Budget 41-50k Stuck between ThinkPad T480 and P52.

R

redact7701

Novice
I have been using my HP Pavilion 15 since 2016. Over time it had issues because of it being a consumer laptop. I learned to fix it and i kinda like fixing my own hardware now. I want to buy a new laptop and give this one to my dad. My budget is 50k. I have been watching a lot of youtube, reading reddits threads, and i learned that consumer laptop nowadays suck. I want something that I can fix easily. So I have toned down my seach to these two models. Thinkpad T480 and P52.

Both comes refurbished so i checked and there are not a lot of spares of p52 available in the market, but i can find a lot for t480.
on the other hand I love editing videos (adobe premiere pro) so the lack of dedicated gpu on t480 is a turn off, whereas p52 has quadro p1000 which is an upgrade from my present 940m.
I also think about losing the efficiency that 12th gen intel processor have. i wish i could buy a decent build machine with good repairbility and 12th gen processor.

I want your advice on which one should i buy. also if you have any other kind of suggestion feel free to comment them.
 
I bought lenovo v14 gen 3 iap model, i5 8gb ram, ips screen, 512gb ssd for 46k last year.

Under 1 year, the plastic stand-offs into which the hinges are screwed in broke down, this happened due to one left side hinge being over tightened from the factory, which produced more stress on the plastic stand off, even though the laptop was in warranty, I didn't go to lenovo, they don't cover this under warranty anyway, I knew I can do a better job than whatever they are gonna do.

I fixed it with a JB weld alternative made by godrej here I forgot the exact name, this glue when dried creates a strong bond. I also loosen'd the hinge which was extra tight.

Now my laptop is again good, only downside is that now I cannot disassemble that hinge even if I wanted to for some reason, because that is a permanent weld.

The laptop has been great to me, runs for 6 hours straight on full charge.

If I had to buy a laptop under 50k right now, I would probably still buy the lenovo, cause I am familiar with it more now, the repairability is easy. I have gained knowledge about the hinges how they work and what are there weak points.

In case of lenovo I can summarize that these laptops are fragile, the hardware is designed okay, it the chassis that is weak.

My recommendation would be buy a new laptop, these are still repairable because one design spreads among many models of that same company.
 
Heisen said:
In case of lenovo I can summarize that these laptops are fragile, the hardware is designed okay, it the chassis that is weak.
Click to expand...
I think this is true of consumer lenovo laptops, but the business/enterprise lines are something else. The ones that are made with a metal chassis are very durable.
 
T480 was my work laptop for 4+ yrs. It's built like a tank. Ran trouble free, survived couple of drops. Has room for upgrade. However, it's quiet slow in this day and age unless you are getting slightly newer gen i5.
 
redact7701 said:
I have been using my HP Pavilion 15 since 2016. Over time it had issues because of it being a consumer laptop. I learned to fix it and i kinda like fixing my own hardware now. I want to buy a new laptop and give this one to my dad. My budget is 50k. I have been watching a lot of youtube, reading reddits threads, and i learned that consumer laptop nowadays suck. I want something that I can fix easily. So I have toned down my seach to these two models. Thinkpad T480 and P52.

Both comes refurbished so i checked and there are not a lot of spares of p52 available in the market, but i can find a lot for t480.
on the other hand I love editing videos (adobe premiere pro) so the lack of dedicated gpu on t480 is a turn off, whereas p52 has quadro p1000 which is an upgrade from my present 940m.
I also think about losing the efficiency that 12th gen intel processor have. i wish i could buy a decent build machine with good repairbility and 12th gen processor.

I want your advice on which one should i buy. also if you have any other kind of suggestion feel free to comment them.
Click to expand...
I oddly do have a fitting reply for your question.

Budget 0-20k - Cheapest best laptop for college? Thinkpad t480 or?

Hi everyone, Recently started college and for a subject in my course (computerized accounting), I will be needing a laptop that can basicallly do the basic tasks such as excel, word, powerpoint etc. I will also be using access, learning sql and anything else business/commerce related as well...
techenclave.com techenclave.com

I'll give a small update here I suppose.

Firstly, I'm not going to write much as it's quite late already lol and I will stick to your main questions itself.
redact7701 said:
Both comes refurbished so i checked and there are not a lot of spares of p52 available in the market, but i can find a lot for t480.
Click to expand...
This is true, the t480 currently has a lot of spares rn. I got this information from a youtube video that said that most of these corporate leases on the laptop has expired and the refurb sellers on various platforms are buying them up. So yes, both officialy and unofficially (here in India too), spares for the t480 are aplenty. Incase you ever want to fix the t480. yes you can and the parts are not difficult to procure (usually the laptop seller themselves will be your source
redact7701 said:
I love editing videos (adobe premiere pro) so the lack of dedicated gpu on t480 is a turn off
Click to expand...
Which software though? Even I have been surprisingly using my t480s more for editing than I thought I would. I haven't tried after effects or anything like that but it's able to run premiere pro easily with 16 gigs of ram along with an ssd (cpu is an i5 8th gen). All of that while running photoshop in the background as well. I haven't installed any special plugins that I have on my pc (Borix FX Sapphire plugin for example) so I can't speak about that but overall, it does what is needed. I do not know how much power your editing work requires but if it's not your actual profession, I believe it's just enough. And yes, even I thought the lack of a dedicated gpu would make editing difficult to do but it has been the complete opposite.
redact7701 said:
I also think about losing the efficiency that 12th gen intel processor have. i wish i could buy a decent build machine with good repairbility and 12th gen processor.
Click to expand...
The difference is either spending 30k on a refurb t480 or on a brand new consumer laptop for around, what? 50-60k? If I'm not wrong even at 50k you're not going to be getting a decent gpu either, and at 69k it's an i5 12th gen along with an rtx 3050. Can't have it all unless you start stretching the budget
 

