Our review of the Lenovo ThinkPad P72 finds a 15.6″ notebook with high-end options. We recently reviewed the Lenovo ThinkPad P52 mobile workstation and now have its bigger brother, the ThinkPad P72 to review. Both ThinkPads offer similar base features, but the ThinkPad P72 takes it to the next level. With higher-end processors and graphics options, the ThinkPad P72 is designed to provide a top tier mobile workstation experience in this form factor.
Lenovo ThinkPad P72 Mobile Workstation Overview
The Lenovo ThinkPad P72 aligns with corporate branding and feels much like generations of ThinkPads we have reviewed. One thing is for sure, this is not an ultrabook. At 7.5lbs and 16.4” x 11.1” and 1.15” thick, the Lenovo ThinkPad P72 feels like a substantial workstation. In that large chassis, Lenovo has a number of high-end components and our test unit came with a nice 17.3-inch 4k UHD (3840 x 2160) display.
Security features with the new Lenovo Thinkpad include a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and feature a match-on-chip fingerprint reader and facial login via the optional IR camera and Windows Hello.
If you are accustomed to how Lenovo does user input via trackpad, the red nub, and the keyboard will all be familiar. One will notice that the trackpad is shifted slightly right. This is to accommodate a full num pad on the device. If you are an engineer, an accountant, or someone pushing IP numbers and inventory numbers all day as an admin, the num pad is a welcome addition.
At the back of the Lenovo ThinkPad P72, we find a USB 3.1 Gen 1 port, HDMI 2.0, 2x USB C Thunderbolt 3 ports. Lastly, a power port located at the back that helps remove bulky cables routed on the sides.
Moving around to the left side we see a USB 3.1 Gen 1 port.
Over at the right side, we find a 3.5mm Combo audio/mic jack, 2x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, 4-in-1 SD Card reader, Mini DisplayPort 1.4, and a Gigabit Ethernet port.
Flipping the ThinkPad P72 upside down, we can see the bottom of the chassis and how easy it is to service. The back plate is screwed into place and removes easily. Here we have removed the back plate and can see the locations of memory and storage compartments.
A 6-cell, 99-Whr battery is screwed in place and uses a power ribbon to connect power to the system. In contrast, the Lenovo ThinkPad P52 we reviewed has a removable battery that is easy to swap. That will be a defining feature for some users, however, most notebooks these days have internal batteries like the ThinkPad P72.
The Lenovo ThinkPad P72 comes with a 2.5″ SATA bay and two PCIe NVMe slots. This gives a lot of expansion options. In the M.2 slot, we have a Union Memory NVMe M.2 80mm 512GB SSD installed for our OS drive. We often see notebooks with SSDs from major brands like Samsung, Intel, Toshiba, and LiteOn, so this is a bit different. One can RAID the two NVMe SSDs for redundancy or performance. For professional users on the go that absolutely cannot lose data due to drive failure, the RAID 1 option is something one cannot get in many lower-end notebooks.
We also have a 1TB 7200 RPM HDD as our data drive in the 2.5″ bay. Configuring ourselves, we would likely suggest a second M.2 1TB SSD over a rotating HDD these days.
RAM is expandable to 128GB via the SODIMM slots. Using the Intel Xeon E-2100 series CPUs, one can also take advantage of ECC memory which is a must-have feature for some users.
Overall, the hardware of the unit is excellent. If you are accustomed to Lenovo hardware, then this setup will feel familiar.
Next, let us take a look at the Lenovo ThinkPad P72 mobile workstation software, key specifications, our test configuration, and continue on with our performance testing.
Lenovo Bundled Software
Lenovo has dramatically cleaned up the software that comes bundled on its laptops. Our ThinkPad P72 came with Lenovo Vantage which gives us system information and warranty support interface, amongst other features. Additionally, Microsoft Office 2016 Trial offer comes preinstalled.
This is part of Lenovo’s value add as an OEM. We prefer at little pre-installed as possible.
Lenovo ThinkPad P72 Mobile Workstation Specifications
Here are the official specs for the Lenovo ThinkPad P72. We are going to go over our test configuration next, however, we wanted to point out that there are a lot of different configuration options available.
There are a number of CPU and GPU options as well as storage and memory options. This is highly configurable to your needs.
Lenovo ThinkPad P72 Test Configuration
For testing our Lenovo ThinkPad P72 is equipped as follows:
- CPU: Intel Xeon E-2186M (2.9GHz) 6 core / 12 threads
- Memory: 16GB 2400 MHz DDR4
- Graphics: Nvidia Quadro P5200 16GB GDDR5
- Storage: Union Memory NVMe M.2 80mm 512GB SSD
- OS: Windows 10 Pro Workstation
The Intel Xeon E-2186M runs with a base speed of 2.9 GHz and can Turbo up to 4.8 GHz.
GPU-Z shows the primary stats of our Nvidia Quadro P5200. The P5200 GPU clocks in at 1316 MHz. And GDDR5 Memory at 1804 MHz. Pixel Fillrates run at 100.4 GPixels/s, and Texture Fillrate comes in at 251 GTexel/s. These are the high-end CPU and GPU options for the ThinkPad P72.
Next, we are going to start our performance testing.
> If you are […] an accountant, or someone pushing IP numbers and inventory numbers all day as an admin, the num pad is a welcome addition.
Absolutely. With accountants and other number pushers being the target customer base for such a mobile a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶i̶n̶g̶workstation, a number pad is a must. Without a number pad, what would an accountant do with such a machine? Excel woudn’t be really usable without a number pad, no?
Where did you fine a P72 with a touchscreen — not on lenovo.com?