Lenovo ThinkPad P50 Full In-depth Review - now you're playing with power!
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- Опубликовано: 21 авг 2024
- Not that many proper reviews of the ThinkPad P50 on RUclips, so it's the perfect subject for my first video on this new channel. This is Lenovo's newest workstation-class laptop. Mine's equipped with a 4 core Intel Xeon CPU, an NVidia Quadro M2000M, a 512GB SATA drive and 16GB of ECC DDR4 SDRAM. Made for things like OpenGL rendering, CAD drawing or scientific work... but you can game on it!
Check out the P50 on Amazon! amzn.to/2lBXNLt
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Recently ordered a P72. It's big and according to some it's heavy. It's a desktop replacement. Thus, I don't want thermal issues and I want dependability and expandability. If I can put the laptop in a carrying bag, it's small enough for me. I don't understand the madness of the race to be the thinnest laptop on the market. Give me a thick 10 pound laptops every day and twice on Sunday.
Just watched your video. Even though this machine is quite old, it does everything well without any problems. I'm a video editor and i can confirm premiere pro works wonders on this laptop.
im about to change my MacBook Air model A1466 for a P50 with the work station adapter
Great video, lots of detail.
I really like that Lenovo laptops have very detailed Hardware Maintenance Manuals available on the web, as a free download. Crappy Macbook Pros don't offer that kind of support.
Dave Satay Lenovo is one of my favorite computer brands, I can always trust their quality, and their services are great.
I can't figure out why you don't have more subs. Thank you for your great videos.
Thanks - it really means a lot to hear stuff like that. I'm still pretty new to making videos like this and haven't done any active marketing so hopefully it'll pick up over time.
I like your idea and what thinkpad did. If you want to something light, then I will give you something as light as I can , but you should forget the power. Or if you want something powerful, then I will give you as much power as I can, but you should give in the ultra thinness. Laptop which both wants thinness and power actually will probably have quality issues, because there is no miracle. This is thinkpad, there is no Middle-of-the Road Line, and this is cool.
4:48 That is the Expresscard reader, all P series laptops have it.
6:39 You were right the first time; TrackPoint buttons were removed in 2014 and made a return the next year.
The W550 had trackpoint buttons but no touchpad buttons. But what you said is probably why I said what I said the first time; I swore I remembered there being no trackpoint buttons at one point, but the previous generation did have them.
Honestly, this is one of the FEW elite powerhouse laptops today and my favorite laptop line period. This puts all other laptops bearing "Pro" in their names to utter shame. Such performance and features that only ThinkPad can execute proper.
Workstations and Xeons are on another level :)
They are made to last- a true laptops.
do you keep the laptop at this time ?? im about to get one don't know if wordith to invest in 2019 for that laptop
Thank you for the gaming review section -- while yes this laptop would be for business for me, being able to game with my kids while I'm on the road is a BIG consideration too.
Yeah, I run my business on this laptop but I also use it at home. (I basically use it about 18 hours a day.) I wish Lenovo (or anyone) would build more business machines with mainstream dedicated GPU's in them. I don't really need a Quadro, but I'd love to have this same machine with an actual GeForce 960M or 970M. I actually bought it in part because I knew the Quadro M2000M was at least about equivalent in gaming to the 960M, but it's just not as convenient to use.
The convenience issue isn't TOO big of a deal, because there's only one GPU-intensive game I'm playing these days, so I don't have to remember a half-dozen settings to match to a half-dozen games or anything. Crossing my fingers The Division can run on it (low settings are fine, really).
I ordered one. Thanks for such a great review!
Recently found your channel. Absolutely loving it thanks, I was starting to get weirded out by how many of the same purchase/tech choices you have made as me, then I spotted we have the exact same laptop in the exact same specification. Fantastic machine, I love mine almost as much as my IBM 760L. One recommendation I would make is to replace the touchpoint with the original IBM cats tongue style ones, they make it a joy to use.
Excellent review! I bought one before I saw this primarily for work and personal projects, but it's good to know that anybody that sees this video will know what they're in for before buying.
Fantastic review. Surprised this doesn't have more views and likes :)
Thanks, I think my channel is just too new to get a lot of views yet. Hopefully that'll change as I add more videos and RUclips's algorithms start putting my stuff on people's homepages.
You are the only person I have seen so far that has mentioned the fact that manufacturers try to crap too much into too little space. Cudos to you. I really hope lenovo will ditch the 2.5 inch bay on the t4x0 line to make room either for extra battery or for a second fan on the t4x0p
Thanks very much for this excellent review. Finally, an in-depth look at how the monitor's "coverage" stacks up against the sRGB and Adobe RGB color spaces. This kind of information is so difficult to track down. Great job, sir.
Modern Classic, I just had a hands on experience with FHD (1920x1080-IPS) and the screen was terrible! Comparing with other computers with the similar monitor in the store, I was totally disappointed with the brightness, contrast and PWM. This was not really what I was expecting. I am glad, I went to store to reach it out. Thanks for your nice review again.
