2018-12-19, 9:02 AM

Here are some powersaving tips.

0: I assume you do not have the nvidia graphics card. If you do, that is a separate topic. I have the 1920 x 1080, nontouch screen.

1) You should install the package tlp

Google it. It has a PPA: https://launchpad.net/~linrunner/+archive/ubuntu/tlp

2) update your BIOS. You can do this from Ubuntu: open the app Software and review the Updates tab. BIOS updates will show there.

The internal battery draining first is nothing to do with Linux. The OS can't control this (so neither can Windows). It's a decision of the Lenovo firmware, hence BIOS update. My T480 does not do this.

3) In BIOS, change the Thunderbolt setting. See my T480 tweaks here. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oOgurNY2wvrS6NWlcFAX82jDD3oYxvap2h5WvtQcm6M/edit?usp=sharing

Step 3 is the biggest single powersaving tweak for the T480 if you are a Linux user.

4) if you play videos in a web-browser, you should get the Chromium build I mention on that Google doc because otherwise, you are not using hardware decoding. It makes a significant difference in power use.

Use powerstat to benchmark your use. Expect an average of about 6W for light use. it should idle at 4.5W or so. Mine has i7, 32 GB, two SSDs and an SD card in it, to which regular backup jobs run, and I usually leave bluetooth on. There must be a battery cost to my configuration.

But I don't believe 14 hours on the 2x24 wHr batteries. If I fully charged mine, I would expect 6 to 8 hours in light use, and same for Windows too, although I don't use Windows except for updates. Rather than rely on my experience, here is a review of Windows on this laptop, with the big 72 Whr battery (=96 Whr total). They got about 17 hours on the i5. That's 5.6W per hour average. That's good, maybe Linux can get to that on the same hardware.

https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/lenovo-thinkpad-t480

5) there are some other good tweaks in the document.

The reddit Thinkpad forum is the best place to review Linux usage on this laptop. My linux experience on the T480 is extremely good.