Lenovo ThinkPad L380: Portable PC at its Cheapest

The Lenovo ThinkPad L380 is Lenovo’s latest offering from its ‘ThinkPad L’ line of laptops. Targeted at professionals and students, the ThinkPad L380 magically manages to combine features found on more premium laptops at an affordable price. The Thinkpad L380 is a semi-convertible PC and it is more of an upgrade to the Lenovo ThinkPad 13 that was released more than a year ago.

The highlights of the L380 are its durable (though basic) design, solid performance, impressive battery life, and affordability. The laptop ‘steals’ almost all the basic features of the Lenovo ThinkPad L380 Yoga except for convertibility. Again, with the ThinkPad L380, what Lenovo is offering is a premium business laptop for professionals and students at an affordable price.

Levono ThinkPad L380 Key Specifications

• Dimension — 12.67 inches x 8.83 inches x 0.74 inches (321.8 mm x 224.2 mm x 18.8 mm)
• Display — 13.3-inch FHD (1,920 x 1,080 resolution) IPS screen
• Weight — 3.22 pounds (1.46 kg)
• Operating System — Windows 10 Pro
• Processor — 8th Gen Intel Core i5-8250U
• Graphics — Intel UHD Graphics 620
• RAM — 4GB / 8GB DDR4
• Storage — 256GB / 512GB SATA M.2 (Samsung PM871b)
• Camera — Front-facing 720p
• Speakers — Dual 2 watt
• Biometrics — Fingerprint reader
• Battery — 45Wh (USB-C charger)
• Wireless — Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 (2 x 2), Bluetooth 4.1

The ThinkPad L380 has a basic but sturdy body build. The lid is made out is made out of aluminum while the bottom part is covered in glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP). The laptop comes with dual metal hinges that hold the display firmly that it won’t get to shake around during usage; even when in motion. About the display, it is 13.3-inch full HD (FHD) IPS anti-glare screen with 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. A downside to the display, though, is brightness and colour reproduction. Brightness level is barely up to 250nits and might leave you wishing your screen was brighter when used in properly lit room or in sunlight.

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The display isn’t the best you’d find on a portable laptop in the Thinkpad L380 class but it does perform averagely and decently well. Back to the laptop’s hinge design, unlike the Lenovo ThinkPad L380 Yoga which is convertible, it only allows the lid fold back flat on the same level as the bottom case; the top lip cannot fold to the back into a tablet.

The dual hinges allow the lid to fold back flat (no convertible function here), and you get a sturdy display that won’t shake around too much if you’re using the laptop while in a moving vehicle or train. It’s available in black and silver colors.

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The keys on the L380’s keyboard are comfortable and perfectly sized to allow for easy typing and writing. There is a “Fn lock” (and some other special keys) that allows users choose the primary/secondary function of the Fn keys.

Though the keyboard is not backlit, there is a vacancy of the ThinkPad L380 that comes with keyboard illumination. The three touchpad keys and TrackPoint native to ThinkPad laptops are also present on the Lenovo ThinkPad L380 for easy and numerous navigation options.

To the right side of the touchpad is a fingerprint scanner for improved security on the ThinkPad L380. The scanner reads your fingerprint and logs you in quicker than password would.

It is even more secure than passwords and passcodes are. The position of the fingerprint reader makes it look like it might get rubbed by the palm and wrist a lot when typing. I, however, doubt that that would be the case as the fingerprint reader’s positioning is strategic enough to avoid such occurrence.

Another feature that positions the Lenovo ThinkPad L380 as a perfect business PC is the number of ports it comes with; there are at least 4 ports on each side.

To the left: two USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C (one for power connection/charging), one USB 3.0 Type-A, and one HDMI port. To the right: Kensington lock, one mini-Ethernet port, one USB 3.0 Type-A, mini SD card slot, headphone jack, and power button.

The ThinkPad L380 comes with 8th-generation Intel Core i5-8250U CPU alongside 8GB of RAM (expandable to 32GB) and 256GB of built-in SSD storage. WindowsCentral reports that the processor performs averagely as it sports a single-core GeekBench score of 3,945 and multi-core score of 9,775. The operating system is the Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Edition.

The 8GB DDR4 and 256 SSD model has a web price of $999 but sells for about $200 lesser on Lenovo’s official store. There is also a bigger variant with the same 8GB RAM but 512GB of storage which sells for $1200. Users on even very low budget can also opt for the Lenovo ThinkPad L380 version with 4GB RAM and 128GB of storage for $520.

The ThinkPad L380 is a semi-convertible work PC which comes with specs that perfectly resonates what the ThinkPad line of Lenovo’s laptops stand for — durability and performance.

Perfect for students and professionals, it also comes at a respectfully affordable price that won’t a dent in ones pocket. The display isn’t the best you’d get out there but its quality is decent enough. The infrared camera and fingerprint reader (which stores prints on the chip) also ups the security of the device. Overall, it’s a good price for money.