Thinkpad P1 Gen 5 - Available for purchase in US, spec limitations confirmed

[H-Atkinson]

The P1 Gen 5 is now on sale in the US, and we now know all of the limitations and an introductory price. Starts at $2,095 + tax (which gets you the base i7-12700H, an RTX A1000, 16gb (2x8) DDR5, the base WUXGA LCD, and a 512gb SSD) and goes up to $5,059 + tax (for which you get the i9-12900H, 64gb of DDR5, an RTX A5500, WQUXGA touchscreen, and a 2 tb gen4 SSD). As usual I'd expect the prices on these top end models to come down a bit over the next 2ish months, so probably don't buy one now.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/ ... en101t0033

Limitations we can see here are as follows:
-RTX 3080 Ti locked to the i9-12900H
-No ECC RAM options
-no WWAN or 4tb SSD without CTO (which isn't yet up)
-230w adapters are all limited to the top-end GPUs, 135w adapter from PSREF is nowhere to be seen (presumably for the iGPU only models not sold in the US)

Further, this document was released today: https://thinkstation-specs.com/wp-conte ... tion-1.pdf

From it, we can unfortunately gather the following: "Disclaimers: NV RTX A3000 12GB, NV RTX A4500, NV RTX A5500, GF RTX 3070 Ti, GF RTX 3080 Ti cannot be configured with dual storage." Further, "NV RTX A3000 12GB, NV RTX A4500, NV RTX A5500, GF RTX 3070 Ti, GF RTX 3080 Ti cannot be configured with WWAN Not WWAN-Ready." So, it has the same kneecapped modularity as the preceding fourth gen. Great. This doc also tells us some interesting stuff on GPU TDPs (80 watt max which is shared by all of the "top" chips), and confirms that the only factory calibrated panels are the top 2.

So... woooooooo... now our Thinkpad P options are a compromised half-baked thin and light in the form of the P1G5 or an ugly under-IOed "full fat" workstation in the form of the P16.

[Ibthink]

So... woooooooo... now our Thinkpad P options are a compromised half-baked thin and light in the form of the P1G5 or an ugly under-IOed "full fat" workstation in the form of the P16.

There also is the P15v G3: 64 GB DDR5, 2x M.2 slots, RJ45 Ethernet, 1.8 mm key travel keyboard and most interesting, it is the first ThinkPad P series model that will have an AMD Ryzen H series option (which isn't out yet).

However, it is still 16:9, which might turn off some people, and it is limited to only the lower end GPU options (RTX A2000 max), so it isn't as well suited for GPU intensive tasks as the other two P series options.

[H-Atkinson]

So... woooooooo... now our Thinkpad P options are a compromised half-baked thin and light in the form of the P1G5 or an ugly under-IOed "full fat" workstation in the form of the P16.

There also is the P15v G3: 64 GB DDR5, 2x M.2 slots, RJ45 Ethernet, 1.8 mm key travel keyboard and most interesting, it is the first ThinkPad P series model that will have an AMD Ryzen H series option (which isn't out yet).

However, it is still 16:9, which might turn off some people, and it is limited to only the lower end GPU options (RTX A2000 max), so it isn't as well suited for GPU intensive tasks as the other two P series options.

Like you said, its biggest problem is going to be the GPU. You can spec a P1G5 with an A2000 or lower and get back that 2nd SSD slot and WWAN, which might be more compelling. The other thing is going to be the thermals. How is that single-fan heatpipe cooler going to handle an RTX A2000? I hadn't mentioned it since its not really a "full fat" workstation in the sense that it gets ULV CPUs and its best GPU is pretty weak.

For the keyboards, honestly, the 1.5mm types don't bother me. My X13G2 is perfectly fine to type on, and in my opinion is still the best laptop keyboard currently in production.

Anyhow, despite all of this, I'm about to pull the trigger on a P1G5. Got a quote for $2800 through Lenovo for skew 21DC002XUS (i9, 3080ti, 32gb, 1tb, 165hz, IR). Going to try and at least get a better warranty at no more cost out of them first though, and of course replace the SSD with a much bigger one.