Lenovo Ear Slaps Apple With New Ultralight ThinkPad P1 Mobile Workstation

There were scattered reports of Mackbook Pro users covering themselves in ash and eating gallons of ice cream earlier this week with Lenovo’s announcement of their new ThinkPad P1 ultralight mobile workstation. Ultralight mobile workstation. Yeah, I just used those words together in a sentence – TWICE.

First though, I admit, ‘Ultralight’ is my word for their new laptop. (Lenovo just calls it their ‘thinnest, lightest and sleekest mobile workstation’.) But after eating fish & chips and getting my greasy hands all over a production unit one sunny Texas afternoon, a mobile workstation with these specs, at this weight, has all the fight in being able to wear those words. And what are these specs? Let’s have look.

Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Mobile Workstation

The ThinkPad P1 is a 15″ model running Windows 10 on an 8th gen Intel Core or Xeon processor with NVIDIA Quadro P series graphics cards and a base weight of 3.76 lbs (1.7 kg). The lightest base configuration gives you an FHD screen, 8GB Memory, 256GB SSD storage and a Quadro P1000 GPU at a $1949 starting price, but you can max it with a UHD touchscreen, 64GB Memory, 4TB SSD and a Quadro P2000 which, as you can imagine, will increase that weight and price just a tad.

As you see above, the exterior design has an updated, sleek new murdered-out look, thinnish bezel and plenty of room to Dremel ornate flower carvings around the touchpad. Oh, that touchpad? It’s glass, baby, and smooth as a baby bird’s bottom (I’ll need someone to confirm that). The keyboard is the condensed 80-something keys you’d expect for a 15-incher, so no numpad, but the spacing is ample and key pressure is noticeably smooth as a… some… other… bottom.

You’ll like to know, it has a completely new, unique to the P1, carbon fiber and magnesium alloy chassis. That ‘unique to the P1’ is important because unlike the wonderful P40 Yoga that had a chassis based on the ThinkPad Yoga 460, and subsequently died a heartless death when the chassis went away *deep breath* the P1 frame is here to stay (fingers crossed), ya know, until they release the next P-series chassis that’s 100% lighter and made of AIR.

Here’s the breakdown (base specs first with upgrade options after):

Size: 14.2″ x 9.7″ x 0.7″ (361.8 x 245.7 x 18.4 mm)
Display: 15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS (or 15.6″ 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) IPS multi-touch)
OS: Windows 10 Pro (or 10 Pro for Workstations 64)
CPU: 8th Gen Intel Core i5-8400H – 2.50 GHz, 8MB Cache, 4 core/8 thread (Up to Intel Core i7-8850H – 2.60GHz, 9MB Cache, 6 core/12 thread or Intel Xeon E-2176M – 2.70GHz, 12MB Cache, 6 core/12 thread)
Memory: 8GB DDR4 (Up to 64GB DDR4)
Storage: 256GB SSD (Up to 4 TB SSD)
Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro P1000 4GB (Up to Quadro P2000 4GB)
Ports: 2 Thunderbolt (Type-C), 2 USB 3.1 (Type A), HDMI 2.0, Mini Ethernet, Headphone, Smart card
Keyboard: Seamless, backlit
Camera: HD Camera (ThinkShutter optional)
Connectivity: 802.11AC (2 x 2) & Bluetooth® 5.0
Battery: 80WHr (Up to 13 hours)
Weight: Starting at 3.76 lbs (1.7 kg)
Optical: None
Sensors: Fingerprint reader
Accessories: ThinkPad Thunderbolt Workstation Dock, ThinkPad Pen Pro (not included)
Price: Starting at $1949 Lenovo | Amazon

One thing I’ve found oddly missing from the other news reports and even the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 website is any mention of support for the Lenovo ThinkPad Pen Pro. Maybe it goes without saying, but… no, that’s important if you’re mobile and really want to supplement the multi-touch experience with more precision. What’s that? You want a photo of a hipster turned biz-pro looking all biznasty carrying a ThinkPad P1? FINE.

Lenovo ThinkPad P72 Mobile Workstation

The P1 is getting all the glory this week, but we can’t leave out Lenovo’s other P-series release. As you may recall, Lenovo brought back the 17″ with the P70 a few years ago. This week, they also announced the next iteration of this 17″ beast, the ThinkPad P72.

If you have well-developed latissimus dorsi and/or don’t mind scootching up in weight to 7.5lbs (3.4kg) and a 16.4″ x 11.1″ x 1″ form factor, you get a lot more feature-bang for the buck. The P72 starts at $1799 for a base configuration sporting a 17.3″ FHD screen, Core i7-8750H processor (9MB Cache, 6 core/12 thread), NVIDIA Quadro P600 (4GB), 1 TB HDD, 8GB RAM. Not too shabby for a lower price and double the weight. Here’s a picture to get you through that next meeting.

So, in the Lenovo P-Series you now have the P1, P52, P52S and the P72. They all bring you 8th gen Core i7 Intel Processors and workstation-grade OS, RAM, storage, display, and ports. The P1 only sits to the left of the rest for its max capacity limits on memory, storage, and GPU. The P1 doesn’t get to claim ‘VR-ready’ status due to the (still capable for CAD) NVIDIA Quadro P2000 4G and, need we remind you, the P1 has the same size 15.6″ UHD multi-touch screen as the P52 in a smaller package and at a lower weight.

Lenovo ThinkPad P1 vs Macbook Pro Comparison

Here’s a quick ThinkPad P1 vs Macbook Pro comparison of basic features. Configuration pricing/weight hasn’t been released for the ThinkPad P1 yet, so we’ll update once we are able to get a close price/weight comparison. Features for the ThnkPad P1 and Mackbook Pro are the base configuration/price listed from their respective websites.