Lenovo announced new mobile workstations with the new Xeon chip and Thunderbolt 3

[snowComet]

Today Lenovo announced several new workstations on SIGGRAPH 2015 Conference and Exhibition. In those workstations, the 2 mobile workstations, the Thinkpad P50 and P70, are the most interesting ones, as they both featured new chips and next-generation hardwares.
 

Thinkpad P70
 

Thinkpad P50
 
Firstly, these 2 notebooks will be the first of Lenovo's new line of notebooks, the Thinkpad P series. Lenovo ditched the old line of W series notebooks, and started a new line of mobile workstation with these 2 notebooks. The ThinkPad W550s is still available for purchase, but from the datasheet it seems there are no hardware upgrades for the W550s.
 
Secondly, the P50 and P70 are 15.5" and 17" notebooks. They both featured Intel Xeon E3-1500M v5, the Xeon processor designed for mobile workstations, together with up to 64GB of DDR4 ECC ram (with 4 SODIMM Slots), and up to 1TB of PCIe storage. Also both notebooks will feature NVIDIA Quadro graphic cards, and 3 different type of IPS display: FHD display (300 nits),  FHD Touch display (270 nits), and 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) display (300 nits),with 100% color gamut and  X-Rite Pantone color calibration. (so somebody finally has made 4K panels for 17" notebooks! yeah!  ) Both notebook also features Express card reader (34mm), Integrated 4-in-1 SD Card Reader, 802.11ac WiFi, a new dual fan cooling solution called "FLEX Performance Cooling", and etc.


The dual Thunderbolt 3 ports on the P70


The dual fan "FLEX Performance Cooling" system
 
Besides the screen size differences, the differences of the 2 notebooks are on ports and optical drive. The P70 features an optical drive, which can be swapped with HDD or SSD with Bay Adapter. Also the P70 features 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports, while the P50 only features 1 Thunderbolt 3 port. Unfortunately there are no USB 3.1 ports and HDMI 2.0 ports on both notebooks.
*update: According to PC World's article, it seems there is a fingerprint reader on the P70, not sure if it is on P50 as well.


The fingerprint reader on the P70."Lenovo’s other new piece of hardware on the P70 includes a new fingerprint reader that you press rather than swipe."
 
According to the press statement from Lenovo, these 2 notebooks are scheduled to ship in Q4 2015, and pricing for the P50 begins at $1599, while the P70 begins at $1999. 

 

 

 

 

Press statement from Lenovo:

http://news.lenovo.com/news+releases/lenovo-thinkpad-p50-p70.htm

 

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2015/08/thinkpad-p50-p70-2015/

 

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/08/10/new-lenovo-thinkpad-p50-thinkpad-p70-pack-power/

 

http://www.notebookreview.com/feature/lenovo-thinkpad-p50-and-p70-first-look-preview/

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-reveals-ThinkPad-P50-and-P70-mobile-workstations.147739.0.html

 
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2960799/laptop-computers/the-first-skylake-laptops-are-lenovos-thinkpad-p50-and-p70-graphics-workstations.html
 
https://www.thinkworkstations.com/products/p50/
 
https://www.thinkworkstations.com/products/p70/
 
Datasheet of Thinkpad P50
https://www.thinkworkstations.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/WW_DS_Q2-16_ThinkPad_P50_Final.pdf
 
Datasheet of Thinkpad P70
https://www.thinkworkstations.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/WW_DS_Q2-16_ThinkPad_P70_Final.pdf

*updates: added some photos from PC World and cnBeta.com.

 

*updates 2: added a hands-on video from GottaBeMobile

 

 

Introductory video from Lenovo

[NumLock21]

Me want

No p45?

[LucidMew]

I'm kinda disappointed by the lack of HDMI 2.0 (instead of HDMI 1.4). Nvidia's had it on their 900 series for the better part of a year now, isn't it about time the quadros have caught up?

[snowComet]

I'm kinda disappointed by the lack of HDMI 2.0 (instead of HDMI 1.4). Nvidia's had it on their 900 series for the better part of a year now, isn't it about time the quadros have caught up?

Thx for reminding me that. I will add this to OP.

Kind of disappointed too with the lack of HDMI 2.0, I don't know why it was not featured on notebooks as well...

[evilarceus]

I can't see the words "mobile" and "workstations" being in the same sentence lol

[Sanctuary2808]

I can't see the words "mobile" and "workstations" being in the same sentence lol

 

More mobile than a "desktop" workstation.

[Guest]

64GB of ECC RAM, 4K screens, Quadro graphics and they'll be offering it with RHEL?

Damn! Daaaaaaaamn! This feels like the return of the crazy high end Thinkpads IBM used to put out.

I can't afford one and I'd have no way of justifying buying one if I could, but my opinion of Lenovo just improved significantly.

[Swndlr]

Newest mobile hardware but theyve still got the keyboard nipple thing

 

[DevBlox]

WANT! And I thought my T440s was cool, this is on a different level of awesome, these are way bigger though.