You are a wonderful reviewer. Thanks a lot for sharing this video.
Thanks! Hopefully this is not the last one.
Thanks a lot for the detailed and great review
Very detailed review. Keep the good work going!!
Great review! thanks
I used it, with W10 EE, in the end of 2016 when I was working for Cisco. It was nice!
Strategically is Is Cisco moving away from iOS these days? If so does the ccna and ccnp matter?
Great review
the best review I have ever seen!!
I am buying it now!
Could have watched 1 hour of this. Wish all reviews were as detailed and introspective as yours. Job well done ! Have you added a 2TB HDD yet ?
Yes I did. One limitation is that the laptop does require a 7mm drive, which means you're limited to 5400RPM. But for storage, it's fine.
Little update the ssd are now 50 per tb so you can have a 4tb for 200 maybe less depending sales. and the 4 ram slots this puppy is amazing.
Excellent review! Still powerful in 2021?
I've been completely blown away by the specs of this laptop, and that hasn't happened since 2006-2007. Every laptop nowerdays has rubbish specs, an like you said, really thin. Their too thin for their own good.
I'm really impressed at this laptop, I love that it's off-center, has a trackpoint, is like the older thinkpads, has a trackpoint, how great the specs are, and that it also has a trackpoint! ;)
Preach on, brother! I agree with everything you said, especially the part about the trackpoint :)
Thanks for the great review! Regarding the front right corner not touching the table: I've gotten used to replacing the rubber feet on Lenovo laptops altogether and adding one in the middle of the bottom. The reason is that I've had three Lenovos actually bend slightly in use due to resting my hands on the keyboard (and using the Trackpoint) all the time. I've now got the 2015 Thinkpad Yoga 12, and I can see that the chassis has already distorted a bit. It's not much, but it definitely is permanent, and a bit annoying for any potential buyer of a second-hand laptop. In the Dell XPS Infinity I like how the rubber feet are actually strips spanning the whole width of the unit, providing more support in the middle. If I were to get a new Lenovo, I'd first figure out a way to copy the XPS's rubber strip design before using the laptop extensively.
I'm still slightly annoyed by this but at this point I've gotten a bit used to it. The battery latch is definitely the problem - I've slipped a piece of paper underneath the center and if I press the corner down so it's touching the surface of whatever the laptop's sitting on, the paper gets caught under the latch and won't move. So there is not enough clearance for the latch. Once the laptop gets older I may just file that a tiny bit - I have a feeling a tiny bit is all it needs. It's just a dumb design; they put the latch with a thumb grip that sticks down about 2mm right where the seam on the bottom is - the lowest point on the bottom of the machine. I have a feeling they will change this (to a more "flush" latch) at some point in the production run, if they haven't already.
Excellent intelligent review. Very comprehensive. Thanks!
Coming from a Macbook, Lenovo not having a magnetic latch to hold the cover/screen down and poor customer service (probably best in the world of the Windows OS) are a bit of a deal breaker for me. I was interested in the Lenovo X1 OLED, but decided against it after getting some hands on in person. What appealed to me most about Lenovo was the ruggedness and comfortable keyboards... it's the lack of attention to detail to fit and finish that could easily be addressed that concerns me about their products i.e. the protruding battery latch... I find it hard to believe that they wouldn't have a fix for that... should have never been an issues IMO to start with. Overall, I still think they have a solid product, but lack of attention and care to detail are a turnoff for me :-/
I almost forgot to add, awesome review and thanks for taking the time to share your experience/laptop!
ThinkPads are definitely a completely different philosophy from the Macbook. My wife has a Macbook and it's just not for me; I feel they're almost too "precious", in that I'd be afraid of ever even getting one dirty. ThinkPads are more like Jeeps; they actually look better with a little wear and tear on them. The battery latch is definitely inexcusable, though. I managed to finally fix mine by just sanding it down, something I'd probably never have even tried on a Macbook.
Understandable that you feel that macbooks are "precious" in a sense. However, I'm a full-time student and I see people use macbooks without cases without any regards to "protecting" their macbooks and they actually hold up incredibly well... drops, dings, gouges, patina and all... any issues, mail it to Apple or walk into an Apple store knowing it will be addressed in a reasonable amount of time... Lenovo I'm wary as they seem to randomly outsource repairs to places of various skills/expertise.
However, I'm in the same camp as you, in that Lenovo's just have that rugged appeal... just a personal quirk I suppose, but I do feel that Macbooks look just as good "weathered/patina" and can still turn a pretty good resale value over a "weathered/seasoned" Lenovo. I'm still on the fence as to go Lenovo or Macbook. What really annoys me about the Lenovos is how the lids don't have a magnetic latch to hold the lid closed when walking around in clamshell mode. Macs have the magnetic latch and a gasket that runs around the edge to help keep things from getting between the screen and keyboard. Also, the Lenovo I'm interested in costs more than what I would get in a Macbook :-/ (about $2.5k after a student discount) www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Lenovo-Thinkpad-X1-Yoga-Signature-Edition-2-in-1-PC/productID.3428530900
Thanks for the response and I hope you have a good week.
