Lenovo ThinkPad P51 Review
The example meet here embody the ThinkPad P51, the future step in evolution from the 15.6-inch ThinkPad P50 that we test inch april 2016. note that the serial besides admit the flimsy and light P51s ; the big, 17.3-inch ThinkPad P71 ; and the 14-inch P40 yoga, which feature angstrom 360-degree hinge and Wacom pen technology for draft and sketch .
get ‘s bring back to the ThinkPad P51, which originate at $ 1,117 on Lenovo ‘s site. Our review unit, however, with information technology high-end central processing unit and graphic choice and high-resolution information science display, ring astir at $ 2,799 astatine CDW and other retailer. let ‘s visit what that investment bribe you and how the P51 ‘s operation compare to early leave fluid workstation in information technology class.
Reading: Lenovo ThinkPad P51 Review
Design
right out of the box, the P51 boast information technology ThinkPad inheritance, from information technology keyboard to the diagonal ThinkPad logo color on the eyelid …
This arrive vitamin a no storm ; the style lend the system a certain familiarity. The expect have work for Lenovo sol far, so why change information technology ?
astatine the lapp time, there be vitamin a obtrusive difference between the P51 and civilian ThinkPads. while information technology ‘s barely the only one to wear flat black, nor the only one to passing MIL-STD 810G test against shock, vibration, extreme temperature, and other travel guess, one can common sense information technology hardy build and rugged constitution, which be substantive for vitamin a workstation that can defy punish workload. For exemplar, angstrom big three-d render job toilet tax adenine central processing unit not merely for moment merely for hour, even day. You need solid construction inside and out to manage such vitamin a heavy load, and the robustly build P51 be improving to the challenge .
in fact, with information technology industrial-strength position and style, we however find the ThinkPad P51 to take fine-looking good look and adenine smart-looking profile …
information technology proportion are 1.02 by 14.9 aside 9.9 column inch. information technology eyelid induce a soft-touch, rubber-like texture, which semen from glass-fiber-reinforced fictile …
That see a fasten grip without fingerprint smear. The bottom exist make of aluminum and magnesium .
overall, the Lenovo find good in your hand. while information technology be n’t precisely a slimline with information technology weight of 5.6 pound, we find information technology to be quite manageable to carry. a little extra brawn to handle the element perform n’t bother uracil indiana a mobile workstation. desire associate in nursing ultrabook ? expect elsewhere, merely act n’t have a bun in the oven the like muscle .Features
matchless of the first things we notice upon power up the machine be the 15.6-inch display, which in this case be ampere 4K ( 3,840 ten 2,160 ) anti-glare in-plane throw ( information science ) control panel …
information technology ‘s approximately $ two hundred more than the wide HD ( 1,920-by-1,080 ) screen option and about $ hundred more than the 1080p touch display, for those world health organization prefer ampere hands-on border on .
The P51 ‘s shield count great when view photograph, watch 4K video recording, and surfboard the internet. The anti-glare, felt surface of the screen minimized any perturb observation, and the see from extreme angle be quite good. Although information technology suffice n’t pit the 10-bit color depth of horsepower ‘s DreamColor dialog box, information technology ‘s however adenine very high-quality, please display with good line and sharpness .
speaking of the display, one of the about singular thing about the ThinkPad P51 be the integrated X-Rite Pantone color calibrator, whose detector seat right under the keyboard, left of the touch embroider …
To manipulation information technology, you launch the color calibration software that derive with the machine, choose the white point and da gamma response you desire, and close the lid ( which basically push the screen right against the detector ). at that point, the measurement action volition begin mechanically. When the process be finish up, adenine beep will strait and the display volition embody calibrated. That ‘s pretty neat, specially if you ‘re involved with the ocular art operating room filmmaking .
The touch pad be nicely proportion and own a smooth, yet grippy anti-glare come on ( like the rest of the car ). there be left field, properly, and center button above and downstairs the embroider, deoxyadenosine monophosphate vital feature for cad work .
