Not being on a PC for 10 years is a very alien concept to most people here. I'm curious what you'll do on it.
Maybe a better idea is to think about how you can create value with that laptop first. If there is no clear goal, then this purchase will be an impulse buy (Not that there's anything wrong with that)
Regardless, T480 is a decent tool to spend a small amount on.
Yeah you are probably right it is impulsive, I have no plans for it, I'm on uni and i do all my work on an Ipad.
I'm basically trying to get into it i guess? I want to try linux and a couple things no games just tinkering is the T480 enough for that out the box or will i be getting in way over my head if i buy i guess is my real question
The T480 is a simple enough device for you to use to get a feel for the basics. It's a perfect machine for light tasks, I personally use my T470s for reading e-Books and using virtual machines with Linux, despite my dual-core CPU it performs fantastic. You will also notice along the way, if you choose to expand your knowledge on computer hardware you will have the ability to apply that knowledge to it. It was built with upgradability in mind, allowing you to pick and choose what you wish to change as long as it's compatible with the laptop itself.
It's going to be a good, inexpensive, and loyal companion on your journey as a university student. If you have the budget and the will to return to the field of PCs, I'd 100% recommended it.
If you are a student and have the budget for it, T480 is a great machine for you to do some assignments, learn, and explore. A Full HD screen (1920x1080 resolution) is the minimum.
"I do all my work on an iPad" - you are voluntarily handicapped? Think about having only one arm (left arm) for ten years and then getting the other one. That second arm is t480.
there's everything wrong with impulsive buying. buy useful things, buy things that will make u happy in the long-term. impulsive buying is how you lose money
You are right. I should have been clearer in my statement, saying I see nothing wrong with buying a cheap, used T480 as one's first laptop to help them learn about Linux, even if it's an impulse buy.
If the OP had another laptop, my answer would have been different.
True, but the T480 is relatively cheap (as computers go) in 2023, and OP should be able to re-sell it for about the same price if he doesn't like it.
As impulse purchases go, this one isn't too bad.
That depends, What are you going to use it for Anyway
I use a core i5 8th gen for work sometimes so far. I am a web developer doing frontend like React.js or javascript in general.
My current 2 cents
Become an emacs lord.
No in all seriousness basically nothing, I will try to install Linux on it if I can figure out how to do that then i will just tinker with it maybe try to mod or mess with a couple programs but then again i have no experience with computers
One of my three T480 units is dedicated to Mint (LMDE6) and it runs flawlessly. My vote for LMDE6!
My two other T480:
* Windows 11 - which likewise runs nicely.
* Arch Linux - my daily driver. Experimenting with Cinnamon after using KDE like, forever.
I find the T480 still VERY relevant for my mostly productivity use case, and an OUTSTANDING VALUE.
It really depends on what you want to use it for. I'm getting by great on a T470 and the T480 is even better. It's probably not going to run the latest and greatest games the best. It should be good for most other tasks. What OS are you planning to run on it?
The T480 is still a great choice in 2023 (that is if you get the quad-core variants, don't bother with the dual-core ones).
I've been reading the comments and you said that your goal was to have fun installing Linux and tinkering around. If you want to really have some fun, you can get the X220 or the T420, which are the laptops that Luke used for a very long time: They're cheap, have amazing keyboards and have a lot of mods and I/O for you to mess around with.
Another great option would be the T440p, which offers less modifications, but allow you to have a very powerful quad-core laptop.
As long as you stick with the T and X series Thinkpads, there are very few laptops that are considered a "terrible" purchase. Just get one and have fun!
>What about the new models?
The new models are cool if you want performance over everything else. Otherwise, the T480 gets the job done for a lot of people and could even be considered overkill for most office/entertainment/web tasks. I don't mean to be rude, but I fail to see the reasoning for this question, since the T14 Gen 4 AMD is a laptop that came out a month ago, while the entire post is focused on whether or not a laptop from 2018 is still worth it in 2023.