I agree about the latch - I'm a fan of mechanical latches (which ThinkPads, along with every other laptop, used to have) but I'll take a magnetic latch over nothing. ThinkPads are supposed to hold the lid down with tension (they do snap down when you close them), and it works well enough when they're laying flat, but the P50 at least does flop around a bit when I'm carrying it, which is annoying. It's not really meant as a carry-around laptop but that is how I use it, so I would prefer to have some sort of latching mechanism.
I'm now considering the Thinkpad Yoga 14 priced at $900 from Best Buy (opposed to the x1 Carbon OLED)... should hold me over for classes/school (I'm a full time student... working towards another bachelor's or Dr). I'm mostly going to go with that because Lenovo has a solid build and the keyboard is still pretty epic/great in my opinion. Once again, thanks for sharing.
This is a very nice presentation of the Thinkpad P50 and has made the decision to order that
workstation now very easy to me. Thanks a lot for your work. Only one question
is still open after the test: is the cooling system of the workstation very
loud when it’s stressed?
I wouldn't say it's louder than any other laptop I've owned, although as I mentioned in another comment, it comes on full blast and then throttles back. So it's a little jarring when it first starts up. Most of the time the fans are off, though. When they're on full, they do whine a bit, but every laptop I've had has done that.
NIce review! Good you've noted the shimmering backlite. What a shame for such an expensive machine... It hurts eyes even if it's not noticeable to you.
But now does it sound? I mean both speakers quality and how loud the fans are. And is there a way to control them and define a custom curve?
Thank you so much! Need to upgrade my Laptop soon and this helped a LOT!
I don't like modern Thinkpads, too much compromise compared to past generations and while some things improved they have been a great leap backwards especially when have classic Thinkpads to compare with. Even got a 701c and two Transnotes so I know how they go.
Modern Thinkpads are too thin and I Do Not like the new keyboards because of key placement and how they feel. The screens are too flexible vs the classics and the internal speakers are much worse vs machines like the W500. Even my T420 has advantages over newer Thinkpads like the cpu being socketed and I can use two 9 cell packs (slice upgrade). If only Lenovo would listen to their long term customers they would have higher quality longer lasting machines that are upgradeable.
1. Screens have gotten thinner as technology has improved, so you can't expect them to feel as sturdy as they used to.
2. Intel has stopped manufacturing socketed CPUs for laptops; so, what do you want Lenovo to do about that ?
3. The P50 has a 90Wh battery; it's way better than what most other laptops with as much oompf as the P50 offer.
You're just one of those curmudgeons who always yearn for the olden days.
medwatt
"curmudgeons" So people want want built quality that doesn't fall apart right away are "curmudgeons"? Good riddance another example why people these days are so ridiculous and many ways going backwards.
+MrKillswitch88
But you have to admit that your criticisms were unsubstantiated in the era in which we live in.
medwatt
Whatever, I spend my money how I please...
MrKillswitch88 As if someone is doubting that . . . redundant statement.
How's the battery life on your 4K model? Was looking at the same model as you (Xeon, 4k, ECC RAM) for use with VMs running Centos and RedHat (we test KVM w/QEMU locally first) then deploy to the 1Us. It'd be nice if the battery life lasts 3-4 hours for all that.
Depends on what I'm doing. I can get 6 1/2 hours of continuous if I close everything, dim the screen and just use it for reading. If I just unplug as I'm working, keep everything I normally have running going and take no other battery saving measures, I get about 2-3 hours. But I normally have a whole bunch of stuff running, including Photoshop, Quickbooks and three different browsers with about 20 tabs each. I don't really know how that'd translate to what you're doing.
Great review. Thanks!
I wish you could have used an FPS counter for the Fallout 4 demonstration. Aside from that however, great review!
Gamers have a tendency to get too hung up on numbers. I intentionally didn't do that because it's a workstation that you can play games on, not a gaming laptop, and that's all I was trying to show. I did include the 3D Mark Fire Strike score if you want to compare that against some other machines.
Great review! Thanks for putting the effort. Cool stuff this is. Do you use the ECC RAM?
Yes, I am using ECC RAM. It's one of the reasons I opted for the Xeon. My previous laptop (a Dell XPS 15) was blue-screening constantly, so I wanted to do whatever I could to minimize the chance of a crash. I literally have not had a single crash, hang or freeze for *any* reason in the several months I've now owned this machine.
I hope I can find an answer here to my following question. Would two of the new Samsung 2TB NVMe work with mobile workstations that have 2 nvme slots like this Lenovo and still add a 2tb 5400rpm 2.5 inch drive ? Thank you.
Great review.
I completely agree with the ridiculousness of trying to combine tablets and laptops and making them too thin.
I was also looking for maximum grunt for the buck - and I don't travel much. I decided on a Dell G7 with hexcore i7 and GTX 1060 Max Q - I don't even game much, but it is powerful for work.
