I was very fortunate to find a used P50 (i7-6820HQ, Quadro M200M, 16GB RAM with the Pantone display 3840x2160) back in 2018 used for $750.00 with no drive. I upgraded it to 32GB ram and added a couple of SSDs to it. It has been a real workhorse and has been absolutely bulletproof and still looks very good despite daily use and a lot of travel.
I bought my P50 in 2020 with the first stimulus and I still love the hell out of it. It hit everything I wanted (m.2, HDMI and USB-C, upgradable RAM and drives) at the price point I wanted (around $500). I've currently got it setup with two 1TB m.2 WD SN-750 Black SSDs and I dual-boot Windows and Linux. Threw 32GBs of RAM in it and I don't see myself replacing it anytime soon. Hands down it's the best computer I've ever owned, and when I do look into replacing it, I'm going to go with another refurbished P-Series ThinkPad. I primarily use my computer for general usage (not the target market for these machines), but I can't stand laptops geared towards the consumer market with everything soldered and little to no upgrade options. Excellent video and I really liked the interview with Rob. They made one hell of a laptop line.
I got my P50 new in 2015. It has been my daily driver ever since. Whenever a part breaks, I am able to easily replace it. The only reason I am looking at retiring my P50 is because its a bit thick and heavy to be carrying it around compared to modern thin and light laptops. This is a great machine.
Do you do CAD work on it? I have heard a few folks say that it is starting to show it's age when it comes to work like that Really considering going for one that is top of the line specs it offered for $400
I used a P71 as my main personal system for about 18 months, and it was an absolute no compromise beast machine. These are seriously durable machines as well, true tanks. Great review, and you got a great price for this P50 too!
Bought a used one yesterday, a P50 Xeon E3 1505M with 2 SSDs (1TB, 500GB), touchscreen and 32GB of RAM for $250 shipped, can’t believe how expensive this machine was when it came out (with mine having the higher end of specs too)
Last week I have asked for your suggestion about w541 replacement and you said P50. And now you have it and already reviewed!! I have to get a good p50 deal soon this holiday season. I may choose P70 for extra screen real estate.
Just got myself a p51. I'm over the moon. They're finally down enough in price that I could pick up a used one. It's amazing to me that this isn't just what a laptop is. There is nothing about it that shouldn't be the minimum requirements for most users. I don't think I could switch to anything else.
Picked up a used one with 40GB of RAM and a spinning 5400 RPM hard drive (LOL). I replaced the drive with an M2 SSD and installed Linux Mint, and it's working great. This machine is a beast! Now to eBay to look for a docking station. Great review, thanks.
Really appreciated that convo w/Rob. Last year I went from a W520 to the P73 that I'm typing this on. Great machine. Honestly one of the motivating factors for the purchase was that Lenovo was ditching dedicated trackpad buttons. I use them constantly by muscle memory, and I knew this was my last chance to get a brand new ThinkPad that still had them. I made it count! I don't even own a desktop anymore. I don't need one.
T480s, i7 8gen, 40GB Ram, First driver Samsung 970 Pro 1TB NVMe , and second drive 512 NVM in WWAN port. Ethernet, USBC, USB3, Hdmi. Best daily for IT admin.
I have a pair of P50, one with a bad keyboard and 1080p screen working as a home server, one with 4k screen working as a desktop replacement, both working well. I took one apart for maintenance and the inner structure reminds me of "classic" t-series thinkpads.
The actual max ram on the i7 at least is 128gb with 4 sticks of 32gb. The only reason they didn't say that when the p50 was released was because 32gb sticks of ddr4 were not out yet.
I miss my P50. Going from it to an X1 Yoga was such a let down. My back appreciates the form factor but I miss the power and all the RAM. I nicknamed it the Beast.
What an absolute chonkpad! 6th gen i7 and discrete graphics AND thunderbolt 3 AND expresscard! It's like a dream device for me! Not to mention the m.2 slots! Any idea which WWAN Module if any can be used? Seriously considering one of these now! *tech missus nervously clutches wallet*
I had a maxed out W540 but it was a deal breaker that it was impossible to disable the Nvidia card. I didn´t need it and wanted the battery life. So my number one question is if this one has a disable switch in the BIOS for disabling the dGPU? And for those who wonder about the numbers: My W540 had the best i7 and 32GB RAM. In "standard mode" it used 40watts at idle and with maximum tweaks in Windows i could get it down to 20 watts. But I DID manage to get the Quadro card disabled with Pop_OS! once and then it only used TEN watts at idle. And you can imagine the battery life at that rate with a good 99Wh battery. Problem is I wanted to use it with FreeBSD which made it impossible to disable the GPU. That was sad and I got rid of it. It was of course a mistake to not check the BIOS before buying it. But I was used to Thinkpads always having that option. So I really hope for one of the 17-inch P-series machines to have the disable GPU switch in BIOS. Because the W/P series is in every other way the best laptops ever made. Also, that one time I managed to disable the GPU in Pop_OS! was the only time it ever kept the fans at a decent speed. Otherwise it was too loud.
my T540p could run on iGPU only no problems in windows. used 10watts while SURFING in regular hybrid mode though. got 10hours out of it. pretty amazing with 3K screen 7years ago. unfortunatly max 16GB RAM and just the 730M instead of the 750M. My W541 just got 5-6hours, screen was worse and keyboard aswell (due to different manufacturers) so i sent that one back.
Doable to disable nvidia dGPU and use intel iGPU using the nvidia-smi, part of the nvidia drivers in Linux and would assume to be in freebsd. kill-a-watt shows 5-6watts at idle on my W540. BIOS, not selectable to choose GPU unless you have a modded BIOS like my W520 where i can choose.
How would this hold down in music production software? I’m using FL Studio currently and need an affordable replacement from my Dell Inspiron 5500. Just needed an upgrade with more RAM and more CPU.
These P series laptops are serious workhorse machines. I absolutely love the magnitude of ports, drives and battery upgrades. BUT....I honestly have to say that i think Rob Herman was wrong to lump these laptops under the "P" series name that was already being shared with the desktop lineup. I owned the last "W" series laptops, the W541, and it was probably the most well built laptop of my entire Lenovo fleet. Just picking it up, made you feel like you were holding something of true quality. And the W541 has socketed CPU's for which you could upgrade. The "W" moniker was so much more well known since it stood for workstation. My unit was fully maxed out including the highest level CPU, RAM and 3K screen option. I bought it from someone who really didn't know what they had so i got it for a great deal. The original owner must have spend over $6,000 on that laptop when new and eventually i passed it on to a new owner who really wanted a serious piece of hardware for his home automation system. I still miss it to this day.