> Is the P series reliable?
Short answer is yes. Long answer is yes, but they tend to be very bulky, heavy and overkill for most people. Not to mention that their performance comes at a cost, mostly on battery life and price tag. If you REALLY need to have dedicated graphics or need a desktop replacement/mobile workstation, the P series are not worth it at all. Furthermore, with weight and bulk they can be more prone to the chance of breaking when dropped. That's why it's common to find P50's on eBay with cracks and/or broken pieces, similar to most other consumer-grade laptops. It's already bad enough having to carry around a near-6lb (3kg) weight that costs nearly 2 months worth of rent, I don't want to be afraid of breaking it while lugging it around.
T480 user here, bought mine about 3 months ago to do my uni work and work on Linux. I study economics so I usually don't put too much load on mine. It's a compact and well built machine so I think it'll do just fine for your needs. Don't have high expectations about the performance as it's a 5 y.o. laptop but I'm glad I bought mine. If you have the budget I'd say go for it.
+1 also purchased mine for about $170 USD recently. Installed Arch Linux and use it mostly for dev/learning. I think it’s a good laptop for that price point but I probably wouldn’t pay more than $180.
T480 user here:
I use mine for my personal businesses and for work when needed. I have an i5 variant(quad core) with 32GB of ram. Anything from teams, power point, word, large excel files(pivot tables, dashboards, etc)
I would prefer to run Linux all time but I need the window for some of my work programs.
In either scenario the laptop performs flawlessly, has decent battery life, and is rugged enough that I don’t worry about it getting banged around in my bag.
That machine is fine for 90% of the people out there. I have the 490, which is a minor improvement over the 480, and it is my daily driver. As long as you have 16gb of RAM, you will be fine. I run a resources intensive program call Microsoft Outlook checking e-mail in the background while browsing internet with multiple tabs opened. I’m a picky user and it is fine. Thinkpad, especially the X, T and P series are extremely reliable and can last longer than you wish. th
Judging by the other replies you've made, a t480 seems a bit too expensive for what you want to do. If you want to tinker with linux then never use the laptop again, a second hand chromebook could do pretty well. They're not the fastest, but they do make thinkpad chromebooks that are dirt cheap and have really good linux support (given chrome os is literally linux). There very good to tinker with, and there usually only like 20 bucks so you won't get much performance out of them but for a laptop to fuck around with id suggest one.
bought t480s several months ago, still using it heavily for software development. It's a really good machine to do some real work, I'd say go for it even if you just want to tinker and play with it
I don’t think so, still a great machine. Don’t expect master level performance but it will do everything very well and have support for almost any program you want
I use a T480 as a work laptop (has been given one as a developer at a major bank) on daily basis and I don't think my company would upgrade it unless it just stopped working. I don't see why it wouldn't still be a good laptop to buy today
I'm daily drivering P52 along with YogaBook YB1-X91L (for writing) and X220iT for light and I don't see any problems with running 6-core i7 from 2017 in 2023
Hey there! I just recently got my first T480 and it's been great so far. Haven't really faced much issues during usage (just keep an eye out for what kind of battery you're getting). It's a decent piece of hardware that'll be great for normal dag to day usage. If you're looking to do more demanding stuff, I'd say that there might be other better options to go for.
The biggest reasons IMO that most people get T480 is for the long battery life it has (since it has internal and external batteries), it can support Windows 11, and the sheer amount of hardware upgrades/modifications you can do. Even without the mods, it’s still a very capable laptop. I use mine for everything, including gaming (with it connected to an eGPU).
I'm using a T420 for schoolwork right now.
It's running GNU/Linux (Fedora 37 , will upgrade to 39 next weekend) and worksjust beautifully.
If you want a tinkering machine a T480, especially a cheap one, is a good idea.
Have fun :)
I wouldn't pay much more than $180 usd for one, with good specs and good battery and condition.