Great video. Thanks for sharing.
I love a heavy laptop. I don't understand this trend of lighter is better.
finally a review that covers the 4k screen. It was really hard to find any information about it. Do you have scaling issues on Photoshop?
I did have scaling issues in CS6. I'm using this workaround: www.danantonielli.com/adobe-app-scaling-on-high-dpi-displays-fix/
That fix is not perfect because a) you have to have Photoshop open first for it to work, you can't open Photoshop by clicking on a photo file, and b) it scales *everything*, including your photos, so you really just get no advantage of a 4K screen at all. But it's better than trying to deal with a UI for ants.
Supposedly the CC version of Photoshop has scaling now, but I don't subscribe.
Thank you for your response :) In your review you said that you get about 7h of battery life, how did you use your laptop to reach that amount of time? What i read on forums is about 6h with FHD screen and about an hour less with the 4k version.
Lenovo has a feature called "battery stretch", I use that if I think I'm going to need my battery for a long period of time. I also use Windows' "battery saver" mode, though they probably overlap, but I just try to cover all the bases. I also do try not to do things I know are going to use battery power; I keep open browser tabs to a minimum, I don't do video editing or things like that, etc. I don't often need to use my battery all day and if I'm only going to need the battery an hour or two, I just leave everything as is. But I do make changes if I know I'm going to need to stretch it. My guess is some people don't do that, so they get less battery life.
Awesome, thank you for the information
Excellent review! How is it holding up so far? Also have you tried the internal DAC with a decent set of headphones?
Holding up great. I have few to no complaints beyond the minor ones in my review. Maybe you could add the weird adaptive display that I can't seem to fully turn off, but I'm not sure that's specific to this computer. I haven't tried decent headphones with it, no. One thing about ThinkPads is that they all seem to wear well; they're like Jeeps. They look better with some dirt and scratches. My keys are starting to wear down a bit, but it really doesn't look bad like other computers do in that state (my XPS 15 looked terrible after about a month).
Awesome review!!
I do a lot of video editing with Power Director.
And thinking of switching over to Adobe Premier.
I currently have a HP OMEN with i7-4720HQ CPU@2.6 GHZ + 16G RAM + NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 960.
But for some reason,
when I do video editing that's longer than 30 min,
my laptop goes crazy slow, gasping for more oxygen...
So i'm thinking of getting a P50 or XPS 15.
But obviously you would suggest a P50,right?
Yes, I had an XPS 15 and had really bad luck with it. The P50 has been trouble free so far, and I've edited a few 20-30 minute videos on it with no problems. The XPS 15 is much lighter and thinner but if you're doing a lot of video editing, especially as we all move to 4K, you're going to want the expandable storage and RAM that the P50 allows. I use Intel's Quick Sync Video to encode so it takes me about 10 minutes to render a 30 minute 1080p video, depending on how many filters and effects I have turned on. I use Sony Movie Studio right now, mainly because it's really reliable. (Every other video editor I've ever used has crashed constantly or had some other major technical issue.)
+Modern Classic Thank u 4 such a prompt n informed reply. I think I will go ahead and give P50 a shot. Will drain my wallet but hopefully it will pay off in long term. thx!!
And what about the Dell Precision M7510? Does somebody have it? Is that better or worse then P50? I need a laptop for 3D modeling and animating
Which did you go for? M7510 looks neat but the P50 does too :D.
TCC I chose the M7510 and find out it looks way better than on the pictures, really nice! It's also really powerful, the precision of the FirePro W5170M is just awesome, also it's extremely fast rendering in Autodesk 3Ds MAX and Maya, in Nvidia MentalRay it's comparable to the Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB, faster than M5000M 8GB, unfortunately it's of course rendering way slower in Blender, it's logical, because Blender uses CUDA and the FirePro W5170M doesn't have CUDA (because AMD doesn't use CUDA) and the M1000M doesn't have CUDA either (because the M1000M is really a shit card). The P50 looks great too, but I think it has worse cooling, which is by the M7510 really great. Just to inform you, Dell has just released the new M7520 and M7720. I can highly recommend you the M7510 with FirePro W5170M and i7 6820HQ, if you are a Blender user, purchase the same + an external graphics card or go for the M7520 with the new Quadro M2200 and i7 7820H
Wonderful review. I will like to know if you will recommend this laptop in 2021
Depends on what you want to do with it. It's a little underpowered and quite chunky by modern standards. But I still use mine daily for couch computing. It's always on my coffee table. Pretty sure it's about six years old now, so that's a pretty good lifespan.
I just bought, p50 with 4k configuration, i just wonder how can you get 7 hours of battery life, mine was 2.30 hours(wtih 90w battery)
It really depends on what you're doing. You need to be battery conscious to get max battery life; lower screen brightness, use Windows' built in battery saver features, and use Lenovo's battery stretch. You obviously also can't be doing any video editing or anything like that and expect 7 hours. You'll only get that when doing non-CPU intensive tasks.
This made it for me thanks!
