Quote from: veraverav on December 26, 2025, 00:27:23well, I powered up my P1 Gen 8 .. 265H/OLED/64GB RAM/2TB NVMe .. looks like that 5.5 hrs of battery life might be accurate at least on the "Balanced" profile for mixed-use. Haven't tried the one power setting below that "battery efficient". Not sure if the article mentioned which profile they used.
OLED is beautiful, but found latent image retention in darker environments where the brightness is at 25%. "After images" show up on dark grey and remain for minutes after. Possibly a defective panel.
Machine runs extremely cool and quiet. Lenovo has bee aggressive with power limits on the CPU. The one comment on YT with the guy who bough the non-dGPU one which doesn't use LM -- clearly getting a dGPU is the way to go if you want cool and quiet. Will the fans ramp up if you do something intense for extended periods, yes it will, but way better than my P1 Gen 2.
QuoteMatte RGB isn't as crisp as we would like
QuoteSubjectively, the matte tandem OLED screen on our test unit appears grainier than a traditional glossy alternative especially when displaying an all-white image.Judging the close-up picture: Nasty. What's the purpose of using an OLED then.
Quote from: veraverav on January 19, 2026, 07:42:34I am returning it and the P1 Gen 8 with the 4k IPS panel is on its way already. I knew they wouldn't tell us about the Gen 9 at CES since they were so late launching this model.
Quote from: pelican-freeze on January 11, 2026, 15:54:13Did you end up getting a resolution that you were happy with? Either a replacement with an OLED without the retention issue you mentioned or a swap for IPS?
After having the laptop for a while could you share some more impressions of the display and general quality of life experience using it in day to day use? Have you been able to tweak some settings to improve the battery life?
Still trying to decide whether or not to keep mine (Lenovo's Holiday return window in the US closes January 27th, 2026). I was hoping for some more exciting laptop announcements at CES that would encourage me to return the P1 G8 and wait for newer releases, but was a bit disappointed by the new product announcements.
Next gen Panther Lake CPUs don't seem like a proper generational leap for anything other than webcam quality (new ISP) outside of combined CPU / GPU scenarios where panther lake is being configured to take up less of the overall power budget / allow for more of the overall power budget to be allocated to higher GPU wattage. So panther lake seems to be an extremely minimal upgrade on the performance / efficiency / IO front unless you're ok with relying entirely on Intel's new integrated GPU or you have a discreet GPU that could see a significant performance increase if it were fed an additional 10-15w in combined CPU / GPU load scenarios.
There very few panther lake laptop announcements at CES featuring tandem OLEDs too and the ones that were announced all had major issues - limited 2.8k or lower resolutions, cost saving low quality anti-reflective coatings / full on mirror finishes, no thunderbolt 5, poor overall port selection, integrated intel GPU only etc..
Quote from: veraverav on January 07, 2026, 06:47:03I'm asking them to replace it with the 4k IPS version, which they refuse, even though its cheaper. They only want to replace it with an identical machine with the OLED screen. I'm not sure what to do. I love the machine aside from this OLED issue. Am I rolling the dice asking for a replacement?
I ran PCMark10 office battery life test which got 10hrs of battery life.
I'm trying to escalate my issue to see if someone can send me the 4k IPS instead. So far no luck.
I got the TB5 7500 Smart Dock and it works very well with the machine as well.
Quote from: pelican-freeze on December 28, 2025, 23:11:16Any more thoughts? Are you happy enough with the P1 Gen 8 to keep it?
Quote from: veraverav on December 26, 2025, 00:27:23well, I powered up my P1 Gen 8 .. 265H/OLED/64GB RAM/2TB NVMe .. looks like that 5.5 hrs of battery life might be accurate at least on the "Balanced" profile for mixed-use. Haven't tried the one power setting below that "battery efficient". Not sure if the article mentioned which profile they used.
