My dad's work recently upgraded him to a top of the line ThinkPad P16 Gen 2, and as of right now I have his old machine. It's a P53 with an i9-9880H CPU, a Quadro RTX 4000 GPU, 32GB of 2666MHz RAM, two 1TB NVMe SSDs, and the 1920x1080 IPS 500nit display. In terms of CPU and GPU horsepower, this is a very capable laptop. 32GB of RAM is also plenty for most use cases. Fun fact: this model could not have both the i9 and a Quadro RTX 5000 due to thermal issues, you had to pick one over the other at the ultra high end of configurations. Both my dad and I share a multi-generational love for ThinkPads, especially these high end ones. As the director of his work’s IT department, he is a big reason why his workplace primarily uses ThinkPads over other laptops. I always like to say they are the Toyotas of laptops, as they are very dependable. I have a T530 with over 60,000 hours on it and still going strong.
@@eone199 When my dad’s work bought his P16 they saw it had ThinkPad branding and it was in the P series. But I agree, the P16 Gen 2 barely looks like a ThinkPad while the P53 maintains a lot more of the true ThinkPad design. Even my dad could not help but notice how far away it is from a true thinkpad. However, his P16 still has pure horsepower since he has the top spec.
@@LaptopRetrospective At the end of the day "true ThinkPad" is pretty subjective. I think what eone is trying to say is that the appearance of the P16 has almost no similarity to the P53 and older workstation-class models. This is something I definitely agree with. However, according to Lenovo, the P16 is a ThinkPad because it bears the ThinkPad name.
What a machine! I currently have been testing out a P52 w/ Xeon E-2176 CPU (6 core, 12 thread), NVIDIA Quadro P2000 (4GB GDDR5) & Intel UHD P630, 1TB Samsung 980 NVMe SSD, 512GB Timetec NVME SSD, and 64GB DDR4 2400MHz Timetec RAM. Windows 11 at the moment, as it's the OS I need to be particularly familiar with at the moment. I edited one ThinkPad video during winter holiday with Davinci Resolve and did some gaming.
The p53 is defo my next machine(with alternative being a 10th gen or above x1 carbon w/ 5G as a maybe), after my time with my p51, i dont think i cud go any other route. If i can somehow track down the version with touch & rtx 5000 gpu, it wud be absolute perfection My p51 is currently rocking 32gb ram (up to a max of 128gb as i have the i7), w/ quadro m2200 4gb and ten point multitouch. Consider the p53 added to my (future) shopping cart. Great review, as always 😊
"The complicated tool known as the Philips screwdriver"...that made me laugh a bit. Lucky us, as we don't have to deal with rivets like some other laptop users. 😀
I have one with a touchscreen display. When I am working on/in cars its nice to have the touchscreen vs having to always use a mouse/keyboard. I have used Thinkpads for many years, and they are always my goto.
I loved my P53. I had a P52 and a P50 before it. I have a P1 Gen 5 right now, only because the P16 strayed so far from what made the P5x series amazing.
@@LaptopRetrospective I fell in love with this but I'm getting the i9 and upgrade to 128GB Windows 11 Pro they have NVIDIA Quattro 4000 a monster laptop could be super faster, if you get memory RAM DDR 5 that's a full upgrade because most Lenovo laptops from 2009 to 2019 were better most DDR 4 but DDR 5 and i9 and 4TB or 8TB storage THAT'S A BEAUTIFUL MASTER LAPTOP AND POWERFUL
Bought a p53 with i9 9880h and rtx 4000 for 1.1k about a year ago. Upgraded to 96 gb of ram. Thing absolutely eats through ansys simulations i love it.
@@LaptopRetrospective Now that is a question in can hardly answer. Fallout new vegas and S.T.A.L.K.E.R... It is a replacement for my p51. (Xeon, m2200, 32gb, 1tb, 4k) Light gaming, nothing more. It is a waste to not use it productively in any way, but i wouldnt know for what. I am Not usually working with Computers. It has the i7-9850h, 64gigs of RAM, and a TB of storage and a 1080p Screen, dont know which one. If you have an Idea what i could use it for, Id be happy to Hear from you. When i got into thinkpads, and pcs in General, i assumed that i would find more uses for them than Just some rare cases of gaming. Now, Here i Am. About two years later, purchased about 20 different Kinds of thinkpads(i currently own 7 or 8), a p310, p340, p710 & p910 (currently only own the p710, with two E5-2687w V4 CPUs, and over 256 GB of RAM) and i dont really know why i got any of this in the First place. I'd really Love to know what people use them for, Other than their Jobs, content creation, or gaming. I'm at a loss. I Just Love taking this stuff apart and put it Back together. But that in itself doesnt justify their existence in my presence.
