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What would you recommend: T480; Carbon X1 Gen 6; Or Dell 7480? (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I need a portable laptop to:

have a lot of online quality video calls
type a lot during each meeting
have a ton of browser tabs open
have a few CPU-demanding apps running at the same time

I will use this laptop as my main PC.

I'm also considering:

T480s
Carbon X1 Gen 7-8
Dell 7490

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (5 children)

I can't speak for all of them, but we've had a couple hundred deployed over the last several years with very few issues. Mine's been solid as a rock.

The usb-c docks, however, are a nightmare, though I gather that's fairly universal.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Why do you need to use the usb-c docks?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Just part of our standard office package, everyone gets a laptop, dock, and external monitors for their workspace.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I've ordered this ThinkPad T480 with:

Intel Core i7-8650U processor
16GB DDR4 RAM
512GB storage
14" FHD IPS display
Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620

When it arrives, before paying, what would you recommend to check within 10 minutes of receiving it?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Personally I'd do the following:

boot into the bios config menu to make sure it's unlocked (if it's locked and they don't have the password that'd be a dealbreaker for me)
boot into a live linux environment from usb and test both batteries, keyboard, trackpoint/trackpad, speakers, microphone, wifi, and all external ports (T480 has 2 usb-c, 2 usb-a, ethernet, hdmi, headset, and sd - make sure batteries charge well from both usb-c ports)
to check the storage health, install nvme-cli if not installed, run nvme smart-log /dev/nvme0 and check the "percentage_used" value: if it's near 100% it might die and need replacement soon
to check that the vents, airflow, and cooling hardware are in good shape, install stress if not installed, run stress -c 7 to load up 7 of the 8 available cpu threads, make sure the fan spins up good and strong, and watch /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp to make sure the cpu temperature stays under ~90-95 degrees

On my own time later, I'd run memtest86+ overnight from bootable usb to check the memory, then install tlp and run tlp recalibrate with the laptop on the charger to recalibrate the batteries

Edit: enjoy the new laptop! I hope it works great for you

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