I'm not entirely sure the decision to rename the models was entirely his but they have brought back series before when it makes sense to do so. Regardless of what they are called, the W and P series are excellent.
Hello Thomas, You'll ruin me ! :D I'm joking of course but I've seen this video multiple times, and the idea to buy a P50 grew in my head ! For me this machine represents a new era in the workstation niche (that's not for nothing that it's named P instead of W). And for that, I think its a must-have in my collection. I've finally found one that fits my needs and I'll receive it tomorrow (and as I'm on holidays, I'll have plenty of time to discover it \o/). Supposedly high-specced unit (with an i7 6820HQ). No SSD but 4K screen, color sensor, fingerprint reader and a M2000M. Sixteen gigabytes of RAM also, but I don't know if it's 4x4, 2x8 or 1x16... I don't expect a pristine unit as it was pretty cheap but I expect it to be a good one to restore and use for heavy typing. I say supposedly because I don't have every information about it and I like to keep a little suspense when I buy something (I don't buy not knowing if it works or not but it's exciting to wait and discover exactly what I'll receive). For example, I don't know if there'll be caddies or not for the M.2 SSD. I also don't know if the battery is good or not, I don't know if RAID is implemented or not... Since the other day, I've searched some informations about the caddies because perhaps I'll have to buy one or two. And I've discovered (I didn't knew that) that there are two distinct references : One for the M.2 PCIe SSDs, on which there are thermal pads, and one for the M.2 SATA SSDs, without them. I've also discovered that the adapter for the 2.5" disk also exists in two flavors : one for the right slot, with the cable that runs on the left side of the disk, and one for the slot in which we install the SSD caddies (because it's also a 2.5" bay). And the cable of the adapter runs on the right side of the disk. The possibility to use this 2.5" bay for 2.5" disks or SSDs is very clever. I also don't know if the laptop has been carefully cleaned up or not. If it wasn't, it'll be an opportunity to do it myself and totally disassemble and reassemble it altogether. A nice way to understand how it's made. :) And before reading the HMM, I knew that the keyboards weren't the same for P50/51 one one hand, and P52/P53 on the other hand, but I didn't knew what was the exact difference. Well, the key travel isn't the same (2.7 mm vs 1.5 mm - I already know I'll like the P50 keyboard better than my P52's, which unfortunately is the worst Thinkpad keyboard I've used until these days), the screw system isn't the same too (and again, I find the P50/P51 better than the P52) and the keys above the numpad are also different (but here, I think the P52/P53 are better). But I would have liked some keys not found on another place of the keyboards, I'd have found useful to use those 4 keys to put functions we lost when the 7-row were replaced by the 6-row keyboards ca. 2013/2014. Ah, and a last difference (again the P52/P53 is better), there are LEDs on the CAPS Lock and NumLock keys - because of that, I had to install the Hotkey utility on my W541 because it didn't have the LEDs either. Have a good day ! :) W.
@@LaptopRetrospective Hello Thomas, I've finally received my P50. It didn't seem in good shape on the pics of the ad, but it's not so bad in person ! Lots of dust, superficial scratches and stripes on the A-cover (only one remains after a little polishing). Paint gone on the D-cover, but overall, in good shape. First thing first : open the hatch to see if there is/are caddie(s) for the SSD(s), and no, nothing. Two will arrive later in the week. But no RAM in the back slots. Sixteen gigs but under the keyboard so 2x 8 Gb ! \o/. I added 2 sticks for a total of 32 Gb ! :) I also replaced the danish keyboard with a french one. exactly what I was expecting, better than the P52 (by a lot), not so good as the W541. I love the soft feeling. Strange thing : the mouse buttons are a little higher than the palmrest (ca. 2 mm). I could install Windows by putting the SSD in the NVMe0 port (without attaching it, there's sufficient resistance in the port to use it. Everything seems to be in working order but the color sensor. When I use the Color Calibrator software, I have an error message (I tried another software and no more success). I checked the sensor cable when I changed the keyboard, its seems OK (but I don't see how it is under the palmrest as I haven't disassembled the laptop yet). There are little defects on the screen (a little more dark on the right and a burnt zone at the left of the center but the colors are nice (even if not yet calibrated) and the angles are very good too. And of course, 4K on 15 inch screen is very crisp. Needless to say its unusable in 4K, so I use zoom at 150 %. The hinges are tired but I've seen worse. The sound is correct but lacks bass. I installed Equalizer APO to correct that and it's better. The install (Windows 10 Pro 22H2) was easy, Windows Update has found me everything but two drivers (Lenovo Power Management and Intel Chipset Thermal subsystem). I'm typing this message on it right now and if it wasn't for the english that is not my native langage, I wouldn't do errors when typing ! Not the best keyboard, but still very good. Oh, and the battery has only 23 % of wear (I wasn't expecting much and I'm very happy about that) ! I could reasonably expect 4 hours of juice by typing and listening to music I think ! I have quickly tried Quake III (heavily tweaked with everything to the max and more), in the native resolution, it runs at 60 FPS (I have 200 FPS on the P52 with the Full HD screen), it's smooth. It's about the only game I play so if it runs, everything is fine ! :) W.
@wilou62 excellent! Glad to hear it is working out so far for you. For the colour sensor, the cut out is on them all but the sensor itself may or may not be present. If it is there, it looks more like a camera lens.
@@LaptopRetrospective Hello Thomas, Thanks for your answer. :) Still happy with it since yesterday ! :D The sensor is here, I see it (and it sees me, I know it, I see it looking at me ! :D ). I'll search furthermore to understand but I have the feel that I'll know what happens after releasing the palmrest. I've seen in the BIOS that RAID is possible also on this unit (if I remember it's not all the models that can do that (whereas it's included from scratch on the P52 line). I've found Hynix SSD at a reasonable price (512 Gb and new for 35 €) and they are PCIe 4.0 4x, nice for later if I was to have a faster machine (5.5 GB average sequential read and 3.0 GB average sequential write, which will be plenty sufficient to use the max out of the PCIe 3.0 4x interface of the P50). That far more better than the one I use now (1.6 GB/800 MB read/write). I must say I'm impressed by the P50. Even if it's behind the P52 in terms of performances, the screen and the keyboard make a real difference, there's more the high-end feel to use it. I know I'll be able to use it for many years considering what I do. Till recently, I was still using a T400 as a daily (well, more of a nighty ! :D, to watch films in the bed or to surf on the internet before sleeping, I now use a T420s). The P50 is so far ahead of it performance-wise it still could be in use in 10 years). Have a good day ! :) W.
