Lenovo announced on Tuesday its newest mobile workstation, the ThinkPad P16. The high-performance laptop is at the peak of the ThinkPad lineup and targets engineers, designers, and other heavy-duty users. It has a new 16-inch form factor that splits the difference between the 15-inch ThinkPad P15 and 17-inch ThinkPad P17, both of which will be discontinued.
The 16-inch display of the ThinkPad P16 embraces the increasingly popular 16:10 aspect ratio and will be offered in resolutions from 1920x1200 to 3840x2400, the latter with an OLED touch option.
The display isn’t the only thing that’s new with the ThinkPad P16—it comes with a revamped aesthetic, visually signaling a new direction for the ThinkPad P series. Unlike the matte black of the former P15 and P17, the ThinkPad P16 has an aluminum “storm grey” chassis complete with a bright red accent mark around the vents in the back.
There are no big surprises in terms of the ThinkPad P16’s specs. The processors are of course Intel’s new 12th-gen HX series, performance-focused 55W CPUs that we’ve seen in other recently-announced mobile workstations. The ThinkPad P16’s graphics can be predictably configured up to the RTX A5500 GPU, NVIDIA’s top mobile offering with 16GB of VRAM. The mobile workstation tops out with 128GB of DDR5 memory and up to 8TB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage.
One tiny surprise in the ThinkPad P16 is that its wireless support stops short at 4G LTE, a step behind other mobile workstations—even in the ThinkPad P series. The ThinkPad P16 does support Wi-Fi 6E, however. It has a 94Wh battery, the same as the ThinkPad P15 and P17, and buyers can choose between two power supply options, 170W and 230W.
The ThinkPad P16 is equipped with a familiar array of ports including two USB-A, three USB-C (two Thunderbolt 4), and an HDMI, audio jack, and SD card reader. An optional Smart Card reader is also available. One new feature of the P16 is that it integrates a fingerprint reader on the power button, a nicer spot than the dedicated reader on the erstwhile P15 and P17.
The ThinkPad P16 will be available later this month, according to Lenovo, and will start at $1979.