If you are looking for the best workstation laptop on the market for work related to graphics and engineering, then the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 should definitely be the first name worth considering.
Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 is an upgraded version to replace the ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 2023 line. This laptop is one of the workstations running Windows that can be configured with many different options. Users can customize the machine configuration with 4 types of Intel Core Ultra processors, 3 types of screens, 5 types of Nvidia GPUs (or no separate GPU), along with the choice of Windows 11 Home or Pro, Fedora operating systems. or Ubuntu, even without an operating system is fine.
With this diversity, of course the price of Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 laptops also fluctuates strongly. The model used for evaluation in this article has a 2.5K 165Hz screen, Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, Nvidia RTX 1000 Ada GPU, 32GB RAM and 512GB SSD, priced at about 59 million VND. In general, high-end Lenovo laptops have never been cheap, so this is not too surprising.
Importantly, with such a large amount of money, what will we get from this high-end workstation laptop?
1. Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 design review
The design of the new ThinkPad P1 laptop has been completely improved compared to the previous Gen 6 model, with many design details inspired by the ThinkPad Z16 such as a sturdy aluminum lid with a raised part for the camera and a large touchpad with buttons. virtual mouse button. The result is a modern and elegant laptop made from a magnesium-aluminum composite that’s as durable as a tank. It also meets MIL-STD 810H standards for shock, dust, and high temperature resistance.
Because it’s a ThinkPad, there’s only one familiar color option: black, but the ThinkPad name is still engraved on the body and lid, with a small red LED to create a highlight. However, its paint layer is still susceptible to fingerprints, hopefully Lenovo will improve in future versions.
Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 is as durable as a tank (Photo: Future).
The dimensions of the new ThinkPad P1 are 354 x 241 x 17 mm, quite neat for a 16-inch workstation and weighs about 1.76kg, not too bulky (but the version with a separate GPU will be heavier).
This 16-inch Lenovo laptop has a full complement of connectivity ports with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI 2.1 port and a 3.5mm audio jack on the left, along with a SlimTip power port. On the right there is a third USB-C port, supporting DP Alt Mode video, a 5Gbps USB-A port, a full-size SD card reader and a Kensington lock slot. You can charge the P1 Gen 7 through any Type-C port.
Full connection port for all needs (Photo: Future).
It also has the most advanced wireless connections with Wi-Fi 7 6GHz standard and Bluetooth 5.4 thanks to the Intel BE200 2×2 card. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen the LTE option on the P1 series and it’s no surprise that the Gen 7 version also doesn’t have this feature, which is quite a shame, especially for those with high mobility needs.
2. Keyboard, touchpad and webcam
The new Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 laptop has a keyboard very similar to the keyboard on the ThinkPad Z16, meaning it does not have a numeric keypad. Luckily, all the advantages of the Z16 keyboard are retained, including the sturdiness and precise key feedback. The keys have standard 1.5mm travel and smooth stops, printed characters are clearly embossed and are supported by two-level backlighting.
The touchpad of the P1 Gen 7 is quite large with dimensions of 135 x 85mm, sophisticated with a glass surface and virtual buttons on the top instead of traditional physical mouse buttons. This is a great combination of ThinkPad functionality and popular laptop design. However, there will certainly be many people who are nostalgic for the physical buttons typical of the ThinkPad line, but adapting to the new design does not take much time and allows you to have a larger operating space.
The keyboard and touchpad provide a perfect experience (Photo: Future).
And, a Lenovo laptop cannot be called a ThinkPad if it doesn’t have a TrackPoint, so the line’s iconic red knob is still placed in the center of the keyboard. This is a great way to move the cursor without moving your hands, a design that never goes out of style. Like all other ThinkPad models, a quick double-click on the TrackPoint opens the TrackPoint Menu, which allows you to adjust camera and audio settings, as well as open Microsoft Dictation (speech-to-text conversion).