@wilou62 wow, going from a T400/T420s to this would a huge jump. I'm excited for you. You picked a great machine and I think you'll enjoy upgrading it to your desired specifications.
The three storage device slots (esp with 2 for m. 2) is a very nice aspect of this machine. It's a great thinkpad Though I can't help but wonder if other new laptops (more budget ones) with the Intel 11th Gen chips are a better choice in regards to battery life and cpu power.
In these workstation laptops even significantly older generation CPUs can outperform newer ones due to better cooling and specialized drivers optimized for raw performance.
Thanks for the great video! I am thinking of buying a P-Series workstation from lenovo as well. What do you think of the P51 or P52 in comparison with P50? Is there a big difference in terms of performance, graphics etc.?
Excuse my ignorance, i just bought one online (has the 2GB VRAM Nvidia Quadro 1000M) and apparently it won't run programs like REVIT because 2GB is not enough. ...Can the video card be replaced by a more powerful one or am i simply fucked?:(
Recently my Lenovo P50 Laptop suddenly won't turn on. It turns on for only 1second, with the green power button and keyboard lighting up for 1 second, then it immediately shuts down. When I plug in the power supply, the green light on the back of the computer lights up when I have the battery installed. So it doesn't seem to be a power supply issue. I searched all over the web for solutions & tried doing power drains, unplugging/ plugging in the battery & power supply, running with just the power supply, running it with just the battery, & both battery & power supply. I did the CMOS battery resets, removing HD & ram then trying to powering it on, but I get the same result. Have u ever dealt with anything like this with any Lenovo laptops you've worked on? Do u have any possible solutions? Please let me know. Thanks & have a nice day.
Hmmmm. Haven't dealt with anything like this before. Assuming the power supply is still good, it sounds BIOS related or something tripping it telling it not to turn on. Any clues in the HMM?
Just last two weeks my P50 also suffered this same fate. All efforts to turn it back on has proved futile. But I bought it in 2016 though and I wish I could get a new P50 but looks like it out of the market tho.
Came across someone with a P50 for sale and also states they may have a P70. He is not sure what to price the P70 for as they are far few between. I'll know the PSREF by the weekend. Ontario Canada
Hello, I'm looking at one of these here in Canada for lite video editing, would you recommend it for this purpose? Good information in this video also.👍 🇨🇦👈🤠
Gotcha, 1080p should be fine and still give decent render times. TechDave (ruclips.net/video/B62CCjAHe7I/видео.html) has also recently bought a P51, which isn't hugely different and has done all sorts of wacky things with it.
Hi. I am about to buy a refurb Lenovo P50 for my study in archithecture. Do you believe that it is still durable for the next 2 years? Thank you for your great review. It is very helpfull and incuraging. :-)
Hi, friend Your interview is interesting and a very good explanation of the Lenovo thinkpad p50. I bought one of these laptops 2 days ago. It cost me $520.00. I think it has a good price. Can you tell me if the screen brightness is dull on all those laptops. Since I have tried to increase the brightness with the windows 10 options and I have not been able to. Do you know another way to increase the brightness?
@@LaptopRetrospective Thanks for answering me. If I have the brightness control at maximum 100%, but the screen still looks dull, it looks like when you put on sunglasses. Could it be that this laptop is like this to protect our eyes from blue lights?. I don't know what you mean by panel.
@@LaptopRetrospective The screen resolution is 1920x1080. I have the brightness at maximum 100% but the screen still looks dimmer, there is no full brightness where you can see the images or videos on the internet with their maximum colors, because the screen brightness is dimmer.I think the problem is that the screen gives me a shine like a sun lens or I don't know if it's common in these laptops.
Thank you for the review, gotta buy that! I like this more than the P52 because of the number of A series USB port and all port located mostly on two side, although the P52 have ports on three side, I don't like that one changed to 3.0 port. Btw, is your accent American English?
@@LaptopRetrospective dudeeeeee this thing runs Forza Horizon 4 sooo smooth on medium settings, I am amazed by its performance, for a machine so old its just amazing, I just tested it out
This is a really impressive looking machine. I assume despite it's age that it would still be a good idea to get in 2022? How much longer would it be good for? I would like to get into Blender and Gimp as well as play Cities Skylines, would this be a good machine for that?
It doesn't support Windows 11 due to the 6th gen Skylake CPU (even though it 11 runs perfectly fine on it), so it'll get Windows 10 support until that reaches its End of Life date. Linux support will be a lot longer and it runs great with Linux (I'm running Mint on mine and it's given me no issues at all.
The P50 and P51 are very impressive machines. Granted they won't 'officially' support Windows 11, the upgrades one can do to the RAM and SSDs mean that it will hold its own for a long time to come.
@@LaptopRetrospective Thank you. I don't know what all will end up in my collection yet. I am still making heads with all the variations out there. I did just add to my collection (same seller) four Thinkpad Helix ultrabooks gen 2 with four ultra dock pro, and came with three of the folio dock. If we are ever in the same city, I have many pieces collected so far.
Well it wasn't necessarily designed for it, but it can certainly play games. In my experience the gpu is about the same as a 4gb gtx 1050 that was used in gaming laptops. You can usually hit over 60 fps in most games on lower settings.
@@LaptopRetrospective userbenchmark is not good benchmarking site, better use Passmark. i7-6700HQ has score of 6560, i7-2640m has 2400, while i7-3840QM (which you theoretically could install in T420 with IvyBridge BIOS mods) has 5950. i7-2960XM has about 4500 score. However, my T430 with i7-3740QM gives about 6500, while median passmark score is only 6000.
1. I think it would a good idea when you review a W or P series ThinkPad that you should show the power brick so people can see how big or small it is. 2. The Xeons can use ECC RAM for mission critical work.
The hardware is strong for a lot of tasks and I've upgraded mine a bit. It will never run Windows 11 though and doesn't have modern CPU architecture which many more modern applications may need to function at best performance.
I've yet to see a mobile workstation surpass the Dell Precision M6800 in terms of features and accessibility. The only thing this ThinkPad has is a newer CPU, but the GPU is actually less than the top-end M6800 one. The Dell is also easier to get into and has a more logical component layout.
@@LaptopRetrospective I guess strictly speaking a direct comparison would be the M4800 as it has the 15.x" screen size. There's many videos on here that document it and its bigger brother, the M6800.
