Lenovo ThinkBook 16p Gen 2 review: A lightweight and affordable 16-inch laptop for power users and creators

Lenovo’s 2nd-generation update to its ThinkBook 16p was announced at CES last January, although it truly is taken some time to go on sale in equally the UK and US. In actuality, pursuing Black Friday, Lenovo’s British isles website reverted to listing the ThinkBook 16p Gen two as ‘coming soon’ while it waits for new stock, although it truly is nevertheless out there from a number of Lenovo’s 3rd-occasion distributors.  

It is certainly value on the lookout out for, as the ThinkBook 16p Gen two is an beautiful sixteen-inch notebook whose mixture of AMD Ryzen nine processor and discrete GeForce RTX graphics holds out the promise of workstation-class overall performance at a aggressive price. 

Design and style & features 

This is not the sleekest sixteen-inch notebook, measuring 19.9mm (.78in.) thick together the rear edge. Nonetheless, the ThinkBook 16p Gen two only weighs 2kg (four.4lbs), which is very superior for a notebook of this sizing — specifically as the clever, dim gray aluminium scenario meets the US military standard MIL-STD-810H for influence and shock resistance. Just bear in mind that the chunky ability adapter adds an additional .7kg (1.5lbs) to the whole weight when you happen to be travelling. 

The ThinkBook 16p Gen two isn’t really convertible, but, like a number of Lenovo laptops, it does permit you to thrust the display appropriate back via 180 degrees to lie entirely flat on your desk. Nonetheless, I continue to be unconvinced that this is handy for anything other than resting the notebook on your knees while you happen to be lying down. 

The spill-resistant keyboard feels organization and comfortable when typing, and Lenovo pays superior focus to detail way too, with a number of particular Perform keys for muting the microphone in the course of video clip phone calls, managing VoIP phone calls, or even making contact with Lenovo’s world wide web-based specialized help. Lenovo also incorporates an application called Vantage that offers a number of handy diagnostic and productivity characteristics, these types of as the capacity to modify noise-cancellation settings for video clip phone calls, calibrate the display, and also to stability overall performance, fan velocity and battery existence for distinctive areas and purposes. 

The ThinkBook 16p Gen two does make some compromises in order to continue to keep the price down, most notably with the sixteen-inch IPS exhibit. To be reasonable, the graphic high quality seems incredibly superior to the bare eye, with daring colors and a welcome anti-glare coating. Slender bezels give the exhibit a 93% display-to-entire body ratio, while its sixteen:10 aspect ratio guarantees that you have lots of area to work with on-display. Nonetheless, the panel’s two.5K (2560 x 1600 pixels, 188.7ppi) resolution and four hundred nits brightness are quite modest for a notebook that offers superior-end graphics overall performance. The exhibit only supports the sRGB and Rec.709 colour specifications, which will be wonderful for world wide web style and design and graphics, and simple video clip editing, but innovative users who may perhaps also require help for the qualified-amount Adobe RGB and/or DCI-P3 specifications. 

Lots of of all those users will want to use an exterior exhibit when performing at residence or in the business but, oddly, the ThinkBook 16p Gen two incorporates neither HDMI nor DisplayPort connectors. It does have two USB-C ports that help DisplayPort for video clip output, but you are going to will need an adapter except you have a new watch that also works by using USB-C.  

Other connectivity choices include two USB-A (3.two) ports (mounted on the laptop’s rear edge), a 3.5mm audio in/out jack, and an SD card reader, as nicely as Wi-Fi six (802.11ax). Nonetheless, there is certainly no Ethernet for a wired network, while the 720p webcam is a small disappointing — although it does have a sliding privacy shutter and IR help for Windows Hi face authentication.

Value & options 

Lots of of Lenovo’s products and solutions offer you a ‘build your own’ selection that enables you to select the specific specification and elements that you require. Unfortunately, that is not the scenario with the ThinkBook 16p Gen two, and although Lenovo’s website states that there are a few models out there with Ryzen 5, 7 and nine processors, there is certainly just a solitary design at this time out there in equally the British isles and US.

Customers in the British isles get the major-of-the-selection Ryzen nine design, which we evaluation here. This fees £1,551.25 (ex. VAT 1,861.49 inc. VAT) with an 8-core AMD Ryzen nine 5900HX running at 3.3GHz (up to four.6GHz with Max Raise), together with 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB reliable-point out drive. That price incorporates a discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU with 6GB of committed video clip memory, although the AMD processor also offers its very own integrated Radeon graphics as a ability-preserving selection when expected.

That design isn’t really at this time out there in the US, even though, where by the only selection on sale appropriate now offers a six-core AMD Ryzen 5 5600H running at 3.3GHz (up to four.2GHz with Max Raise), together with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU. The typical price for that specification is $two,129, although it truly is at this time on offer you at $1,490.thirty.

The inclusion of GeForce RTX graphics in all a few models is welcome, and certainly signifies superior price for dollars, but it truly is a shame that there is certainly no selection to upgrade to a larger-high quality 4K exhibit that would definitely permit innovative users to make the most of the ThinkBook 16p’s outstanding graphics overall performance.

Functionality & battery life 

The AMD Ryzen nine processor does not split any records, but offers incredibly reliable overall performance, with Geekbench 5 CPU scores of 1,532 (solitary core) and 8,389 (multi-core), which nudge just forward of rival cell workstations these types of as Dell’s 8-core Intel Core i9-10885H-based Precision 5750.  

But it truly is the GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU that definitely stands out, attaining scores of 89fps in the Unigine Valley graphics check, and 80fps in 3DMark Wild Lifetime Serious. All those scores make it one of the fastest 3D performers we have found in the latest months — at minimum amid Home windows laptops. Apple’s new 16-inch MacBook Pro hits 121fps in the Wild Lifetime Serious check, courtesy of Apple’s new M1 Max SoC, which athletics no much less than 10 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores. Nonetheless, the MacBook Pro is considerably more highly-priced than the ThinkBook 16p Gen two at £2,749.seventeen (ex. VAT £3,299 inc. VAT) or $3,499, so Lenovo’s offering certainly offers outstanding overall performance for a notebook in this price selection.

Battery existence is quite respectable way too, many thanks to the integrated Radeon Graphics, which lasted for 8 hours and 10 minutes when streaming complete-display video clip from the world wide web. You are going to have no difficulties having a complete day’s work out of the ThinkBook 16p Gen two when you happen to be on the road, with the selection of switching back to the discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics when you get back to the business.

Conclusions 

The ThinkBook 16p Gen2 has area for improvement, significantly with its somewhat modest two.5K IPS exhibit, which will not likely pass muster for superior-end graphics and video clip work. And even Apple now admits that qualified laptops will need HDMI connectivity for exterior shows. But if you happen to be content to use an exterior exhibit in the business, then the ThinkBook 16p Gen two can supply workstation-class overall performance, together with an beautiful, lightweight style and design and a aggressive price.

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