Review: Lenovo Thinkpad P52: Xeon/Quadro Beast on a Budget?

[RichardsD]

Quick Specs:

Price: $~2000CAD as configured

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-2176M w/ VPro

GPU: Nvidia Quadro P2000 4GB

RAM: 8GB DDR4 2400Mhz non-ECC

Storage: 500GB 5400RPM factory, currently fitted with 1x 1TB ADATA SU-800 SATA and 1x Kingston 256GB NVME

Display: 1920x1080 IPS

Keyboard: Backlit w/ Numberpad

Weight: ~6LBs

 

1. Build and Connectivity

The P52 being classed as a mobile workstation has a good assortment of ports overall. It has 3x USB 3.1 (Type A), 2x USB 3.1 Type C/Thunderbolt, a multi-card reader, Mini-DP 1.4, HDMI 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, a combo 3.5mm speaker/microphone jack, and an optional smart card reader. For wireless connectivity AC WiFi, and Bluetooth are provided as standard. An optional SIM Card slot can be fitted to use for mobile browsing via LTE. 

 

As for build quality, it is about as good as it gets. The chassis and outer case are metal and feel heavy (seriously heavy!) when held. The lid is primarily carbon fibre according to Lenovo, and is lightweight compared to the chassis. However, the screen has minimal flex, and the hinge action is tremendously smooth. While the P52 doesn't incorporate a latch mechanism like other Thinkpads to close the display, the hinge is perfectly capable of keeping the lid closed. The hinge allows very fine adjustment of the screen angle as well.

 

As for weight, this is a seriously heavy machine. The all-metal exterior case and chassis means the laptop is rock solid, but not exactly light. Combined with the AC adapter, this laptop weighs almost 8lbs. Without the massive 170w power brick, the laptop is about 6lbs as configured. While I've never been bothered by laptop weight, even I was surprised when holding the device for the first time. While Lenovo does offer a slim version of their mobile workstation, this P52 is specifically designed for cooling, and upgradability. 

 

The Thinkpad P52 has a 90Wh battery, a massive unit and the maximum allowed to be safe for air travel. This can give a respectable 8-9 hours of moderate usage without intensive GPU workloads. 

 

If you want to keep the machine long-term, upgrading is a snap. 8 Screws hold a metal plate on the underside of the machine, revealing most of your upgrade options. 2x NVME slots and 1x 2.5" bay are provided. Also, an amazing four so-dim memory slots are provided, allowing a maximum of 128gb non-ecc or 64gb of ecc DDR4 RAM. 

 

If you want to access all of the ports of this laptop, be prepared to reach behind. 

2. Display, Keyboard and Audio

The P52 comes with two choices of Display, a 1920 x 1080 IPS, 60Hz anti-glare display, or a 3840 x 2160 IPS, Touchscreen display. Although the 4K display would be impressive, in a 15.6" device it's not usable without the awful Windows scaling, and according to other reviews, drains the battery life to a mere 4 hours. So, I opted for the more reasonable, if a little underwhelming 1080p display. Colours are deep and vibrant as is expected with all IPS panels. Despite the 60hz refresh rate, the display feels fast and responsive. Brightness is claimed as 300nits, being bright enough, but certainly not best in class.

 

The keyboard is the new style Lenovo keyboard, which although not godly like the last generation provides great feeling, key depth and sharp response in a modern laptop. The layout is mostly traditional, except for the placement of delete and arrow keys, which some may find odd compared to a desktop keyboard. However, the full numpad and long backspace and shift keys is more than welcome. A backlight is standard, and no, Lenovo doesn't appear to be hopping on the RGB train anytime soon, which is unsurprising, given the utilitarian and professional nature of this device. The white backlight has 3 brightness levels.Also, num lock and caps lock are indicated with a small white LED on the key. The function keys also incorporate a wide range of secondary functions toggled with the function key, such as brightness, backlight, mic/speaker mute and a projector mode. A fingerprint reader is included as standard and is extremely fast and easy to use as a log-in method. 

 

Audio is provided by a set of top firing speakers. Volume is not deafening, but can easily fill a living room. Quality is good even at high volume, with clear vocals, and good ability to differentiate between supporting instruments during classic rock music tracks. Listening to classical music had similarly good ability to hear a range of orchestral instruments. Bass leaves something to be desired, and most tracks felt a bit empty in this respect, with chorus dominating the sound. 

