Announcing ThinkPad P-Series - P50 and P70

Yes, Thats what I am going to do compare the 3 of those workstations. hopefully it doesn't take until April though if it does by then there should be even better SSD's options made available. I don't know what else will be more advanced by then graphics cards maybe? Can't really think of anything else. Again you have to love how the Lenovo was announced (in August) I think? and it takes them that long to get the configurations ready. I mean let's just say it takes to march or april for them thats 7 or 8 months. By then they will be already ready to start thinking about the next version (I guess they will upgrade next fall not sure how that works though)

 

Any word on AdobeRGB coverage on any of the panels for the P50/70/50s?

This is a major pull for me from dell to be offering that sort of RGB coverage.

Also, is P50s the official replacement of the W550s? It's a bit thicker than the W550s and I'm really keen on something slimmer than that.

 

The P50 now has a US webpage without prices
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/p-series/p50/

but it says coming soon

 

Lenovo refers to the NTSC color gamut. The PSREF lists the following for P50 and P70:

• 15.6" (396mm) FHD (1920x1080), anti-glare, LED backlight, IPS, 250 nits, 16:9 aspect ratio, 600:1 contrast ratio, 45% gamut, 160° viewing angle

• 15.6" (396mm) 4K (3840x2160), anti-glare, LED backlight, IPS, 300 nits, 16:9 aspect ratio, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 100% gamut, 178° viewing angle

• 17.3" (439mm) FHD (1920x1080), anti-glare, LED backlight, IPS, 300 nits, 16:9 aspect ratio, 800:1 contrast ratio, 72% gamut, 170° viewing angle

• 17.3" (439mm) 4K (3840x2160), anti-glare, LED backlight, IPS, 300 nits, 16:9 aspect ratio, 800:1 contrast ratio, 90% gamut, 170° viewing angle

So I don´t know how much this exactly is in terms of the AdobeRGB, but 90-100 % NTSC qualifies these as wide-gamut screens - I think NTSC exeeds AdobeRGB.

P50s isn´t yet in the PSREF. P50s is available with either the FHD IPS panel used in the P50 (so 45 % of NTSC - very low gamut screen), or the older 3K panel used in W550s and W541 - this one has 92 % of sRGB, which might translate to around 70 % of NTSC.

Yes, it is. Actually, I think its as thin as the W550s. P50s uses essentially the same chassis as the W550s, in black.

 

Yep, NTSC is greater than Adobe RGB. Generally, the 72% NTSC should be around 100% sRGB and the 100% NTSC is essentially 100% Adobe RGB with variation due to manufacturing, design, etc. Judging by those specs, it seems like the 15.6 4K is pretty similar to the one Dell put in their XPS 15/5510/7510. Essentially the same gamut, same contrast, but the Dell is a bit brighter. All in all, should be a great screen.

Interested to see the battery life on this machine. The 4K was a pretty big drainer on the XPS 15, and the Lenovo battery estimates (6.1 hour on the 6 cell 90Whr) aren't very encouraging.

 

sRGB (green) vs NTSC (purple):


Adobe RGB (red) vs. NTSC (purple):


A screen that covers the entire NTSC color space does not necessarily cover 100% of sRGB or Adobe RGB.

 

@ibmthink Like @fb1996 shows, 100% NTSC does not mean AdobeRGB at 100%, as shown in the graphics.

Regardless...thank you very much for the info! That does confirm to me that at least they get to put some real decent panels on these machines after the W510/20/30 Thinkpads.

Also, according to notebookcheck's numbers, the P50s is roughly same as W550

P50s

15x10.2x0.88-0.92 inches

W550s

height x width x depth (in mm): 23 x 381 x 259 ( = 0.91 x 15 x 10.2 in)

So, no real improvement in that dept...

As there is no real improvement on the 3K panel which, I assume, is the same as the W550s which only covers about 86% of sRGB.

Also, no word on whether the battery arrangement would also affect the perceived thickness of the machine, which to me was a negative of the W550s.

So, I may take the Dell Precision 5510 as the portable solution.

If the stats are correct, unless the P50s dispatches with quad-core processors, the W550s can be a good bargain to be had. Something tells me it just might, since battery life is priority on that workstation more than pure muscle power.

At only 1.5mm-2.9mm thinner than the standard P50 (H: 0.96-1.02" (24.5-25.9 mm) W: 14.86" (377.4 mm) D: 9.93" (252.3 mm) - from anandtech), the W550s/P50s isn't THAT much more different to the standard machine shipping with the better display. It could be argued that, if battery life isn't a dominant need, the P50 is the better balanced machine overall.

