LENOVO THINKPAD L380

amazon LENOVO THINKPAD L380 reviews

Design

Faithful to design of the ThinkPad laptops, the Lenovo ThinkPad L380 still has a square, solid and solid appearance, a masculine look, for work. Beside the traditional black soft-touch, the machine has a silver-gray option with an attractive metallic finish, creating a new, luxurious look for the product line that has over 25 years of age.

The L380 weighs in at 1.46 kg and 18.8 millimeters, quite thin with a 13.3-inch laptop. The manufacturer also has some refinements such as the beveled edges or the body of the laptop to look slim, more elegant, in line with the current trend.

Connectivity on the L380 is relatively rich with 2 USB ports. 3.1 Gen 1 Type A traditional (1-Way Always On – supports charging for peripherals including shutdowns), 1 HDMI 1.4, 1 port combo headphone / mic. Noteworthy when it comes to two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C, in which one port cum the task of charging and both support the image output, data transmission, power transmission Power Delivery should be able to Include compatible rechargeable batteries.

However, the connectivity on the L380 still has some inconvenience when using the standard RJ-45 Mini-Gateway. The machine does not come with a standard RJ-45 adapter that consumers will have to buy outside for about $12. Memory card reader on the L380 only supports microSD cards, which are mainly fixed on the phone instead of the more commonly used SD card, which is used on existing cameras. It does not have a fingerprint reader or a Windows-qualified face recognition webcam, which is becoming standard on high-end business laptops.

One strange point is that the power button on the L380 is brought to the right instead of close to the keyboard area. On this side there is also a detail quite similar to the pen slot. Perhaps because Lenovo also has a version of the ThinkPad L380 Yoga with rotating screen comes with Wacom stylus, so they kept these details on the conventional L380 for the production.

Thick screen, good quality, good sound

The thin bezel trend is widespread on smartphones and laptops, but with the Lenovo ThinkPad L380, Lenovo still retains its traditional thick bezel, which makes it less modern and eye catching. In return, the display quality is good, the color is bright, the viewing angle is wide, contrast is improved by equipped with IPS.

13.3-inch Full HD resolution ensures high-definition detail. The brightness of the screen is average, enough for indoor or outdoor use under shade. The anti-glare screen should minimize the effect of mirror shadow.

Most ThinkPad laptops can open up to 180 degrees and the L380 is no exception. This allows the camera to adjust the viewing angle flexibly and suitably used in many different situations. On the L380, Lenovo added a feature to open the screen is automatically turned on, without pressing the power button is quite convenient.

It does not emphasize on entertainment but the speaker system on the L380 is good enough for listening to music, watching movies in large volume, clear, warm sound, with integrated Dolby Audio technology to automatically optimize the sound. Sound for each situation including entertainment, conversation, voice chat, video call.

High-bounce keyboard, touchpad sensitivity, special trackpoint

ThinkPad laptops have traditionally been rated highly on the keyboard thanks to their fine typing, bouncing, and proper keyboard layout. On the ThinkPad L380, this is further enhanced. Keyboard of the machine for good journey, bounce rate, hand stick, fast typing is not attached to the letter. The keys layout is reasonable, the phenomenon of flex (subscript) when emphasis is limited good. Text on sharp keys, beautiful fonts, spacious keyboard, convenient operation.

One note is that on the L380, Lenovo retains the layout of the Fn function key at the outset in the ThinkPad style so far, so if you are not familiar may be easier to type with the Ctrl key next. Fortunately, the manufacturer allows the positioning of these two keys in the Lenovo Vantage software.

Backlit keyboard with 2 different brightness. Backlight is printed directly on each key, not just on the edge, giving high brightness, clarity, beautiful appearance, easy operation when working in the night or low light without turning on the table light.

The touchpad is made of large size, spacious, covered with glass, for high sensitivity, smooth, no hitting. The touchpad on the L380 supports the Microsoft Precision driver, allowing for more smooth multitasking, especially when zooming in and out on the Edge. If you only use office tasks, basic image editing, touchpad on the machine can completely replace the external mouse.

Special TrackPoint keys on ThinkPad laptops continue to appear. TrackPoint will allow you to control your mouse without having to lift your finger from the base row. Home row (A to L keys with two F and J keys with small edges to position when typing 10 fingers), from which to raise Maximum performance and typing. However, to use TrackPoint it will take a long time.

