We do n’t typically review laptops like the ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 . It exists in a category entirely for creative professional work at big governing body — a commercial PC designed with carrying out in mind above all else .

I was queer though : How does this stack up against more mainstream machine ? I ’ve refresh a number of laptop computer over the last few months aimed at poise efficiency and operation in thin - and - light chassis . A few are logical contenders to make our list of thebest laptops , but none provide the kind of performance that gamers and Lord call for .

Are one of those a better option for IT department than a traditional workstation like the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 ? After all , it ’s thick and heavy , but it packs in more powerful components take aim purely at speeding through demand workflow and with some gambling confound in . You wo n’t require to lug it around , and while the ThinkPad P16 delivers its promise performance , it just costs too much for almost everyone .

Specs and configurations

As is often the case with laptops offer a ton of form options , it ’s not always possible to buy every given combination at a given point in time . As of the right way now , the $ 2,619 base manakin has an Intel Core i7 - 14700HX CPU , 32 GB of RAM , a 1 TB SSD , an Nvidia RTX 1000 Ada GPU , and a 16.0 - in FHD+ IP exhibit .

My followup combine has the same CPU , RAM , and storage but upgrades to an RTX 4000 Ada GPU and a QHD+ IPS show , and it ’s price at a whopping $ 5,614 . The self-aggrandizing jump is in the GPU , which by itself adds $ 1,560 to the terms . The most expensive example is a truly stratospheric $ 10,453 with a Core i9 - 13980HX , 192 GB of RAM , two 4 TB SSDs in RAID 1 , an RTX 5000 Ada GPU , and a 4K+ OLED display . Again , the GPU upgrade is very expensive at $ 3,050 over the base mannikin and the RAM adds $ 1,120 .

Those are very expensive prices , no matter how you bring down it . You ’re getting a laptop that ’s designed to meet the very strict requirements of applications like AutoCAD where careen - solid reliability is full of life , and you ’re pay a premium for that level of certification . If you do n’t care about that , then you may get an equally powerful gaming laptop like theLenovo Legion 9i Gen 9for less , or even anApple MacBook Pro 16that can get quite expensive , but notthisexpensive .

Design

I was a little shocked when I pulled the ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 out of the box , because it ’s so much larger than any laptop computer we ’ve reviewed in a long time . This is a proper mobile workstation , through and through .

It ’s larger even than most gaming laptop computer , specially in its 1.2 - inch thickness and 6.5 pound exercising weight . The Asus ProArt P16 is another potent laptop aim at Maker , and it ’s considerably humble even with its own large 16 - column inch display . Not only is it sparse and shallow but it ’s a lot sparse at a maximum of 0.68 inches and short at 4.08 dog pound . The last gaming laptop computer we reviewed , the Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 , is roughly as large in width and astuteness but thin at 0.89 inches and lighter at 5.51 pounds .

Those two are also very powerful machines with great performance , so it ’s a petty harder to justify the ThinkPad P16 ’s filmy size . My wife uses anAlienware M16that ’s also very hefty , and it sense a quite a little smaller . But the ThinkPad P16 does offer a great thermal design that moves a slew of air around , and it ’s more expandable than many laptops with the power to equip dual SSDs for faster store carrying out . And Lenovo ramp up the laptop computer to reach Independent Software Vendor ( ISV ) certification , which relies on static carrying out to ensure dependableness for professionals . But is the ThinkPad P16toobig ? I think it might be .

It ’s also constructed of plastic with shabu fibre on the exterior , with a magnesium shell internally . It ’s quite robust , with no bending , flexing , or twisting in the lid , keyboard pack of cards , or bottom chassis . But it doesn’tfeelthe same as many other laptop in the same terms chain . The Apple MacBook Pro 16 is an example of a laptop computer that exudes a flavor of higher quality , even if it ’s no more robust than the Thinkpad P16 . credibly , the charge plate was used in part because it ’s already 6.5 pounds , which is pretty big . If the chassis were all - alloy , it would only be heavier .

The esthetic is rather vapid . Most laptops have a minimalist invention today , with very petty if any of the bling bling of several eld ago . But the ThinkPad P16 takes that to an extreme , with almost no character whatsoever . It ’s a dull grey with boring lines , and it ’s only saved from being downright fugly by a couple of the usual ThinkPad splashes of red . It ’s there in the battery-acid on the “ i ” in the Word on the eyelid and palm rest and the TrackPoint nubbin embedded in the keyboard .