25:31 did it ever occurred to you that you just didn't attach the back lid properly? As often there are one or two latched which do not get engaged and then screwed in to make a buldge and could exactly explain the wiggle. No filing needed, just remove the lid, attach it back and press on all places (not just corners) multiple times to make sure all latches are attached fully
I think you're asking about the clips that hold the bottom plate in place; there are no latches. Yes, they are attached properly. I've had the bottom off multiple times over the past five years that I've owned this computer and it's just the way the laptop's built.
Does Solidworks works perfectly on your Laptop
I'm buying a P50 lenovo with your same specs but I've been reading
System doesnt recognize the M2000M video card
is this a common issue or have you been in trouble because of this?
Thanks for reading
Also, I cannot for the life of me figure out why Lenovo doesn't have TB3 on the T470p, but it is on the 470 and 470s
The T470 is supposed to have a TB3.... I saw the same in an article, but I really don't get it. Why would the T470P not have one? I mean if you are a heavy user you want a heavy connection, right????!!!! I have a T440P (which in my opinion is better than the 35w T460p). I would upgrade for a TB3 connection and create a killer external GPU setup. That is possible with the P series, but it's too large for my daily use.
teen model ho ek hp zbook,ek Lenovo ThinkPad w540,ek dell e7270, ya lenevo ThinkPad p50
Quite helpful review! One question: how are the temperatures under (full) load? My old W510 usually heatet up verry fast and shut down.
Probably should have tested that for the review. I just put the physics test on 3D Mark on a loop for a while right now - this test maxes out both the CPU and GPU. Running this test on a loop for about 20 minutes, the CPU cores hit 70C and then pretty much stayed there. The max was 74C, but then they dropped back down to 68C, then stabilized around 70C, so I think that's where the system's designed to keep them. That's still 30C from TjMAX. No throttling, and the fans weren't maxed. The GPU topped out at 53C. I'm in a 79F (26C) room right now.
Well, thank you for measuring that. Both temperatures, cpu and gpu, seem to be cool for a slim machine like this. So far, good job lenovo. Next week I should get my P50. :)
great review man, really liked your down to earth attitude.
BTW, do you know if the processor on this laptop is socketed?
No, it's soldered according to the maintenance manual.
AYE.... sad thing that socketed processors becomes a thing of the past....
I have the P70. I been looking for videos with tips and tricks like you talked about the battery stretch. if you have more tips I would like to see a video if possible.
If I can come up with enough tips to make a video worth it, I'll do one. I'm not sure how many things I know like that, though.
Great Review ! any reason why you picked P50 over Dell Precision 7510 ?
Many reasons, but the biggest is probably this: ruclips.net/video/E6-vYP5PaAQ/видео.html (different channel, but that's still me). Dell's pointing sticks also don't work as well as the TrackPoint, and the 7510 has fewer drive bays even though it's heavier. I also just don't like its styling - it's never my primary concern but I've always been a ThinkPad guy in terms of styling. And what's with the Cinebench score?? www.storagereview.com/dell_precision_7510_mobile_workstation_review
Almost a year late, but you still gonna get a thumbs up just for using that Nintendo slogan!
Really appreciate the review....how's it holding up?
Holding up very well. I mentioned in another comment that I did have a key pop off the keyboard, but I opted for in-home service for an extra $19 when I bought the computer so Lenovo sent a guy out next day to give me a new keyboard. Otherwise it's been totally fine. One thing I do like about Lenovo is that they really keep their machines updated - there have been at least five driver updates and a BIOS update for this thing in the past week, and that's a year after its release. And their auto-update software actually works pretty well. (Though it is slower to get updates than just doing it manually via the web site.)
Modern Classic good to know, thanks.
My P50 came with a 256 GB PCIE NVME SSD. I am planning to upgrade the storage with a 2TB SSHD (Seagate firecuda 2.5" 2TB). Will a 2 TB SSHD on the 2.5" hold well?
Is it still performing as well as you reviewed when you bought it? Is there anything you've noticed apart from size and weight, that you don't like?
It's still performing great! There is nothing significant about it that I don't like that I didn't mention in my review. Now, ask me in 12 more months - it was at the 18 month mark that my SL500 suddenly fell apart. But this thing feels like a lot better quality from the start.
okay, while the Xeon processor is a beast - so to say. for the price, though, and your heavier on gaming, for the same price you can opt for something with an Intel I7 8-core with anything from a 980m/1070/1080 graphics, if your not so cool on an extremely expensive processor. and you want more features.
These laptops are also available with i7 processors for less money. I needed ECC RAM, which the i7 doesn't support. That's part of what makes a workstation a workstation and not a gaming laptop.
hi! I've ordered this laptop with a 1080p screen(is this any good compared to the 4k one??) and a quadro m1000m.
I am still looking for a real-colour monitor. I do a lot of photography and graphic design. I really want a 2*24' 1080p monitors or one 1440p/4k 27' monitor. I want to spend a maximum of €300,-.
I hope someone can help me with this search!!!!