OLED is beautiful, but found latent image retention in darker environments where the brightness is at 25%. "After images" show up on dark grey and remain for minutes after. Possibly a defective panel.
Machine runs extremely cool and quiet. Lenovo has bee aggressive with power limits on the CPU. The one comment on YT with the guy who bough the non-dGPU one which doesn't use LM -- clearly getting a dGPU is the way to go if you want cool and quiet. Will the fans ramp up if you do something intense for extended periods, yes it will, but way better than my P1 Gen 2.
Quote from: pelican-freeze on December 15, 2025, 23:16:13FWIW there's a much bigger difference between the higher-end mobile GPU options for everything that isn't gaming, so it can absolutely make sense to spend more on P16 Gen 3 GPU upgrades even if the chassis is TGP‑limited.I knew many of those things, but not all of those things; fantastic comment, thank you! It's a great start to go into an interesting rabbit hole and learn more stuff, thanks for posting this 🙏
RTX Pro 2000 / 5060 mobile – 1 NVENC encoder, 128‑bit bus, 8 GB VRAM
RTX Pro 3000 / 5070 Ti mobile – 1 NVENC encoder, 192‑bit bus, 12 GB VRAM
RTX Pro 4000 / 5080 mobile – 2 NVENC encoders, 256‑bit bus, 16 GB VRAM
RTX Pro 5000 / 5090 mobile – 3 NVENC encoders, 256‑bit bus, 24 GB VRAM
For video editing specifically, the RTX Pro 4000 mobile is the real workstation sweet spot: it delivers desktop 5080‑class encoding (100% more NVENC encoders vs the RTX Pro 3000 / 5070 Ti mobile) while staying relatively reasonable on cost and power.
The RTX Pro 5000 / 5090 mobile can then give you essentially "5090‑class" video encoding throughput, since it has the same three NVENC encoders as the desktop 5090, but for the big price jump over the RTX Pro 4000 mobile you're only getting 50% more NVENC encoders and there's zero further improvement to the memory bus.
All of these mobile parts use the same single NVDEC decoder, so you don't gain extra decode hardware by moving up the stack. On desktop, the 5080 and 5090 each have two NVDEC decoders, which can help with heavier multi‑track timeline video decode. The desktop 5070 Ti desktop by comparison only has a single NVENC encoder / NVDEC decoder so it's a bit limited as a workstation GPU.
Quote from: 2k for 8GB VRAM gg on December 11, 2025, 10:08:06Quote8 GB VRAM2000 for only 8 GB VRAM? Nice trolling.
Even games have a problem with only 8 GB VRAM: youtube.com/watch?v=ric7yb1VaoA: "Gaming Laptops are in Trouble - VRAM Testing w/ @Hardwareunboxed"
Most big games are made for consoles first in mind and the PS5 has 16 GB VRAM, minus 4 GB for the OS, and games expect your GPU to have at least 12 GB VRAM.
Quote from: Worgarthe on December 14, 2025, 21:47:40I mean, again, and this is now a rhetorical question - why in the world would one pay +2980€ to go from 245HX + Blackwell 1000 to 245HX + Blackwell 5000 (that previously linked P16 Gen 3 configuration on Lenovo's site) when a 740-780€ 5070 Ti is simply going to destroy that Blackwell 5000? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sure if they simply NEED to play Battlefield 6 on battery when they commute to work then ok, go crazy and get that Blackwell 5000, or they can save money and go with Blackwell 4000 (16 GB) for "just" +1420€ (and get even more obliterated by a 740-780€ 5070 Ti), but yeah...
Quote from: veraverav on December 14, 2025, 21:35:27Quote from: pelican-freeze on December 14, 2025, 14:48:36Are there any issues with the non-standard 3.2K resolution on a laptop intended for workstation use? I like the idea of a tandem OLED, but at 3.2K it seems like it might be more of a headache than anything else. At 1440p you get better battery life, cleaner application compatibility, and more flexibility for some light gaming, while at 3.2K you lose the battery life benefits of a lower resolution and risk app compatibility issues, without getting the content-consumption advantages of a proper 4K panel.
