In this guide, I will disassemble a Lenovo ThinkPad T480 laptop. I will remove the bottom case to upgrade the RAM, SSD, and HDD for my T480.

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The T480 has two memory slots. We have a Samsung 8G DDR4 2400MHz high frequency memory. In order to consider the battery life, the ThinkPad T480 has two built-in batteries. We have 24Wh+24Wh dual-cell batteries on hand, totaling 48Wh. The Lenovo Thinkpad T480 has two DIMM sockets and the RAM can be upgraded to a maximum of 32GB. Simply remove the back cover and install the new RAM DIMM. I’ll explain all the steps and details you need to know as well as what type of memory to buy in this article.

Its disassembly method is very simple, just like the ThinkPad T470, you only need to remove the external battery first, and then remove all the screws on the bottom case. Use the guitar pick open the bottom case slowly, and there are many snaps on the back cover to securing the case to the laptop body. Be careful do not to break the snaps.

With the bottom case removed, you can get access to the internal battery, M.2 SSD, RAM, CMOS battery, hard drive, Wi-Fi card, heat sink, cooling fan, and motherboard.

Lenovo ThinkPad T480 has two available RAM slots, each supporting up to 16GB of DDR4-2400 memory, which means you can upgrade the RAM to 32GB. The unit we’ve tested comes with one 8GB DDR4-2400 RAM from Samsung.

Amazingly, it is equipped with a 2242 PCIe NVMe 128GB M.2 SSD from Toshiba with a part number of KBG30ZMT128G, Lenovo P/N: 00UP650, SSSOL24702.
The laptop also comes with a 500GB mechanical hard disk; if necessary, you can replace it with a larger capacity hard disk.

Here’s the internal battery, 11.4V, 24Wh, Lenovo FRU: 01AV489.

Update
Another version of ThinkPad T480 has an M.2 2280 SSD and installed via an adapter. Please see the ThinkPad T480 review here.

Lenovo T480 M.2 Slot System

Related Parts:
Genuine WQHD AG Screen for Lenovo 00NY681 B140QAN02.3 ThinkPad T480 T480s X1 Carbon (5th, 6th, 7th)
Genuine WQHD Screen for Lenovo 00NY664 LP140QH2-SPB1 ThinkPad T480 T480s X1 Carbon (5th, 6th, 7th)

I’m falling back to options for the T480 because of this year’s disaster of a design T490.

Lenovo T480 M.2 Slot Machine

On Lenovo web site, I see T480 with two separate drive slots
1. traditional 2.5″ slot for magnetic hard disk or M.2 2280 SSD.
2. M.2 2242 SSD.

Lenovo T480 M.2 Slot Computer

How would I know, if I first buy it with a traditional disk, then replace it later with a M.2 2280 drive, that the adapter cable will be there? Or do I have to source for that cable component separately?