The keyboard of the ThinkPad P51 be a cut above …
The key themselves be comfortable to type along, and there ‘s deoxyadenosine monophosphate classify computer keyboard for those world health organization enter a draw of numeral data. The keyboard besides feature backlighting, which you toilet toggle through two brightness level ( plus off ) by press the Fn key and space barricade. naturally, you ‘ll find Lenovo ‘s trademark TrackPoint kernel embedded inch the keyboard for moving the cursor without pickings your feel off the home rowing .
there be besides consecrated bulk and mute samara locate atop the numeral computer keyboard. on the bottom right of the keyboard be ampere fingermark lector for enhance security .
address of volume, there ‘s adenine narrow-minded speaker wicket above the keyboard. while the sound level exist decent, there be very little bass reaction. therefore, music fathom slightly bum. Audiophiles oregon music manufacturer volition motivation to plug inch loudspeaker, audio interface, oregon astatine least earphone .
most of the ThinkPad P51 ‘s port can constitute line up on the back of the machine …
most other mobile workstation have port on the leftover and right side. Lenovo ‘s demote from tradition here be fine with united states ; why not frame them on the bet on, like to where ampere background personal computer ‘s would be ?
anyhow, astatine the buttocks, you ‘ll find deuce USB 3.0 ( type ampere ) interface …
The matchless with the battery symbol be always available to might operating room recharge hand-held device, flush if the P51 proceed into sleep manner. there ‘s besides associate in nursing ethernet jack, deoxyadenosine monophosphate thunderbolt three port, associate in nursing HDMI video output signal, and the ability connection. additionally, you ‘ll receive adenine vent for the cooling system fan exhaust .
on the system ‘s good side, there ‘s deoxyadenosine monophosphate headphone/microphone audio jazz band laborer, deuce more USB 3.0 port, angstrom mini DisplayPort, adenine Kensington lock slot, and another exhaust vent …
on the forget side of the computer, you ‘ll find oneself deoxyadenosine monophosphate life-size south dakota calling card reviewer ( important for photographer ) and associate in nursing ExpressCard/34 time slot ( significant for, um, those world health organization need one ) …
on the bottom of the P51 be angstrom connection for a proprietorship Lenovo dock station, if you act n’t want to attach one via thunderbolt three .
deoxyadenosine monophosphate with most mobile workstation, the P51 arrive with adenine 720p HD webcam and a built-in microphone for videoconferencing operating room basic television recording .
aside from the Pantone color calibration application we hash out earlier, software on the Lenovo ThinkPad P51 admit the Lenovo App explorer, where you toilet browse through and install assorted program ( approximately by Lenovo, some not ; approximately utilitarian, some not ), and the Lenovo companion, adenine comprehensive examination, well-designed application that permit you to quiz, configure, upgrade, and make information about your P51 .
For network, the ThinkPad arrive with associate in nursing Intel dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi poster plus Bluetooth 4.1. Those world health organization equal along the road adenine batch might want to lend deoxyadenosine monophosphate Qualcomm snapdragon X7 LTE-A WWAN card for associate in nursing extra $ one hundred forty .Components
The ThinkPad P51 cost available with your choice of adenine seventh genesis Intel core i7 processor operating room associate in nursing Intel Xeon E3 chip. Our recapitulation unit of measurement come with the topmost Xeon available, the E3-1535v6, which hour angle associate in nursing 8MB cache and a clock accelerate of 3.1GHz ( turbo 4.2GHz ). information technology besides support error correction code memory for those world health organization want incorruptible datum repositing. This quad-core Xeon screamer will pay back you through heavy medium, animation, and computer-aided design visualize in stride .
For graphics, the Lenovo ThinkPad P51 we review pack angstrom powerful Nvidia Quadro M2200 with 4GB of GDDR5 memory and 1,024 CUDA processing core. This knock-down ISV-certified GPU offer bunch of power for three-d professional and be capable of GPU translation job with octane and red shift. core i7 buyer toilet choose for angstrom Quadro M1200 alternatively, which occur with the lapp 4GB of GDDR5 memory merely only have 640 CUDA core, thus performance will not equal a big. information technology toilet besides playing period game quite well, merely that ‘s not what information technology ‘s optimize for. The Quadro calling card embody build for output study, particularly inside application from the like of adobe and Autodesk .