Either, however, are a big improvement over my current W530: H: 0.96-1.02" (24.5-25.9 mm) W: 14.86" (377.4 mm) D: 9.93" (252.3 mm) in thickness, but not footprint (about the same)

Shame about the display choice of the P50s and W550s. I wonder if one could "upgrade" to the 4K display with a hot swap.

...

Decisions decisions.

 

I currently have a Dell M6500 which I use in support of a virtual lab using 32GB of RAM and (4) SSD drives – (1)mSata, (2) 2.5" SSD and (1) 2.5" SSD in the CD/DVD tray. The drives are setup as RAID0 consisting of two volumes so (2) drives together as one RAID0 while the other (2) as RAID0 which supports the use for quick backup/restore of the lab environment during tests. I'm using all four now as 1TB drives each. I am interested in the ThinkPad P70 because of the availability to double the RAM from 32GB limit I have now to 64GB in addition to having slots for 4 SSD drives as compared to the new Dell. I've noticed with how I use VMware Workstation now for the labs I run out of hard drive space prior to memory and why looking at P70 instead of the Dell 7710 as my understanding the Dell 7710 has 3 hard drive slots – (2) m.2 and (1) 2.5” SSD so I’d have more total drive space with the P70.


Questions:


1.) Do you know or have experience with other Lenovo laptops if one can purchase with the minimum number of drives and replace them later and still configure the RAID or do you have to purchase RAID setup initially? I already have (2) 2.5" SSDs from the M6500 I could add to Lenovo and thought perhaps to replace the m.2 SSDs with possible larger Samsungs.

2.) Would I be able to say have (2) of the m.2 SSDs in RAID0 to boot OS from and the (2) 2.5" SSDs in RAID0 on a different volume so say c:\ drive consisting of (2) m.2 SSD RAID0 and d:\ consisting of (2) 2.5" SSD RAID0?

3.) Any idea when or if 1TB or 2TB m.2 SSDs will be released?

4.) Are the 2.5" and CD/ROM in P70 using SATA III?


Thanks

 

I believe you need to order the system with RAID enabled to have the option to use it.

 

Anyone know how many external monitor can the P70 power when docked?

 

P70 can power up to five independent displays at the same time.

 

That's including the built-in display I assume? Can it drive five independent UHD screens? Does the P50 support the same number of displays? Thanks.

 

Is that dependent on the graphics card selected? At what refresh rate and how many displays with the "standard" card?

 

What kind of RAM does the P70 use? Is there a benefit in getting error correcting RAM or can I use Non ECC RAM in the P70 without issues? Amazon only seems to sell Non ECC Ram and you can get a whole 32GB of RAM for the P70 for only $149, which is a lot better than what Lenovo charges for the RAM upgrade.

Would the following RAM work in the P70 and does the P70 have 4 RAM slots?

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC4-1...UTF8&qid=1450626120&sr=1-1&keywords=DDR4-2133

 

The RAM that you posted is meant for desktops (DIMM). The type of RAM you will want to look for is called SODIMM, unless the p70 allows for desktop RAM modules.

 

Thanks! Good catch I guess on Amazon, this is the only viable choice for RAM. Odd that it has zero reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-DDR4-...F8&qid=1450637551&sr=8-4&keywords=SODimm+ddr4

 

Also I find it very odd that such a high end laptop offers no touch screen with the 4K display. My Toshiba P50t from last year has a 15" 4K display AND a touch screen. What's up with not including a touch screen? Will t be added later on in 2016?

 

My guess is manufacturers have by now wised up to the fact that not too many people are interested in touch screens. I for one don't want one, even though I understand that there are some limited scenarios where people may in fact be interested in a touch screen.

 

Especially the people who buy workstations - they are probably more reflective about what they need, then 'normal consumer' customers. Another point is the glossy screen - touch usually comes without a matt finish and some countries have banned 'full' glossy screens from displays which are used for work purposes.

 

I've been a very happy W520 owner for the past 4.5 years (one of the best computer related purchases I have made from a performance and reliability standpoint) and I am STOKED on these new machines! I was originally thinking that the P50 would be the ideal replacement for my W520, but after some more thinking, I'm tempted to go with the larger format P70 with the M3000M card.

