2015-09-08, 11:06 AM

Although not announced on IFA (P-Series was announced on a separate event in August already), the new ThinkPad P50 and the new P70 were on display on IFA. Although, I have to correct myself, they were not on display on IFA itself. Rather you had the chance to see them only on Lenovos launch event, and actually before the Lenovo booth was opened for the press – why?

Both models on display were still early prototypes. You could instantly notice that just by looking at their nameplates, which said “xxxx” rather than P50 and P70. Also, the TrackPoint of the P70 was somehow busted, which ultimately was the reason they were removed before the Lenovo booth was opened.

Anyway, they were still there and they could be tried out at least a little bit. I tried to get as much information as possible, and I will summarize some of the changes I noticed.

Chassis and outer design

The P50 and the P70 have very classical ThinkPad designs. Their matte-black chassis (yes, no more Graphite black-grey – ThinkPads are back in black) has a very boxy form when closed. The black lid is contemplated by two big and very visible steel hinges, which are of a dark-silver color. A change for this generation of ThinkPads is the Lenovo logo on the lid – it’s the new Lenovo Logo now, and it’s located in the top left corner of the lid now, and it is colored black now, so it is barely visible. I like that, since it creates a cleaner design, while still maintaining the brand logo on the lid.

http://i.imgur.com/pyn2S9Q.jpg http://i.imgur.com/IquRO98.jpg http://i.imgur.com/npAZej5.jpg

If you open the display you will see an improved version of last year’s ThinkPad keyboard, as well as a brand-new UltraNav, a new Fingerprint-Reader (which wasn´t working on the demo unit) as well as a color calibrator (which has been around on the former W-series for a long time now). The keyboard, which has been altered in several ways, doesn´t flex at all – very solid. The same goes for the palmrest area. A very solid machine, thanks to the Magnesium structure frame underneath the palmrest, a longtime ThinkPad feature. The big steel hinges are safely holding the screen (although they could have been slightly stiffer – that one more point where the prototype status shines through). The screen bezel is different from earlier W models like the W540, since it now has a rubber lip going around the edge. In the screen bezels sits the restored HDD LED (which I have been told stays exclusive for the P-series). Another restored LED is the charging LED, which sits at the backside besides the charging port.

http://i.imgur.com/3UoUa8A.jpg http://i.imgur.com/SP49aQ4.jpg

As I mentioned above: The keyboard has been modified in several ways. Based on user feedback on the W540 generation keyboard, Lenovo changed the 4 keys above the numpad to be a second set of volume keys, offering dedicated volume buttons once again, at least on 15.6” and above systems. Also, Lenovo brought back several status LEDs, the numlock LED for example, as well as an LED for the caps-lock key (both LEDs sit in their keys). The FN lock LED was moved from the FN key to the Esc key. Oh, and something you can easily overlook: The printing on the F-keys was enlarged, based in feedback from customers that the F-key printing was too small to read.

The UltraNav was also severely modified. After the step from the W530 to the W540, which included the complete elimination of all mouse buttons, and the return of the TrackPoint buttons with the W541, we now have a full-circle, with both the dedicated TrackPoint buttons and the dedicated TrackPad buttons restored. Even more, for the first time ever, the touchpad now has a complete set of buttons with a middle button. The TrackPoint buttons are slightly different from the W541 as well, as they are now again part of the keyboard, in classical ThinkPad style. The last important change for the touchpad: The surface. W530 had a very bumpy surface. This new TrackPad is much smoother, and the surface is supposed to not wear off over time.

Coming to the bottom of the machines: The battery now sits at the front, different from older T-series and W-series models. It is the neighbor to a big removable maintenance cover, under which presumably the RAM as well as the hard-drives are located (we can´t be sure for now, since the user manual and the Hardware Maintenance Manual for the new P-Series are yet to be released). With the battery in the front, there is more room for ports on the backside, as well as more room for the cooling system in the back.

http://i.imgur.com/WS742hV.jpg http://i.imgur.com/LgrRSuU.jpg http://i.imgur.com/NStI2dI.jpg

I have to say, for a 17” machine, the P70 really felt surprisingly light. The W700 line was in a whole different league weight wise.