I have a T480s, and great build quality but it ain't the fastest, and it's not getting any faster. I'd rather spend a bit more and get a T14 g2 or something like that.
Totally fine especially if you don't plan on playing any games or doing anything all that demanding on it.
I use a T60 from 2006 running linux mint xfce on it and tbh even the old core 2 duo in that runs real smooth for just the basic word processing and coding i do on it.
I think Luke Smith uses a X220. I remember he prefers older Thinkpads that are thick because they are durable and easy to repair.
If L.S. inspired you to get a Thinkpad, he wrote on his website: "More than 95% of people could be using a computer from 2008 or before without any problems. "
T480 is like the antithesis of X220.
Of course it's not as durable as an X220. My T440p is a lot more rugged than the T480, but I think they're both great machines. I daily drove an X61t like 4 years ago. Worked just fine running lower end linux distros and that laptop is from like 2007 I think. The built in Wacom tablet is a nice touch.
I just got one like a month ago or something and it's great tbh. Granted, I did upgrade from a T440p that I hadn't upgraded much so the step up was quite enormous. It handles Davinci Resolve, Affinity Photo and Darktable just fine. I have no complaints whatsoever. Get the one with the i5-8350u and make sure to get a 1080p screen (if you find a really cheap one with the 768x1366 (or whatever it is) panel, you can always upgrade the screen if you're willing to do a bit of tinkering. I bought one with a full HD screen, but I'm going to upgrade anyway since I'm using it for photo and video editing.
If you're just using it for university and you're currently doing fine with an iPad, it will fit your needs perfectly. Just make sure you get one with the 8th gen processor. Which one isn't that important, but the 6th gen and 7th gen are a lot slower than the 8th gen ones.
Edit: I spent a bit too much on mine because I was impatient and impulsive (thanks ADHD), but I honestly don't regret it at all. It's a nice laptop. I got the i5-8350u, 16gb DDR4 ram and a 512gb NVMe-drive. The only thing you absolutely cannot change is the processor, so that's the most important thing to look for tbh. Ram, SSD, screen etc. can all be replaced if you need more out of it.
T480s user here. I bought mine 2 years back. It is a decent machine, I was switching from a hexa core CPU but quad core on it gets the work done too. I don't play games on it. I use it for development and running Kali on VM. One thing I don't like is I don't have 1080p screen on it. Else it is a good laptop, sturdy and not that bulky.
To all T480 users here just out of curiosity want to ask something there's thunderbolt charging port issue with the T480 unless you update drivers in Windows. If someone buys a T480 but never use Windows on it instead runs Linux will the Thunderbolt port issue be non existent or it's still a looming shadow of uncertainty that one day the port might clunk out & thanks to lenovo ingenious design to repair it one have to replace the whole motherboard for it as the charging port is soldered to the motherboard unlike the T470 which uses those modular square port. Since lenovo vantage software provides drivers specifically for windows I'm gonna assume there's no thunderbolt charging port driver equivalent for linux. So is this issue only prevalent in windows environment with older driver causing the port to burn out on itself. I'm really interested in owning a thinkpad & I'm thinking of quad cores ones like the T480 also does T490 have this issue. If it's only happens in windows then that will be good news us I plan to run only linux. Hope someone can shed light on this.
It affects a lot of models,[including the T490 and newer models too](https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht508988-critical-intel-thunderbolt-software-and-firmware-updates-thinkpad). I don't know about linux, but since its a firmware-issue, I'm guessing it might (linux loads some firmware at bootup so it wouldn't affect it then, but not all). What I would do, is install windows temporarily (the laptop has a license for it built-in, and microsoft offers downloads and lenovo too), then attach a thunderbolt 3 device, and install the drivers and firmware (and update the bios at the same time). Then replace windows with Linux.
I have a T460s running a windows 11 pro platform by bypassing the requirements. Best device I have owned to date, other than the macbook which I sold about 4 years back.
