Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 overview: too expensive for what you get

How a lot is an excessive amount of? Lenovo’s spendy workstation can’t make the maths work

MSRP $5,394.00

“Regardless of its energy and compact measurement, the ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 struggles to justify its exorbitant value.”

Professionals

• Robust productiveness efficiency
• Strong creativity efficiency
• Nice construct high quality
• Spectactular OLED show
• Good keyboard

Cons

• Extremely costly
• Small touchpad
• Dated design

We don’t overview many transportable workstations, however from time to time, one comes alongside that appears attention-grabbing sufficient to cowl. The Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 is one such machine, because it affords some very high-end elements in a comparatively skinny and light-weight chassis. Workstations have a tendency to supply superior cooling and better and extra complicated configurations to justify what’s usually a really excessive value.

And the ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 is unquestionably costly. Our overview configuration, which isn’t the very best configuration obtainable, prices a whopping $5,394. It must provide wonderful efficiency for creators and different professionals to justify this type of value. Sadly, it didn’t, and you should purchase a high-end client or gaming laptop computer and get comparable or higher efficiency for lots much less.

Specs and configurations

Underwhelming efficiency for the value

Moveable workstations are all about efficiency on the go. They sometimes function the quickest CPUs and GPUs, together with superior cooling to make sure most velocity in demanding purposes for fields like creativity and engineering. Whereas skinny and light-weight workstations just like the ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 aren’t going to be as quick as heavier and thicker choices, they need to nonetheless present efficiency that matches their excessive value.

Sadly, that wasn’t the case with the ThinkPad P1 Gen 6. My overview unit was outfitted with a Core i7-13800H, a barely sooner variation of the 45-watt Core i7 with 14 cores (six Efficiency cores at as much as 5.2GHz and eight Environment friendly cores at as much as 4GHz) and 20 threads. The CPU additionally consists of Intel’s vPro expertise for higher safety and integration with enterprise administration methods. My overview unit used an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080, a really quick GPU, however not one which’s optimized for the sorts of apps that workstations sometimes run. Lenovo additionally affords workstation-class GPUs as much as Nvidia’s RTX 5000 Ada, which might theoretically present higher efficiency and extra reliability within the related workflows.

I can solely touch upon the configuration I reviewed, nevertheless it wasn’t all that spectacular, particularly at a value of $5,394. Within the desk under, I in contrast it to mainstream laptops as a result of we don’t have a big database of workstations to attract upon. However every of those machines is 1000’s of {dollars} lower than the ThinkPad P1 Gen 6. And as you possibly can see, their efficiency was equal to or higher than the Lenovo workstation. That was significantly true of the Lenovo Legion Professional 7i, a gaming machine that’s round half the value and affords considerably sooner efficiency.

In our CPU-intensive benchmarks, the ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 was sooner than the opposite laptops with the Core i7-13700H solely within the Cinebebench R23 benchmark. There, it was nearer in efficiency to the sooner Core i9-13900H. Nonetheless, it wasn’t spectacular in our Handbrake take a look at that encodes a 420MB video as H.265. Within the PugetBench Premiere Professional benchmark, which runs in a reside model of Adobe’s Premiere Professional and makes use of the GPU to hurry up varied processes, the ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 was significantly disappointing, particularly given its Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU. It was the second-slowest laptop computer on this comparability group, and was beat out by the Dell XPS 15 that used an underclocked model of the RTX 4070.

Merely put, the ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 was an unimpressive performer. For creators, it’s definitely disappointing and never definitely worth the value. I can’t attest to how the laptop computer would run different workstation-class purposes, however from these outcomes, there’s no cause to imagine it can justify its extraordinarily excessive funding.

Workstations aren’t meant for gaming, however there’s no cause to not run our suite of gaming benchmarks on a laptop computer with such a robust GPU. Right here, the ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 wasn’t terribly spectacular towards some gaming laptops, with its lowest scores in Murderer’s Creed Valhalla (a glitch prompted a very low rating in efficiency mode). As soon as once more, value is an element: you possibly can spend rather a lot much less and get a a lot sooner gaming laptop computer. Be aware that you simply’ll undoubtedly need to dial up efficiency mode as a result of that had a big impact on body charges.