The ThinkPad P1’s webcam is an impressive product, capable of recording 1440p images with vivid colors even in poor lighting conditions. Using the Core Ultra CPU, we will also have all the special effects from the Windows Studio Effects toolkit running on the NPU processor.
And yet, because it is a typical business laptop, the P1 Gen 7 also offers all the expected security features such as a Kensington lock slot, fingerprint reader integrated in the power button, dTPM chip and pink camera. Foreign Windows Hello support. It also has a physical camera shutter for maximum privacy protection.
3. Screen of Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 laptop has 3 screen color options: IPS 1920 x 1200 60Hz, IPS 2560 x 1600 165Hz (both non-touch) and OLED touch screen. response 3840 x 2400 60Hz.
For those who use the device mainly for paperwork, the 2.5K IPS screen is a great choice with a maximum brightness of over 500 nits and 100% sRGB color gamut coverage, however, it Not enough for work related to design and creativity when it only reaches 73.7% DCI-P3 and 71.6% AdobeRGB.
High brightness screen, usable in all lighting conditions (Photo: Future).
If you’re looking for a laptop for creative work, an OLED screen with a wide color gamut is clearly the best choice, but overall, a 165Hz IPS screen is still best for all uses. The 165Hz refresh rate provides a smooth experience when scrolling text or data, something that 60Hz screens cannot match.
The only thing is, this screen does not support active frequency changes between 165Hz and 60Hz, so it will drain the battery quite a bit. Fortunately, the battery capacity of the ThinkPad P1 is large enough to carry this screen, ensuring that it still provides users with impressive usage time.
4. Configuration and performance of Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7
The model evaluated in this article has a 16-core Core Ultra 7 165H configuration, integrated Intel Arc GPU and Nvidia RTX 2000 ADA discrete card, 32GB of RAM and 1TB SSD. The Ultra series processors offer some pretty nice performance improvements over the older Core series of chips, while the focus is on delivering performance for all the AI features that most of us don’t use. Meanwhile, the RTX 1000 ADA is not too powerful to deliver impressive graphics performance, it is only enough for advanced tasks to a certain extent. If you want the highest graphics performance, you should consider the RTX 3000 ADA or RTX 4070.
Powerful configuration with new generation Core Ultra chip (Photo: Future).
Basically, Core Ultra 7 and RTX 1000 Ada are considered a pretty good combination, with performance that meets the needs of a semi-professional technician or students starting to study this profession. However, there is one problem that you may have to consider carefully with this workstation laptop: its performance when unplugged is extremely poor. In fact, for most laptops, the performance difference between battery state and direct power connection is known to everyone, but even on normal Ultrabook models, we can set the device to reach 100% performance. Need to accept rapid battery drain. But the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 does not. In general, this will be a pretty big limitation of this ThinkPad laptop, especially in the eyes of those who often carry the device to work.
Although it is criticized for its performance when using the battery, when fully ‘charged’, this ThinkPad is extremely powerful. It is strong in terms of maintaining 100% peak performance for many consecutive hours without putting pressure on the system, and the temperature is also controlled at a moderate level, the surface is hot but not significant.
In short, if you need a workstation laptop that can handle long-term work tasks without affecting work progress, then the P1 Gen 7 will definitely be a good choice.
Regarding battery life, with a 90Wh battery, this 16-inch laptop has quite good usage time, can reach more than 11 hours, enough to go through a smooth working day without needing to charge midway. Furthermore, the charging speed of the device is also quite fast, charging 80% of the battery in just 1 hour.
5. Should I buy a Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 laptop?
For high-end laptop models like the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7, it’s difficult to avoid issues related to price. This is a really expensive laptop and is only for those with a large budget who really want to own the best workstation laptop on the market. And such products are never cheap.
With a reference price of about 59 million VND for the configuration as in the article, the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 will be an investment that you need to carefully balance your needs and budget to avoid waste. On the other hand, you can also refer to some variants with lower configuration, FHD + screen, the price will also be much more affordable.
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