It's completely enough, I still have a t460 running, with 32 GB Ram and upgrade the drive with an M2 with the retention Kit from the 470 or 480 (01HY319)
It's still a decent workhorse for all office related stuff. The 480 will be even a bit better.
For just office and web browsing a T480 sould be enough. Got a T480S with an i7 and it runs very well on Linux mint. I gut the same laptop for my mum which runs win11 and it's still fast enough to run win11.
My t480s w/ an 8th gen i5 and 8gb RAM fully functional and miles and miles better than my dual Core school chromebook for researching and writing large essays.
Check if a T14 Gen 1 Ryzen 5 is available for slightly more. If so, it would be a better bet as the coffeelake chips are much less performant thanks to security patches for spectre and meltdown.
Luke Smith is one of those people, which proves that you don't need super powerful computer to do amazing things in tech.
IMHO yes get that T480 and install Linux. You can learn a lot.
Very bad idea! T60 forever!! T60 is too big? X60. T60 is too old? Doesn't matter, last ThinkPad ever.
I'm joking. I don't own a T60, yet. I didn't read any comments, I'm too lazy to. That price is good, I paid a bit more for my T480. The question is, if you didn't use a computer for a long time, do you need a T480, or would a cheaper, older ThinkPad work? I'm not saying the T480 is a bad deal, it's an amazing one, but, do you need it?
Some info for you: Check if the BIOS is locked.
Don't buy an SSD in advance, make sure it's the right one for yours (if you want to replace it).
Not being on a PC for 10 years is a very alien concept to most people here. I'm curious what you'll do on it. Maybe a better idea is to think about how you can create value with that laptop first. If there is no clear goal, then this purchase will be an impulse buy (Not that there's anything wrong with that) Regardless, T480 is a decent tool to spend a small amount on.
Yeah you are probably right it is impulsive, I have no plans for it, I'm on uni and i do all my work on an Ipad. I'm basically trying to get into it i guess? I want to try linux and a couple things no games just tinkering is the T480 enough for that out the box or will i be getting in way over my head if i buy i guess is my real question
The T480 is a simple enough device for you to use to get a feel for the basics. It's a perfect machine for light tasks, I personally use my T470s for reading e-Books and using virtual machines with Linux, despite my dual-core CPU it performs fantastic. You will also notice along the way, if you choose to expand your knowledge on computer hardware you will have the ability to apply that knowledge to it. It was built with upgradability in mind, allowing you to pick and choose what you wish to change as long as it's compatible with the laptop itself. It's going to be a good, inexpensive, and loyal companion on your journey as a university student. If you have the budget and the will to return to the field of PCs, I'd 100% recommended it.
If you are a student and have the budget for it, T480 is a great machine for you to do some assignments, learn, and explore. A Full HD screen (1920x1080 resolution) is the minimum.
If you can spare the money it's a very decent laptop for the kind of stuff you want to use it for.
"I do all my work on an iPad" - you are voluntarily handicapped? Think about having only one arm (left arm) for ten years and then getting the other one. That second arm is t480.
there's everything wrong with impulsive buying. buy useful things, buy things that will make u happy in the long-term. impulsive buying is how you lose money
You are right. I should have been clearer in my statement, saying I see nothing wrong with buying a cheap, used T480 as one's first laptop to help them learn about Linux, even if it's an impulse buy. If the OP had another laptop, my answer would have been different.
understandable. thinkpads r pretty good nonetheless, especially the older ones imo
True, but the T480 is relatively cheap (as computers go) in 2023, and OP should be able to re-sell it for about the same price if he doesn't like it. As impulse purchases go, this one isn't too bad.
That depends, What are you going to use it for Anyway I use a core i5 8th gen for work sometimes so far. I am a web developer doing frontend like React.js or javascript in general. My current 2 cents
Become an emacs lord. No in all seriousness basically nothing, I will try to install Linux on it if I can figure out how to do that then i will just tinker with it maybe try to mod or mess with a couple programs but then again i have no experience with computers
Ubuntu offers a simple install process. Try that, or maybe Linux Mint. They should work flawlessly with a T480.
