Lenovo Upgrades ThinkPad P Series Workstations and X1 Extreme With Ultra Performance Mode

Lenovo’s ThinkPad P
(Image credit: Lenovo)

Lenovo’s ThinkPad P-line of workstations is getting a refresh, and is joined by the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3. All of the laptops will use 10th Gen Intel H-series processors (some also have Xeon options) and will offer a new “ultra performance mode” when they release in July. 

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Header Cell - Column 0 Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 3Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 1Lenovo ThinkPad P15V Gen 1Lenovo ThinkPad P17 Gen 1Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3
CPU10th Gen Intel Core or Xeon10th Gen Intel Core or Xeon10th Gen Intel Core or Xeon10th Gen Intel Core or XeonUp to 10th Generation Intel Core vPro
GPUUp to Nvidia Quadro T2000Up to Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000Nvidia Quadro P620Up to Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650Ti Max-Q
RAMUp to 64GB DDR4Up to 128GB DDR4Up to 64GB DDR4Up to 128GB DDR4Up to 64GB DDR4
StorageUp to 4TB M.2 NVMe SSDUp to 4TBUp to 4TBUp to 4TBUp to 4TB PCIe SSD
DisplayUP to 15.6-inch 4K OLED Touch, HDR 500 True Black, Dolby Vision HDRUp to 15.6-inch 4K OLED Touch HDR500 True BlackUp to 15.6-inch 4K UHD, 600 nit, Dolby Vision HDRUp to 17.3-inch 4K IPS 500 nits, Dolby Vision HDRUp to 15.6-inch 4K OLED Touch HDR 500 
Battery80 WHr94 WHr68 WHr94 WHr80 WHr
Starting Price$2,019 $1,979 $1,349 $2,119 $1,749

The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 and P17 take the place of the P53 and P73. The ThinkPad P1 is on its third release, as is the ThinkPad X1 Extreme. The ThinkPad P15V is a brand new release. 

(Image credit: Lenovo)

Lenovo says the ultra performance mode lets users “take full control of their performance settings. If they need to complete a render as fast as possible or demo high-fidelity VR content while maintaining a stable framerate, users can now dial up the system, ensuring peak performance.”

The P15 and P17 are getting new thermal designs, which the company claims means there is 13% more  air flow. That’s on top of a 40% larger CPU heatsink, bigger vents and a thermal mesh.

Those two laptops will include the CPUs and GPUs on daughter cards as opposed to soldering them to the board, which the company says allows it to offer four times as many CPU and GPU options as previous versions.

The P15V is an alternate option, starting at $1,349, that is being pushed as a budget 15-inch workstation.

The P1 Gen 3 is bringing some new quality of life features, including an anti-smudge coating to reduce fingerprints, better speakers and a 600-nit panel options, as well as optional LTE.

Andrew E. Freedman

Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and Mastodon @FreedmanAE.mastodon.social.

  • umanoo
    I really wanted to buy a 17" Lenovo P series, but I cannot understand why they did not make one with AMD cpu+gpu and smart shift. On a laptop, all that means is the balance between cpu/gpu power, battery life and temperature. I don't want to buy the e15 because is going to fry in the environment I use the laptop.
    Reply
  • grumbled00k
    Any idea how to completely silence the fans of the P1 Gen3 when plugged in? Even at no load at all, the fans are constantly running. Only when I pull the power plug the P1 turns quiet. What I have tried so far: adjusting the power settings in BIOS to balanced when plugged in, setting the cooling policy in Win10 to passive when plugged in and setting the Lenovo Intelligent Cooling to quiet mode. But even with all three measures, the fans keep on running.
    Reply
  • CobraRGuy
    I didn't see any mention of the RAID option on these P15/P17 models in any review of these I've read. If I'm going to spend $2+ grand on a laptop, I want it to support RAID 0 and 1 at a minimum and preferably RAID 5 as well. Lenovo does show a selection for RAID 0 or 1 in their configuration tool, but here's my question:
    If you order one of these P15/P17 without the RAID option, can RAID be configured afterwards or is RAID not enabled in hardware if that machine wasn't ordered with it when new?I see some of the P53s for sale used at reasonable prices but the ads don't mention RAID. I'm hesitant to buy one of these unless I know for sure RAID can be configured in the BIOS. I know there will be P15s showing up on auction sites before too long if not already, so I would like to know if I can configure RAID on any P15 or P17.
    Tom, can you answer this?
    Reply