The Lenovo ThinkPad P70 Review: Mobile Xeon Workstation
by Brett Howse on June 30, 2016 8:00 AM ESTFinal Words
The ThinkPad P70 is certainly not for everyone. With a starting price close to $1900, and add-ons driving the price into the stratosphere, mobile workstations are for those that need powerful systems that can be moved around. You’ll get more bang for the buck with a desktop workstation, but obviously you give up all of the portability. So let’s start with portability.
The ThinkPad P70 isn’t small, and it’s not light, but with the 96 Wh battery capacity, it actually provides pretty decent battery life and office workloads. If you need to leverage the GPU, there’s pretty much no option but to plug it in, but that’s not much of a surprise.
Lenovo offers a full complement of options, starting with the baseline model with the Core i7-6700HQ, and all the way up to the Xeon E3-1575M. Memory options go up to 64 GB of ECC DDR4, and of course you can add your own memory. For those that don’t need much GPU compute, the lowest priced model has the Quadro M600M, and you can go all the way up the steps to the M5000M, giving you just as much GPU as you need. There are plenty of storage options, and it’s fantastic to see Lenovo utilize the SM951 SSD, with 512 GB of MLC NAND available. Too often manufacturers go with the less performant PM951 to check the NVMe feature box, but on a high end workstation, customers should expect higher end components, and Lenovo has delivered.
The design and fit and finish is typical ThinkPad, and that includes the excellent keyboard. The keyboard is certainly a strong point on this notebook, and it also includes the TrackPoint which many (myself included) prefer over trackpads. For those that like the trackpad, the P70 offers a nice smooth surface there too.
The performance is certainly strong, and there’s plenty of cooling available to ensure that everything keeps running at peak performance, but without excessive fan noise. Larger laptops generally have a big advantage with cooling, and the P70 continues that trend.
The 3840x2160 display is excellent, offering sharp images, and very good color accuracy out of the box. It’s great to see these panels finally make their way to the larger notebooks. What also seems like a great idea on paper is the X-Rite Pantone color sensor and software included with the unit, however as seen in the testing, it degrades the experience. It didn’t fix the grayscale, and actually made it worse, and it did nothing for the warm shift on the panel. There’s little excuse for this since I’m sure Lenovo’s engineers have tested it, but in the end it’s a great idea poorly executed. Adding these to professional laptops would give a quick way to calibrate the display at any time, and while it would never be able to replace proper calibration equipment, there’s no reason this can’t be done right.
Certainly there will be those that detract from the P70 due to the price, but that’s to be expected. It’s easy to say that the businesses that need these devices are willing to pay the premium, but it really is the case. The Lenovo ThinkPad P70 performed well in all of our testing, and the Quadro graphics makes such a huge difference in professional workloads, easily outperforming a GTX 980M, despite being down 256 CUDA cores compared to the gaming card. When time costs money, mobile workstations come into their own.
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TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
Anandtech has been going downhill for years. They are turning into just another backwater tech site.zanon - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
Seriously, this new 3rd party "promoted stories" thing is pretty bad, much worse then anything in the past. On my main system I block ads in general for security reasons, but I've tended to whitelist Anandtech previously on other systems like mobile which is locked down enough that I'm less concerned. Today though:>Oh boy, an interesting review
>Scroll down
>Promoted Stories
>25 WOMEN WHO FORGOT THE CAMERA CAPTURES ALL!!!!
:\. God damn it Anandtech don't be like this too.
Ryan Smith - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
"moatads kept trying to download onto my machine"By any chance is that moatad.js? I've seen this report elsewhere before; apparently it's a MIME type error that's triggered when trying to load an external JS file, causing it to download instead. Moat itself is an analytics company, hence the external JS to begin with (ala Google Analytics)
rearden - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
I will say buyer beware. I have a client with a Lenovo P70 purchased in January. Three weeks ago the system wouldn't boot (not even POST). We had to wait a week for parts, despite a Next Business Day Warranty. The system board was replaced and was working great ... until this Monday when the system, again, wouldn't boot. Am currently waiting for parts before Lenovo can repair the machine. Maybe he got a lemon, but we're waiting for another new system board in the timespan of 1 month on a system only 6 months old.TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
You have anecdotal evidence from a grand total of 1 user. Not exactly a scientifically reliable number.dave_the_nerd - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
It helps if you avoid spilling coffee on it.smilingcrow - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
But the fact that they had to wait a week for a part on a new model Business Class Workstation with a NBD warranty is a cause for concern. That is something that has never happened to me with Dell even on their consumer class laptops.It could be an odd occurrence but to happen twice in a month is enough to cause concern.