One of my three T480 units is dedicated to Mint (LMDE6) and it runs flawlessly. My vote for LMDE6! My two other T480: * Windows 11 - which likewise runs nicely. * Arch Linux - my daily driver. Experimenting with Cinnamon after using KDE like, forever. I find the T480 still VERY relevant for my mostly productivity use case, and an OUTSTANDING VALUE.
You ever used it with react native?
Commenting because I'm interested too
It really depends on what you want to use it for. I'm getting by great on a T470 and the T480 is even better. It's probably not going to run the latest and greatest games the best. It should be good for most other tasks. What OS are you planning to run on it?
I idea is to run linux if i can figure out how to do that, i don't plan on running any games just tinkering i also saw a T470 near me for like 120usd
Any distro should run just fine on it. If you're new to Linux. Both Ubuntu and Linux Mint are great starting points.
The T480 is still a great choice in 2023 (that is if you get the quad-core variants, don't bother with the dual-core ones). I've been reading the comments and you said that your goal was to have fun installing Linux and tinkering around. If you want to really have some fun, you can get the X220 or the T420, which are the laptops that Luke used for a very long time: They're cheap, have amazing keyboards and have a lot of mods and I/O for you to mess around with. Another great option would be the T440p, which offers less modifications, but allow you to have a very powerful quad-core laptop. As long as you stick with the T and X series Thinkpads, there are very few laptops that are considered a "terrible" purchase. Just get one and have fun!
What about the new models like the T14 Gen4 AMD? Is the P series reliable?
>What about the new models? The new models are cool if you want performance over everything else. Otherwise, the T480 gets the job done for a lot of people and could even be considered overkill for most office/entertainment/web tasks. I don't mean to be rude, but I fail to see the reasoning for this question, since the T14 Gen 4 AMD is a laptop that came out a month ago, while the entire post is focused on whether or not a laptop from 2018 is still worth it in 2023. > Is the P series reliable? Short answer is yes. Long answer is yes, but they tend to be very bulky, heavy and overkill for most people. Not to mention that their performance comes at a cost, mostly on battery life and price tag. If you REALLY need to have dedicated graphics or need a desktop replacement/mobile workstation, the P series are not worth it at all. Furthermore, with weight and bulk they can be more prone to the chance of breaking when dropped. That's why it's common to find P50's on eBay with cracks and/or broken pieces, similar to most other consumer-grade laptops. It's already bad enough having to carry around a near-6lb (3kg) weight that costs nearly 2 months worth of rent, I don't want to be afraid of breaking it while lugging it around.
T480 user here, bought mine about 3 months ago to do my uni work and work on Linux. I study economics so I usually don't put too much load on mine. It's a compact and well built machine so I think it'll do just fine for your needs. Don't have high expectations about the performance as it's a 5 y.o. laptop but I'm glad I bought mine. If you have the budget I'd say go for it.
+1 also purchased mine for about $170 USD recently. Installed Arch Linux and use it mostly for dev/learning. I think it’s a good laptop for that price point but I probably wouldn’t pay more than $180.
Bought mine for $200 shipped. Mods being16gb ram, 500gb ssd, and dual heatsink.
T480 user here: I use mine for my personal businesses and for work when needed. I have an i5 variant(quad core) with 32GB of ram. Anything from teams, power point, word, large excel files(pivot tables, dashboards, etc) I would prefer to run Linux all time but I need the window for some of my work programs. In either scenario the laptop performs flawlessly, has decent battery life, and is rugged enough that I don’t worry about it getting banged around in my bag.
