Lenovo Refurbished ThinkPad T490S/T480S 14"Core i5-8th Gen 8GB RAM 256GB SSD M.2-NVMe-Black (Grade A)

Refurbished ThinkPad T490S/T480S 14"Core i5-8th Gen 8GB RAM 256GB SSD M.2-NVMe-Black

Display

As compared to the WQHD panels in our previous two units, the less expensive matte FHD (1920x1080) 14-inch display in today’s review configuration sacrifices a bit in terms of brightness and saturation. It’s hardly inappropriate for general office use, however, and despite these technical insufficiencies it should be fine for most businesses. Backlight bleed is only a very minor problem on the t490 T480 (see pictured).

We measured an average brightness of 281 cd/m² with a distribution of 86%, 22% below the 343 cd/m² of the WQHD panel, and just a bit below the two Dell Latitude models in our comparison field. It’s also far below the premium panels in the X1 Carbon (533 cd/m²) and HP EliteBook (655 cd/m²). Contrast, on the other hand, is quite good with a measured 1373:1 beating every competitor apart from the stellar X1 Carbon (1521:1)—thanks to a black value of just 0.21 cd/m².

Apart from brightness, where the display truly falters, however, is in color coverage. The apparent lack of vibrancy exhibited by the display is corroborated by readings of just 58.9% and 37.67% of the sRGB / AdobeRGB spectrums, respectively—poor by any measure and far, far below every other machine we’re comparing against today. Despite their similarly middling brightness, the two Latitudes, for instance, still manage to cover nearly 100% of sRGB, which results in a palpably richer appearance.

Performance

The t490S/T480s is available in a wide range of configurations spanning CPU options from Core i5 up to Core i7 chips, up to 24 GB of RAM (with 4 or 8 GB soldered to the board), and either Intel UHD Graphics 620 or NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics. Today’s review unit features the same Core i5-8250U SoC that we reviewed back in February, so we should expect comparable performance to what we received from that model.

GPU Performance

Unlike the GeForce MX150-equipped variation of the T480s, today’s more conventional review unit features merely integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620. As usual, that renders the machine fully incapable of handling any sort of moderately heavy graphical endeavors, but for the average office worker, this is probably not a problem.

Stress Test

Despite being a very quiet machine (as we’ll see in the next section), the T480s has no problems maintaining high Turbo clock rates across all four cores in our full CPU stress test over sustained periods. Even after several minutes, the machine’s temperatures remain stable at (high) values of 97 °C to 98 °C, with frequencies shuffling between 3.3 and 3.4 GHz, the max turbo values possible. Full GPU stress, likewise, achieves a full 1100 MHz stable clock rate with temperatures of just 78 °C.

Full CPU + GPU combined stress at first produces max clock rates across both CPU and GPU of 3.4 GHz/1100 MHz, but after a few minutes, the GPU clock rate subsides to 1 GHz and the CPU clock rate plummets to just 1.3 GHz. Core temperatures at this point stabilize at around 78 °C, but performance never recovers to Turbo frequency levels even after thermals are stable again.

Certified Refurbished means that every device has undergone rigorous testing: Configure a brand new SSD to ensure that it does not contain any data.
Thoroughly clean all components and hardware upgrades. Install a truly brand new version of the Microsoft Windows operating system.
It undergoes detailed testing and strict inspection before shipment

The t490S/T480s is indeed one of the premier office laptops currently available, rivaled by few in it class.