But it does n’t follow either the old - schooling black-market - on - black ThinkPad esthetic or their newer , more forward-looking expression . And then there ’s a red strip along the lower border of the back physique . Gaming laptop and the MacBook Pro 16 are either more exciting or more graceful .

Keyboard and touchpad

The ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 has Lenovo ’s non - ThinkPad keyboard , oddly enough , which is shallow than the ThinkPad version but has the same large sculpted keycaps and lots of cardinal spatial arrangement . The switches are light and brisk , although the bottom action is n’t quite smooth enough to outrank as one of my favourite keyboard . As usual , Apple ’s Magic Keyboard remains at the top of my list .

The touchpad is a mechanical rendering that ’s OK . There ’s the TrackPoint nubbin embedded in the keyboard as a nod to ThinkPad fans , but its two buttons take up space from the touchpad . That makes the swiping surface even smaller .

Connectivity and webcam

As is usual with large laptops like this , there ’s plenty of connectivity . There ’s a mix of modern Thunderbolt 4 ports and bequest connections , along the side and the back of the frame . The power connective is proprietary . Wireless connectivity is one generation behind .

The webcam is a 1080p version , so it run across the unexampled standard . It ’s fine . There ’s no neural processing whole ( NPU ) on board , so the ThinkPad 16 ca n’t take advantage of today ’s AI with a riotous but efficient chip . The GPU can be used , though , and it will provide very riotous AI processing at the cost of more might usage .

Performance

The ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 uses Intel Raptor Lake CPUs in the thirteenth or fourteenth generations . That iteration has had some subject with imbalance that Intel has been work on , specifically those rate with a TDP of 64 W or higher . That ’s something to keep in creative thinker . My reexamination whole used the Core i7 - 14700HX , a 55 - watt part with 20 cores ( eight performance and 12 Efficient ) and 28 thread , running at up to 5.5GHz Max Turbo frequence . It ’s a immobile and might - hungry chipset that allow for very effective performance for call for creative and , for instance , engineering applications .

It also uses the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada GPU , which is aimed at those professional diligence and , as mentioned above , is ISV - license and so it provide some authority that its performance will be reliable . This part is the master difference that comes with a workstation product like this — you ca n’t find it on consumer mainstream laptop . The RTX 4000 Ada uses the late CUDA , RT , and Tensor cores for degenerate operation and houses 20 GB of GPU memory with advanced AV1 encoders . It ’s not optimized for gaming , but it performs a lot like the GeForce RTX 4070 and in some eccentric like a 4080 .

The ThinkPad P16 does very well against a variety show of other machines Core Ultra Series 1 chipsets and the RTX 4070 . It also go on up with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 . It ’s particularly fast in single - core tasks , and the RTX 4000 Ada churns through Cinebench R24 .

Most apprisal among our benchmarks is the laptop ’s performance in the Pugetbench Premiere Pro bench mark that run in a springy reading of Adobe ’s Premiere Pro and can utilize the GPU for dissipated functioning . It ’s one of the fast laptop we ’ve tested , coming in behind the MacBook Pro 16 with various CPU optimizations that help out but GPU cores that are n’t quite as tight . Note that I included results from the MacBook Pro 16 with the previous - gen M3 Max ; the M4 Max was lately released and is likely to be even faster .

just put , the ThinkPad P16 is a very fast laptop for professionals , and it can be even faster with a Core i9 CPU and an RTX 5000 Ada GPU that rival the GeForce RTX 4090 . Whether it ’s fast enough given the high damage comes down more to whether you need an ISV - certify laptop because your livelihood depends on rock - upstanding dependability .

When you have a laptop computer with these kind of components , you ’ll course want to consider playing some games . The RTX 4000 Ada is n’t aimed at gaming and it does n’t use the standard Nvidia gaming - oriented drivers . But even so , it ’s a capable gambling GPU .

To start with , it tally 15,993 in the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark , which is fast than the common RTX 4070 score of around 11,000 . In fact , the Alienware M16 with an RTX 4080 scored 17,659 in this benchmark while the Legion 9i Gen 9 with the RTX 4090 account 20,293 . That localise the ThinkPad P16 nearer to the RTX 4080 — at least , in this synthetic bench mark .

