Lenovo ThinkPad P50s-20FKS00400 Notebook Review

[Redaktion]

Outdated? Lenovo's new ThinkPad P50s is the successor to the ThinkPad W550s. Despite the compact dimensions, users of the mobile workstation are supposed to get sufficient performance. Similar to the predecessor, however, the system lacks a bit of CPU performance, and now there is also a strong competitor from Lenovo themselves.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-P50s-20FKS00400-Notebook-Review.161463.0.html

[Puppy]

The low PWM frequency used for whole brightness level range (0% to 90% or more) is specific to almost all recent Lenovo models. No other vendor has such issues. Is Lenovo aware of it ? There must be something wrong in BIOS or drivers that controls the display.

[Roberto Hernandez]

So, the thinkpad T560 is nearly identical to the P50s, except for the fact that the P50s has a low-grade GPU (the kind of GPU that would have been included in earlier T models). Even the user manual is the the same (literally labelled T560/P50s). However, the P50s received a grade of 79% while the T560 recieved a grade of 88%. Is there anything that I'm missing or is it simply the fact that because the P50s is in the P category that the expectations are higher?

[Angry customers]

How hard can it be to put a 970m equivalent card in it?
No optical drive, stupid baby size direction keys, this thing we're not worth the time to be reviewed!

It's a rubbish!

[Relyonit]

So, the thinkpad T560 is nearly identical to the P50s, except for the fact that the P50s has a low-grade GPU (the kind of GPU that would have been included in earlier T models). Even the user manual is the the same (literally labelled T560/P50s). However, the P50s received a grade of 79% while the T560 recieved a grade of 88%. Is there anything that I'm missing or is it simply the fact that because the P50s is in the P category that the expectations are higher?

I was thinking the exact same thing and now I'm wondering which one should I choose? They both seem to be similar in specs but rating differs.

[Logical Thought]

I have both a new P50S and a P70. The reason to get the P50S instead of the P50 is BATTERY LIFE! Hard use of the P50S (multiple programs simultaneously with the screen at 50% brightness) gets me a genuine 12 hours of battery life (which makes sense within the manufacturer's rating of "up to 20 hours"). The P50 battery life under hard use is less than half of that and it's considerably heavier. So yes, for my office machine I *love* the more powerful P70 (equivalent to the P50) but for extensive use when traveling the P50S is a much more practical machine (if you don't need the extra processing power).

[Real Shame]

I'd buy the P50s if it only came with

1) A Better IPS display with no noticeable PWM flickering on any brightness level, at least 100% sRGB and at least 250 nits max brightness
2) An Option for quadro M1000M and M2000M graphics
3) At least one thunderbolt port
and finally,
4) Sturdier chassis (because yes lenovo, we know you're only shooting yourself)

A real shame since I used to like thinkpads when they were less materialistic and more practical. Now they've chopped themselves into multiple cheap machines that only come with one distinct advantage. Well guess what lenovo, when it comes to laptops, I want the jack of all trades. And by that, I mean I want a great display, keyboard, speakers, I/O, battery life, chassis, design, ergonomics, performance, power, form factor, portable weight, serviceability, stability and reliability all in one.

Guess I'm going with either Dell (Latitude 15 5000 e5570, Precision 15 7000 m7510, XPS 15 9550) or Apple (Macbook Pro 15 retina) this year.

[lliamander]

So, the thinkpad T560 is nearly identical to the P50s, except for the fact that the P50s has a low-grade GPU (the kind of GPU that would have been included in earlier T models). Even the user manual is the the same (literally labelled T560/P50s). However, the P50s received a grade of 79% while the T560 recieved a grade of 88%. Is there anything that I'm missing or is it simply the fact that because the P50s is in the P category that the expectations are higher?

For historical purposes, the reason for the difference is because the two machines are marketed at different users (the P50s is marketed as a workstation and the T560 is marketed as a general office computer) and so the weight attributed to each score is different.  If you look at the unweighted averages, the scores are very similar.