Anyone running Mint on a Lenovo ThinkPad T480s?

[hedgehoggy]

The Wirecutter recommends the Lenovo ThinkPad T480s Ultrabook as being "The Best Business Laptop"
https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best- ... s-laptops/
Does anyone have any experience running Mint on it?

If I follow the link to the Lenovo site, it gives you the opportunity to customize; would it be stupid of me to really soup it with the following (very expensive) options?:

• 8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8650U Processor with vPro (1.90GHz, up to 4.20GHz with Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache)

• 14.0" WQHD (2560 x 1440) IPS anti-glare, 300nit

• 24 GB (8 Onboard + 16) DDR4 2400MHz

• 1 TB Solid State Drive, PCIe-NVMe OPAL2.0 M.2

The customization link is here: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/th ... /customize?

Or else I could maybe just buy the basic version (except for the monitor, I guess) and attempt to upgrade it myself; perhaps a way to save some $?

[majpooper]

The first question is: How to plan to use the ThinkPad? An i7 with 24G of RAM sounds great but could be expensive overkill depending on what you need the laptop to do.

I am not familiar with the T480 but have installed MInt on two T430s a T400 and a Lenovo IdeaPad with no issues except for a RealTech wifi NIC driver on the IdeaPad which was a very easy 2 second fix (which may be patched in the kernel now ????) - although it took me 2 or 3 days and some help from Jeremy on this forum to find it. But it looks like the T480 has an Intel wireless NIC

[hedgehoggy]

Explaining what I want to use it for would be a good start, wouldn't it?

Well, for starters, I don't really play games, but I do need to have lots of very large PDF documents open at the same time, something my poor aged Zenbook seems to be struggling with these days, especially loading page images quickly (even if I let it use up all the RAM it wants). Besides that it'd be for watching videos, web surfing, email, word processing, playing music, that sort of thing. Perhaps some light PhotoShopping (or, I guess, GIMPing in this case). General "business laptop" type stuff.

Is it generally a good idea to avoid NVIDIA graphics cards? There's a choice between "Integrated Intel® UHD Graphics 620" and "NVIDIA GeForce MX150 GDDR5 2GB."

[AndyMH]

You could of course save yourself a shed load of money and buy an older ex corporate thinkpad. A lot of us have done that. I've been a thinkpad fan for years and currently more than happy with my T430 (of which I have three - all second hand).

[Moem]

You could of course save yourself a shed load of money and buy an older ex corporate thinkpad.

That's what I was thinking, yes. A refurbished, high-specs business line Thinkpad is one of the best ways to get a LOT of bang for your buck and they generally work well with Linux.

[majpooper]

You could of course save yourself a shed load of money and buy an older ex corporate thinkpad.

That's what I was thinking, yes. A refurbished, high-specs business line Thinkpad is one of the best ways to get a LOT of bang for your buck and they generally work well with Linux.

+1
I use a refurbished ThinkPad T430 i7 and 8G of RAM and installed Mint on a second T430 for a friend. You can get a refurbished Lenovo with an i7 CPU and 16G of RAM on Newegg for less than $500.

[AndyMH]

Passmark scores:

• i7-8650U - 8834

• i7-3632QM - 6937 (what I've put in my T430)

• i5-3320M - 4115 (the 'stock' CPU in a T430)

Provides some indication of performance. An i5-3320 is perfectly adequate running mint cinnamon. I only changed mine because I could . There are a number of mods you can make to a T430, my daily driver has got 16G RAM, a 2TB HDD in the ultrabay in place of the DVD and a WAN card. Most have integrated graphics (mine have), a few have a separate nVidia GPU.

[hedgehoggy]

To majpooper, AndyMH, Moem, & Charlie--
I will definitely have a look at a refurbished T430 on Newegg. Thanks to everyone for their input!

P.S. Oh yeah, but what about the NVIDIA graphics cards--is there a reason Mr. Torvalds doesn't like them . . . ?

[Leon8200]

Linux in general is perfectly compatable with more then 90% of the lenovo thinkpads, if you want one cheap you can get a used T4 or T5 for around 100$ on ebay in perfect working condition, though it may not come with a dedicated GPU, if you want one new though I would recommend the T580, it comes with dual batteries, meaning there are actually 2 batteries in it to give you a crazy amount of run time.

