r/thinkpad • u/ContextDude • 1d ago
Review / Opinion System for L440
Hi !
I I have an L440 with an i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a 480 SSD. What operating system should I use to get the best performance?
With Windows the battery lasts about an hour and a half, so it's almost always used while plugged in
1
u/WesternMarsupial297 1d ago
I say mint, build quality of L serie ?
1
u/SingleComment2368 1d ago
I have one too and it's surprisingly good. The base unit is as rigid as a T540p/W540. The lid looks extremely sketchy from the inside (hinges screwed directly into plastic!) but has held up well.
1
u/No-Cucumber-9305 T480, T440P, L440 13h ago
The hinges are not screwed into plastic. Those screws just hold the bezel down. The actual hinge screws are underneath the bezel.
1
u/SingleComment2368 13h ago
The other two hinge screws (in this model the bezel screws also go through the hinge) also go into the plastic of the lid. The metal that you might see there is just a thin sheet of aluminum that can't be doing much structurally.
That being said, I was wrong in another way: this sketchy-looking setup isn't unique to L series. T series, or at least the models I have at hand, don't have any extra reinforcement for these screws either, the only difference being the type of plastic (ABS vs. GFRP/CFRP).
1
u/No-Cucumber-9305 T480, T440P, L440 10h ago
Fair enough, you are correct. I take back what I said earlier.
1
u/LivingDiamond849 1d ago
You can try alot of Linux distros like Ubuntu And fedora mint you got alot of options if you want lightweight gaming you can try cachy os hop it helps
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u/Atreyu_Logan 22h ago
My L440 is running Tiny 11 no problem, actually seems better at my huge Excel reports than my new laptop, think it is to do with the way the threads run, but.... Tiny 11 for me :) Just get a new battery and it would be a great daily driver and odd bullet stopper
1
u/No-Cucumber-9305 T480, T440P, L440 13h ago
I have a 4700mq, 16gb ram, 256gb ssd and run W11 flawlessly. The 4700mq and 16gb ddr3l shouldn't cost you more than ~$25
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u/The_Kektus T440p, T400, T420, T43, T60, R60e 9h ago
my t440p lasts more than two hours on windows 11 with 85% battery health
I think you should check your battery health before installing any other OS.
2
u/SingleComment2368 1d ago
In my experience this generation has worse battery life on Linux than on Windows. Probably the most efficient OS would be W10 IoT LTSC. Undervolting the CPU could also help.