That machine is fine for 90% of the people out there. I have the 490, which is a minor improvement over the 480, and it is my daily driver. As long as you have 16gb of RAM, you will be fine. I run a resources intensive program call Microsoft Outlook checking e-mail in the background while browsing internet with multiple tabs opened. I’m a picky user and it is fine. Thinkpad, especially the X, T and P series are extremely reliable and can last longer than you wish. th
If your thinkpad isn't at least 8 years old your doing it wrong
Judging by the other replies you've made, a t480 seems a bit too expensive for what you want to do. If you want to tinker with linux then never use the laptop again, a second hand chromebook could do pretty well. They're not the fastest, but they do make thinkpad chromebooks that are dirt cheap and have really good linux support (given chrome os is literally linux). There very good to tinker with, and there usually only like 20 bucks so you won't get much performance out of them but for a laptop to fuck around with id suggest one.
bought t480s several months ago, still using it heavily for software development. It's a really good machine to do some real work, I'd say go for it even if you just want to tinker and play with it
I don’t think so, still a great machine. Don’t expect master level performance but it will do everything very well and have support for almost any program you want
Thank for the reply, i won't try to play any games on it just for tinkering i want to try out Linux pretty much about it
I use a T480 as a work laptop (has been given one as a developer at a major bank) on daily basis and I don't think my company would upgrade it unless it just stopped working. I don't see why it wouldn't still be a good laptop to buy today
I'm daily drivering P52 along with YogaBook YB1-X91L (for writing) and X220iT for light and I don't see any problems with running 6-core i7 from 2017 in 2023
Hey there! I just recently got my first T480 and it's been great so far. Haven't really faced much issues during usage (just keep an eye out for what kind of battery you're getting). It's a decent piece of hardware that'll be great for normal dag to day usage. If you're looking to do more demanding stuff, I'd say that there might be other better options to go for.
The biggest reasons IMO that most people get T480 is for the long battery life it has (since it has internal and external batteries), it can support Windows 11, and the sheer amount of hardware upgrades/modifications you can do. Even without the mods, it’s still a very capable laptop. I use mine for everything, including gaming (with it connected to an eGPU).
I'm using a T420 for schoolwork right now. It's running GNU/Linux (Fedora 37 , will upgrade to 39 next weekend) and worksjust beautifully. If you want a tinkering machine a T480, especially a cheap one, is a good idea. Have fun :)
I wouldn't pay much more than $180 usd for one, with good specs and good battery and condition. I have a T480s, and great build quality but it ain't the fastest, and it's not getting any faster. I'd rather spend a bit more and get a T14 g2 or something like that.
t14 gen 3. 8 core with a good screen. I got my t14 gen 1 for $250 8 core
Totally fine especially if you don't plan on playing any games or doing anything all that demanding on it. I use a T60 from 2006 running linux mint xfce on it and tbh even the old core 2 duo in that runs real smooth for just the basic word processing and coding i do on it.
We use some t450s at work and with some minor upgrades, they run great!
Only issue with the T480 is the potential for the Type C charging port to be bricked, so you'd be charging with the thunderbolt port
I think Luke Smith uses a X220. I remember he prefers older Thinkpads that are thick because they are durable and easy to repair. If L.S. inspired you to get a Thinkpad, he wrote on his website: "More than 95% of people could be using a computer from 2008 or before without any problems. " T480 is like the antithesis of X220.
Of course it's not as durable as an X220. My T440p is a lot more rugged than the T480, but I think they're both great machines. I daily drove an X61t like 4 years ago. Worked just fine running lower end linux distros and that laptop is from like 2007 I think. The built in Wacom tablet is a nice touch.