In some instances, removable batteries might still be desirable but when the internal battery is as large as you can get and you don't have PowerBridge and have better battery chemistry, it isn't as big of a deal as it used to be.
I just picked it up for dirt cheap here in India for 300USD..Rear door has broken.. held together by silicon tape for now... upgraded to 32GB ram, and cheap seagate nvme..Its a fine gaming machine now..A set of plastic pry tools costs like 3USD or less..i would never use credit cards to break any such locks..
I use old gift cards because they are more flexible and not as brittle as some pry tools I've used. To me they are simply bits of plastic. Glad you found one and are keeping it running. 👍
It's always a gamble until you break the locking mechanism on those touch-pad buttons. I have broken many in the past. I used to salvage those buttons from non-working laptops and keyboards because you never know when they'll come in handy. Ever since I started using the tools, there has always been a perfect angle of attack. I have never broken a single lock since then.
@@LaptopRetrospective My bad I didn't catch that you were trying to make it look retro. I was just immediately annoyed that it was hard to read. Checked out the ibm plex sans bold, looks fine and with very high readability
Could be. There are a handful of typos and errors throughout the years my excellent viewers have caught. I'll have to have a word with the editing staff. 😉😂
I really miss the dedicated buttons for the touchpad on the P-series devices. As someone who works with a lot of 3D software on the go, the modern clickpads are just awful to use. Too bad Lenovo removed them on the new P1 series...
@@LaptopRetrospective For 3D tasks, the middle button is used for navigation. On a personal note, all laptops with clickpads I've had rattled like crazy and were inconsistent (a click on the left would be different from a click on the right). I am very happy with my Zbook Fury G8, which I received from my employer, primarily because of the dedicated buttons ;-)
Depending on what you need it to do, yes it will still be a good choice in 2024. P series are workstation units so it takes a fair but for them to thermal throttle.
@@LaptopRetrospective icore 7 at least and up to 9th generation 16 Ram GB 512 SSD GB Processor FHD 4GB graphic card T2000 Nits 400 minimum 4.0 hzt speed minimum Slots : C type, Usb thunderbolts, memory card reader Battery time minimum 5 to 6 hours Model should be 2023 or 2022 Which laptop will be good my budget is 750€? I got really confused bc if my research. Help me out please
i cant wait for LPCAMM to hit the market hopefully 4 modules and quad channel Also cant wait for amd to do 2x 32 zen6c in 3-5 years XD imagine that in a laptop 2-3ghz 45-65w lol If only it was socketed
I was gonna get this to go along with my M2 MacBook Pro but I went for a Razer Blade 15 with a 10th gen i7 and a RTX 2070 Max-Q for less i think it was a better pick up becasue i got the 4K OLED screen too
Still using a P50. Replaced the motherboard one time after a mishap and the seller accidentally gave me a Xeon and Quadro M2000M instead of another base model one. Does anyone with the P52 or P53 use Linux? If so, is the switchable Nvidia GPU more bearable on the newer hardware, or pretty much the same?
@LaptopRetrospective can only speak for the p51 on this, but, I used Pop!_OS on p51 w/ nvidia drivers (use the iso w/ nvidia drivers installed) for base install, but then switched them to proprietary drivers later on to help with this issue. So all I can speak for is Ubuntu based distros. Was a while back but if memory serves the drivers provide an option in power settings for whether to use igpu or dGPU. My p51 uses quadro m2200 4gb. It could be worth some experimentation, but can't say further for later models or different distros
I also use an eGPU with this machine, and there's a script called "egpu-switcher" (Google that plus "github" and u shud have some success) which allows you to select which of the (3 in my case: intel 630/m2200/rx 6600) gpus is primary as well as detect & assign gpus, so that may be worth investigating as well as a fix
I am happy with mine except having issues with my internal 2.5 inch ssd. I am getting this error " 2100: Detection error on HDDO (Main HDD)" - trying two different ssd drives and checked the health no issues. I bought the original 2.5 inch kit and I think the problem is that poor connection to the motherboard. Anybody else have this issue?
This is usually because the drive isn't waking up fast enough during the boot process or a possible SATA chip failure on the board, according to what I'm reading on the forums. What make and model of drives are you trying?
@@LaptopRetrospective Samsung ssd 850 and 860 Pro. The P53 is almost new. I have the idea it has something to do with the latest firmware update but not sure.
Maybe or the people that buy them just didn't like clickpads and said not to use them. As for Panasonic, I'd love to feature more of them but they are very rare around here. I've only seen two on the channel so far.
