you can routinely find i5 variants here in the US for that price. Im sure the i7 models are more expensive, those are sought after, but frankly as long as the i5 models have 4 cores, they’re fine. Last i checked a t480 running a quad core i5 is 75% of my r5 2600, which is more than enough for mild productivity work.
Bro, they cost £300 on Ebay in the UK (a refurbished t480 with an 8th Gen Core i7)
you can routinely find i5 variants here in the US for that price. Im sure the i7 models are more expensive, those are sought after, but frankly as long as the i5 models have 4 cores, they’re fine. Last i checked a t480 running a quad core i5 is 75% of my r5 2600, which is more than enough for mild productivity work.