Looking at a couple of tangible - life gaming benchmarks paint a similar painting . The ThinkPad P16 hit 102 frames per second ( fps ) inAssassin ’s Creed Valhallaat 1600p and ultra - high graphics . That ’s a piece slower than the 114 fps remove by the Asus ProArt P16 with its RTX 4070 . InCyberpunk 2077 , the Thinkpad P16 make out 74 fps at 1600p and extremist graphic with FSR 2.1 enabled , compare to the Legion 9i Gen 9 at 106 Federal Protective Service . So , the RTX 4090 is a lot quicker . With ray tracing turned on , the ThinkPad P16 hit 60 Federal Protective Service compared to the Legion 9i Gen 9 ’s 88 fps .

Ultimately , you ’ll be able-bodied to run modernistic title at 1600p with graphics turned up at least as well as an RTX 4070 .

Battery life

There ’s a magnanimous 94 James Watt - hr assault and battery packed into the ThinkPad P16 , but also some power - hungry components and a prominent , reasonably high-pitched - res display . You do n’t require great barrage life from a laptop computer like this , and you do n’t get it .

I saw just 4.25 hour in our web browsing test and around five hr in our picture looping test . Those are fairly bad , but then I receive just 42 minutes in our Cinebench R24 run that runs the processor at full pep pill . That means you ’ll need to carry around the very dense tycoon brick to get any real study done aside from your office . That makes for well over 7 pounds to carry around , making this a less - than - portable answer .

Display and audio

Lenovo offers several display option for the ThinkPad P16 , all 16.0 inches in the 16:10 scene ratio . you could get FHD+ ( 1920 x1200 ) IPS , QHD+ ( 2560 x 1800 ) IPS , 4K+ ( 3840 x 2400 ) IPS , and 4K+ OLED . The QHD+ IPS panel , which was on my review unit , runs at up to 165Hz , while the rest are limited to the more walker 60Hz . I cogitate QHD+ is just sharp enough at this display sizing , although I favor 4K+ for the sharp schoolbook . Subjectively , the video display was good but not great — but I ’m very spoiled by reviewing so many first-class OLED and mini - LED displays that are spectacular out of the boxful .

When I tested the presentation with my tintometer , I tend into some publication . Lenovo includes the X - Rite Color Assistant utility to take various manufactory calibrations , and none of them provided very good results . The best result came from the “ Not calibrate ” setting , and those were n’t very good at all for a laptop intended for professional who tend to involve a display with wide-cut and exact colors . Those effect were very poor , at 99 % of sRGB , 76 % of AdobeRGB , and 77 % of DCI - P3 , which are just intermediate for IPS displays today . Color accuracy was terrible , at a Delta - E of 7.19 , and Gamma was right smart too undimmed at 1.7 ( 2.2 is received and the immense majority of today ’s displays hit that value ) .

The display was burnished at 498 nit and contrast was upright at 1,100:1 . But no matter which standardisation I selected , the colour were just impossible . The bad value came with the Rec . 709 context that ’s supposed to be optimized for TV employment , at a Delta - E of 11.88 . That just wo n’t cut it . That ’s bad enough that there may something wrong with my reappraisal unit , but that ’s the data I pull together from my colorimeter .

Lenovo may just need to do some work on those preferences or my review unit might just be a turkey . But when you spend this kind of money for a laptop , you expect better . I ’m certain the 4K+ OLED display is fantabulous , and that would certainly be my option if I bought the ThinkPad P16 .

Audio is provided by two upward - firing speaker , and there ’s plenty of book with clear mids and highs . But sea bass is lacking , so you ’ll desire a pair of earpiece or a Bluetooth speaker for anything more than YouTube videos and system vocalize .

A laptop that you’ll only want if you really need it

Professional workstations like the ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 are invariably expensive because of the engineering science needed to be ISV - indorse , and professionals who bank on them to get paid can apologize the damage to take in the highest potential grade of reliability . They ’re not always the fastest options unless you ’re using an app that takes unmediated advantage of the capability of a specific component .

The ThinkPad P16 is definitely very expensive , and it ’s probably very reliable for that select group of buyers . The performance of the commercial-grade GPU is also really impressive . But it ’s also almost unreasonably thick and heavy , and it ’s notthatmuch quicker than less - costly alternative ( or at all ) . Meanwhile , the exhibit on my inspection unit was very dissatisfactory . Even those who necessitate ISV certification can likely discover a in force alternative .