milmil - Friday, July 1, 2016 - link
You are quick to dismiss it but yet you do not own one. There is indeed an issue and it took me 2 laptops and extra 2 motherboard replacements to make sure it is a fact.milmil - Friday, July 1, 2016 - link
I have had the same issue, one P70 with i7 bricked and one with Xeon 1505M then 2 motherboard replacements for the Xeon one, same story. It turns out it is the bios update that does the job. I am arguing for a refund of the laptop and the peripherals. Also look at the Lenovo forum, similar stories. It is such a pity because this is the best laptop ever (when it works that is). Not very happy with how Lenovo is handling the issue. They are wasting their time and money as well as my time and money. Sad...very sad.adamto - Friday, July 1, 2016 - link
I have P50 with touch screen and Pen and I love it,Here is my review as Surface Pro 2 owner who upgraded to P50!
1) P50 is really powerful. I wasted my life with surface Pro. It was like being in loop at same level. P50 simply allow me to do double in half time.
2) 15 inch FHD screen is prefect beside my Dell WQHD 27 inch monitor. Both have similar DPI. It mean happy remote desktop and Virtual machine and Linux desktop.
3) As surface Pro user, I love touch input, Touch input is very useful when I use P50 on lap OR testing touchy apps!
4) P50 and P70 are the only workstation laptop that have wacom pen option. The pen is very useful to edit 3d object when laptop is on lap where you can not use mouse or touch pad for such job. Point the pen to object and edit it directly on the screen. ( I don't use pen for drawing)
5) FHD screen means double battery life on the go which is more important for P50 to be used as portable device.
6) I'm in heaven with 4T SSD storage. All data everywhere. No more extra cable and case and disconnect issue that I had using Surface Pro
7) Battery life is double than Surface Pro while using a desktop like VM!
8) Windows score inside VM is bigger than windows score of physical Surface pro ( about 8). It is like having several Surface pro for free at same time!
9) Surface Pro screen is glossy while touch screen on P50 is half Matt and it make very big difference.
10) Removable battery is awesome. Fully day battery life with two batteries!
11) I love fact that screen can open up to 180 degree. Looking forward for P51 with 360 degree screen with exact same design and nothing less!
Bad:
1) Black looks gray even when laptop is off. This make screen washed out at open air ( It is good at indoor) Still I am happy because I mostly use it indoor! Looking for P50 with AMO LED screen.
2) Unlike Surface Pro, There is no car charger for P50. This is the biggest issue that I have with p50 right now. There is a airplane mode but it dont work too, because it don't allow to charge the P50 using airplane socket. However it is possible to charge the device using P50 adapter and a 200W car inverter but whole package is bulky. Lenovo need to provide a solution for people like me!
3) Unlike Dell computer, USB C booting is not enabled at Bios! Why this is not documented? isn't USB type C suppose to cover whatever USB 3 do? for example I can not boot my portable Linux from external Type C SSD to enjoy full performance. That was one the reason I wanted to get P50 with The Thunderbolt / USB Type C port. I think this is important feature for people who like to enjoy a independent and fast OS on the go. Dear Lenovo please enable this feature at BIOS!
4) Raid option is hidden at Bios.
5) You have to order device with exact GPU you need right now. Upgrade wont be possible due to bios white list issue!
Final Words) Thank you Lenovo for creating such awesome device. It help me to do my job faster and have more time to enjoy! It gave me opportunity to touch new area and learn and earn more!!. Looking forward P51 with fix for above issues!