If the appeal of a tandem OLED workstation is being able to watch 4K HDR Netflix in your downtime, any sub‑4K display is still going to get the same 1080p stream (just like an iPad or Android tablet). To get true 4K HDR streaming you need a full 4K, HDCP 2.2‑compliant display; otherwise, you're capped at 1080p. So a 3.2k tandem OLED is objectively a poor solution for content consumption.
I'm interested in this laptop, but I'm concerned about weird interface scaling in professional apps that almost certainly haven't been tested for usability at 3200×2000. And having a tandem OLED that isn't suited for content consumption just feels like an awkward choice when Lenovo already offers such bright IPS panels - like with the 3.2k tandem OLED you get poor battery life and poor content consumption, but without a material increase in brightness to improve display visibility when in bright environments on the go since the P1 G8's 4k IPS panel option already offers 800 nits of SDR brightness. In practical SDR use the IPS panel is likely to be even brighter and offer even better visibility?
Like I'm a huge P1 / X1 Extreme fan and was excited about tandem OLED, but I can't figure out any use case where this 3.2k display makes sense since it appears to offer a big bag of frustrating compromises without any material benefits - bad for app compatibility, too high resolution for good battery life, too high for gaming, not high enough for good content consumption, no advantage over bright IPS option for outdoor use etc..
For those considering the P16 G3: you can configure CPUs/GPUs that, on paper, should scale to higher performance with more wattage, but the AC adapter is only 180W (vs. the P1 G8's 140W). That strongly suggests the P16 G3 chassis and power delivery are not designed to let parts like Intel HX CPUs or 5070 Ti/5080/5090‑class GPUs (RTX Pro 3000/4000/5000) run anywhere near their maximum performance. If your main interest in 5080/5090‑class GPUs is the extra NVENC encoders, the P16 G3 still looks great—much lighter and more compact than the P16 G2, with the tradeoff of lower cooling capacity, a smaller total power envelope, and reduced peak performance.
The only true 16‑inch performance workstation left this year is the Dell Pro Max 16 Plus (not Premium), since it ships with a 280W AC adapter and a much more performance‑oriented triple‑fan, vapor‑chamber cooling system. So if you care primarily about performance, the sweet spot is the Dell Pro Max 16 Plus with a 275HX (24 threads, fed full wattage) and a 5070 Ti‑class GPU (RTX 3000, at a full 175W), with the higher GPU tiers really only making sense for heavy video work. It's definitely not as compact as the P16 G3 and it's about a pound heavier once you factor in the adapter, but that seems like a very reasonable trade for the additional performance considering that there isn't really any competition at that mobile performance tier anymore.
Actually the 3.2K screen run @ 200% scaling will yield a better picture than 4K @ 250% scaling.
So far I've read zero complaints about watching 4k content on a 3.2k screen or anything like that. I guess someone with this laptop can chime in if they are unable to get a 4k stream because its a 3.2k screen. Everyone seems to love the 3.2k OLED screen.
As for the eGPU, it simply to get around the 8GB VRAM bottleneck without having to haul around something as large and heavy as the P16.
Quote from: veraverav on December 14, 2025, 21:35:27Actually the 3.2K screen run @ 200% scaling will yield a better picture than 4K @ 250% scaling.Correct. That's 1600x1000 (3.2K 200%) vs 1536x960 (4K 250%). Sure the 4K is a bit sharper but it's not really noticeable from any normal viewing distance. If one is touching the screen with their nose then they will probably notice some pixels here and there with a 3.2K, hehe. Another benefit of 3.2K is running it at 125% scaling, which is effectively the same real estate as 2560x1600, with 25% sharper image. 25% doesn't sound much, but if one works with text then it helps a lot as its easier on one's eyes no matter of how good their eyesight is.
