Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 Review

The ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 is an exceptionally capable 16″ workstation with Intel Core HX-class CPUs, Nvidia RTX Ada, and up to 192GB of RAM.

The ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 is Lenovo’s flagship mobile workstation. It is based around the 14th-generation Intel Core processors and features up to an Nvidia RTX 5000 Ada Generation GPU. It boasts exceptional expansion, with up to 192GB of RAM and two storage drives. With many Independent Software Vendor (ISV) certifications and comprehensive security features, there’s no task this laptop can’t handle.

Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 Specifications

Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 Build and Design

This ThinkPad puts performance ahead of everything else. Measuring 14.33 x 10.47 x 1.19 inches and with a starting weight of 6.5 pounds, it’s considerably larger than portability-focused workstations, such as the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 and the HP ZBook Studio 16 G11.

The build quality of this laptop is exemplary. It’s MIL-SPEC certified for operation in harsh environments, and its tank-like chassis exhibits no flex. Most of the construction is made of magnesium and aluminum. Lenovo has the environment in mind, using recycled materials throughout, even on the keyboard. It also uses low-temperature solder and plastic-free packaging with 90% recycled and sustainable content.

The abundant physical connections include two Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C) ports, two 5Gbps USB Type-A ports, a 10Gbps USB Type-C port, HDMI 2.1 monitor output, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

Having some of the ports on the rear, especially the power plug, is useful for keeping cables out of the way. A red stripe back here adds flair to the otherwise understated design.

A SmartCard reader and an SD card reader are optional. Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 are standard; NFC and 4G WWAN with eSIM are options.

Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 Screen and Input Devices

ThinkPad keyboards are the best in the business; the P16 Gen 2 offers superb typing comfort, with ample key throw for satisfying tactile feedback. The white backlighting looks good in the dark. The productive layout has a separated arrow-key cluster and a full-size numeric keypad with a standard layout.

The large buttonless touchpad is joined by the trademark eraser-head pointing stick in the center of the keyboard, which has three dedicated buttons. The middle button is handy for apps that make use of center-click.

The ThinkPad’s screen options start with a 1920 x 1200 IPS panel rated for 300 or 400 nits of brightness and 100% sRGB gamut coverage. Our unit has the mid-tier 2560 x 1600 panel offering 500 nits and a gaming laptop-like 165Hz refresh rate. Everything we put on this screen looked outstanding, from office documents to movie trailers. The top option is a 3840 x 2400 OLED touchscreen with 100% DCI-P3 coverage.

The onboard webcam is rated 1080p and has a mechanical shutter for privacy. The camera will get the job done for video calls and such, although the sensor left a bit to be desired for image quality.

Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 Upgradeability

This ThinkPad has excellent upgrade prospects. The bottom cover has a unique cutout for memory and SSD upgrades, eliminating the need to remove the entire panel.

With the entire bottom panel removed, we can see the large cooling fans and massive user-replaceable 94Wh battery.

Removing the thermal heatsinks shows how much copper this laptop uses to keep it running cool. While the system is under both a CPU and GPU load, fan noise isn’t that bad. It’s a soft to moderate whisper, thanks in part to larger fan intakes and outlets. It can move air well without ramping into really high fan RPM.

Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 Performance

Our review unit features a Core i7-14700HX processor, 32GB of RAM (non-ECC), a 1TB SSD, and an Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation GPU (115W maximum graphics power). It retails for about $5,000, but pricing will vary by channel.

For comparison, we used the HP ZBook Power G11 and G11 A, the former featuring an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and the latter an AMD Ryzen 9 Pro 8945HS. Both have 64GB of RAM and an RTX 3000 Ada Generation GPU. The comparison is not precisely apples to apples, but it will put the ThinkPad’s stellar performance in perspective.