A ThinkPad by and thru

From the surface, the ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 appears to be like like each different old-school ThinkPad. It’s all-black with crimson accents, such because the crimson LED dot over the ‘i” within the brand on the lid and the crimson TrackPoint nubbin within the middle of the keyboard. You’d have a tough time telling the distinction between it and the ThinkPad X1 Excessive that has an analogous carbon fiber weave on the surface of the show. That’s not a nasty factor, as a result of it’s a beautiful aesthetic, nevertheless it does appear a bit dated in comparison with newer ThinkPads. The ThinkPad Z16, for instance, has a way more fashionable look.

The ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 can also be constructed rather a lot like a conventional ThinkPad, which can also be a great factor. It’s product of aluminum within the backside chassis and carbon fiber within the lid. It’s not excellent, although. Whereas the chassis is inflexible, the lid has a little bit give. That’s frequent with carbon fiber constructions, and it doesn’t imply it’s not a sturdy laptop computer. As regular, Lenovo submitted the machine to navy checks of sturdiness.

Whereas the laptop computer is comparatively skinny at 0.68 inches and light-weight at 3.92 kilos, it’s nonetheless a bigger laptop computer resulting from beneficiant show bezels. Even so, it’s barely thinner and lighter than the Dell XPS 15 that is available in at 0.71 inches thick and 4.23 kilos. Packing a whole lot of energy into a skinny and light-weight chassis is the ThinkPad P1 Gen 8’s important redeeming function.

The keyboard is the same old ThinkPad selection, with massive sculpted keycaps and loads of key spacing. The switches are deep, but they’re lighter and snappier than some ThinkPad keyboards I’ve tried. I prefer it fairly a bit, nearly as a lot because the Magic Keyboard on Apple’s current MacBooks. The TrackPoint nubbin works nicely for individuals who like that type of controller, however the further buttons it requires takes away house from the mechanical touchpad. It’s nonetheless massive sufficient, and it’s snug to make use of with agency, assured, and quiet clicks, however different 16-inch laptops have bigger variations.

Connectivity is beneficiant, with a mixture of fashionable and legacy ports. My solely grievance is using a microSD card reader when there’s loads of house for a full-size model. Wi-fi connectivity is updated, and there’s an possibility for 4G WWAN assist.

Lastly, the webcam is 1080p on the fashions with IPS shows and 5MP on the OLED variations. The latter offers a very good picture for videoconferencing. An infrared digital camera helps Home windows 11 Whats up facial recognition, and there’s additionally a fingerprint reader embedded within the energy button. The infrared digital camera additionally helps Lenovo’s person presence sensing expertise that may put the laptop computer to sleep when the person walks away and wake it up when the person returns. It’s good to have, nevertheless it’s not distinctive to the ThinkPad P1 Gen 6.

The same old OLED goodness

I reviewed the ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 with its 4K+ OLED show, and it’s spectacular, as regular. It’s an unbelievable expertise out of the field, each colourful and providing up inky blacks.

In response to my colorimeter, it’s objectively pretty much as good because it appears. It’s vivid at 388 nits, with large colours hitting 100% of sRGB, 97% of AdobeRGB, and 100% of DCI-P3. The colours are additionally very correct, with a DeltaE of 0.82 (lower than 1.0 can’t be discerned by the human eye). As has been the case with many current OLED panels, my colorimeter didn’t return a end result for the distinction ratio, however I’m sure it’s simply as excessive as all OLED shows.

Creators, productiveness customers, and media customers will all love this show. The latter will respect the Dolby Imaginative and prescient assist, which tends to supply the most effective excessive dynamic vary (HDR) assist. The show’s not vivid sufficient for the most effective expertise with such content material, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a plus.

Audio is supplied by two upward-firing audio system. The quantity is simply adequate for a small residence workplace, and whereas mids and highs are clear sufficient, there’s completely no bass. You’ll need headphones or exterior audio system for something aside from the occasional YouTube video.

A complicated proposition