Quote from: veraverav on December 14, 2025, 21:35:27So far I've read zero complaints about watching 4k content on a 3.2k screen or anything like that. I guess someone with this laptop can chime in if they are unable to get a 4k stream because its a 3.2k screen. Everyone seems to love the 3.2k OLED screen.I don't have this exact panel, but I used to own a Surface Pro 8 for a few months with a 2880x1920, so not the same resolution but very close. No issues with 4K, it all worked great (replaced the Surf with an X1 Carbon 9 though).
Quote from: veraverav on December 14, 2025, 21:35:27As for the eGPU, it simply to get around the 8GB VRAM bottleneck without having to haul around something as large and heavy as the P16.This 👍 You pay less for eGPU dock/enclosure + normal desktop GPU, and you get more performance (for far less money) than what you would get with that same laptop if its dGPU was maxed.
Quote from: pelican-freeze on December 14, 2025, 14:48:36Are there any issues with the non-standard 3.2K resolution on a laptop intended for workstation use? I like the idea of a tandem OLED, but at 3.2K it seems like it might be more of a headache than anything else. At 1440p you get better battery life, cleaner application compatibility, and more flexibility for some light gaming, while at 3.2K you lose the battery life benefits of a lower resolution and risk app compatibility issues, without getting the content-consumption advantages of a proper 4K panel.
If the appeal of a tandem OLED workstation is being able to watch 4K HDR Netflix in your downtime, any sub‑4K display is still going to get the same 1080p stream (just like an iPad or Android tablet). To get true 4K HDR streaming you need a full 4K, HDCP 2.2‑compliant display; otherwise, you're capped at 1080p. So a 3.2k tandem OLED is objectively a poor solution for content consumption.
I'm interested in this laptop, but I'm concerned about weird interface scaling in professional apps that almost certainly haven't been tested for usability at 3200×2000. And having a tandem OLED that isn't suited for content consumption just feels like an awkward choice when Lenovo already offers such bright IPS panels - like with the 3.2k tandem OLED you get poor battery life and poor content consumption, but without a material increase in brightness to improve display visibility when in bright environments on the go since the P1 G8's 4k IPS panel option already offers 800 nits of SDR brightness. In practical SDR use the IPS panel is likely to be even brighter and offer even better visibility?
Like I'm a huge P1 / X1 Extreme fan and was excited about tandem OLED, but I can't figure out any use case where this 3.2k display makes sense since it appears to offer a big bag of frustrating compromises without any material benefits - bad for app compatibility, too high resolution for good battery life, too high for gaming, not high enough for good content consumption, no advantage over bright IPS option for outdoor use etc..
For those considering the P16 G3: you can configure CPUs/GPUs that, on paper, should scale to higher performance with more wattage, but the AC adapter is only 180W (vs. the P1 G8's 140W). That strongly suggests the P16 G3 chassis and power delivery are not designed to let parts like Intel HX CPUs or 5070 Ti/5080/5090‑class GPUs (RTX Pro 3000/4000/5000) run anywhere near their maximum performance. If your main interest in 5080/5090‑class GPUs is the extra NVENC encoders, the P16 G3 still looks great—much lighter and more compact than the P16 G2, with the tradeoff of lower cooling capacity, a smaller total power envelope, and reduced peak performance.
The only true 16‑inch performance workstation left this year is the Dell Pro Max 16 Plus (not Premium), since it ships with a 280W AC adapter and a much more performance‑oriented triple‑fan, vapor‑chamber cooling system. So if you care primarily about performance, the sweet spot is the Dell Pro Max 16 Plus with a 275HX (24 threads, fed full wattage) and a 5070 Ti‑class GPU (RTX 3000, at a full 175W), with the higher GPU tiers really only making sense for heavy video work. It's definitely not as compact as the P16 G3 and it's about a pound heavier once you factor in the adapter, but that seems like a very reasonable trade for the additional performance considering that there isn't really any competition at that mobile performance tier anymore.
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