@@TheGrantourismo You can't generalize like that because there are many generations of ThinkPads and some are better than others. The IBM ThinkPads are superior to the Lenovo ones which are cheap Chinese crap.
I have an M6800, sadly I broke the keyboard and trackpad ZIF connectors due to carelessness, and the removable hard drive caddy was stuck making access to the bottom impossible. Oh well, I had fun with it while I did.
Having used "work issue" laptops from Lenovo, Dell, Microsoft and HP, I really don't like thinkpads. They are bigger, bulkier and cheaper feeling than the alternatives and at least in my experience, isn't cheaper. Their main value seem to be durability, which matters if you are deploying the devices in tougher environments but the for the office it isn't really impressive compared to the alternatives.
I'd be curious to know what devices from each line you've had the chance to use. I've found that each brand has their "cheaper" versions and their premium offerings.
@@LaptopRetrospective I was on a rotational "development programme" for 4 years so got redeployed a lot to different divisions/departments and so got to use quite a few different devices. My employer has a massive IT spend, and run competitive tenders for our IT contracts so we tend to get flagship or close to flagship models from suppliers. I would caveat that with usually being spec'd out at a "middle of the road" i5 + 8gb configuration but higher end models nonetheless. I had a Lenovo Thinkpad x270 in 2018, which needed repairs and was subsequently issued an X1 Yoga. Both had horrendously thick bezels and were much thicker than devices from the other brands even at the time. Felt plasticky and cheap as well. 2019 was a Surface Pro 6. A dell XPS in 2020 to a Dell Latitude in 2021 (which felt like a downgrade from the XPS but Dell had dropped the USB A port on their 13 inch models and that was part of our spec so our supplier switched to Latitudes). Currently have a HP elite as my work laptop.
I was very fortunate to find a used P50 (i7-6820HQ, Quadro M200M, 16GB RAM with the Pantone display 3840x2160) back in 2018 used for $750.00 with no drive. I upgraded it to 32GB ram and added a couple of SSDs to it. It has been a real workhorse and has been absolutely bulletproof and still looks very good despite daily use and a lot of travel.
Very nice indeed! I suspect it has lots more life to give.
is good for gaming
$750? I found one for $300
@@Stripes404 well I bought mine back in 2018.
@@travr1131 oh ok
I bought my P50 in 2020 with the first stimulus and I still love the hell out of it. It hit everything I wanted (m.2, HDMI and USB-C, upgradable RAM and drives) at the price point I wanted (around $500).
I've currently got it setup with two 1TB m.2 WD SN-750 Black SSDs and I dual-boot Windows and Linux. Threw 32GBs of RAM in it and I don't see myself replacing it anytime soon.
Hands down it's the best computer I've ever owned, and when I do look into replacing it, I'm going to go with another refurbished P-Series ThinkPad.
I primarily use my computer for general usage (not the target market for these machines), but I can't stand laptops geared towards the consumer market with everything soldered and little to no upgrade options.
Excellent video and I really liked the interview with Rob. They made one hell of a laptop line.
Thanks so much for sharing your story and setup. I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
I got my P50 new in 2015. It has been my daily driver ever since. Whenever a part breaks, I am able to easily replace it. The only reason I am looking at retiring my P50 is because its a bit thick and heavy to be carrying it around compared to modern thin and light laptops. This is a great machine.
It's a machine that might change jobs, but never truly retires. 😁
Well maybe it can be repurposed with a dock and monitor for a home workstation.
Do you do CAD work on it? I have heard a few folks say that it is starting to show it's age when it comes to work like that
Really considering going for one that is top of the line specs it offered for $400
Watching this from my P53. Great video!
Thanks Henry! Glad you enjoyed it. You'll hopefully see it again.
I used a P71 as my main personal system for about 18 months, and it was an absolute no compromise beast machine. These are seriously durable machines as well, true tanks. Great review, and you got a great price for this P50 too!
This and the W540 were my late introduction to the workstations offered by ThinkPad and I can see why they are loved.
Bought a used one yesterday, a P50 Xeon E3 1505M with 2 SSDs (1TB, 500GB), touchscreen and 32GB of RAM for $250 shipped, can’t believe how expensive this machine was when it came out (with mine having the higher end of specs too)
What a beast. What will you use it for?
I bought one of these for school a few months ago and it has been absolutely awesome. I don't regret a single cent I payed for that thing
That's awesome! What are you taking?
worth it 2023?
And that's what I'm calling a real laptop. I really like machines well built like this.
Yep, it's pretty awesome.
I like my laptops like I like my women... well built. 😉
Last week I have asked for your suggestion about w541 replacement and you said P50. And now you have it and already reviewed!! I have to get a good p50 deal soon this holiday season. I may choose P70 for extra screen real estate.
Yeah I actually got the W540 and the P50 at the same time.
Just got myself a p51. I'm over the moon. They're finally down enough in price that I could pick up a used one. It's amazing to me that this isn't just what a laptop is. There is nothing about it that shouldn't be the minimum requirements for most users. I don't think I could switch to anything else.
They are pretty awesome machines to behold. No question.
Picked up a used one with 40GB of RAM and a spinning 5400 RPM hard drive (LOL). I replaced the drive with an M2 SSD and installed Linux Mint, and it's working great. This machine is a beast! Now to eBay to look for a docking station. Great review, thanks.
That's an interesting combination of so much RAM but such a slow drive. I'm sure the M.2 made a world of difference.
What processor?
if u put linux or older windows (the latter would be dumb ) the older hdd isint that slow
Perhaps but the difference between an HDD and SSD will be more significant.
If you ever want to add a 2nd SSD to this laptop, you can 3D print the M.2 caddy and save yourself $20.
True just need the thermal pad.
Monster, monster! What's not to like? Excellent vid as usual, thanks.
Cheers! Glad you like it.
Really appreciated that convo w/Rob. Last year I went from a W520 to the P73 that I'm typing this on. Great machine. Honestly one of the motivating factors for the purchase was that Lenovo was ditching dedicated trackpad buttons. I use them constantly by muscle memory, and I knew this was my last chance to get a brand new ThinkPad that still had them. I made it count! I don't even own a desktop anymore. I don't need one.
That's awesome! Glad you enjoyed hearing from Rob, it was an awesome time.
T480s, i7 8gen, 40GB Ram, First driver Samsung 970 Pro 1TB NVMe , and second drive 512 NVM in WWAN port. Ethernet, USBC, USB3, Hdmi. Best daily for IT admin.
That's a beast.
got a xeon e3-1505m p70 recently for less than 250 bucks, couldnt be more happy!
great video
Excellent find! Glad you enjoyed the video.
