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

Lenovo’s 2nd-era update to its ThinkBook 16p was introduced at CES previous January, even though it is really taken some time to go on sale in both equally the UK and US. In simple fact, pursuing Black Friday, Lenovo’s United kingdom web site reverted to listing the ThinkBook 16p Gen 2 as ‘coming soon’ whilst it waits for new stock, even though it is really even now offered from a range of Lenovo’s 3rd-social gathering distributors.  

It can be definitely well worth hunting out for, as the ThinkBook 16p Gen 2 is an appealing sixteen-inch laptop whose combination of AMD Ryzen 9 processor and discrete GeForce RTX graphics holds out the promise of workstation-class overall performance at a competitive value. 

Design and style & features 

This is not the sleekest sixteen-inch laptop, measuring 19.9mm (.78in.) thick along the rear edge. Having said that, the ThinkBook 16p Gen 2 only weighs 2kg (four.4lbs), which is pretty good for a laptop of this sizing — primarily as the smart, dim gray aluminium circumstance fulfills the US navy standard MIL-STD-810H for effect and shock resistance. Just bear in thoughts that the chunky electric power adapter provides a further .7kg (one.5lbs) to the full pounds when you happen to be travelling. 

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The ThinkBook 16p Gen 2 just isn’t convertible, but, like a range of Lenovo laptops, it does let you to press the screen appropriate back as a result of a hundred and eighty degrees to lie entirely flat on your desk. Having said that, I keep on being unconvinced that this is valuable for everything other than resting the laptop on your knees whilst you happen to be lying down. 

The spill-resistant keyboard feels organization and relaxed when typing, and Lenovo pays good awareness to detail as well, with a range of specific Purpose keys for muting the microphone throughout video clip phone calls, handling VoIP phone calls, or even making contact with Lenovo’s web-based mostly technological assistance. Lenovo also consists of an application called Vantage that supplies a range of valuable diagnostic and productivity features, these kinds of as the means to change noise-cancellation configurations for video clip phone calls, calibrate the screen, and also to balance overall performance, supporter velocity and battery everyday living for unique places and apps. 

The ThinkBook 16p Gen 2 does make some compromises in get to maintain the value down, most notably with the sixteen-inch IPS screen. To be good, the impression quality looks really good to the bare eye, with bold colours and a welcome anti-glare coating. Slender bezels give the screen a 93% screen-to-system ratio, whilst its sixteen:ten factor ratio guarantees that you have a good deal of room to perform with on-screen. Having said that, the panel’s 2.5K (2560 x 1600 pixels, 188.7ppi) resolution and four hundred nits brightness are relatively modest for a laptop that boasts large-conclusion graphics overall performance. The screen only supports the sRGB and Rec.709 colour requirements, which will be wonderful for web design and style and graphics, and uncomplicated video clip editing, but inventive customers who may perhaps also require assistance for the qualified-amount Adobe RGB and/or DCI-P3 requirements. 

Numerous of these customers will want to use an external screen when doing the job at property or in the office but, oddly, the ThinkBook 16p Gen 2 consists of neither HDMI nor DisplayPort connectors. It does have two USB-C ports that assistance DisplayPort for video clip output, but you’ll require an adapter except if you have a new observe that also uses USB-C.  

Other connectivity selections include things like two USB-A (3.2) ports (mounted on the laptop’s rear edge), a 3.5mm audio in/out jack, and an SD card reader, as well as Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax). Having said that, there is no Ethernet for a wired network, whilst the 720p webcam is a tiny disappointing — even though it does have a sliding privateness shutter and IR assistance for Windows Hi confront authentication.

Cost & options 

Numerous of Lenovo’s products offer you a ‘build your own’ option that permits you to pick out the specific specification and elements that you require. Unfortunately, that is not the circumstance with the ThinkBook 16p Gen 2, and even though Lenovo’s web site states that there are three styles offered with Ryzen five, 7 and 9 processors, there is just a solitary product at present offered in both equally the United kingdom and US.

Prospects in the United kingdom get the leading-of-the-variety Ryzen 9 product, which we review here. This expenses £1,551.25 (ex. VAT one,861.forty nine inc. VAT) with an 8-core AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX running at 3.3GHz (up to four.6GHz with Max Raise), along with 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB sound-state push. That value consists of a discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU with 6GB of devoted video clip memory, even though the AMD processor also supplies its very own integrated Radeon graphics as a electric power-conserving option when required.

That product just isn’t at present offered in the US, even though, where the only option on sale appropriate now supplies a 6-core AMD Ryzen five 5600H running at 3.3GHz (up to four.2GHz with Max Raise), along with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU. The regular value for that specification is $2,129, even though it is really at present on offer you at $one,490.thirty.

The inclusion of GeForce RTX graphics in all three styles is welcome, and definitely represents good value for income, but it is really a disgrace that there is no option to up grade to a greater-quality 4K screen that would truly let inventive customers to make the most of the ThinkBook 16p’s spectacular graphics overall performance.

Functionality & battery life 

The AMD Ryzen 9 processor doesn’t crack any documents, but supplies really sound overall performance, with Geekbench 5 CPU scores of one,532 (solitary main) and 8,389 (multi-main), which nudge just forward of rival mobile workstations these kinds of as Dell’s 8-main Intel Core i9-10885H-based Precision 5750.  

But it is really the GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU that truly stands out, achieving scores of 89fps in the Unigine Valley graphics exam, and 80fps in 3DMark Wild Life Intense. Those scores make it one of the speediest 3D performers we’ve witnessed in latest months — at minimum amongst Home windows laptops. Apple’s new 16-inch MacBook Pro hits 121fps in the Wild Life Intense exam, courtesy of Apple’s new M1 Max SoC, which sporting activities no much less than ten CPU cores and 32 GPU cores. Having said that, the MacBook Professional is substantially additional costly than the ThinkBook 16p Gen 2 at £2,749.17 (ex. VAT £3,299 inc. VAT) or $3,499, so Lenovo’s presenting definitely supplies spectacular overall performance for a laptop in this value variety.

Battery everyday living is quite respectable as well, thanks to the integrated Radeon Graphics, which lasted for 8 hrs and ten minutes when streaming entire-screen video clip from the web. You can have no problems finding a entire day’s perform out of the ThinkBook 16p Gen 2 when you happen to be on the road, with the option of switching back to the discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics when you get back to the office.

Conclusions 

The ThinkBook 16p Gen2 has room for enhancement, specifically with its fairly modest 2.5K IPS screen, which is not going to move muster for large-conclusion graphics and video clip perform. And even Apple now admits that qualified laptops require HDMI connectivity for external displays. But if you happen to be delighted to use an external screen in the office, then the ThinkBook 16p Gen 2 can produce workstation-class overall performance, along with an appealing, light-weight design and style and a competitive value.

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