Thank you a lot!
good review
Have you noticed any cracks in the bezel on your P50. Many owners are questioning the Mil-Spec rating as rather large cracks are developing with the unit never leaving their desk.
No cracks on mine anywhere I can see.
Very nice review.
This is great review thank you. You mentioned you had xps 15; I am wondering why you chose this over stylish Precision 7510.
TrackPoint (Dell's implementation is inferior) + really bad service experience with Dell (and conversely much better experiences with IBM, who still handle ThinkPad service).
Modern Classic Thank you. I also had unpleasant experience with Dell's service. I needed Linux laptop; got Precision 5510 and had a few compatibility problem with Ubuntu 16.04 in which they couldn't resolve it. I returned my laptop and at the same time missed all deals with other brands! By the way, battery life and computer silence are very important to me. Do you have any advice how the screen resolution (4K or FHD) affects these parameters?
Great review, thanks. I'd buy it today but ....this keyboard ...just no.
I wish they would remove the soft tops. Just do a matte black. I would love that. 🙄
i have a P710 but id love one of these too tough i never travel or go anywhere
Did you have any issues with uneven backlighting on the monitor? The left and right of my screen is always a bit dimmer when viewing straight on than the rest of the screen. I have the 4K as well.
Not personally, no. Mine is pretty even.
PLEASE HELP.
Having a hard time which 4k workstation should I choose .
.
Levono ThinkPad P50 vs Dell Precision 7000 Series vs HP ZBook G3 (all 15").
In terms of:
* Sharpness and color accuracy
* Battery life
* Fan noise, and heating issues
* Performance (rendering time)
I do photo/video editing and a little bit of 2d/3d animation. THANKS!
As I understand you correctly, I shouldn't worry about the 4k Display and it is still a good buy? Maybe you already read the thread in the Lenovo Community "When do we finally get a good screen? " about their nightmares.
Yeah, I did read it. There are a lot of flat-earthers and chemtrail conspiracy theorists in that thread. I'm using the 4K screen about 18 hours a day, I've tested it, and it's fine. I do professional photographic work; it's better than any laptop screen I've seen. I'm not saying PWM isn't present, I'm saying it's not an issue. Unless you're the kind of person who can't even watch a TV because of the flicker, because the rate on a TV set is much lower than even with the worst laptop screen using PWM on its lowest brightness setting. I've actually had to start editing out comments about PWM here because it seems like there are refugees from that thread now trying to spread their anti-PWM dogma on any positive review they can find.
I'm looking forward to my P50. After your comment, I ordered it. I know these guys too, so hopefully I will be fine with it. I was now working over 10 Years with Apple Macbook Pro and I've been waiting for months for a Skylake Release which never happened. Okay, they will do that in the next couple of weeks or months but I think I will be fine with a Lenovo. I know it is a very different way which I'm going now. But maybe it is a question like BMW or Mercedes. Possible to be open-minded is a better way.
I was also worried about the 4k screen after reading threads but mine is good as well. I think the ones with good screens should speak out more lol.
I think they're probably all good, and some people have convinced themselves that a technical feature they can't even see is somehow detrimental to image quality or even, as one commenter I had to disapprove said, will "cause eye injury". They actually remind me of the anti-mouse crowd back in the 80's, some of whom predicted there'd be a rash of repetitive stress injuries happening by 1990 and we'd all be walking around with disfigured claws for hands from using a mouse.
How is it holding up 10 months later? I'm considering buying the updated model, the p51, when Lenovo releases it.
Almost perfect. At one point my "H" key came unglued from its little scissor switch, so they sent someone out to replace the keyboard a couple days later. (I paid the $19 extra when I bought it for on-site service.) That's the only issue I've had. Otherwise it's pretty much good as new.
Clean the back with gel like hand sanitizer & a microfiber cloth finger print will come out without harming the finish
I am thinking about it in 2020
Me too
So, my friend, Thank you for the review. With the specs, how would it do in a little bit ''heavier games?'' You mention shortly that it is fine, how do you think it would manage in CounterStrike:GO, World of Warcraft and so on? Overwatch maybe? I have the option of getting this computer prtty cheap. :)
So I am actually looking for more of a gaming laptop. I don't expect it to do AMAZING, just.. slightly above average maybe? How difficult is it to change the resolution?
Changing the resolution is easy, just right-click on the desktop and change it (though it depends on the driver whether you need to go into the Intel settings to do it). Those games should all run ok, though you will need to turn some settings down. I honestly probably wouldn't buy this as an actual gaming laptop, though; it's more of a workstation that can also play games.
CS:GO, WOW and Overwatch are all pretty lightweight games. You should be fine with this laptop, but you could get something with a 960m that would run them at 1080p for significantly cheaper. Look for retailers like Newegg that are phasing them out as last-gen cards. Or, spring for a shiny new 1050 laptop for just under $800 if you find a good bargain on slickdeals.
For example here's an open box 960m laptop for $700: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834234023R there are better deals if you look for longer, this was just a quick search.
