T480 4K mod

[Natakranta]

Hi Guys,
I am very happy to present you the 4K screen mod I did on my 20L6S37W0Y ThinkPad T480. Links below are to pictures on my Google Drive, they may be large in size.
I bought on eBay what was advertised as 4K IPS UHD NV140QUM-N53 14" display. Quick delivery and panel was as advertised, glossy.
And thanks to advises from RBS and iamdmc I bought on Aliexpress EDP Cable 40PIN New Original 01YR503 DC02C00BE00 as original FHD IPS touch (01YR502) EDP cable wouldn't work or even can break QHD or 4K screen. I'm quoting RBS below with list of T480 EDP cable FRUs to help everybody

@Natakranta:
The T480 has standard 40-pin eDP LCD-cable 01YR501.
Touch needs LCD-cable 01YR502.
WQHD needs LCD-cable 01YR503.

WQHD probably also needs a different lid and/or LCD-bezel from Touch.
Have a look here: https://libthinkpad.github.io/fru/

and and iamdmc who warned me not to do a stupid thing, cheers mate

Don't use the touch cable for the qhd/uhd panels you will destroy the panel

Bottom cover off the laptop and first test of new 4K screen with new eDP cable 01YR503 - it's alive!
W10 recommended 300% scaling as default.
100% scaling is way above my vision capabilities for 14" screen.
Taking notes of eDP cable routing from motherboard port to hinge and from hinge to display port.
New screen trial on the lid. 4K at 200% scaling fits me best as it is the same as 100% on FHD that I'm used to.

Now the fun starts. Bottom screen mounting points of FHD IPS Touch panel are in the way of 4K panel inverter.
Preparations to go "Medieval" on poor lid and it was messy messy
The other side dremmeled and cleaned.
Cleaned everything up just to figure out this little bit is still in the way. Back to the dremmel and cleaned on one side and on the other.

The 4K display panel I bought was without a metal frame that allows screwing the panel to the lid. Luckily I had broken 14" screen from HP EB840 G3 which had such frame and (not without a fight) gave it away. As you see on the picture I cut the bottom part of the frame away. It was unnecessary as I removed the laptop lids bottom mounting points anyway.
Here you can see how HP metal frame fits into my modified T480 lid. It is screwed on the two top mounting points and stick with a bit of cello tape at the bottom.
Screen stick to the frame with cello tape as well and centred to align with screen bazel. Power up and display works I didn't break the eDP cable when routing it through the hinge.

I was so happy to put the bazel on, but then I realised this bazel bottom pin is in the way of 4K screen longer inverter, the same way the bottom mounting points were on the lid. And this plastic part of the bazel as well, on both sides.
Dremmel to save the day again!
After this modification Bazel on the lid matches new screen perfect.

link to the whole gallery, for those who just want to fly through the pictures.

Was it worth it? Absolutely!
This screen is amazing, at least coming from stock FHD IPS touch which was dim and had washed out colours.
Colour reproduction on new screen is beautiful (to my untrained eye). Viewing angles are great. Brightness is eyes burning. I'm usually the "brightness to the max guy", here 1st time I am decreasing the brightness.
Now the elefant in the room. It is glossy panel. Yes there are reflections, but I mostly use it indoors and I can compensate cranking up the brightness. But the glossiness can be as well an advantage, it helps the colours pop more.
Overall I am very happy.

A month later I completely disassembled my T480 to swap the palm rest to brand new as the old one had few plastic clips broken and the gaps between it and bottom cover were triggering my OCD. Additionally the old palm rest had a lot of polish from previous users (I bought the laptop 2 months ago for 200 EUR locally 2nd hand). On top of that I replaced polished original trackpad with glass one from X1, no idea if it is original and genuine, it works and is mat.

I bought WD SN520 NVMe PCIe 3 SSD 500GB that is 2240mm form factor (half size) and fits into the m.2 WWAN slot. So now I have 2 SSDs in. The 2nd is Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1 TB PCIe 3 that sits in main drive bay in m.2 adapter that was there originally, but with smaller capacity SSD.