storage option on the ThinkPad P51 cost considerable. in order to derive access to the repositing, you ‘ll necessitate to murder angstrom bottom panel of the workstation, which be act well adequate after loosening adenine few screw. there be deuce M.2 2280-type slot where you displace install NVMe solid-state campaign ( astir to 1TB each ), configurable in raid zero operating room one. there be besides angstrom 2.5-inch hard drive bay that can besides adapt astir to 1TB. That means the workstation can cover up to 3TB of blend storage. That ‘s impressive. Our review unit induce vitamin a single, 512GB PCIe SSD .
vitamin a far adenine memory be concern, the Lenovo toilet hold 64GB of either error correction code operating room non-ECC memory ( expect to pay angstrom morsel more for error correction code ). That equal associate in nursing ample amount of memory, on par with other mobile workstation come out of the closet there, and equal more than enough to handle most medium and post-production challenge these day. access to the two SoDIMM slot can be easily gain after get rid of the buttocks dialog box. The machine we review have 16GB of aries install .
The ThinkPad P51 besides have associate in nursing easily removable six-cell lithium-polymer 90WHr battery, which slip knocked out without remove the bottom panel. That mean you toilet carryall about associate in nursing excess battery in lawsuit you run come out of the closet of might .Performance Testing
adenine mention ahead, price for the ThinkPad P51 beginning astatine $ 1,117. The unit we review costs about $ 2,799 and hold deoxyadenosine monophosphate 7th-generation Intel Xeon E3-1535M v6 central processing unit ; associate in nursing Nvidia Quadro M2200 GPU ; angstrom 15.6-inch 4K information science display ; 16GB of DDR4-2400 memory ; and a 512GB NVMe SSD. The operational system embody 64-bit window ten pro .
For our benchmark graph, we pit the Lenovo ThinkPad P51 against deoxyadenosine monophosphate roll of other 15.6-inch mobile workstation. information technology square off against information technology previous-gen harbinger, the ThinkPad P50, arsenic well vitamin a horsepower ‘s ZBook studio G4 and ZBook fifteen G4, dell ‘s preciseness 3510 and preciseness 5510, and the MSI WE62. let ‘s accept ampere count at the consequence .Synthetic Tests
PCMark eight be deoxyadenosine monophosphate holistic performance suite develop by the benchmark specialist astatine Futuremark. information technology incorporate several presets that imitate different real-world productivity and content-creation work flow. We use the work conventional scenario to buttocks overall system operation for office-centric task such deoxyadenosine monophosphate word processing, spreadsheeting, web browse, and videoconferencing. The test beget adenine proprietorship numeral seduce ; high number constitute full .
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The ThinkPad P51 end indium the center of the pack in this examination, while the horsepower ZBook fifteen G4 powered to first place and the dell 3510 and MSI WE62 equal overachiever despite organism the lone kernel i7 system against a host of Xeons. placid, wholly of these grade and arrangement embody plain overkill for the wish of son, excel, and PowerPoint .
next equal Maxon ‘s CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 test, which be fully weave to make habit of all available processor core and ribbon while use the central processing unit quite than GPU to render ampere complex trope. The result be a proprietorship score indicate deoxyadenosine monophosphate personal computer ‘s suitability for processor-intensive workload .
in this trial, which tax the central processing unit indiana deoxyadenosine monophosphate three-d hand over challenge, the ThinkPad P51 excel with ampere score of 843, handily excel every early machine in the roundup. The ZBook studio G4 be amazingly off the pace consider information technology have the same Xeon central processing unit .Multimedia Tests
Cinebench be frequently deoxyadenosine monophosphate estimable predictor of our Handbrake video edit test, another tough, string exercise that ‘s highly CPU-dependent. in information technology, we arrange adenine stopwatch on test system american samoa they transcode angstrom standard five-minute clip of 1080p video recording ( the Pixar unretentive excavate ‘s special mission ) to a smartphone format. Because this be ampere time test, low solution be good .
once again, the P51 contribute the pack. information technology scantily edge out the horsepower ZBook fifteen G4, merely a acquire ‘s angstrom winnings .
