Core i3 business laptop.
We tested the battery performance of Lenovo ThinkPad L480 with medium settings and were able to extract more than 10 hours of battery life. This is an excellent performance from a budget laptop even by Lenovo standards.
Verdict
Overall, the ThinkPad L480 is a decent and affordable choice from the range of Lenovo laptops. An extended battery life, 8GB fast memory and SSD storage are its major advantages. Not only you would get a reliable performance but have the long-lasting battery to go through a long workday.