Lenovo ThinkBook 15 G5 Ryzen 7 15.6" FHD IPS Antiglare 300 Nits Thin and Light Laptop (8GB RAM/512GB SSD/DOS/Fingerprint Reader/Backlit/Mineral Grey/1 Year Onsite/1.7 kg), 21JFA00QIN : Amazon.in: Computers & Accessories

Lenovo ThinkBook 15 G5 Ryzen 7 15.6" FHD IPS Antiglare 300 Nits Thin and Light Laptop (8GB RAM/512GB SSD/DOS/Fingerprint Reader/Backlit/Mineral Grey/1 Year Onsite/1.7 kg), 21JFA00QIN : Amazon.in: Computers & Accessories
www.amazon.in

This caught my eye, R7 7730U, 8GB soldered RAM with a free slot, IPS panel (likely 45% NTSC) & dual M.2 slots. Might not have backlit KB.

ThinkBook 15 Gen 5 | 39.62cms (15.6) business laptop powered by AMD 7000 Series mobile processor

Powered by AMD Ryzen™ 7000 Series mobile processors & AMD Radeon™ graphics, the stylish 39.62cms (15.6) Lenovo ThinkBook 15 Gen 5 is an ideal SMB laptop.
www.lenovo.com
 
Rezep said:
I oddly do have a fitting reply for your question.

Budget 0-20k - Cheapest best laptop for college? Thinkpad t480 or?

Hi everyone, Recently started college and for a subject in my course (computerized accounting), I will be needing a laptop that can basicallly do the basic tasks such as excel, word, powerpoint etc. I will also be using access, learning sql and anything else business/commerce related as well...
techenclave.com techenclave.com

I'll give a small update here I suppose.

Firstly, I'm not going to write much as it's quite late already lol and I will stick to your main questions itself.

This is true, the t480 currently has a lot of spares rn. I got this information from a youtube video that said that most of these corporate leases on the laptop has expired and the refurb sellers on various platforms are buying them up. So yes, both officialy and unofficially (here in India too), spares for the t480 are aplenty. Incase you ever want to fix the t480. yes you can and the parts are not difficult to procure (usually the laptop seller themselves will be your source

Which software though? Even I have been surprisingly using my t480s more for editing than I thought I would. I haven't tried after effects or anything like that but it's able to run premiere pro easily with 16 gigs of ram along with an ssd (cpu is an i5 8th gen). All of that while running photoshop in the background as well. I haven't installed any special plugins that I have on my pc (Borix FX Sapphire plugin for example) so I can't speak about that but overall, it does what is needed. I do not know how much power your editing work requires but if it's not your actual profession, I believe it's just enough. And yes, even I thought the lack of a dedicated gpu would make editing difficult to do but it has been the complete opposite.

The difference is either spending 30k on a refurb t480 or on a brand new consumer laptop for around, what? 50-60k? If I'm not wrong even at 50k you're not going to be getting a decent gpu either, and at 69k it's an i5 12th gen along with an rtx 3050. Can't have it all unless you start stretching the budget
Click to expand...
Thanks for this detailed info. Well I use premiere pro, not sure if ever I would upgrade and try something else. I also use some DAWs sometimes to edit audios for my videos. But it is not like a profession to me. I do for relaxing and decompressing at the end of the day. I read about charging port issue being quite common with T480. You ever had them?
OMEGA44-XT said:

Lenovo ThinkBook 15 G5 Ryzen 7 15.6" FHD IPS Antiglare 300 Nits Thin and Light Laptop (8GB RAM/512GB SSD/DOS/Fingerprint Reader/Backlit/Mineral Grey/1 Year Onsite/1.7 kg), 21JFA00QIN : Amazon.in: Computers & Accessories

Lenovo ThinkBook 15 G5 Ryzen 7 15.6" FHD IPS Antiglare 300 Nits Thin and Light Laptop (8GB RAM/512GB SSD/DOS/Fingerprint Reader/Backlit/Mineral Grey/1 Year Onsite/1.7 kg), 21JFA00QIN : Amazon.in: Computers & Accessories
www.amazon.in

This caught my eye, R7 7730U, 8GB soldered RAM with a free slot, IPS panel (likely 45% NTSC) & dual M.2 slots. Might not have backlit KB.

ThinkBook 15 Gen 5 | 39.62cms (15.6) business laptop powered by AMD 7000 Series mobile processor

Powered by AMD Ryzen™ 7000 Series mobile processors & AMD Radeon™ graphics, the stylish 39.62cms (15.6) Lenovo ThinkBook 15 Gen 5 is an ideal SMB laptop.
www.lenovo.com
Click to expand...
Thanks. this is a good recommendation.
 
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redact7701 said:
I read about charging port issue being quite common with T480. You ever had them?
Click to expand...
I don't remember hearing much about any charging port issue but rather a thunderbolt issue (which I frankly still don't know what the deal was about). But that got fixed with an update. Also the lenovo commercial vantage app is really sleek and easy to use to install all the system updates as an all-in-one. If it's just for basic editing, then frankly a gpu is not needed. So far I haven't had any usecase scenario where I needed to have a gpu render anything heavy, it's all be on the cpu. After effects yes most probably but for prem it's fine.
 
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