2x8GB RAM to top it up. Two batteries, internal and small external (the flat one, I wanted it to blend into laptop, not stick out)

That should be it.

[iamdmc]

Hi Guys,

Snip

That should be it.

You did a fantastic job on this

Happy to have played a small part

Enjoy your new and improved T480!

[RealBlackStuff]

Lots of work, well done!
As an afterthought, maybe you could have made life easier by getting another lid/bezel for non-touch.
As for LCD mounting holes, I only have a picture of these mounting brackets

but unfortunately I didn't make a note where to get them, or what they are officially called.
Anybody know that?

Update 23/01/2022: found some on Aliexpress, they are called: Fixed bracket screw holes ear stents
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001337579860.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002040221390.html

[Natakranta]

Good links for the metal brackets for frameless displays, I'm sure it will be useful for others.
I wanted to stay low on budget, that's why I moded what I had instead of buying exact parts (lid and bazel). A bit of extra work, a lot of fun and goal achieved.

[WastedPancakes]

This looks fantastic! Quick question: What is the FRU for your lid? Or does that not matter?

[ambiguity268]

Thanks for your awesome post, it was quite helpful! I also did the mod this week.

I went from the original 1080p screen to the 4K BOE NV140QUM-N53, the difference is absolutely amazing. It's crystal clear, the colors pop, and it gets very bright. There is so much more room on the screen with 150% scaling!

I was a bit concerned with battery life, but I was not able to notice a big difference. I have the big external battery, and in the Power Saving power profile I am still getting many hours of battery life.

The GPU handles it nicely as well. Mine has the Intel UHD Graphics 620, I am noticing a bit of lag when full screening applications, but that might be a Linux thing. It does gets toasty at 4K video playback, but otherwise my fan pretty much never turns on.

Being quite inexperienced with a Dremel, I was too scared to use it on my ThinkPad. If you don't have one at home, you can remove the plastic pins and mounting points with a Razor Knife and a bit of time. The plastic pins on the bezel are super soft, it goes through there like butter. When removing the other plastic part of the bezel, I inserted a flat metal object in between (they're glued together with a soft glue) to make sure that I do not cut through the bezel. The mounting points on the lid were a bit harder. I cut away the plastic with my knife, and then removed the metal sockets with pliers.

I did not get a metal frame for the screen and didn't reuse the old one. I put thin double sided tape on the back and will see if that's durable enough.

I can absolutely recommend this mod, if you get a good price on the screen. I found an unused one second hand for $50, and the display cable cost $20 from AliExpress.

[TPFanatic]

Well done!! I always love big screens with as many pixels as possible.

[ambiguity268]

Well done!! I always love big screens with as many pixels as possible.

Yeah.. it's too good. I don't like looking at my normal desktop 1440p screen anymore.

[ambiguity268]

One thing I sadly have to add: This screen has really awful PWM dimming. This was never an issue with my original FHD panel. Others may not be as sensitive to it, as you can not consciously see it. I sadly get eye strain super quickly from this screen. Currently experimenting with Blue Light Filtering and using it at a higher brightness.

[iamdmc]

One thing I sadly have to add: This screen has really awful PWM dimming. This was never an issue with my original FHD panel. Others may not be as sensitive to it, as you can not consciously see it. I sadly get eye strain super quickly from this screen. Currently experimenting with Blue Light Filtering and using it at a higher brightness.

Glad you found the post helpful. I used an LG Display panel for mine, but it was a bit too thick to neatly fit between the A-cover lid and B-cover bezel so I had a bit of a gap. I didn't mind much because the screen was too beautiful to pass up. Older tech but very low IPS glow, 100% AdobeRGB/DCI-P3, and rivals my X1C10 OLED for contrast (which naturally beats it as it's newer tech but only by a small margin). I've written extensively on OLED vs quality IPS and the difference isn't as large as most people think.

Anywho I hope you got the PWM dimming issue resolved. I do recommend staying away from BOE panels as they seem to cause a lot of problems. LG Display and AUO are my go-to's for IPS (although LG pretty much stopped making laptop screens) and Samsung is the only game in town for OLED