Performance agility, quiet running, temperature heat

Hardware is pretty good with the Core i i7-8550U or i5-8250U (i7-8550U or i5-8250U) Inel Core processor, 8GB RAM DDR4, 256GB M.2 2280 SATA SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620 integrated graphics, built-in Windows 10 Home, ThinkPad L380 can handle most tasks from basic to complex with fast speed.

The Intel Core i7-8550U processor is also a significant upgrade, with up to 4 cores (1.80 GHz, 8 MB SmartCache, Turbo Boots 4.00 GHz), compared to only two cores of the Intel Core i Life 7 (Kaby Lake) before.

Measurements from the Geekbench 4 and Cinebench R15 software rated CPUs show that the single-core performance of the i7-8550U is about 10% to 20% higher than the i5-7200U and i7-7500U. Meanwhile, multi-core performance is far superior, about 60% more powerful than the two popular CPUs of the previous generation. In fact, the Intel Core i7-8550U CPU on the ThinkPad L380 performs well, including heavy-duty tasks like movie editing, image editing, file-sharing in Lightroom, or Premiere Pro. 8GB of DDR4 RAM also offers good multitasking performance, which can open multiple apps in parallel without distortion, lag.

The Intel UHD Graphics 620 integrated graphics on the Coffee Lake chips is similar to the Kaby Lake, so it’s no surprise that graphics performance is not significantly different. You can play lightweight online titles like The Secret Alliance, Fifa Online 3 with moderate graphics settings at Full HD resolution. But any heavier titles like PUBG, PES 2018, Fifa 18 are too much for the machine.

The temperature and noise levels of the ThinkPad L380 are pretty decent. The machine runs quietly, but it is hot when it comes to heavy duty CPUs and GPUs running at 100% capacity. Can feel the heat if the machine on the lap. The heat dissipation system is not effective so the machine can only run at high clock in short time, so performance is also affected.

The easy maintenance, upgrade capital is the strength of the ThinkPad. On the L380, you only need to remove all the screws on the bottom to access the internal components, replace the SSD, add more RAM or clean the fan heatsink easily. The L380 supports up to 32GB of RAM.

where can i you get a LENOVO THINKPAD L380 online

Lenovo 13.3″ ThinkPad L380 Touchscreen LCD Notebook Intel Core i5 (8th Gen) i5-8250U Quad-core (4 Core) 1.6GHz 8GB DDR4 SDRAM 256GB SSD Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Silver Model 20M7000KUS: Buy it now

The battery life is quite good, the software “clean”

About software, Lenovo does not install too many bloatware applications on the machine. Only the Lenovo Vantage app comes pre-installed with a pretty, modern interface that blends seamlessly with the Fluent Design theme on Windows 10. In addition to fine-tune keyboard and touchpad settings, Lenovo also manages the Set the monitor, battery, sound, network connection, such as automatically reduce the screen brightness when locking the machine or turn on the eye protection mode night … This application has the feature of error checking. the hardware, software in the machine, automatic driver updates, software system is quite useful.

On battery life, equipped with a 45 Wh battery, the actual battery life of the ThinkPad L380 is quite good. With regular tasks such as web browsing, text editing, lightweight photo editing, 70% brightness screen, setting in Balance Better Performance mode in Windows 10, the machine can hold approximately 5 to 6 hours. continuous use. With Biareview’s standard viewing battery, the 70% screen brightness, 70% audio on headphone jack, the ability to play back a 720p HD movie offline, WiFi on, L380 up to 10 hours.

The convenience point is the ThinkPad L380 has a built-in quick charger. The charger comes with a capacity of up to 65W and the actual test shows exactly as the manufacturer stated, within 1 hour L380 can charge up to 80% of battery. It only takes about an hour and a half to fully charge.

In addition, the Type-C USB port on the L380 supports rechargeable batteries, so you can use it with backup batteries that support USB Power Delivery, a compatible smartphone charger, or a USB Type-C port on some monitor screens very convenient.

Summary

With the ThinkPad L380, the Lenovo retains its solid appearance, strong anti-shock, robust design and masculine design. High-performance, good battery life supports both fast charging and convenient USB Type C charging. The screen quality is quite right, the keyboard is correct. “Style: ThinkPad. Touchpad, trackpoint sensitivity, precision, almost replace the external mouse.

Limitations of the ThinkPad L380 is the bright screen is not high, difficult to use in the sun or bright areas. Heavy duty hot-running machines and inefficient heat dissipation ensure the system runs at high speeds for long periods of time.