This has probably been mentioned below but that is a thunderBolt 3.0 port, not just a usb C port. Big difference considering u can run an external graphics box with thunderBolt. Lenovo should have an option to buy this lapTop with a GTX 1060 for graphic artists etc. who don't need the overpriced quadros. I'll bet the 1060 would spank the m2000m almost everywhere except certain cad apps etc. Big market for people wanting a quality dual purpose gaming lapTop with a trackPoint Lenovo!!
walter black The GTX 1060 is a much hotter card than the Quadro M2000M, so the cooling system would struggle a lot more. Lenovo is more concerned with noise than pure power with this. However, the P71 can use the Quadro P3000, which is fundamentally a GTX 1060.
how do u know the heating system wouldn't handle it? a razer is half the size of a P50 and they stuff it in there. (yes i know razers run hot) and the P3000 in the large P71 has lower bandwidth than the 1060 and costs 3 times more or so.
The Razer Blade doesn't just run hot, but it runs loud, too. Extremely loud. Under load, it ends up about 10 dBA louder than the P50, which, because the decibel scale is logarithmic, is actually about 10 times louder. Lenovo wants to make a business machine, so good acoustics are important. In order to have good acoustics, you need your fans to run slower, which means you can dissipate less heat.
The cooling system in the P50 may handle a 75W load like the P3000 or the GTX 1060, but it would sacrifice acoustics in order to do it, and Lenovo doesn't want to do that. None of its serious competitors are putting P3000 cards in their 15 inch workstations, so there's no reason for Lenovo to do so either.
here's one reason, i'd buy one and so would many other people i bet. Wouldn't cost any more and would have much more power, i wouldn't mind a little more noise myself
Nice review! Would like to know how this GPU works for video editing. I am doing some 1080p video editing projects, and i need a powerful machine that can do the job without lag. I m using Davinci Resolve, Sony Vegas pro 13 and sometimes Adobe Premiere CC. Thanks for the info!
The CPU is faster than the NVidia GPU for video rendering in this machine. That said, Intel's QuickSync is about 5 times faster than both, but that's not surprising. It's always best to use the Intel GPU and enable QuickSync if you can; the problem is just that QuickSync doesn't work with a lot of video configurations. I can't use it for 4K video; I'm not sure it supports it at all. I wish it did. But rendering 4K, I get better speeds just using the Xeon than the Quadro GPU.
+Modern Classic hmm very interesting. Sounds little disappointing that the GPU is not faster than the CPU. Do you get a smooth workflow in 4k videos?
Generally yes, though you're probably not going to want to be previewing at 4K. Also importing 4K clips takes a little while to analyze, but that's a one-time thing. And the more filters you add, it's obviously going to slow down further, both previewing and rendering. I try to get the best input I can (within the limits of my consumer-level equipment and skill level) so that I don't need to apply a ton of filters. I also use this laptop for work videos shot by employees and I do sometimes need to apply a lot of color correction and other filters there and that does slow things down noticeably. The worst is trying to use Sony's "color match" filter, but I suspect that's a problem with the filter rather than the hardware. The XAVC-S codec probably takes a little longer to render than some others as well, but that's all that's available for 4K in my editing software (Sony Movie Studio, the consumer version of Vegas). A 1080p video can render in about 1/4 of real-time with no filters applied; the same 4K video would be (predictably) about real-time. As you add filters, transitions and effects, you start adding time to that.
Couldn't be a better review! I wonder how Lenovo could rest with a flawed battery latch physical design!
It is weird. You can even see the issue in some of their own photos. If you look at the P50 in their ThinkPad catalog, the straight-on shot shows that latch hanging down underneath: www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/ThinkPad.pdf I'm still debating whether or not it's worth taking a Dremel to the latch to file it down (obviously this would mean permanent disfigurement). It's not really noticeable in real life unless I specifically tap that one corner, and even then I have to hit it quite fast and hard to make it go "thump!" I'm getting kind of used to it.
Where did you get your power-supply? I got it with the 230W one and mine doesn't have the "8" shape power-cable for the power-supply but instead the mickey-mouse shaped one (I'm in germany)...
I'd really like to change it againste the other one, the "big" one does not fit into airplane plugs!
(just name me in the reply, so I get a notification...)
I got it straight from Lenovo with the laptop... probably just a regional difference.
i wish that lenovo would do a think pad line with classic keyboard of the older think pads from the ibm days and early lanovo day or do a joint venture with ibm or micrsofe to have the older ibm key pad return to think pads
sir I have been searching for this kind of details in a review for LENOVO THINKPAD P70, yes P70 from month's but still not yet found any laptop expert's on youtube giving such a review in details about LENOVO THINKPAD P70, sir can you please share us some detail information about LENOVO THINKPAD P70.
What happened to your Dell XPS15? Id love to hear about that.
+nubix It's gone. I sent it back and had AMEX do a chargeback. It got to a point where Dell basically refused to put it back into the condition it was in before it first broke. Every repair they attempted made it worse in some way, and eventually they said there was nothing more they could do. So I made them take it back.