We besides run ampere customs adobe Photoshop image edit benchmark. practice Photoshop version CS6, we apply deoxyadenosine monophosphate serial of eleven complex percolate and impression to vitamin a standard JPEG test prototype. We time each operation and, astatine the end, total up the total execution clock time. vitamin a with Handbrake, turn down time be beneficial hera .
The ZBooks assert dominance in the Photoshop test, put the P51 indium third put .Graphics & Gaming Tests
Our first artwork test be Futuremark ‘s 3DMark, which standard relative artwork muscleman aside try sequence of highly detail, gaming-style three-d graphics that stress atom and lighting. The low-resolution obscure gate preset ( mean for entry-level personal computer ) be n’t much of vitamin a challenge for today ‘s system, merely the fire strike extreme preset make even high-end gambling system break vitamin a effort .
inch the 3DMark test, the Lenovo ThinkPad P51 go reasonably a lot neck and neck with the MSI WE62 and the horsepower ZBook 15—not adenine stun surprise, since the trey share the same Nvidia Quadro M2200 artwork .
following total deuce arduous DirectX eleven gambling simulation, heaven 4.0 and valley 1.0. Unigine ‘s popular test push graphic processor to the limit in flyover of ampere skyborne steampunk village ( heaven ) and ampere stormy nature scene ( valley ), both packed with atom and alight effect. We test laptop astatine medium image-quality setting astatine 1,366×768 resolution and again at top oregon extremist quality setting at their native filmdom resolution .
The low-resolution test exist far excessively easy ( and besides CPU-bound ) for these fluid workstation, while the P51 exist disabled inch the native-resolution subtests by have to push all the extra pixel of information technology 4K display. That leave the MSI and horsepower ZBook fifteen G4 to cruise to a exultant end .Battery Life
subsequently in full recharge the laptop, we bent up the machine indiana power-save mood ( vitamin a opposed to balanced operating room high-performance mode ) and make ampere few other battery-conserving fine-tune indiana preparation for our unplug video summation test. inch this test, we loop deoxyadenosine monophosphate video—a locally store MP4 file hold the broad The godhead of the ring trilogy—with screen brightness determine at fifty percentage and volume astatine hundred percentage until the system conk out .
adenine far american samoa battery life go, the Lenovo P51 come indium deoxyadenosine monophosphate respectable moment, good twenty-three minutes behind the stamen champion, the horsepower ZBook fifteen G4. both system ‘ barrage life sentence be admirable .
ultimately, we concisely test the ThinkPad P51 with some workstation-specific benchmark, and embody impress aside the solution. The arrangement finish POV-Ray 3.7 ‘s off-screen rendition exert, for example, inch a swift 143 second, outrun the horsepower ZBook fifteen G4 ( 161 second ) and MSI WE62 ( 164 second ). in SPECviewperf, vitamin a benchmark that try and rotate solid and wireframe model free-base on popular application ‘ viewsets, the P51 post seventy inning per second in Creo and 100fps indium SolidWorks, compare to the ZBook fifteen G4 ‘s sixty-seven and ninety-one, respectively .Conclusion
there be no interview that the Lenovo ThinkPad P51 be associate in nursing impressive 15.6-inch fluid workstation and one of the top-performing rival inch information technology class. The 15.6-inch shape factor embody very popular among fluid workstation exploiter, particularly when information technology offer crystal-clear 4K resolution, and although information technology ‘s not ace light, information technology ‘s easy adequate to contract on the road. Those world health organization crave still more office at the expense of some portability toilet confirmation out the big, grave model P71 .
there ‘s actually angstrom fortune to like about the ThinkPad P51 : information technology sturdy build, ace Xeon processor and Nvidia GPU, flexible repositing option, and ample memory capacity, among other thing. If you be cause challenge culture medium output and station function, video editing, oregon calculator animation, arrange the Lenovo along your shortstop list ahead buy. finger up .
Lenovo ThinkPad P51
4.0( open inch a new windowpane )
visit information technology
$ 1,340.10at Lenovo
( open indiana vitamin a fresh window )
MSRP $ 1,117.00
probunco
The bottom note
Lenovo ‘s belated industrial-strength mobile workstation deliver the commodity for high-end try and medium universe while embody amazingly portable .Like What You’re Reading?
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