BUILDING AND DESIGNING
Although the ThinkPad E series was originally called the Edge series, Lenovo has only now decided to add sharp corners to the notebook cover. Irony is inevitable in life, right? The ThinkPad E480 has sharp edges at all four corners to appear more mature, restrained and, of course, more similar to the ThinkPad. Lenovo says that the addition of sharp edges is done in view of the reaction of customers. It really works if you ask me. According to Lenovo, the ThinkPad E480 cover is 19.9 millimeters thick, which is 11 percent smaller than the previous model. With a weight of 1.75 kilograms, the laptop is a bit heavy to carry. Most of the weight is on the bottom of the laptop.
The lid is made of aluminum with a black finish, but the inexpensive options have only a coated plastic lid. The model I received for testing turned out to be plastic. It had slight signs of bending as it was held and lifted around the corner, but it seemed to be firm enough for these involuntary random foolishly. The base of the laptop had three rubber feet and a pair of grilles to dissipate heat. Experienced ThinkPad users may notice that there is no docking port on the base. This is because the E-series never had and never will; port replication is now done via USB Type-C.
The cover is easily opened with a finger, while on a standard ThinkPad it is raised by 180 degrees. The frames around the 14-inch screen are made of matte plastic and are quite narrow, with the exception of the bottom. It is spacious enough to accommodate half a dozen stickers. Lenovo says that it is able to reduce a considerable width of the front panel of this model. The area around the keyboard is also made of plastic, but with some softness. Resting with your palms in this place is a convenient thing. The stamping of the keyboard does not show any signs of bending.
DISPLAY, AUDIO AND I/O
The ThinkPad E480 has two 14-inch displays: an IPS panel with Full HD resolution and an HD panel. The model I received for testing was the last one. The colors on the screen looked a little weak, while the screen burned well enough even in bright places (for example, on a sunny balcony). The colors shifted and darkened as I looked at the screen from different angles. The text seemed illegible when the display was at an angle of less than 85 degrees. Overall, the texts and images on the HD display of the ThinkPad E480 looked grainy and required more pixels per inch. As for the brightness, the matte surface of the screen meant that the ambient light was not reflected on the screen at any angle.
The sound of the ThinkPad E480 is transmitted through the falling speakers, which are located in two thin slots on the bottom of the laptop. The volume was sufficient for a small conference room, but just not enough for a 24 by 24 foot room with air conditioning and fan on. With full speakers, I could not record all the dialogs on the desktop without turning on subtitles. The bass output was weak, but I felt that the mid and high frequencies were transmitted better.
There are many connectors on the sides of the ThinkPad E480. On the left side there is an HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio jack for headphones and two USB 3.1 ports. It also has a port that I would not have expected on the device: a USB Type-C port, which is used to charge the laptop. Of course, it also works like a regular USB port. It’s nice to see how Lenovo is trying to standardize the power connector on new models as much as possible. On the right side there is a USB 2.0 port, a microSD card slot and an Ethernet port, which today can hardly be seen on the sides of laptops.
For added security, Lenovo has installed a Kensington lock slot to store your valuable device in one place. Some models also have a fingerprint scanner under the keyboard. The fingerprint sensor has built-in authentication, so the fingerprint data is not sent to the operating system, where it is more vulnerable. When I first used the ThinkPad E480, the fingerprint scanner worked quickly four times out of five. I noticed that the quality of the HD camera is doubtful, since it takes grainy, pixelated pictures with blurry colors.