My dad's work recently upgraded him to a top of the line ThinkPad P16 Gen 2, and as of right now I have his old machine. It's a P53 with an i9-9880H CPU, a Quadro RTX 4000 GPU, 32GB of 2666MHz RAM, two 1TB NVMe SSDs, and the 1920x1080 IPS 500nit display. In terms of CPU and GPU horsepower, this is a very capable laptop. 32GB of RAM is also plenty for most use cases. Fun fact: this model could not have both the i9 and a Quadro RTX 5000 due to thermal issues, you had to pick one over the other at the ultra high end of configurations.
Both my dad and I share a multi-generational love for ThinkPads, especially these high end ones. As the director of his work’s IT department, he is a big reason why his workplace primarily uses ThinkPads over other laptops. I always like to say they are the Toyotas of laptops, as they are very dependable. I have a T530 with over 60,000 hours on it and still going strong.
That's a beast of a machine you have there. Enjoy!
don't call P16 as thinkpad...it has no resemblace to thinkpad at all
@@eone199 When my dad’s work bought his P16 they saw it had ThinkPad branding and it was in the P series. But I agree, the P16 Gen 2 barely looks like a ThinkPad while the P53 maintains a lot more of the true ThinkPad design. Even my dad could not help but notice how far away it is from a true thinkpad. However, his P16 still has pure horsepower since he has the top spec.
Debating what makes a "true ThinkPad" is a moving target and varies between generations.
@@LaptopRetrospective At the end of the day "true ThinkPad" is pretty subjective. I think what eone is trying to say is that the appearance of the P16 has almost no similarity to the P53 and older workstation-class models. This is something I definitely agree with. However, according to Lenovo, the P16 is a ThinkPad because it bears the ThinkPad name.
What a machine! I currently have been testing out a P52 w/ Xeon E-2176 CPU (6 core, 12 thread), NVIDIA Quadro P2000 (4GB GDDR5) & Intel UHD P630, 1TB Samsung 980 NVMe SSD, 512GB Timetec NVME SSD, and 64GB DDR4 2400MHz Timetec RAM. Windows 11 at the moment, as it's the OS I need to be particularly familiar with at the moment. I edited one ThinkPad video during winter holiday with Davinci Resolve and did some gaming.
Ah so you know the beasts these machines can be, no question!
@@LaptopRetrospectiveLiving the ThinkPad dream!
Love this machine. really need to get one
P series are their own breed of awesome.
Wow, this is one ThickPad. Works great! Thanks for the video
Glad you liked it!
@@LaptopRetrospective It's nearly impossible not to like your videos:)
The p53 is defo my next machine(with alternative being a 10th gen or above x1 carbon w/ 5G as a maybe), after my time with my p51, i dont think i cud go any other route.
If i can somehow track down the version with touch & rtx 5000 gpu, it wud be absolute perfection
My p51 is currently rocking 32gb ram (up to a max of 128gb as i have the i7), w/ quadro m2200 4gb and ten point multitouch.
Consider the p53 added to my (future) shopping cart. Great review, as always 😊
Workstations are pretty amazing.
The beast!!! Love the P series. Thank you for your videos!
More to come!
Awesome video as always, keep it up LR!
Appreciate it! Will do my best.
"The complicated tool known as the Philips screwdriver"...that made me laugh a bit. Lucky us, as we don't have to deal with rivets like some other laptop users. 😀
You know how those screwdrivers can be. Spin it one way it does one thing, spin it the other way and it does something completely different.
I have one with a touchscreen display. When I am working on/in cars its nice to have the touchscreen vs having to always use a mouse/keyboard. I have used Thinkpads for many years, and they are always my goto.
I'd imagine that would be a great combination for working on vehicles!
I loved my P53. I had a P52 and a P50 before it. I have a P1 Gen 5 right now, only because the P16 strayed so far from what made the P5x series amazing.
P series has a great lineage.
Great video, ordered one of these myself yesterday.
Awesome! Let us know what you think when it arrives.
this laptop is beautiful 😍 128GB RAM plus more storage and i7 or i9 it's a beast! 🔥
Sure is.
@@LaptopRetrospective I fell in love with this but I'm getting the i9 and upgrade to 128GB Windows 11 Pro they have NVIDIA Quattro 4000 a monster laptop could be super faster, if you get memory RAM DDR 5 that's a full upgrade because most Lenovo laptops from 2009 to 2019 were better most DDR 4 but DDR 5 and i9 and 4TB or 8TB storage THAT'S A BEAUTIFUL MASTER LAPTOP AND POWERFUL
Bought a p53 with i9 9880h and rtx 4000 for 1.1k about a year ago. Upgraded to 96 gb of ram. Thing absolutely eats through ansys simulations i love it.