I'm pretty sure I'm clear on the specs and that most of the specs that I'm not 100% sure on, I'll be able to figure out once machines start arriving in customers hands (i.e. what drives / memory to order with the machine and what to purchase aftermarket). However, I do have ONE major question and that's regarding the processor: i7 vs. Xeon... There is a pretty big price jump going from the entry i7-6700HQ to the 1505 Xeon and I'm not sure that I need the Xeon. I'm primarily a Solidworks user, with my other applications being fairly mainstream: i.e. 6 Excel windows open alongside Solidworks spread out on a couple of monitors would be typical...

So, what are the actual benefits of upgrading from the i7 to the Xeon? If I purchase the Xeon, does that also require ECC memory to maximize the Xeon's abilities? Also, what about other CPU intensive number crunching tasks?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

A simple answer in my opinion is if you don't know a specific reason you need the Xeon, you probably don't need it.

Xeons allow ECC memory and are binned a bit better, so they could potentially have better thermal properties. But for the vast majority of computational tasks, they're no different than the i7

 

On the desktop front the real advantage of the lower end Xeon (1230) is that if you have a discrete graphics card and dont need to overclock it is better bang for the buck to go for the Xeon.

 

where are the other options for P70 displays?

 

Why did Lenovo dump the W series name? And will the P70 have build-in wacom digitizer pad thing found on the w700ds?

 

Lenovo wants to connect their workstation ThinkPad line closer with their ThinkStation line of workstation desktops, which are also called "ThinkStation P-Series".

P70 does not have a integrated wacom digitizer pad like the W700ds had. However, if you order it with a touchscreen, you will be able to use a ThinkPad Pen Pro with this screen.

 

I suspect that may be due to all the negative press they have received with the W540.

 

Does the p50 have 4k screen and 64gb compatibility. Is there vt-d option in the bios?

 

Yes to all 3, jedisurfer

 

sumbooty pls du ah bideo levu la !!!

 

Hello all,

Do you think it will be possible to run the ThinkPad P50 + three external 4k monitors @ 60 Hz? Here's what I've found thus far.

Graphics Cards

The ThinkPad P series mobile workstations come with NVIDIA Quadro for mobile workstation graphics cards. These specs don't indicate the number of simultaneous displays supported. However, these NVIDIA Quadro mobile graphics cards do seem to have specs on par with the Quadro K series desktop workstation cards, for which the specs do explicitly mention support for up to 4 simultaneous displays.

The Thinkpad P series mobile workstations also come with an Intel Core i7 or an Intel Xeon E3 processor with integrated Intel HD Graphics 530 or Intel HD Graphics P530, respectively. The specs for both integrated graphics cards explicitly mention support for up to three displays (although I'm not sure if the built-in display in the laptop counts as one too).

So, good to go on the graphics card front?

Ports, Cables, and Docks Oh My

The ThinkPad P50 has one Mini DisplayPort 1.2 port, one HDMI 1.4 port, one Thunderbolt 3 port, and one docking connector port.

DisplayPort 1.2 should be able to do at least one 4k monitor @ 60Hz.

Thunderbolt 3 can reputedly do up to two 4k monitors @ 60 Hz.

Support for 4k @ 60 Hz on HDMI 1.4 seems sketchy at best, so let's just ignore the HDMI 1.4 port.

That leaves the docking connector port. The ThinkPad Ultra Docks, for example, have two DisplayPort 1.2 ports, although I assume that the amount of data that can be pushed through the ThinkPad docking connector port may be limited to some degree (although I haven't been able to find the appropriate spec anywhere). So this counts as at least one additional DisplayPort 1.2 port, right?

So, on the P50 we have one DisplayPort 1.2 port and one Thunderbolt 3 port off of the machine itself, and at least one additional DisplayPort 1.2 port via the Ultra Dock.

So, good to go on the ports/connectivity front?

Wrapup

I'm feeling pretty confident that three external 4k monitors @ 60 Hz is possible at this point, but this is also the first time I've tried to put together such a face-melter of a battlestation. Users in this thread seemed to be much less confident about three 4k monitors @ 60 Hz.

What do you y'all think?

Edit:
X-post to r/thinkpad
X-post to Lenovo forums

 

If Lenovo works the P50 like my W530, they'll use the dedicated Nvidia Quadro graphics for all external displays and the integrated Intel graphics for the notebook display. While I know the Quadro cards support 4k @60hz, I can't find specifications on exactly how many such displays are supported. But I'm inclined to agree with you that the P50 most likely can run 3 external 4k screens @60hz + the notebook screen.