Hello, would you be kind enough to tell me whether your M.2 is SATA or PCIe because I'm trying to buy the M.2 tray and I'm confused which one to get.
It's SATA.
how does this work now ?
for softwares like Solidworks Maya inventor Adobe premiere pro CS6 etc
I am thinking to buy this laptop with
1tb ssd. m.2 pcei
touch fhd
m1000m 4gb quadro
16gb Ram
version for 180000 INR I.e around 2700$
Works great. Had one key pop off the keyboard but Lenovo sent a guy out to fix it right away (I paid the $19 extra at purchase for on-site service). Otherwise no problems. One thing is that unless they've changed it in the past year, the fhd screen is not wide gamut or all that accurate. They don't assume it's the one designers will be using. That's why I opted for 4k; otherwise I have no need for it.
I managed to pick this laptop up for 500 dollars
Have you had any problems with cpu-whining? I had to refund my W550s because every model they sent me had this almost unnoticable but extremly anoying high pitched condensator noise.
I haven't, no. I would think I'd have noticed that; I don't hear anything like it even putting the laptop up to my ear. I have had other laptops with various whines; this one's silent when the fans are off. The only semi-annoying sound it makes is when the fans kick on; they start with a jolt, they don't smoothly spin up.
btw, the new P51 is Kaby Lake and cannot run win7 and it's barely faster than this one. So if u hate spyware OS win10 as much as I do, grab a P50 before it's too late..
walter black Well the new Quadro M2200 is a fair bit better than the M2000M in the P50, and all the CPUs clock better. I don't like Windows 10 but the update was worth it. I may end up installing Windows 10 Education and disabling that stuff through Group Policy.
it's like a gtx 965m. ridiculous if u ask me. Geforce re-using old stock and charging 3 times more for it.
It's a shame Nvidia didn't update the lower-end mobile Quadro cards to Pascal, but the M2200 is still faster than the M2000M regardless.
Almost all Quadro cards have Geforce equivalents anyways. The M2000M was basically the GTX 960M, the P3000 is a GTX 1060, and the P5000 is a GTX 1070. The M1000M is effectively a GT 950M, and the M500M was about a 940MX.
W8.1 will run on Kaby Lake.
what's the Music in the into ? ohh and Great video ! thanks in advance
The music's just from RUclips's free audio library :) I haven't used that one in a while (since maybe my second vid) so I'm not totally sure what it's called anymore. You can probably look through the YT audio library and find it; it's one of their 30 second clips.
Is the P50 FHD IPS Non-touch very bad at color accuracy?
how well does your lanovo p50 series handle playing star trek online. also is ther much difference between a intel core i7 vs zeon e5
I haven't played that game, sorry... as for the CPU, the difference is mainly that the Xeon can handle ECC RAM, which the i7 can't. Otherwise the Xeon E3-1505m is pretty much the same CPU as the i7-6820HQ. All the same specs. The Xeon is clocked .1ghz higher (note the decimal), but you won't notice that. I got the Xeon for ECC, no other reason.
Sata is not the same as SDD. Yes, a lot of SDD's do come as sata's, but so do HDD's now a days. What you got is a SSD M2 drive.
I guess I was wrong in assuming most viewers would know what I was talking about. The SSD in this computer is available as either a PCIe or SATA drive, as well as either an M2 or 2.5" drive. I configured my computer with a SATA M2 SSD drive. If you configure a single SATA drive, it will come as an M2 drive. I specifically mention that in the video because some people expect a SATA drive to be configured as a 2.5" drive (which would give them two free M2 slots), but it isn't in this laptop. Hope that clears things up for you.
+Modern Classic i understood that, but you refered to a SSD in the video as a SATA drive, as if all SATA drives were SSD, and that a HDD could not be a SATA drvie - which just isn't true
No, I referred to *this* SSD as a SATA drive. You can get both versions in this laptop.
could i just get an m.2 pcie on the cheap from new egg, stick it in, and clone the operating system to it?
I don't see why not. You could get a 128GB PCI-e SSD for about $140 just to run the OS from, then keep the second SSD for programs, and still have room for a large HDD for storage.
USB type C? Isn't it thunderbolt 3? AFAIK, thunderbolt 3 has same form factor as USB type C.
Generally, I like the way you explain the detail of this machine. Not just showing benchmark score like the others. That give me more understanding how to score the machine better. Nice review!
Yes, it is Thunderbolt 3. Thunderbolt 3 is USB Type C and is compatible with USB devices; I just forgot that this port was *also* a Thunderbolt port since I don't have any Thunderbolt devices.
why is the thinkpad logo upside down
Because in the old days, everybody made the logo to be right side up when you had the laptop closed. Nowadays everybody does the opposite. Essentially they switched it from being a logo for you the person using it to an advertisement for everybody else who happens to see you using your laptop. And this isn't exclusive to Lenovo.
pls sir does it keyboard light and how do i turn it on