That's a beast of a setup!
Just ordered a p53 with an rtx 5000. I am very excited for the heat.
What will you use it for? 🤔
@@LaptopRetrospective
Now that is a question in can hardly answer.
Fallout new vegas and S.T.A.L.K.E.R...
It is a replacement for my p51. (Xeon, m2200, 32gb, 1tb, 4k)
Light gaming, nothing more.
It is a waste to not use it productively in any way, but i wouldnt know for what.
I am Not usually working with Computers.
It has the i7-9850h, 64gigs of RAM, and a TB of storage and a 1080p Screen, dont know which one.
If you have an Idea what i could use it for, Id be happy to Hear from you.
When i got into thinkpads, and pcs in General, i assumed that i would find more uses for them than Just some rare cases of gaming.
Now, Here i Am. About two years later, purchased about 20 different Kinds of thinkpads(i currently own 7 or 8), a p310, p340, p710 & p910 (currently only own the p710, with two E5-2687w V4 CPUs, and over 256 GB of RAM) and i dont really know why i got any of this in the First place.
I'd really Love to know what people use them for, Other than their Jobs, content creation, or gaming. I'm at a loss.
I Just Love taking this stuff apart and put it Back together. But that in itself doesnt justify their existence in my presence.
ThinkPads are a great laptop 💻😊😊
They most certainly are.
@@LaptopRetrospective 😀
Definitely. I still use my w520
@@albion_i 😀😀
Awesome video and laptop. I'm running my i7/RTX5000 P53 for a year and I'm insanely happy. This machine is a beast
That's awesome! What do you use it for?
@@LaptopRetrospective half-life 1
Talk about overkill for that. 😁
@@LaptopRetrospective overkill? nah
skill? yeah
@Mitrix-ze9mp overkill
Rocking my T15G. Easier to remove the keyboard, but accessing the cooling system is a little more onerous. Reliable local LLM machine.
Ah that's pretty cool. Which gen is it?
If you still want a removable battery, go for the p52
In some instances, removable batteries might still be desirable but when the internal battery is as large as you can get and you don't have PowerBridge and have better battery chemistry, it isn't as big of a deal as it used to be.
And the P52 takes 128Gb of RAM as well, which is how mine is spec'd.
The port by minute 5:16 is for the SIM Card. Antenna+WWAN Module +SIM Card = "mobile/cellular Internet"
I just picked it up for dirt cheap here in India for 300USD..Rear door has broken.. held together by silicon tape for now... upgraded to 32GB ram, and cheap seagate nvme..Its a fine gaming machine now..A set of plastic pry tools costs like 3USD or less..i would never use credit cards to break any such locks..
I use old gift cards because they are more flexible and not as brittle as some pry tools I've used. To me they are simply bits of plastic. Glad you found one and are keeping it running. 👍
It's always a gamble until you break the locking mechanism on those touch-pad buttons. I have broken many in the past. I used to salvage those buttons from non-working laptops and keyboards because you never know when they'll come in handy. Ever since I started using the tools, there has always been a perfect angle of attack. I have never broken a single lock since then.
Fair point on the touchpad buttons. They are likely not engineered to withstand the same demands as other plastic clips on the machine.
One thing I never understood is the keys at the bottom of the trackpad. The trackpoint keys were usually nicer and worked just fine.
Another commenter outlined why these are preferred.
Being a mobile workstation it's all about options and redundancy.
Not heard of the P series before and now I've looked up the price I see why!!
Brand new they are serious gear. Used though, they are some of the best workstations around.
You should use a more readable font for the specifications or random on screen text. It was hard to read
Open to suggestions on a retro like don't that is easier to read for that. Let me know what you might find.
Thinking about IBM Plex Sans Bold. What do you think?
@@LaptopRetrospective My bad I didn't catch that you were trying to make it look retro. I was just immediately annoyed that it was hard to read. Checked out the ibm plex sans bold, looks fine and with very high readability
2:00 wait what, 3849?
3840x2160. The typo is now there forever and ever.
@@LaptopRetrospective I respect your decision, may this be a minor note in laptop retrospective lore.
Could be. There are a handful of typos and errors throughout the years my excellent viewers have caught. I'll have to have a word with the editing staff. 😉😂
@@LaptopRetrospective Can I use this display on my P52?
I really miss the dedicated buttons for the touchpad on the P-series devices. As someone who works with a lot of 3D software on the go, the modern clickpads are just awful to use. Too bad Lenovo removed them on the new P1 series...