 

Anyone get this yet. Still don't get the appeal of an off center keyboard,

 

Me neither. I've tried the off-center trackpads and it's just an awful ergonomic decision. Far better to delete the numpad, center the trackpad and let folks who really need a dedicated numpad use an external unit. I'd be looking at a T560 with the high-res IPS display to replace my T530, but with Lenovo sticking with the numpad design I just can't do it.

 

P50 is finally available (after a one month delay) on lenovo.com: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/p-series/p50/

 

Lenovo seems to be lacking customization options now that existed previously. For instance, there are 3 processor options, but if you want the better graphics card, you also need to select the most expensive processor.

 

Nope, me neither. An ergonomic disaster IMO, and a reason that when I shop for a 15" workstation Lenovo will no longer be on my list, unless the T460p turns out to be a decent option. But who knows how long we'll have to wait for that to appear?

 

According to https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/40saik/x260_t460_t460p_and_t560_release_dates/ T460p should appear on the end of January. We will see if this is true. Specs are here: https://www.thinkscopes.com/2016/01/03/closer-look-at-2016-t-series-t460-t460s-t460p-t560/

 

I imagine I'll be tempted by the T460p, but with a 14" screen I wouldn't go above FHD resolution. I've used the T450s with the FHD screen and I ended up making the fonts larger so I effectively just lost screen area relative to the 15.6" screen in my T530. I'd be very interested in the upcoming P50s if it were available with a centered trackpad.

 

Does Lenovo make any 15" laptops without the numpad and off-center trackpad?

 

Nope.

 

Was looking at mm (maintenance manual) for P50 and it seems that this unit can have 2 SSDs + 1 2.5" HDD (see pages 63 thru 66 of mm). So a total of 3 drives. Is that right?

In order to reduce cost from Lenovo, if one buys 2.5" HDD and later on wants to add 2 SSDs then a kit needs to be purchased, item number 18 on page 51 of mm though it does not provide any P/N.

 

Yes, total of 2xM.2 drives + 1x2,5 inch or 2x2.5 inch drives.

I can't check the mm right now but u need special cables and stuff to install if u haven't purchased an installed drive from Lenovo.

 

Does P50 ship TB right now? Precision 7510 seems to begin shipping laptops with TB port only in Feb.

 

Yes, P50 ships with Thunderbolt in all versions.

 

Is there a document showing this 2x2.5? And do I need special anything to do this?

 

I don't think that should be the case in my scenario - buying 2.5" HDD from Lenovo should provide the HDD cable etc.

For the 2XM.2 drives, don't I just need the kit to install it or is there something else that needs to be installed in that slot?

 

I am probably not going to pull the trigger on a P50 right now, but it is good to see that you can get this thing at a reasonable price if you want to add your own drives and extra ram. It sucks you will need to buy some extra parts to add the drives, but it will probably still be cheaper than getting them from Lenovo. There seems to be much better choices for configuring Thinkpads now than there was a few years ago. Slowly but surely Lenovo seems to be learning a little bit. Hopefully the next round will have a USB C port.

 

The P50 has a USB-C Port (the P70 has two!) or do u mean the other parts of the 2016 line up?

I will check the drive installation issue when I'm back home again (~14 hours).

Link to Lenovos service videos, u can see the cables and adapters needed for the different drives. I think if u remove the 2 M.2 carrier it's possible to install a second 2,5 inch drive (2x2,5 inch in total).
https://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/showcase?sid=1129&key=TGVuZw==

 

So, am I correct in my understanding the P50 could possibly hold a total of [4] SSD drives as follows:

(2) - M.2 SSD Drives
(1) - 2.5" SSD Drive in Default HD Location
(1) - 2.5" SSD Drive in CD/DVD Drive Caddy

If so and the fact one can install 64GB of RAM is the difference between the P50 and P70 down really to screen size? I'd like to use the laptop to replace a Dell M6500 down the road in support of running multiple Virtual Machines in a lab so having drive space is a requirement.

Thanks

 

Thats not entirely correct - P50 does not have a DVD drive / Ultrabay, and therefore, this is the maximum configuration:
(2) - M.2 SSD PCIe
(1) - 2.5" SSD/HDD in Default HD Location

Only the P70 has this additional option:
(1) - 2.5" SSD/HDD or M.2 SSD in CD/DVD Caddy

Besides this difference and the obvious difference in screen size, P70 has 2x Thunderbolt 3 instead of 1x like the P50, and its available with much more and higher end GPU options - up to the Quadro M5000M (the GPU is MXM). Both machines can take up to 64 GB of RAM.