I have a pair of P50, one with a bad keyboard and 1080p screen working as a home server, one with 4k screen working as a desktop replacement, both working well. I took one apart for maintenance and the inner structure reminds me of "classic" t-series thinkpads.
That's awesome. Glad they are being utilized.
Oh wow. That looks. Very. Impressive.
Although this is the first P Series I've seen in person, I suspect they all impress. 😁
@@LaptopRetrospective the physical touchpad buttons and the classic hinges along with express card really are refreshing to see again
The actual max ram on the i7 at least is 128gb with 4 sticks of 32gb. The only reason they didn't say that when the p50 was released was because 32gb sticks of ddr4 were not out yet.
Very interesting! Not the first time I've had that happen referencing the spec sheet. Thanks for letting me know .
Depends on the games. Workstation GPUs aren't meant for gaming so they perform differently.
Possibly, check your system requirements for your animation program.
Finding 32GB RAM modules are so hard. I never find them up for sale. Where are you buying yours?
I miss my P50. Going from it to an X1 Yoga was such a let down. My back appreciates the form factor but I miss the power and all the RAM. I nicknamed it the Beast.
Yeah, it would be lighter but the difference in performance and power would be significant.
What an absolute chonkpad! 6th gen i7 and discrete graphics AND thunderbolt 3 AND expresscard! It's like a dream device for me! Not to mention the m.2 slots!
Any idea which WWAN Module if any can be used? Seriously considering one of these now! *tech missus nervously clutches wallet*
Sierra EM7455 I think.
Do you recommend me to use this for university? The only problem I have is this thing is huge!!!!
Unless you need a massive workstation grade machine, no I wouldn't. You can probably use something newer and lighter.
I had a maxed out W540 but it was a deal breaker that it was impossible to disable the Nvidia card. I didn´t need it and wanted the battery life. So my number one question is if this one has a disable switch in the BIOS for disabling the dGPU? And for those who wonder about the numbers:
My W540 had the best i7 and 32GB RAM. In "standard mode" it used 40watts at idle and with maximum tweaks in Windows i could get it down to 20 watts. But I DID manage to get the Quadro card disabled with Pop_OS! once and then it only used TEN watts at idle. And you can imagine the battery life at that rate with a good 99Wh battery. Problem is I wanted to use it with FreeBSD which made it impossible to disable the GPU. That was sad and I got rid of it. It was of course a mistake to not check the BIOS before buying it. But I was used to Thinkpads always having that option. So I really hope for one of the 17-inch P-series machines to have the disable GPU switch in BIOS. Because the W/P series is in every other way the best laptops ever made. Also, that one time I managed to disable the GPU in Pop_OS! was the only time it ever kept the fans at a decent speed. Otherwise it was too loud.
Great question. I'll have to check later or perhaps another user can comment.
my T540p could run on iGPU only no problems in windows. used 10watts while SURFING in regular hybrid mode though. got 10hours out of it. pretty amazing with 3K screen 7years ago. unfortunatly max 16GB RAM and just the 730M instead of the 750M. My W541 just got 5-6hours, screen was worse and keyboard aswell (due to different manufacturers) so i sent that one back.
Doable to disable nvidia dGPU and use intel iGPU using the nvidia-smi, part of the nvidia drivers in Linux and would assume to be in freebsd. kill-a-watt shows 5-6watts at idle on my W540.
BIOS, not selectable to choose GPU unless you have a modded BIOS like my W520 where i can choose.
How would this hold down in music production software? I’m using FL Studio currently and need an affordable replacement from my Dell Inspiron 5500. Just needed an upgrade with more RAM and more CPU.
I know the fellow over at the TechDave RUclips channel has a P51 and loves it for music production.
These P series laptops are serious workhorse machines. I absolutely love the magnitude of ports, drives and battery upgrades. BUT....I honestly have to say that i think Rob Herman was wrong to lump these laptops under the "P" series name that was already being shared with the desktop lineup. I owned the last "W" series laptops, the W541, and it was probably the most well built laptop of my entire Lenovo fleet. Just picking it up, made you feel like you were holding something of true quality. And the W541 has socketed CPU's for which you could upgrade. The "W" moniker was so much more well known since it stood for workstation. My unit was fully maxed out including the highest level CPU, RAM and 3K screen option. I bought it from someone who really didn't know what they had so i got it for a great deal. The original owner must have spend over $6,000 on that laptop when new and eventually i passed it on to a new owner who really wanted a serious piece of hardware for his home automation system. I still miss it to this day.
I'm not entirely sure the decision to rename the models was entirely his but they have brought back series before when it makes sense to do so. Regardless of what they are called, the W and P series are excellent.
I have a 2230 M.2 nvme SSD from SK Hynix, will I be able to use it on this laptop.
Not without a size adapter.
Hello Thomas,
You'll ruin me ! :D
I'm joking of course but I've seen this video multiple times, and the idea to buy a P50 grew in my head ! For me this machine represents a new era in the workstation niche (that's not for nothing that it's named P instead of W). And for that, I think its a must-have in my collection. I've finally found one that fits my needs and I'll receive it tomorrow (and as I'm on holidays, I'll have plenty of time to discover it \o/).
Supposedly high-specced unit (with an i7 6820HQ). No SSD but 4K screen, color sensor, fingerprint reader and a M2000M. Sixteen gigabytes of RAM also, but I don't know if it's 4x4, 2x8 or 1x16... I don't expect a pristine unit as it was pretty cheap but I expect it to be a good one to restore and use for heavy typing. I say supposedly because I don't have every information about it and I like to keep a little suspense when I buy something (I don't buy not knowing if it works or not but it's exciting to wait and discover exactly what I'll receive). For example, I don't know if there'll be caddies or not for the M.2 SSD. I also don't know if the battery is good or not, I don't know if RAID is implemented or not... Since the other day, I've searched some informations about the caddies because perhaps I'll have to buy one or two. And I've discovered (I didn't knew that) that there are two distinct references :
One for the M.2 PCIe SSDs, on which there are thermal pads, and one for the M.2 SATA SSDs, without them.
I've also discovered that the adapter for the 2.5" disk also exists in two flavors : one for the right slot, with the cable that runs on the left side of the disk, and one for the slot in which we install the SSD caddies (because it's also a 2.5" bay). And the cable of the adapter runs on the right side of the disk. The possibility to use this 2.5" bay for 2.5" disks or SSDs is very clever.