I have someone asking about that in the comments. What's the worst part about it that the buttons solve?
@@LaptopRetrospective For 3D tasks, the middle button is used for navigation. On a personal note, all laptops with clickpads I've had rattled like crazy and were inconsistent (a click on the left would be different from a click on the right). I am very happy with my Zbook Fury G8, which I received from my employer, primarily because of the dedicated buttons ;-)
@diet_lemonade Thanks for sharing!
man, you're like a drug lord, just with ThinkPads instead of drugs😂
Hey kid, you want some TrackPoint caps?
Is this laptop suitable in 2024?
It's design? Does it overheat?
Depending on what you need it to do, yes it will still be a good choice in 2024. P series are workstation units so it takes a fair but for them to thermal throttle.
@@LaptopRetrospective icore 7 at least and up to 9th generation
16 Ram GB
512 SSD GB
Processor FHD
4GB graphic card T2000
Nits 400 minimum
4.0 hzt speed minimum
Slots : C type, Usb thunderbolts, memory card reader
Battery time minimum 5 to 6 hours
Model should be 2023 or 2022
Which laptop will be good my budget is 750€? I got really confused bc if my research. Help me out please
A P series would be a good choice if you can find one that fits your budget and specs.
i cant wait for LPCAMM to hit the market
hopefully 4 modules and quad channel
Also cant wait for amd to do 2x 32 zen6c in 3-5 years XD imagine that in a laptop 2-3ghz 45-65w lol
If only it was socketed
We shall see what the future holds.
I was gonna get this to go along with my M2 MacBook Pro but I went for a Razer Blade 15 with a 10th gen i7 and a RTX 2070 Max-Q for less i think it was a better pick up becasue i got the 4K OLED screen too
Razer's are nice until they break. Best of luck.
Razer spend 85% of their budget on marketing
I can believe that.
This laptop is basically echo of the past.
There are design elements that harken back a bit.
I need one how can I get one
eBay or other sellers in your area I'd imagine.
Still using a P50. Replaced the motherboard one time after a mishap and the seller accidentally gave me a Xeon and Quadro M2000M instead of another base model one. Does anyone with the P52 or P53 use Linux? If so, is the switchable Nvidia GPU more bearable on the newer hardware, or pretty much the same?
Tagging a friend on this.
@LaptopRetrospective can only speak for the p51 on this, but, I used Pop!_OS on p51 w/ nvidia drivers (use the iso w/ nvidia drivers installed) for base install, but then switched them to proprietary drivers later on to help with this issue. So all I can speak for is Ubuntu based distros. Was a while back but if memory serves the drivers provide an option in power settings for whether to use igpu or dGPU. My p51 uses quadro m2200 4gb. It could be worth some experimentation, but can't say further for later models or different distros
I also use an eGPU with this machine, and there's a script called "egpu-switcher" (Google that plus "github" and u shud have some success) which allows you to select which of the (3 in my case: intel 630/m2200/rx 6600) gpus is primary as well as detect & assign gpus, so that may be worth investigating as well as a fix
Technically this machine can run 256gb memory even though 128gb is the limit for the processor
Any benefits if the CPU limit is only 128GB?
@@LaptopRetrospective no 😂😂
The speaker on P53 is much better than P52.
Could be the case. Not sure how high a priority speakers on these machines.
Is it good for graphic designing 3d work nd video editing in 2024?
Depending on how it's configured, the software you're using and the complexity of the project, yes.
I am happy with mine except having issues with my internal 2.5 inch ssd.
I am getting this error " 2100: Detection error on HDDO (Main HDD)" - trying two different ssd drives and checked the health no issues. I bought the original 2.5 inch kit and I think the problem is that poor connection to the motherboard. Anybody else have this issue?
This is usually because the drive isn't waking up fast enough during the boot process or a possible SATA chip failure on the board, according to what I'm reading on the forums. What make and model of drives are you trying?
@@LaptopRetrospective Samsung ssd 850 and 860 Pro. The P53 is almost new. I have the idea it has something to do with the latest firmware update but not sure.
1:29 What feature was in demand?
The dedicated physical buttons below the trackpad and not clicking down touch surface.
@@LaptopRetrospective ty. I imagine this is for glove use. Also are you planning to cover any of the Panasonic toughbooks?
Maybe or the people that buy them just didn't like clickpads and said not to use them. As for Panasonic, I'd love to feature more of them but they are very rare around here. I've only seen two on the channel so far.
GTA 4 will still freeze 😂
It is a workstation afterall, games working well would be a "happy accident."