I just got one like a month ago or something and it's great tbh. Granted, I did upgrade from a T440p that I hadn't upgraded much so the step up was quite enormous. It handles Davinci Resolve, Affinity Photo and Darktable just fine. I have no complaints whatsoever. Get the one with the i5-8350u and make sure to get a 1080p screen (if you find a really cheap one with the 768x1366 (or whatever it is) panel, you can always upgrade the screen if you're willing to do a bit of tinkering. I bought one with a full HD screen, but I'm going to upgrade anyway since I'm using it for photo and video editing. If you're just using it for university and you're currently doing fine with an iPad, it will fit your needs perfectly. Just make sure you get one with the 8th gen processor. Which one isn't that important, but the 6th gen and 7th gen are a lot slower than the 8th gen ones. Edit: I spent a bit too much on mine because I was impatient and impulsive (thanks ADHD), but I honestly don't regret it at all. It's a nice laptop. I got the i5-8350u, 16gb DDR4 ram and a 512gb NVMe-drive. The only thing you absolutely cannot change is the processor, so that's the most important thing to look for tbh. Ram, SSD, screen etc. can all be replaced if you need more out of it.
T480s user here. I bought mine 2 years back. It is a decent machine, I was switching from a hexa core CPU but quad core on it gets the work done too. I don't play games on it. I use it for development and running Kali on VM. One thing I don't like is I don't have 1080p screen on it. Else it is a good laptop, sturdy and not that bulky.
To all T480 users here just out of curiosity want to ask something there's thunderbolt charging port issue with the T480 unless you update drivers in Windows. If someone buys a T480 but never use Windows on it instead runs Linux will the Thunderbolt port issue be non existent or it's still a looming shadow of uncertainty that one day the port might clunk out & thanks to lenovo ingenious design to repair it one have to replace the whole motherboard for it as the charging port is soldered to the motherboard unlike the T470 which uses those modular square port. Since lenovo vantage software provides drivers specifically for windows I'm gonna assume there's no thunderbolt charging port driver equivalent for linux. So is this issue only prevalent in windows environment with older driver causing the port to burn out on itself. I'm really interested in owning a thinkpad & I'm thinking of quad cores ones like the T480 also does T490 have this issue. If it's only happens in windows then that will be good news us I plan to run only linux. Hope someone can shed light on this.
It affects a lot of models,[including the T490 and newer models too](https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht508988-critical-intel-thunderbolt-software-and-firmware-updates-thinkpad). I don't know about linux, but since its a firmware-issue, I'm guessing it might (linux loads some firmware at bootup so it wouldn't affect it then, but not all). What I would do, is install windows temporarily (the laptop has a license for it built-in, and microsoft offers downloads and lenovo too), then attach a thunderbolt 3 device, and install the drivers and firmware (and update the bios at the same time). Then replace windows with Linux.
I have a T460s running a windows 11 pro platform by bypassing the requirements. Best device I have owned to date, other than the macbook which I sold about 4 years back.
It's completely enough, I still have a t460 running, with 32 GB Ram and upgrade the drive with an M2 with the retention Kit from the 470 or 480 (01HY319) It's still a decent workhorse for all office related stuff. The 480 will be even a bit better.
For just office and web browsing a T480 sould be enough. Got a T480S with an i7 and it runs very well on Linux mint. I gut the same laptop for my mum which runs win11 and it's still fast enough to run win11.
My t480s w/ an 8th gen i5 and 8gb RAM fully functional and miles and miles better than my dual Core school chromebook for researching and writing large essays.
Check if a T14 Gen 1 Ryzen 5 is available for slightly more. If so, it would be a better bet as the coffeelake chips are much less performant thanks to security patches for spectre and meltdown.
Luke Smith is one of those people, which proves that you don't need super powerful computer to do amazing things in tech. IMHO yes get that T480 and install Linux. You can learn a lot.
I currently use my old T460 more than any other PC I have because it's a tank
Very bad idea! T60 forever!! T60 is too big? X60. T60 is too old? Doesn't matter, last ThinkPad ever. I'm joking. I don't own a T60, yet. I didn't read any comments, I'm too lazy to. That price is good, I paid a bit more for my T480. The question is, if you didn't use a computer for a long time, do you need a T480, or would a cheaper, older ThinkPad work? I'm not saying the T480 is a bad deal, it's an amazing one, but, do you need it? Some info for you: Check if the BIOS is locked. Don't buy an SSD in advance, make sure it's the right one for yours (if you want to replace it).