I also don't know if the laptop has been carefully cleaned up or not. If it wasn't, it'll be an opportunity to do it myself and totally disassemble and reassemble it altogether. A nice way to understand how it's made. :)
And before reading the HMM, I knew that the keyboards weren't the same for P50/51 one one hand, and P52/P53 on the other hand, but I didn't knew what was the exact difference. Well, the key travel isn't the same (2.7 mm vs 1.5 mm - I already know I'll like the P50 keyboard better than my P52's, which unfortunately is the worst Thinkpad keyboard I've used until these days), the screw system isn't the same too (and again, I find the P50/P51 better than the P52) and the keys above the numpad are also different (but here, I think the P52/P53 are better). But I would have liked some keys not found on another place of the keyboards, I'd have found useful to use those 4 keys to put functions we lost when the 7-row were replaced by the 6-row keyboards ca. 2013/2014. Ah, and a last difference (again the P52/P53 is better), there are LEDs on the CAPS Lock and NumLock keys - because of that, I had to install the Hotkey utility on my W541 because it didn't have the LEDs either.
Have a good day ! :)
W.
Sounds like it will be a good machine, lots of desirable specs you listed. Let us know how it arrives!
@@LaptopRetrospective Hello Thomas,
I've finally received my P50. It didn't seem in good shape on the pics of the ad, but it's not so bad in person ! Lots of dust, superficial scratches and stripes on the A-cover (only one remains after a little polishing). Paint gone on the D-cover, but overall, in good shape. First thing first : open the hatch to see if there is/are caddie(s) for the SSD(s), and no, nothing. Two will arrive later in the week. But no RAM in the back slots. Sixteen gigs but under the keyboard so 2x 8 Gb ! \o/.
I added 2 sticks for a total of 32 Gb ! :) I also replaced the danish keyboard with a french one. exactly what I was expecting, better than the P52 (by a lot), not so good as the W541. I love the soft feeling. Strange thing : the mouse buttons are a little higher than the palmrest (ca. 2 mm). I could install Windows by putting the SSD in the NVMe0 port (without attaching it, there's sufficient resistance in the port to use it. Everything seems to be in working order but the color sensor. When I use the Color Calibrator software, I have an error message (I tried another software and no more success). I checked the sensor cable when I changed the keyboard, its seems OK (but I don't see how it is under the palmrest as I haven't disassembled the laptop yet).
There are little defects on the screen (a little more dark on the right and a burnt zone at the left of the center but the colors are nice (even if not yet calibrated) and the angles are very good too. And of course, 4K on 15 inch screen is very crisp. Needless to say its unusable in 4K, so I use zoom at 150 %. The hinges are tired but I've seen worse. The sound is correct but lacks bass. I installed Equalizer APO to correct that and it's better. The install (Windows 10 Pro 22H2) was easy, Windows Update has found me everything but two drivers (Lenovo Power Management and Intel Chipset Thermal subsystem).
I'm typing this message on it right now and if it wasn't for the english that is not my native langage, I wouldn't do errors when typing ! Not the best keyboard, but still very good.
Oh, and the battery has only 23 % of wear (I wasn't expecting much and I'm very happy about that) ! I could reasonably expect 4 hours of juice by typing and listening to music I think !
I have quickly tried Quake III (heavily tweaked with everything to the max and more), in the native resolution, it runs at 60 FPS (I have 200 FPS on the P52 with the Full HD screen), it's smooth. It's about the only game I play so if it runs, everything is fine ! :)
W.
@wilou62 excellent! Glad to hear it is working out so far for you. For the colour sensor, the cut out is on them all but the sensor itself may or may not be present. If it is there, it looks more like a camera lens.
@@LaptopRetrospective Hello Thomas,
Thanks for your answer. :)
Still happy with it since yesterday ! :D The sensor is here, I see it (and it sees me, I know it, I see it looking at me ! :D ). I'll search furthermore to understand but I have the feel that I'll know what happens after releasing the palmrest. I've seen in the BIOS that RAID is possible also on this unit (if I remember it's not all the models that can do that (whereas it's included from scratch on the P52 line). I've found Hynix SSD at a reasonable price (512 Gb and new for 35 €) and they are PCIe 4.0 4x, nice for later if I was to have a faster machine (5.5 GB average sequential read and 3.0 GB average sequential write, which will be plenty sufficient to use the max out of the PCIe 3.0 4x interface of the P50). That far more better than the one I use now (1.6 GB/800 MB read/write).
I must say I'm impressed by the P50. Even if it's behind the P52 in terms of performances, the screen and the keyboard make a real difference, there's more the high-end feel to use it. I know I'll be able to use it for many years considering what I do. Till recently, I was still using a T400 as a daily (well, more of a nighty ! :D, to watch films in the bed or to surf on the internet before sleeping, I now use a T420s). The P50 is so far ahead of it performance-wise it still could be in use in 10 years).
Have a good day ! :)
W.
@wilou62 wow, going from a T400/T420s to this would a huge jump. I'm excited for you. You picked a great machine and I think you'll enjoy upgrading it to your desired specifications.
Still going strong to this day, plus the max of 64GB of ram is nice to have and so is Thunderbolt 3 for EGPUs and other things.
P50 is a great workhorse. No question.
As long as your p50 has the i7 processor and not the xenon you can actually max it out with 128gb of ram with 4 32gb sticks.
I still have trouble wrapping my head around that kind of power in a laptop.
@@LaptopRetrospective There are also gaming laptops with more horsepower that released around the same time as the P50.
The three storage device slots (esp with 2 for m. 2) is a very nice aspect of this machine.
It's a great thinkpad
Though I can't help but wonder if other new laptops (more budget ones) with the Intel 11th Gen chips are a better choice in regards to battery life and cpu power.
I think it would depend on the CPU class, cooling and RAM configuration.
In these workstation laptops even significantly older generation CPUs can outperform newer ones due to better cooling and specialized drivers optimized for raw performance.
What do you think as a replacement to P50? P1 Gen 4 or p15 gen 1 or p17 gen 2.
This was my first look at a P series. I know @retropcdurham did a video on a newer one and he has great content.
Thanks for the great video! I am thinking of buying a P-Series workstation from lenovo as well.
What do you think of the P51 or P52 in comparison with P50? Is there a big difference in terms of performance, graphics etc.?
I personally haven't had the opportunity to see them in person so it's hard to say with much authority.
In my thinpad p51 there is backlit but the alphabets dont iluminate is this the case with you or yout keys/alphabets also emit lights ?
If the spacebar has the pictogram then you have it. If it isn't there, you don't. FN + spacebar.
