So far, my ThinkPad has been working well, though it does have one broken keycap: the F key. It’s not a huge deal, but I usually run my fingertip over the bumps on the F and J keys when idle on the computer, so this is personally frustrating to me.
I got a cheap replacement off Amazon but it didn’t fit right, so back to eBay I went: I’ve got what is allegedly a genuine Lenovo replacement on the way, so very soon the machine will be ready to go.
Because the T480 is USB-C powered, it will slot in nicely into my travel setup until I get my hands on a newer MacBook Pro. It also will get taken with me on trips to the local hackerspace when I head up there a couple times a week. It also has a fingerprint reader, which I need to set up for login with LightDM at some point.
I upgraded its WiFi to a WiFi 6E card, which is as far as I can go unless an A/E-key WiFi 7 card appears that can be installed without mods. Even though my AP at home is WiFi 7, it doesn’t support 6 GHz, so this is just getting it upgraded as far as it can go.
I’m also adding a second SSD to it once that shows up next week, so that’ll be nice to move the Win11 VM to for speed purposes.
The port layout on this is very similar to my previous work laptop: 2x USB-C (plus Lenovo dock connector) on left side, 2x USB-A, HDMI, SD reader, and Ethernet on the right side. Considering I do still have some USB-A devices, this will be handy. Plus having an integrated Ethernet adapter is nice for various things.
Until next time!