 

mmm Porche 997.2 C4S, if I stopped buying tech, i could afford one! (jk, they're mad expensive)

3. Performance

Where the P52 really shines is performance in all aspects, especially CPU intensive workloads. The 6 core Xeon E3-2176M fires at 2.70Ghz and 4.40Ghz in turbo-boost mode. Compared to most gaming laptops with the i7-8750H, this is a major advantage for this machine. This CPU has obtained an average score of 13,772 on PassMark, putting it slightly ahead of the i7-8750H.

 

The Quadro P2000 GPU is no slouch either, and while this isn't designed for gaming, the Quadro has no issues playing games at the P52's native 1080p resolution. With power roughly equivalent to a desktop GTX 1060, I was able to obtain an average 50 FPS in Arma 3 playing single-player. Using it for it's intended purpose in 3ds max I had very smooth panning and manipulation of the viewport windows. In substance painter, effects could be applied quickly without major loading times. 

 

As far as cooling is concerned, the Xeon idled at about 37c with an ambient air temperature of 22c, without any fan usage. With maximum fan speed, the P52 was moderately loud, but not high pitched or uncomfortable. 

 

The 1920x1080p screen provides reasonable screen real estate to do 3d modelling, although you'll still likely want an external 1440p or 4K monitor. 

4. Software

Lenovo pre-loads Windows 10 Professional For Workstations on the P52, which brings some interesting features and complications. Firstly, remote desktop and a few other enterprise applications come as standard. Secondly, you'll need to use the enterprise signed drivers (such as for the Quadro), which means you won't always be on the curve of updates and fixes, since the enterprise drivers undergo more rigorous testing before deployment. But otherwise the Win10Pro WS functions the same as any edition of Win10 and incorporates all the features like Cortana, and fingerprint recognition and so forth. Unfortunately, Lenovo enjoys Bloatware (money), and therefore it comes in a healthy quantity with this machine. Office 365 trial, Skype, card games, and a ton of useless social and VR applications are included. While there's nothing too egregious like an anti-virus, a professional machine should come bone-clean. Lenovo also includes some complications for re-installing the OS. The serial key for your copy of Windows 10 is not printed on the bottom like the good ole' days, but rather is stored in the Bios. This means any reinstall must be accomplished by downloading the Lenovo Recovery tool. Because I switched to 2x SSDs instead of the mechanical storage, I had to make use of this option. While the tool does work properly, it is not user-friendly or simple. Firstly, downloading the recovery tool and making a bootable USB requires a minimum 16Gb USB stick, which the tool fails to mention. Plugging in anything less simply gives an unknown error. And secondly, the USB stick must be un-formatted or it will fail with a generic error. Once these hurdles are overcome, the recovery tool is a standard enterprise image tool which is glacially slow (taking about an hour to re-install Windows on my new drive), but otherwise worked without error. 

 

5. Conclusion

Although $2000CAD is a huge amount of money to spend on a laptop, the Thinkpad P52 could be seen as the budget option. Dell's Precision line and HP both are significantly more expensive, and the specifications of this machine are impressive for the price. Apple, for example doesn't offer any Xeon Options on their Macbook Pro, and the highest specc'ed version is $3700CAD with a weak Radeon RX card and an i7 8750H. So, the killer app of this machine is certainly the Xeon 6 Core and Quadro combination. However, the machine isn't without faults. Lenovo shipping a 500GB, 5400RPM Drive is absolutely laughable in 2019. What's more is there are few cost effective upgrades on their site. A 1TB Drive is a ridiculous $370 CAD. If you're springing for this machine, I strongly suggest you do as I did and buy your own SSDs. Still, adding the extra $165CAD I paid for 2x SSDs, the machine is still a great value. It offers excellent performance for 3d modelling, video/photo editing, and even rendering. And yes, it can game, despite that not being the primary purpose. In a world of thin-and light machines with terrible cooling and upgradability, this P52 hearkens back to the good old days, for better and for worse. Good cooling, great performance build quality all make this a good option for those looking at a mid-tier mobile workstation.