Excuse my ignorance, i just bought one online (has the 2GB VRAM Nvidia Quadro 1000M) and apparently it won't run programs like REVIT because 2GB is not enough.
...Can the video card be replaced by a more powerful one or am i simply fucked?:(
Pretty sure it's soldered. It's an amazing piece of gear and I'd try your software first to see how it does.
@@LaptopRetrospective guess i will stick to older versions of revit or look into an external GPU🤣🤣 thanks for answering!
@Mayral999 good thinking, let us know how it goes.
Recently my Lenovo P50 Laptop suddenly won't turn on. It turns on for only 1second, with the green power button and keyboard lighting up for 1 second, then it immediately shuts down. When I plug in the power supply, the green light on the back of the computer lights up when I have the battery installed. So it doesn't seem to be a power supply issue. I searched all over the web for solutions & tried doing power drains, unplugging/ plugging in the battery & power supply, running with just the power supply, running it with just the battery, & both battery & power supply. I did the CMOS battery resets, removing HD & ram then trying to powering it on, but I get the same result.
Have u ever dealt with anything like this with any Lenovo laptops you've worked on? Do u have any possible solutions? Please let me know. Thanks & have a nice day.
Hmmmm. Haven't dealt with anything like this before. Assuming the power supply is still good, it sounds BIOS related or something tripping it telling it not to turn on. Any clues in the HMM?
Just last two weeks my P50 also suffered this same fate. All efforts to turn it back on has proved futile. But I bought it in 2016 though and I wish I could get a new P50 but looks like it out of the market tho.
Very strange, I wonder what the culprit is??
The lcd display sometime does not turn on and the computer looks "dead".
Have you already checked/changed the CMOS battery? Just a thought.
Came across someone with a P50 for sale and also states they may have a P70. He is not sure what to price the P70 for as they are far few between. I'll know the PSREF by the weekend.
Ontario Canada
The P70 is a nice piece of kit, newer CPUs and GPUs if that matters. The PSREF has the details of course.
@@LaptopRetrospective His P70 is i7-6820HQ, 1920x1080 display, M3000M 4gb, 32gb ram, 500gb ssd + 256gb ssd, $$600
If that's Canadian that's not bad at all. I think I paid $450 for my P50 or so.
@@LaptopRetrospective Canadian, same city as I. Sudbury 😎. P50 is asking $380. I'm trying to package purchase a few to alleviate the costs overall.
Exciting, best of luck!
Hello, I'm looking at one of these here in Canada for lite video editing, would you recommend it for this purpose? Good information in this video also.👍
🇨🇦👈🤠
What kind of video editing are you looking to do?
@@LaptopRetrospective my hobby is large scale rcs. Mainly 30 minute or less how to videos and reviews like yours.
Gotcha, 1080p should be fine and still give decent render times. TechDave (ruclips.net/video/B62CCjAHe7I/видео.html) has also recently bought a P51, which isn't hugely different and has done all sorts of wacky things with it.
Hi. I am about to buy a refurb Lenovo P50 for my study in archithecture. Do you believe that it is still durable for the next 2 years? Thank you for your great review. It is very helpfull and incuraging. :-)
2 years would be an easy feat assuming it's in good condition.
I was thinking of trading in my i7 T450s for one of these. Especially if they still use the same docking stations.
Pretty sure they do. Thanks for your help on acquiring this one.
Hi, friend
Your interview is interesting and a very good explanation of the Lenovo thinkpad p50.
I bought one of these laptops 2 days ago. It cost me $520.00. I think it has a good price.
Can you tell me if the screen brightness is dull on all those laptops. Since I have tried to increase the brightness with the windows 10 options and I have not been able to. Do you know another way to increase the brightness?
Glad you enjoyed the video. I'm assuming the brightness control is working? Do you know what panel it is?
@@LaptopRetrospective Thanks for answering me.
If I have the brightness control at maximum 100%, but the screen still looks dull, it looks like when you put on sunglasses.
Could it be that this laptop is like this to protect our eyes from blue lights?. I don't know what you mean by panel.
What resolution is the panel? Does the brightness control work at all? Getting brighter or dimmer? I wonder if the backlight on the panel has failed.
@@LaptopRetrospective
The screen resolution is 1920x1080.
I have the brightness at maximum 100% but the screen still looks dimmer, there is no full brightness where you can see the images or videos on the internet with their maximum colors, because the screen brightness is dimmer.I think the problem is that the screen gives me a shine like a sun lens or I don't know if it's common in these laptops.
I don't think you've answered one of my questions and that is "does the brightness change at all?" If not then the panel is faulty for sure.
does all the touchscreen versions work with stylus pen?
Not sure, my sample didn't have that feature for me to test fully.
Thank you for the review, gotta buy that! I like this more than the P52 because of the number of A series USB port and all port located mostly on two side, although the P52 have ports on three side, I don't like that one changed to 3.0 port.
Btw, is your accent American English?
Glad you enjoyed the video. My accent is Canadian English.
Hows the performance in terms of gaming .. games like gta 5, forza horizon 5
It's not a gaming laptop but you're welcome to check system requirements against the configuration you're looking to purchase.
@@LaptopRetrospective dudeeeeee this thing runs Forza Horizon 4 sooo smooth on medium settings, I am amazed by its performance, for a machine so old its just amazing, I just tested it out
Really glad to hear it, thanks for sharing your success!
This is a really impressive looking machine. I assume despite it's age that it would still be a good idea to get in 2022? How much longer would it be good for? I would like to get into Blender and Gimp as well as play Cities Skylines, would this be a good machine for that?
Not sure about Cities but these things have plenty of life to give. ThinkPads generally have a long shelf life.
It doesn't support Windows 11 due to the 6th gen Skylake CPU (even though it 11 runs perfectly fine on it), so it'll get Windows 10 support until that reaches its End of Life date.
Linux support will be a lot longer and it runs great with Linux (I'm running Mint on mine and it's given me no issues at all.
@@linkboy321 i run manjaro xfce on it, i really like it
The plastics look good on this one, similar to the X230 - maybe i'll skip the rest of the lineup and just get one of these to replace my W500
The P50 and P51 are very impressive machines. Granted they won't 'officially' support Windows 11, the upgrades one can do to the RAM and SSDs mean that it will hold its own for a long time to come.
How many P variants are available ?
Starts at the P50, 70, P1, P 16. Each is its own series.
@@LaptopRetrospective Thank you. I don't know what all will end up in my collection yet. I am still making heads with all the variations out there.
I did just add to my collection (same seller) four Thinkpad Helix ultrabooks gen 2 with four ultra dock pro, and came with three of the folio dock.