[Guest]

Newest mobile hardware but theyve still got the keyboard nipple thing

 

'That keyboard nipple thing' is called a Track Point and it is the objectively best pointing device implementation known to man.

[marldorthegreat]

I'm kinda disappointed by the lack of HDMI 2.0 (instead of HDMI 1.4). Nvidia's had it on their 900 series for the better part of a year now, isn't it about time the quadros have caught up?

Its not because there behind, hdmi 1.4a has more open support for some features i dont know which help with colour work for proffesional work, but I know that they are locked on hdmi 2.0.

[Swndlr]

'That keyboard nipple thing' is called a Track Point and it is the objectively best pointing device implementation known to man.

I personally hate it.

[Norman_the_Owl]

Instabuy, I've been waiting on thunderbolt 3 for a while

 

If nothing comes out with better connectivity, I'll probably get one

 

 

I personally hate it.

It's because you're a youngun

[Swndlr]

Instabuy, I've been waiting on thunderbolt 3 for a while

 

If nothing comes out with better connectivity, I'll probably get one

 

 

It's because you're a youngun

I grew up with a trackpad

[Philosobyte]

It's because you're a youngun

Nah, it's just because he hasn't invested the week or so to get used to it. People try the trackpoint for 10 minutes, can't get the hang of it, then decide it's horrible. 

[NumLock21]

Nah, it's just because he hasn't invested the week or so to get used to it. People try the trackpoint for 10 minutes, can't get the hang of it, then decide it's horrible.

A lot apply the method of using a trackpad to a trackpoint and it doesn't work, so they find it harder to use.

Track point is much easier to use than a track pad. Just place finger it and gently nudge the pointer to where you want the cursor to go. Too bad only workstation or some business laptops comes with it.

[qwertywarrior]

kill the god damn numpad already

[cYbErpILs]

The part I'm realy interested in is the new cooling system although we have seen the "two-rear-(and-side)-exhausting-fans-with-a-heatpipe(s)-running-over-CPU-and-GPU-connecting-the-two-fans-system" before (e. g. MacBook Pro Retina, Razer Blade, Asus UX501 and other high performance notebooks).

 

 

I don't know how precise the image is but it looks like the fans are shaped like hybrids between  axial and radial fans (a bit like a fan in a turbo charger).

It probably results in higher static preasure allowing for denser heatfins but that is just guessing.

[NumLock21]

kill the god damn numpad already

Why? This is a workstation not some gaming laptop.

[qwertywarrior]

Why? This is a workstation not some gaming laptop.

the numpad was never a part of the thinkpad laptops

they just started using it since the Tx40 shoed up

a 15inch laptop should never have a numpad

[NumLock21]

the numpad was never a part of the thinkpad laptops

they just started using it since the Tx40 shoed up

a 15inch laptop should never have a numpad

Well from the pics those keys don't look that cramp, so it should be fine. I'm using a 11.6" netbook and the key is about 92% full size. So that at 15.6 has plenty of space for a keypad without sacrificing too much on the keyboard.

[Glenwing]

the numpad was never a part of the thinkpad laptops

they just started using it since the Tx40 shoed up

a 15inch laptop should never have a numpad

What's your point? Thunderbolt 3 and Xeons have never been part of the ThinkPad lineup either.

Whether something has been used before is totally irrelevant, if it's a good idea then it should be included, if not then not. The ThinkPad is not some kind of historical timepiece we need to keep in original form, it's a tool for work. Personally I use a numpad ALL the time. It speeds up my workflow a lot. That being said I hate having an off-center keyboard. It'd be a much better idea to have both keyboards and let the customer choose, though design-wise that gets a bit tricky due to the different sizes.

[patrick3027]

What kind of workloads would benefit from a Xeon processor?

Wouldn't a i7 be better for the targeted audience?

[LucidMew]

What kind of workloads would benefit from a Xeon processor?

Wouldn't a i7 be better for the targeted audience?

 

Not particularly. High end i7s are usually marketed toward gamers, and they are 4c8t like the i7 4810MQ that turbos quite high, and produces a lot of heat, requires a lot of cooling, eats up battery life, which is ok when you're sitting at a desk plugged in, but not ok for a mobile workstation, that will be out in the field all day.

 

Here is what they're marketing it toward (from the bottom of the p70 page)

 

Applicable Industries

• Engineering & Architecture
• Media & Entertainment
• Medical & Science
• Oil & Gas / Energy 

 

 

I'm guessing (a quick google search as revealed no definite specs for mobile skylake xeons) a 4 to 8 core xeon (x2 for threads) clocked at 2.2 ~ 2.8GHz, to keep the TDP down.

[Miguel Batista]

Damn... I am really hope theae are good. I still have me w510 and it is amazingly solid and running. After the 530 they kind of went downhill and I am sad to see the numpad there. The w540 was flimsy compared to the previous models and most people are using their 530s instead. I hope the sturdiness returns to these new p series. Now excuse me while I fight the urge to buy a P50.