Announcing ThinkPad P-Series - P50 and P70

The FHD IPS panels are all relatively low gamut on the P50, so for photo work, the 4K panel is definitely recommended. Too bad. On the P70, the FHD screen also has a reasonable gamut at least.

Interestingly enough the panel they have tested there gets completely different results from the LG panel notebookcheck tested, so this should be a different panel as well. This one is less bright (because its a touchscreen) and the contrast is a little lower, but the gamut is a bit better for this one compared with the LG.

 

Are there any reviews for the P70 with the FHD screen yet? Also, the specs for the P70 4k display say 90% gamut (I'm assuming that's NTSC) - the 75% Adobe RGB coverage in notebookcheck's review is far below that, right? Doesn't 100% sRGB translate to 72% Adobe RGB, only 3% less than the reviewed unit?

 

No, no reviews for the P70 @ FHD as of now.

Yes, the 90 % is for NTSC. If you look at the gamut of the screen, you can see that this panel is wide gamut, but for AdobeRGB, the gamut is covering the wrong space: http://www.notebookcheck.com/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_AdobeRGB_2d181fb1b0.png As you can see, the panel is lacking in the green-blueish part of AdobeRGB, but its exeeding AdobeRGB in the yellow-red area. It covers sRGB at 99,97 %, and AdobeRGB 76 %.

 

Why is the 4K display upgrade so expensive for the P70? (+ $500)

All 17" 4K offerings from dell cost less than $200 and I don't think HP dreamcolor was even more than $400...

 

The order for my P50 is now "in manufacturing".

Is there really any downside to repartitioning and reformatting the HDD to perform a clean install of Windows 10 Pro?
Is anything important from the original HDD lost when doing this?

Asking because I am also going to install a 950 Pro SSD.

 

I am still waiting for the Dell 7710 review and the HP Zbook 17 G3 (hopefully they appear soon) however I do want 4K and those prices differences will effect my decision. I did wish there was a store I could go to view the those machines side by side. I would like to see what that HP dreamcolor screeen looks like in person.

 

You might lose a recovery partition, but I can't think of any other downsides.

 

Well if the 7710 screen is anything like the Alienware 17 R3 4k screen, it's hands down best I've ever seen.
On another note, lenovo high dp screens have always been sort of a wash. I have 541 and 550s both with 3k, are they're a bit dull, and even grainy (not horribly). Still vs 1080p their 3k has been awesome, but it's more about scaling resolution that it is beautiful panel. Dell for some reason has almost always knocked their high res displays out of the park, at least what I've personally seen. 4800 and xps 13/15.

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Totally agree; Dell has superb screen quality while Lenovo always has issues.

 

Yea, lenovo has always had some sort of throttling going on (never full power/performance). Dell almost always has pretty good jump in performance per similar spec. And my workplace has always gone Dell, with almost little to no issues.

Yet, every personal laptop I've ever bought, has been Lenovo. Not truly sure why, honestly no clue. And I've never been unhappy or regretted my decision with Lenovo.
But after significant gains in cpu/gpu technology, reviews on both Dell and Lenovo, have just not made me want to upgrade.
And this time I actually need an upgrade.


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My experience has been the opposite. Always have problems with Dell at work and glad my employer switched to Thinkpads (X1C and T550s).

 

Maybe it's because my works cheap and we all have like 3 yr old (how did they find them?) low/medium end latitudes. Less problems because laptops so slow for anything to go wrong, haha.

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What is the downside of losing the recovery partition if you know how to install Windows 10 clean and have the ability to download and install the drivers?

 

Thanks.

 

Not always. My work laptop is a Dell and the screen is pretty dull with terrible viewing angles. A higher model screen is available for that model laptop, but my employer did not buy it.

All brands can have problems. I almost pulled the trigger on the Dell XPS 15 9550 but the continual reports of keyboard / spacebar problems is one of the things that turned me off.

 

The only real downside of losing the recovery partition is you can't restore the system to a factory state by pressing a button if your Windows installation crashes and becomes unusable.

 

If you know how to do it yourself, you'll be better off with newest/newer set of windows and drivers. Vs stock has old versions.
Also, built in partition is only good so long your on that drive, and/or, that drive is working. Most times I need to reinstall windows, is on a new drive because either I'm upgrading storage or something with that drive went bad and I'm replacing it.

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Aaaand my P50 has shipped!

But my SSD trays are predicted to arrive 3 days later after the notebook. So I expect it's going to be an agonizing 3-day wait before I can put in my 950 Pro (which also shipped) and get Win10 installed proper.

 

Does anyone know how much of Adobe RGB is covered by the P50's 4K display? Thx.

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Does anybody know, how many external displays you can have and how many you can have thru the new workstation dock? I need 3 external displays minimum and 4 would be better. The dock has three digital outputs but I don't know if they aren't shared.

EDIT: nevermind, found it
https://support.lenovo.com/au/en/documents/pd029622

 

That was on a review (German I believe) and I belive adobe was 78%, the other was 100%

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Nope, that was the P70 4K screen, not the P50. No reviews on the P50 4K screen yet.

 

The p50 1080p review mentions p50 4k screen specs. But does note that pvm (screen flicker) wasn't known.

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As I am quite sensitive to screen flickering, I would like to find out if the p50 uhd display uses pwm and if yes at what Hz and screen brightness.

I would really appreciate if someone could shed some light on it as I'm about to order a p50 with 4k display. If there is significant pwm than I will have to go with the precision 7510.

