The Lenovo ThinkPad P51
As SOLIDWORKS World 2017 opens, Lenovo is announcing three new mobile workstations laptops with the ThinkPad P51s, ThinkPad P51, and ThinkPad P71. All three have common traits such as 4K UHD display, NVIDIA Quadro graphics processor, and Intel processors. All workstations can pass some MIL-Specs endurance, and without further details from Lenovo, we will assume that these are the MIL-810G transit drop tests. They target different segments of the portable workstation market.
ThinkPad P51s
The Lenovo ThinkPad P51s is designed to be light and portable. With its Thunderbolt support, it can be connected to large storage devices without experiencing much storage performance issues. Thunderbolt is also very convenient because it enables a one-connector (+power) docking experience that connects the laptop to displays, network, additional USB and more.
Interestingly, the rear battery of the ThinkPad P51s is hot-swappable, giving it a virtual unlimited mobility, if you can manage the logistics of charging batteries fast enough (the front battery is fixed). Places like hospitals often use hot swappable batteries, but they are not the only ones.
Specs highlight
- Core i7 (gen 7), 64 GB RAM (DDR4-2133) 2xSODIMM
- NVIDIA Quadro M520M (Maxwell architecture)
- 1x SSD (1TB NVMe) + 1x HDD (1TB 5400rpm)
- 32 Whr Front battery + 24-72 Whr rear battery
- 3x USB 3.0, 1x USB C (Thunderbolt), 1x HDMI 1.4 (out), 1x RJ45 Gb Ethernet
- FHD, FHD Touch, 4K UHD displays
- 3 Lbs, 365.8 x 252.8 x 19.95-20.2mm
ThinkPad P51
The ThinkPad P51 (no s) is a slightly larger, more powerful, computer that boasts a 4KUHD display that has better color reproduction and comes with a color calibrator. The ThinkPad P51 has nearly 2.5X the graphics horsepower of the lighter P51s because it uses a more powerful GPU with almost 3X as many compute cores.
It can also host a much larger SSD drive (2TB max) and more RAM (4x 16GB), so those who work on large files can do so comfortably.The P51 has desktop-level computing power in a 5.5 Lbs form-factor. It P51 does not have a removable battery, and buyers can opt for the 66 Whr or 90 Whr version (this one may protrude).
Specs highlight
- Xeon E3-v6 or Core i7 (gen 7) 64 GB RAM (DDR4-2400) 4xSODIMM
- NVIDIA Quadro M2200M (Maxwell architecture)
- 1x SSD (2TB NVMe) + 1x HDD (1TB unknown rpm)
- 66-90 WHr battery
- 4x USB 3.0, 1x Intel Thunderbolt 3, 1x HDMI 1.4 (out), 1x RJ45 Gb Ethernet, 1x Docking, 1x Expresscard
- FHD, FHD Touch, 4K UHD displays
- 6 Lbs, 377.4 x 252.3 x 24.5 – 25.9
ThinkPad P71: VR Ready
As its name indicates, the Lenovo ThinkPad P71 is the largest and most powerful (and heavy) of this new batch of workstations. Obviously, its 17” size makes it much larger and more comfortable to work on, but that comes with a 7.6 Lbs weight.
Inside, the biggest difference is the Quadro P5000M GPU, which is the most powerful available for workstations today. As such, this makes the ThinkPad P71 a “VR-Ready” workstation, like most computers that are equipped with NVIDIA’s Pascal-based GPUs.
This ThinkPad P71 also comes with a color calibrator, although Lenovo does not have any specific claims on its color gamut performance. It is typically excellent in this market segment, but we will have to look at the more detailed specs when they become available.
Specs highlight
- Xeon E3-v6 or Core i7 (gen 7) 64 GB RAM (DDR4-2400) 4xSODIMM
- NVIDIA Quadro P5000M (Pascal architecture)
- 1x SSD (2TB NVMe) + 1x HDD (2TB unknown rpm) + Optical drive or 1TB HDD
- 96 WHr battery
- 4x USB 3.0, 1x Intel Thunderbolt 3, 1x HDMI 1.4 (out), 1x RJ45 Gb Ethernet, 1x Docking, 1x Expresscard + 1x SmartCard
- FHD, 4K UHD displays
- 7.6 Lbs, 416 x 275.5 x 29.9 – 31.5
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