--- title: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone | daily.dev description: A ThinkPad T480 can be turned into a fully functional mobile phone supporting calls, SMS, and mobile data. By exploiting an Intel Management Engine bug to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/using-thinkpad-t480-as-a-mobile-phone-taaxnlzzv twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone | daily.dev og:description: A ThinkPad T480 can be turned into a fully functional mobile phone supporting calls, SMS, and mobile data. By exploiting an Intel Management Engine bug to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/using-thinkpad-t480-as-a-mobile-phone-taaxnlzzv og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/TAaXNLzzV.png og:image:alt: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A ThinkPad T480 can be turned into a fully functional mobile phone supporting calls, SMS, and mobile data. By exploiting an Intel Management Engine bug to flash Libreboot firmware, the WWAN whitelist is removed, allowing installation of a Quectel EG25-G modem (the same used in PinePhone). A custom open-source firmware registers the modem as a USB audio interface for call audio, while SMS and data work out of the box. M.2 antenna adapters are needed due to connector incompatibilities. Android apps can also run natively via Waydroid. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 71 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-07-26). **TL;DR:** The community is enthusiastic about the T480-as-phone hack and broadly celebrates the repairability and hackability of that ThinkPad generation, with side threads diving into USB-C port failures, BIOS whitelists, and alternative approaches like USB modems or GNU/Linux phones. **Sentiment:** 65% positive · 25% mixed · 10% skeptical **The case for** - The T480 is highly repairable with abundant aftermarket parts, making it viable for modern workloads years later. - The WWAN slot and pre-installed SIM tray make cellular integration surprisingly accessible on this hardware. - Bluetooth headset support and audio piping add fun, practical flexibility to the phone functionality. - USB EG25-G modules offer a plug-and-play alternative path to turning any Linux machine into a phone. **The pushback** - Lenovo's BIOS whitelist for wireless/WWAN cards is seen as restrictive and anti-user. - USB-C charging port failures are a widespread and hard-to-fix weakness on the T480. - The WWAN slot being locked to cell modem cards wastes a general-purpose mPCIe slot. - The native Lenovo WWAN modem doesn't support audio calling, requiring the workaround described in the post. **By community** - hackernews (positive): Commenters are broadly impressed by the hack and use it as a springboard to celebrate T480 repairability, share related tips, and debate USB-C durability and BIOS whitelists. **Hottest debate:** Whether USB-C ports are more or less durable than traditional barrel connectors, sparked by widespread T480 charging port failures. **Open questions** - Is it possible to shrink a similar free-software phone setup to smartphone size with good Linux support? - Can the WWAN slot be used for non-cellular cards (e.g., a second SSD) on the T480 despite Lenovo's whitelist? - What OS do Qualcomm standalone modem cards actually run — Android, REX, or something else? **Highlights** > it's incredibly repairable. I still use the t480 for modern workloads because I've been able to switch out the battery, the fan, the keyboard with fairly abundant aftermarket parts. > — [binsquare on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49061694) > Nice, I know these mainly had a spare NVMe slot right next to the WiFi, in case you had the optional WWAN adapter, and the essential SIM card holder itself is also there already regardless. The separate unused (apparently non-standardized) cellular antenna connectors are also there and taped off from the factory otherwise. I would have never imagined that the Lenovo WWAN approach would not even support audio calling, good findings and excellent workaround :) What I did was use a 2242 size NVMe SSD in that WWAN slot for extra storage, plugged in right next to the standard Wifi card. Unfortunately I can not get this 500GB NVMe SSD to boot in the Lenovo WWAN slot, even though it works good in a regular NVMe SSD position. Even with functional boot files on the main working SSD which point to the proven OS on the NVMe in the WWAN slot. Still good for additional SSD storage at least. And it's good to know you figured out how to get WWAN calling working better than new on an older laptop, that's hacking that non-tech people can see how worthwhile it is :) > — [fuzzfactor on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49062083) > Lenovo has whitelists for both wifi and cell cards. It's highly annoying. A decade ago, I had a Lenovo Yoga 2. The Wi-Fi card it came with only supported 802.11g, or something old and outdated at the time. I learned about the whitelist the hard way when I bought a decently (then) up-to-date wifi card to upgrade, and the computer refused to boot. But! I refuse to let a computer tell me no... So, after many many (too many) hours of reading forums, dumping firmware, flipping bits, and pushing firmware, I got the stupid card to work. And of course I took no notes, so if I had to do it again, I'd be starting from scratch. > — [mmh0000 on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49062333) > Plug in an EG25-G USB module. It has good driver suppport on linux as this is the same modem that's in the pinephone. About $60 plus the antennas. It also gives you GPS. I'm actually working on this right now. I made a case for the module + antennas if you want. EDIT: oops I hadn't read the article yet LOL. But the wisdom about the USB module still applies. There are also adapters for mpcie or m.2 or whatever modules to convert them to USB modules. Also you probably want to have a module or adapter with a sim card tray. I bought mine off of aliexpress and also bought the LTE antennas. You need a separate antenna for GPS as well. Lastly, with some of these adapters, the sim card goes in backwards relative to how you normally think it goes in. This had me stuck for a couple hours. > — [tarpitt on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49062309) > I have the same issue. For all the talk of USB-C's supposed design for redirecting damage from the ports to the connector, it failed pretty badly here for probably thousands of people. Never had these issues with a barrel connector. > — [orhmeh09 on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49062568) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49059977) · 76 points · 71 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Converting a $20 4G wireless hotspot into a texting device](https://daily.dev/posts/converting-a-20-4g-wireless-hotspot-into-a-texting-device-e0hns3ftf) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I turned my Android phone into a laptop replacement, and it's more productive than I expected](https://daily.dev/posts/i-turned-my-android-phone-into-a-laptop-replacement-and-it-s-more-productive-than-i-expected-xwvwiy407) · XDA Developers · 9 upvotes · 2 comments - [A Hotspot Becomes A Handheld](https://daily.dev/posts/a-hotspot-becomes-a-handheld-qnurqm4p0) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Simplia CONNECT RW612 6-in-1 M.2 2230 module offers WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, 802.15.4, LTE-M, NB-IoT, and GNSS connectivity](https://daily.dev/posts/simplia-connect-rw612-6-in-1-m-2-2230-module-offers-wifi-6-bluetooth-5-4-802-15-4-lte-m-nb-iot--4vq6vylev) · CNX Software · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/using-thinkpad-t480-as-a-mobile-phone-taaxnlzzv) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/using-thinkpad-t480-as-a-mobile-phone-taaxnlzzv","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/using-thinkpad-t480-as-a-mobile-phone-taaxnlzzv"},"datePublished":"2026-07-26T20:02:04.921Z","dateModified":"2026-07-26T23:04:14.536Z","description":"A ThinkPad T480 can be turned into a fully functional mobile phone supporting calls, SMS, and mobile data. 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