Thanks
Adam

 

This is from the review :
All in all, the performance of the Full-HD panel is "just" decent, but we would have expected more for a price of 2,500 Euros. It is very unfortunate that Lenovo does not offer a better FHD display, but only the 4K panel as an option, which has its own issues (scaling, higher power consumption, probably PWM).

In my understanding, they expect the p50 4k display to use pwm, probably based on their experience with the p70 4k panel that uses pwm at 228 Hz under 95 brightness (which is pretty bad, I guess)

I have almost pulled the trigger on the p50, but I want to find out for certain, now.

 

Massive delays from Lenovo. Ordered 1/15 and they don't expect to ship now till 2/18. Sad days.

 

Same for me. I ordered a P50 on 1/14 and now the ship date is 2/16.

 

This might have to do with Chinese New Year. Most Chinese workers will be on vacation for a week. Always happens around this time of the year.

 

Was just about to pull the trigger on getting the p50 with the FHD touch screen, and no it is no longer an option on the lenovo site. Will it eventually come back as an option - I'm getting really tired of waiting, I've been waiting since August.

Do we know if they will eventually offer better screens, or if there will be aftermarket screens with better gamut that we can install ourselves, specifically the FHD touchscreen variety?

 

It should be possible to use aftermarket FHD IPS screens. But only non-touch. This should not be possible for touch, as the touchscreen has a special glass plate bonded to it.

 

I just got my P50 with 1080P IPS non-touch screen. Samsung panel in this one!

 

Has anyone asked Lenovo if they've implemented a whitelist for the MXM GPU's in the P70? The ability to upgrade to a Pascal card in the future would be a big plus.

 

Looking at Lenovo´s record on this subject matter, I would have my doubts. But I guess no one has tested it yet, so there still is hope.

 

It's here!! My P50 showed up today. OK so the M.2 trays got pushed back and supposedly won't arrive for another 2-3 weeks.

Can anyone tell me where to find the serial number / activation code for Windows 10 Pro? I want to use this so I can re-install Windows 10 Pro on my 950 Pro (after I eventually get my SSD trays...)

 

You shouldn't need it. Windows will see the activation code stored in the BIOS/UEFI and will auto-activate. If you're asked for a key during installation, choose the option to provide a key "later."

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If you use the lenovo image disc or usb it should read the key from the bios. If not you might have to look up rw/everything and have it read the bios into a format you can read. Good luck

 

OK. I turned my P50 on. The backlight is annoying. Is this level of bleed typical or do I have something to complain about?

Photo:
http://i.imgur.com/x3EOZwS.png

I have the Samsung FHD Non-Touch panel.

 

It's supposed to work with any Windows 10 installation media, even generic media from MSDN or elsewhere. Microsoft's activation server knows that your PC is already authorized to run Windows 10, and should happily reactivate Windows 10 as long as the key (as read from the encrypted area in the BIOS/UEFI) matches what they have on their servers. Let us know if it works!

 

IPS glow. I see the same thing on my Samsung panel. Try tilting the panel slightly forward or back; this may reduce the visibility somewhat.

 

Are you sure? I'm talking about the stuff along the bottom edge. It's pretty bright and quite visible from many angles. The stuff in the top corners is obviously IPS glow though and it doesn't bother me.

I have a Dell U2415 it doesn't have anything like this.

 

Yes, there's backlight bleeding along the bottom edge too. Same thing on mine. This can sometimes diminish over time as things settle in, so not too worried yet.

 

In my experience this seems to be a Lenovo "feature", at least in the T-series. I've seen it on FHD panels from Samsung, AUO, and LG panels. Annoying but usually not noticeable in normal use. If using the machine for photography, however, it might prove problematic.

I had an LG panel replaced in my T440p because of excessive backlight bleed. The AUO replacement was fine at first, but within 6 months had also developed bleed. Can't tell if it's a panel design issue, or the design of Lenovo's flimsy lids.

 

Backlight bleed is pretty common on IPS screens. This can happen anywhere, and with any lid design.

Case in point: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Update-HP-ZBook-15-DreamColor-Workstation.112327.0.html

One of the most expensive notebook displays ever, DreamColor, and a very thick lid - and still massive backlight bleed: http://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/HP/ZBook_15_DreamColor/Lichthof.jpg

Lenovo´s lid design is fine. P50 design is pretty robust.

 

OK. Thank you all for the responses regarding the IPS display.

Another question. Has anyone noticed that, when closing the lid, there is some kind of ticking or clicking noise that seems to be coming from the right hand side hinge?

Video:

 

I hear it too - although not as loud on mine. I never noticed it before...

 

This is by far the worst screen I've ever gotten on a laptop. Below was my old W520/FHD and my new P50/4K:



http://i.imgur.com/9TcQ5ha.jpg

Is the "shadow" on the edges normal? I can't look at any part of the screen without seeing at least part of the screen darkened.

 

Considering the pixel density of 4K, that's almost like a 30" FHD display crammed into a 15" display. Having some darkness that "moves around" depending on your angle is a normal thing for IPS displays, and I find the camera exaggerates it somewhat. And the bigger the display, the more you see it. So I expect it would be worse on a 4K versus a FHD.

 

Okay, thanks. I'm almost thinking about sending it back. I can't seem to find an angle or a distance in which some part of the screen doesn't darken noticeably. It's getting to the point where it's distracting to read text and I'm moving windows to my second monitor so that I can see whites correctly.

 

Yes, darker or brighter edges is common on many LCDs. I see it also on many HDTVs. (Hint: Don't look for it unless you want to drive yourself mad!)

 

@Silvenga: What is the battery life with the 4K display? — under normal use like browsing the internet.