Hey everyone, I’m looking to buy a ThinkPad specifically for Qubes OS, and everywhere I look, people still recommend the T480. It seems like it’s been the go-to recommendation for years because of its excellent compatibility. I’m wondering if that’s still true in 2026, or if there’s a newer ThinkP…

Thanks so much for all your help, and thanks to everyone else who took the time to share their advice and experiences. I really appreciate all the different perspectives. They definitely gave me a lot to think about. For now, I think I’m going to go with the ThinkPad T480. Given my budget and the c…

Product recommendations are easy to casually declare for any armchair expert because they focus on normalized consumer decisions, but fail to acknowledge ongoing OPSEC practices and trust attack surfaces. In Privacy Guides or Reddit, obtaining information on how to maintain anonymity, privacy, and/o…

I am really happy with my Thinkpad P16s with Zen4 CPU, 4K OLED, 64G RAM, ethernet, and actual buttons on the touchpad. It was marked down to $1.8k when I bought it a year and a half ago, shot up over $3.3k instantly after, and is now wholly unavailable. Its only flaws are its soldered-in Broadcom wi…

You can get a used StarBook MkV for around $500 on ebay. I use it with 64GB as my daily driver and I have no complaints. T480 is a darling in the community because it’s the final model on which you could still disable Intel ME.

Having used both a T470 and a T480 for Qubes OS in the past, I was much happier at the time with the T470. The T480 had better CPU performance, but I experienced multiple hardware reliability issues with it. I’m primarily using a P1 Gen 5 atm. It’s not bleeding edge at all any more. It has a second …

[image] fb2043: You can get a used StarBook MkV for around $500 on ebay. I use it with 64GB as my daily driver and I have no complaints. T480 is a darling in the community because it’s the final model on which you could still disable Intel ME. Thanks for the info! I actually looked into StarB…

[image] FranklyFlawless: I do not give any attention or thought to hardware not supporting Coreboot + Heads on top of Qubes OS. Ive decided to move away from the T480 and instead go with a Lenovo ThinkPad P51 with the i7-7820HQ. What I’m trying to figure out now is which configuration is the …

[image] cachemeousside: my budget is around $300 to $400, so spending over $1,000 on a NovaCustom just isn’t realistic for me. When you think about Qubes OS from a budget perspective, let me help you: you don’t need Qubes OS, and you will for sure fall into false sense of security.

[image] cachemeousside: What I’m trying to figure out now is which configuration is the better choice for Qubes OS: the Quadro M1200 or the Nvidia M2200? Neither, you already know the exact reason: [image] cachemeousside: If I remember correctly, I read that Qubes doesn’t play particular…

[image] corporateblush: When you think about Qubes OS from a budget perspective, let me help you: you don’t need Qubes OS, and you will for sure fall into false sense of security. Thanks for your perspective. I get what you’re trying to say, and I appreciate the reality check. That said, I s…

Also, since everyone has been giving me different recommendations and perspectives, I’ve started changing my approach to what laptop I should buy. After looking through the list of supported hardware, I originally moved away from the T480 and started leaning toward the ThinkPad P51 with the i7-7820…

Is the ThinkPad T480 still the best choice for Qubes OS, or is there a newer model?

User Support Hardware Issues

FranklyFlawless July 16, 2026, 2:27am 26

Neither, you already know the exact reason:

If you want to read first-hand experience, here are examples:

The Lenovo ThinkPad T480 has Coreboot support, including with the Heads payload:

The Lenovo ThinkPad P51 does not support Coreboot nor Heads.