Ports and connections

Both machines are Workstation models. Thus, they have a very wide range of ports to cover all eventualities. Both the P50 and the P70 share the fact that they have 4x USB 3.0 ports (1 Always-On), a full-size HDMI 1.4 (the first one ever on a ThinkPad Workstation, as the replacement for the legacy VGA port), Mini DisplayPort 1.2, a RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port, a Smartcard-reader, a Combo Mic/Headphone jack, a Expresscard slot (34 mm), as well as a SDXC card reader. As the P70 is bigger and thicker, it has slightly more options, which include an optical drive, as well as two Thunderbolt 3 ports, instead of one.

Both the P50 and the P70 have new Wifi cards (Intel 8260), as well as a new LTE-Advanced WWAN cards (Sierra Wireless EM7445).

Memory and Storage

As workstations the new P models have to offer plenty of RAM and storage options. Shared for both the P50 and the P70 are the 4 DIMM slots, which means both machines support up to 64 GB (double the amount compared to the W541) of DDR4 memory. Yes, that’s right, DDR4 is about to take over the PC world – so you can´t use older DDR3 memory sticks in here.

Both the P50 and the P70 offer one standard 2.5” HDD slot, so you can fit large 2 TB HDDs in there. They also finally offer 80mm M.2 slots (two of them) for fast and small PCIe SSDs. The P70 offers even more flexibility, as you can take out the optical drive and replace it either with a light travel cover that offers one additional M.2 port, or a slightly heavier HDD bay adaptor for a second HDD. So, in total you can get the P50 with up to 2 TB HDD storage and up to 1 TB SSD storage, and the P70 can be configured with up to 4 TB HDD storage plus 1 TB SSD storage, or up to 3.5 TB SSD storage. And all of that with additional Raid options (Raid 0 or 1).

CPUs and GPUs

As for CPU options the P series can be either configured with Core i CPUs (HQ line) or Xeon E3xxxxM CPUs. The units on display had Core i7-6700HQ CPUs, which will be one of the lower end options. Benchmarks were sadly not possible on the event, so we will have to wait for the models to finally arrive on the market for some more insight. The same goes for the dual-cooling system, which would have been interesting to test out.

On the GPU side, there is some news. The P50 on display was equipped with an nVidia Quadro M1000M, the P70 had the low-end Quadro M600M. According to the information I got there, the P50 should be configurable with either the Quadro M1000M or the Quadro M2000M. The P70 should be available with a big range of GPUs, from the low end M600M to the M5000M, which is the fastest Mobile Quadro GPU after the M6000M. I asked if the GPU is MXM, but I didn´t get a definitive answer, so we will see about that once the first users get their units.

Display

As with the GPUs and CPUs, the prototypes I had the honor to handle were equipped with the low-end display option. Although “low-end” is pretty much dependable on your point of view, because an FHD IPS screen isn´t really that low-endish by any means. Still, would have been nice to see the high end 4K IPS screen, or maybe the FHD IPS Touch (which is also the first time that we see a Touchscreen on a Quad-Core ThinkPad).

From the quick hands-on they looked pretty great, much better than the FHD TN screens on the W540. Of course, a real judgement would require fine measurements, so that will have to wait until the units are out as well.

More Pictures as well as comparison pictures with the W550s

Link to all images: http://imgur.com/a/gvqRA#0

Conclusion

It was great to get the chance to try out these monsters, especially since they were put away for the main IFA show. For ThinkPad workstation users, these might be finally the machines they have been waiting for since a longer time. Part of this is because Lenovo listened to the voices of the customers concerning the pain points they had with former models like the W540. The P50 and P70 are truly a return to form in the workstation segment, and I am very eager to see how they will perform in the real world (I will keep an open eye for a successor for my trusty W550s^^). The P50 should be on the market in late October/early November, the P70 should follow one month later. But, beware, quality and performance have their price – these machines won´t be affordable for budget-conscious buyers, as they will start in the price range of 1500 – 2000 $ / € and then move up with the price, depending on the configuration you pick. A P70 with 4K screen, Xeon processor, a 512 GB PCIE SSD and 32 GB RAM could be easily above 2500-3000 $, and that’s not even a top-end configuration. So, if you want one, you better start saving money now. :-)