SPECworkstation 3

SPECworkstation3 specializes in benchmarks designed to test all key aspects of workstation performance. It uses over 30 workloads to test CPU, graphics, I/O, and memory bandwidth. The workloads fall into broader categories such as Media and Entertainment, Financial Services, Product Development, Energy, Life Sciences, and General Operations. We will list each broad-category result instead of the individual workloads. The results are an average of all the individual workloads in each category.

The ThinkPad P16 Gen 2, powered by the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada, quickly showed its superiority in multiple categories. Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 demonstrated superior capability in workloads that stress the GPU.

SPECviewperf 2020

Our next test is SPECviewperf 2020, the worldwide standard for measuring graphics performance of professional applications under the OpenGL and Direct X application programming interfaces. The viewsets (or benchmarks) represent graphics content and behavior from actual applications without having to install the applications themselves. The newest version of this benchmark went through significant updates late last year, including new viewsets taken from traces of the latest versions of 3ds Max, Catia, Maya, and Solidworks applications. In addition, they added support within all viewsets for both 2K and 4K resolution displays.

While both HP models performed similarly in SPECviewperf, Lenovo consistently led by a wide margin, especially in tasks related to 3D rendering.

Luxmark

LuxMark, an OpenCL GPU benchmarking utility, again showed Lenovo’s dominance in GPU tasks. For users who depend on GPU performance for OpenCL tasks, the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 demonstrates it can handle the workload better than its HP competitors.

OctaneBench

Next, we look at OctaneBench, a benchmarking utility for OctaneRender, another 3D renderer with RTX support similar to V-Ray. These results solidify Lenovo’s position as the better choice for rendering and creative users.

Blackmagic RAW Speed Test

We have also started running Blackmagic’s RAW speed test, which tests video playback. The ZBook G11 outperformed its AMD counterpart in the CPU test, and both easily outpaced the ThinkPad.

While Lenovo dominated GPU-heavy benchmarks, HP’s ZBook Power G11 made its mark in CPU-focused tests.

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test

We conducted the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test on the Lenovo ThinkPad, utilizing the SKHynix_HFS001TEJ9X162N PCIe Gen 4×4 NVMe SSD as the primary storage drive. This SSD is engineered to provide exceptional data transfer speeds, crucial for demanding tasks such as video editing and transferring large files. During testing, the SKHynix_HFS001TEJ9X162N demonstrated impressive performance, achieving a write speed of 3.19 GB/s and a read speed of 5.02 GB/s. These high-speed capabilities not only facilitate swift file saving but also ensure rapid access to sizable data, significantly enhancing the system’s overall responsiveness.

7-Zip Compression

Our next test is the built-in memory benchmark in the popular 7-Zip utility. The decompression numbers indicate overall performance in this test, and the AMD-powered G11 A performed much better than the G11. The ThinkPad took a back seat.

Despite Lenovo’s lead in GPU workloads, the HP ZBook Power G11 A stands out as a powerhouse in CPU-centric tasks, likely making it the better choice for users needing CPU-intensive processing.

UL Procyon AI Inference

UL’s Procyon estimates a workstation’s performance for professional apps. We are only showing numbers for running this test on the GPU. The ThinkPad scored highest in Tensor RT-based performance but fell significantly behind in Windows ML, leading to its meager overall Windows ML score. The HP ZBook Power G11 models maintained more balanced scores across Tensor RT and Windows ML.

y-cruncher

y-cruncher is a multi-threaded and scalable program that can compute Pi and other mathematical constants to trillions of digits, with lower times indicating better performance. Since its launch in 2009, it has become a popular benchmarking and stress-testing application for overclockers and hardware enthusiasts. The G11 A was the strongest performer, followed by the Thinkpad and the G11, respectively.

Geekbench 6

Geekbench 6 is a cross-platform benchmark that measures overall system performance. The Geekbench Browser allows you to compare any system to it. The G11 A refused to run this test. The Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 outperformed the HP ZBook Power G11 in both CPU and GPU categories, especially excelling in multi-core and GPU-intensive tasks.