If we are ever in the same city, I have many pieces collected so far.
Haha, noted! Congratulations on your recent acquisition.
I'd love that with the xeon and ecc RAM to use with truenas, with 2 nvme drives ... the only downside would be the lack of 10gbe lan ...
Still a pretty darn good setup.
Is this good for gaming?
Depends on the game. It's a workstation grade machine so it's powerful but designed for rendering.
Well it wasn't necessarily designed for it, but it can certainly play games. In my experience the gpu is about the same as a 4gb gtx 1050 that was used in gaming laptops. You can usually hit over 60 fps in most games on lower settings.
How much more powerful is this over an i7 2640 t420?
Some numbers to crunch for you:
cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-6700HQ-vs-Intel-Core-i7-2640M/m34954vsm791
@@LaptopRetrospective userbenchmark is not good benchmarking site, better use Passmark. i7-6700HQ has score of 6560, i7-2640m has 2400, while i7-3840QM (which you theoretically could install in T420 with IvyBridge BIOS mods) has 5950. i7-2960XM has about 4500 score. However, my T430 with i7-3740QM gives about 6500, while median passmark score is only 6000.
@@TheGrantourismo wow then if not for the graphics power, why not buy a W530 or upgrade a T430 with quad core cpu. Just fraction of the P50 price
CPUs can be costly still and depending on location, difficult to source.
Honest question though, are the numbers the whole story? Do they take into account power efficiency, technology and architecture advances?
They are very desirable but price wise it's like a Razer Blade, you pay premium for every gram of it, the flex is undeniable tho.
Never heard of a P series compared to a Razer. Interesting idea. I'd definitely prefer the P series. 😁
I just got one for $216 from ebay (tax & shipping) i7-6870HQ 6GB 512GB. The resolution is only 1080p, 1440p would be nice.
Nice score!
is laptop are 02 cooler ????
Sorry, not sure I understand the question.
great vid
Thanks!
1. I think it would a good idea when you review a W or P series ThinkPad that you should show the power brick so people can see how big or small it is.
2. The Xeons can use ECC RAM for mission critical work.
Haha good point on the power brick. It is huge and yes that ECC RAM is nice stuff. Never had the chance to use it myself.
Somehow the 3K screen of my T540p was way more vibrant, accurate and brighter than the P50 4K screen. Overall I like the T540p & W541 way more
I've heard people prefer the display in the W series.
worth it 2023?
Depending on your needs it's still a very capable machine. Let us know what you hope to use it for.
@@LaptopRetrospective my hopes: working on autocad, Excel bases. ACL bases, Photoshop, vs code, without any problem, until 2027 ? or its to much ?
Predicting that far into the future is very difficult, especially with hardware that is already not brand new.
@@LaptopRetrospective whats ur opinion, what would u expect to do now 2023?
The hardware is strong for a lot of tasks and I've upgraded mine a bit. It will never run Windows 11 though and doesn't have modern CPU architecture which many more modern applications may need to function at best performance.
I just found one in the dumpster. Video is on my channel now.
Watched the video, pretty darn good find!
The P50 is highly underrated and WAYY better than the W540 and W541 that came before it.
Think it depends on personal preference which is better.
@@LaptopRetrospective W540 and W541 had numerous thermal throttling issues, the P50 did not.
I bought mine today… Lenovo p50 i7 6700
Awesome, what will you do with it?
...Cheers...
Right back at you!
I've yet to see a mobile workstation surpass the Dell Precision M6800 in terms of features and accessibility. The only thing this ThinkPad has is a newer CPU, but the GPU is actually less than the top-end M6800 one. The Dell is also easier to get into and has a more logical component layout.
Can't say I've got my hands on one to compare it directly. Perhaps one day.
@@LaptopRetrospective I guess strictly speaking a direct comparison would be the M4800 as it has the 15.x" screen size. There's many videos on here that document it and its bigger brother, the M6800.
Thinkpad has VASTLY superior keyboard and pointstick.
@@TheGrantourismo You can't generalize like that because there are many generations of ThinkPads and some are better than others. The IBM ThinkPads are superior to the Lenovo ones which are cheap Chinese crap.
I have an M6800, sadly I broke the keyboard and trackpad ZIF connectors due to carelessness, and the removable hard drive caddy was stuck making access to the bottom impossible. Oh well, I had fun with it while I did.
Couldn't they replace numpad with - I don't know - more useful thing like a cup holder...? Who uses numpad nowadays !
Don't worry, I'm sure those people that do will be along eventually to tell you. 😂
Engineers at Audi apparently
And other high-paying clients.
People with jobs and bills
people with fortunes and brains for god sake
m using 6700HQ to watch this.😀
Nice!
Having used "work issue" laptops from Lenovo, Dell, Microsoft and HP, I really don't like thinkpads. They are bigger, bulkier and cheaper feeling than the alternatives and at least in my experience, isn't cheaper.
Their main value seem to be durability, which matters if you are deploying the devices in tougher environments but the for the office it isn't really impressive compared to the alternatives.
I'd be curious to know what devices from each line you've had the chance to use. I've found that each brand has their "cheaper" versions and their premium offerings.
@@LaptopRetrospective I was on a rotational "development programme" for 4 years so got redeployed a lot to different divisions/departments and so got to use quite a few different devices.
My employer has a massive IT spend, and run competitive tenders for our IT contracts so we tend to get flagship or close to flagship models from suppliers. I would caveat that with usually being spec'd out at a "middle of the road" i5 + 8gb configuration but higher end models nonetheless.
I had a Lenovo Thinkpad x270 in 2018, which needed repairs and was subsequently issued an X1 Yoga. Both had horrendously thick bezels and were much thicker than devices from the other brands even at the time. Felt plasticky and cheap as well.
2019 was a Surface Pro 6.
A dell XPS in 2020 to a Dell Latitude in 2021 (which felt like a downgrade from the XPS but Dell had dropped the USB A port on their 13 inch models and that was part of our spec so our supplier switched to Latitudes).
Currently have a HP elite as my work laptop.
That's excellent, it's always nice hearing from people that use a variety of devices. 👍
last good thinkpad
That is said usually about every generation throughout the last 15 years or so.
@@slighterThinkpad fans can never decide when that is. "Last good Thinkpad" ranges from the T61 to the T480.
@@darthgamer6080 Agreed. And even then someone probably remarks how the T40 is Actually the really last good one because IBM or so.
600X was the last one made by IBM, either in Mexico or Ireland (?). T40 was made in China, possibly by Lenovo.