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日本[Video Review] Lenovo ThinkPad P16s Gen 1 – Definitely NOT a workstation
Lenovo ThinkPad P16s Gen 1 (Intel) in-depth review
Mobile workstations are super popular nowadays. At least, this is what manufacturers make us think when they release 123 different versions of the same laptop. We have now seen 14, 15, 16, and 17-inch models, which left us with mixed emotions.Today, you are going to see the Lenovo ThinkPad P16s Gen 1. Yes, this is not only a Gen 1 product, but it also is the "sleek" version of another Gen 1 device - the ThinkPad P16 Gen 1. The two notebooks are definitely not competitors, because they are intended for different user bases.The regular model is meant for heavy-duty users, who are going [...]
Pros
- No PWM (AUO B160UAN03.2 (LEN41B5))
- The spill-resistant keyboard is great for typing
- Wi-Fi 6 and LTE support plus optional super-fast fingerprint reader and IR face recognition systems
- 2x Thunderbolt 4 ports
- Super portable
Cons
- 51% sRGB coverage (AUO B160UAN03.2 (LEN41B5))
- The price is high
- Not the best performance
- No SD card reader
Lenovo ThinkPad P16s Gen 1 (Intel) - Specs
- HDD/SSD
- up to 2000GB SSD
- M.2 Slot
- 1x 2280 PCIe NVMe 4.0 x4 See photo
- RAM
- up to 48GB
- OS
- Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Pro
- Battery
- 52.5Wh, 3-cell, 86Wh, 45Wh, 3-cell, 52.5Wh, 52.5Wh, 4-cell, 52.5Wh
- Body material
- Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum, Carbon, Glass Fiber
- Dimensions
- 361.98 x 255.5 x 20.5 mm (14.25" x 10.06" x 0.81")
- Weight
- 1.80 kg (4 lbs)
- Ports and connectivity
- 1x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
- 1x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
- 2x USB Type-C
- 4.0, Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
- HDMI
- 2.0b
- Card reader
- Ethernet LAN
- 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
- Wi-Fi
- 802.11ax
- Bluetooth
- 5.2
- Audio jack
- 3.5mm Combo Jack
- Features
- Fingerprint reader
- optional
- Web camera
- HD / FHD
- Backlit keyboard
- Microphone
- Dual Array Microphone with Dolby Voice
- Speakers
- Stereo Speakers with Dolby Audio
- Optical drive
- Security Lock slot
- Kensington Lock
All Lenovo ThinkPad P16s Gen 1 (Intel) configurations
[Intro]
Compared to the traditional Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 1, the Sleek variant that we have today, creatively named P16s Gen 1, comes with much less power-hungry Alder Lake P-series chips. But should you get it?
[Design]
Other than that, you’re getting a classic ThinkPad, so plenty of materials and combinations, depending on which color you choose. The Black version has a mix of plastic, glass, and carbon fibers for the lid, as well as plastic for the lid. The Grey model comes with an aluminum lid and a plastic base. Still, there isn’t much difference between the two.
[Input devices]
On the base, there’s a lot of stuff, like the full-sized spill-resistant backlit keyboard, which offers an amazing typing experience, as well as the Mylar-covered touchpad. It could use a bit more responsiveness, as well as some more area. They are complemented by a TrackPoint with physical buttons, as well as a power button with a fingerprint reader.
[Ports]
Going to the sides, the left houses a LAN port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI 2.0b connector, one USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1), and a 3.5 mm audio jack. On the back, there’s just a SIM card slot. Lastly, on the right, we find the last USB Type-A port, and the SmartCard reader.
[Display]
Before we get to the display, the top bezel keeps either an HD or a Full HD webcam, along with an optional IR sensor for facial recognition. Now for the main show, we have a 16:10 Full HD IPS panel, but there are other options available with higher resolution and better colors. It comes with 332 nits at peak brightness, but only 51% sRGB coverage, making it not suitable for professional work with colors.
You can still make use of our display profiles, especially if you’re looking at lots of text or code, which is where our Office Work profile can help a lot, as it makes the characters appear more clear.
[Sound]
The front-firing speaker setup delivers quality audio, while also showing no major deviations across the entire frequency range.
[Performance]
While we said that the laptop isn’t as powerful as its bigger sibling, the Alder Lake P-series CPUs can still deliver plenty of performance. We tested the 12-core Core i5-1240P which does a fine job, but we’ve seen it do more inside other laptops.
On the GPU end, the Quadro T550 running at 30W is certainly better than the Intel iGPU solution, however, it’s still not that powerful.
[Cooling]
The performance is closely tied to the cooling, as the laptop’s two heat pipes and one fan do a good, but not perfect job. The CPU maintains a 52W TDP in the first few seconds of the test while maintaining 30W for more than 15 minutes. During the test, the GPU also reaches its 30W limit but runs at rather low clock speeds.
Even comfort is affected a bit, as the single fan spins like a Beyblade, leading to more noise. The base temperature isn’t bad, at 40°C.
[Battery]
The P16s isn’t an efficiency champ as well, with the 52.5Wh battery pack lasting for only 7 hours and 15 minutes of Web browsing, or 6 hours and 9 minutes of video playback.
[Teardown and upgradeability]
Lastly, let’s find out what we’re working with on the inside. Removing the back panel is relatively easy, but we’re still gonna leave our teardown video linked in the description. Inside, there’s up to 8GB of soldered DDR4 memory, as well as one SODIMM slot, for a possible total of 40GB. In terms of storage, there’s one M.2 slot for Gen 4 SSDs.
[Verdict]
It feels like Lenovo dropped the ball with the ThinkPad P16s Gen 1, as the high price isn’t backed up properly. There are other business machines out there with the same quality and feature set, which deliver more performance for less, like the Dell Latitude 15 5531, so if it were up to us, we wouldn’t rush to buy the Thinkpad P16s Gen 1 just yet.
That shouldn’t stop you from checking out our in-depth review where you’ll see more info about it and its competitors.