And if you dont play games, then you dont need anything more than an
i-5 processor and an intergrated intel UHD 620.

But if your going to game on your new thinkpad give me a list of your games and Ill try to figure out how much power they would need to run.

[AndyMH]

If you are looking at a T430, things to think about or questions to ask:

• Screens - there are two screen resolutions, the standard is 1366x768, the other 1600x900. Go for the 1600x900 if you can get it.

• Processors - the stock CPU is the i5-3320M, some have a slightly less powerful i5, a few had an i7. The CPU is socketed and you can replace it as I have done.

• Graphics - most have the integrated intel graphics, a few have a separate nVidia GPU. Expect to pay more if it has the nVidia GPU. Can't tell you how much better the nVidia GPU is as I don't have one.

• Bluetooth - is an option, some have them, some don't.

• Memory - max is 16G (2x8G), first DIMM slot is easy to get at (underneath), the second is slightly more fiddly (under the keyboard).

• PCIe - there is one slot (next to the first DIMM slot). I have one T430 with a WAN card here, another with an mSATA 120G SSD. Note this slot is only SATA2 = 3.0 Gb/s (as opposed to SATA3 on the main drive slot and ultrabay).

• SIM cards - there is a slot in the battery bay for a full size SIM card.

• Interfaces - 2 x USB3, 2xUSB2, VGA and mini displayport.

• DVD - some have some don't, I've replaced the DVD drive in the ultrabay in two of mine with caddies containing 2TB HDDs.

Maintenance and user manuals available on the lenovo website, an easy to maintain laptop - all parts readily available on the likes of ebay.

[Shiratori]

Another vote for the T430 here. I've got the i5 model with the 1600x900 screen and 8GB RAM and it runs Mint just fine. Nice little laptop and built like a tank.

[rickNS]

I'm using used T420 (2 of them) and fully expect to be 5 years from now.
I thought about T430 with usb 3, but T420 has eSATA, I back up to external HDD, which is as fast or faster than usb3, so I have "no need" to upgrade.

and, IMO T440 (and newer) is actually a down grade, with the loss of the ultrabay, and half the ports.

Don't know what I'll use when these finally do become obsolete, not looking forward to that day, I just really like these laptops. Did I mention how cool it runs ?

[hedgehoggy]

Thanks again for everyone's input. Here's a question though: I've heard that the speakers on just about any model of ThinkPad are pretty lousy, but what do you think?

[Tomgin5]

If you are worried about speakers, External amplified speakers are very cheap $5-20 a set. Bluetooth are available as well in the $25-75+ range (with up to a 250 Watt amp).

[neutrin]

hello everyone.
i saw the upper conversation, but still no answer about the main thread.

Is the T480s fully compatible with linux mint?

I am currently using a Dell Latitude 5400, even if i also have 2 older thinkpads on my desk. Those are x30 gen and they work perfectly with any version of Mint!

The Dell has the 8th gen i5 which is the very best friend of the battery, and the battery is a 68Wh one, and I can take this around without thinking about the charger all day.
BUT I am facing some issues that shouldn't exist in 2020 and I am pretty pissed:
1. the laptop is running great in Windows 10 (the problem is that I prefer Linux over Windows, and more than that I hate MacOS!)
2. on Mint the laptop could not get a Broadband connection (it's simply not there), even if I tried to add it manually, still doesn't work!
The device name is - XMM 7360 LTE - and apparently there are no compatible drivers for Linux Mint Ulyana nor for Tricia (those are the ones i use the most)
3. the fingerprint sensor does not work as well. I had the fingerprint-gui installed and it did not recognize any usb device.
The device name is Broadcom Corp. 58200 - still didn't find any method to make it work!

I was seriously thinking to switch to a Lenovo T480s as i can get one with the same specs, but i just want to make sure it is fully compatible with Mint (19 or 20).
Is there any Mint user running on a T480s that could share the experience?
Are all devices recognized by Mint OS? Is the fingerprint and Broadband working?
Thanks!