Preface
This article is the first part, 3500 words and more than 40 pictures, the Chinese version is first published here, the English version will be released later in https://www.song1118.tech, and it will also be issued on the WeChat public account "Fair Evaluation", this article is divided into the following chapters:

• time

• Five dynasties

• Unboxing

• appearance

• Gentle disassembly

• dream

 
After the Spring Festival in 2022, the author has cultivated for some reason, and nine months have passed in the
blink of an eye, and the laptop industry has been inspired by Intel Core 12th generation and AMD Ryzen 6 series processors, and new products of various brands have already flocked to present.
It is only more than a month before the arrival of 2023, so the new generation of mobile workstation models of major brands in 2022 has all been launched, and the author personally prefers to evaluate mobile workstation models, so now, it is a good time to start comparing and reviewing!
The first to start was the ThinkPad P1 series ---- ThinkPad P1 Gen 5.


The fifth generation
author has reviewed the ThinkPad P1 Gen 3 in 2020, and is still optimistic about the ThinkPad P1 series, and the comments on the ThinkPad P1 Gen 3 at that time are as follows:

• 1. The screen performance of this ThinkPad P1 Gen 3 is very good, and the brightness is the highest among the models I have tested so far;

• 2.The performance and scalability of ThinkPad P1 Gen 3, although not as good as DELL Precision 7750, but the comfort of keyboard and mouse is definitely much better;

• 3.ThinkPad P1 Gen 3 performance is better than Apple MacBook Pro 16, if you don't necessarily need a genuine Mac OS, absolutely choose P1G3;

• 4.The ThinkPad P1 series has gone through three generations, and there is almost no growth except for CPU performance upgrades;

• 5. The next generation of ThinkPad P1 should continue to "follow up" against the "imaginary enemy" of the target, but the four Thunderbolt 4 plus 16:10 screens are not necessarily just around the corner.

 
Points 1, 2, and 3 of the above comments still don't seem to have much problem;
But the fourth point was broken by the ThinkPad P1 Gen 4 launched in 2021, which can be equipped with the highest-end laptop graphics card (NVIDIA RTX A5000 Laptop or NVIDIA GeForce RTX3080 Laptop), so the P1 series has finally been greatly improved in graphics card performance;
Point 5 is half right and half wrong: the prediction was right that the four Thunderbolt 4 ports were not implemented, and what was wrong was that the official quickly changed the screen of the P1 Gen 4 to 16:10... That's also, after all, change the screen from 16:9 to 16:10, and don't make a big move on the shell of the body, another reason, about because P1 and X1 Extremes are isomeric (called "hermits" in Chinese propaganda), and the X1 family screen ratio has been updated to 16:10, so P1 is also a smooth water.

Therefore, the ThinkPad P1 Gen 5 (hereinafter referred to as P1G5) in this review is theoretically based on the previous generation P1G4, routine upgrades of chipsets, CPU and graphics cards, and memory, and fine-tuning and optimization in other aspects.
But actually, is that all?
So, the author got a ThinkPad P1 Gen 5 top version as quickly as possible.
For the purchase address of JD.com, please click here



to open the box

After unpacking, compared with the ThinkPad P1 Gen 3 (hereinafter referred to as P1G3) that I previously reviewed, there is no difference in the packaging content: the same black inner box protected by black PE foam, plus the power supply and power cord inside the small inner box.


I feel that the difference is that the power supply is significantly thicker, and if you look closely, you actually use 18AWG cable:


I wonder if it is because the power output power is larger than that of the P1G3 and has increased to 230 watts?
But the P15 Gen 2 and P17 Gen 2 I reviewed last year also have the same 230-watt power supply, and their power cords don't seem to be so thick.


P1G5 host packaging inner box, huge black Think with red dots on the letter "I", visually striking:


The Lenovo logo in black on a red background in the corner of the inner box still reminds users that Think products belong to Lenovo.


Open the inner box, take out P1G5, and there is a brown envelope at the bottom:


inside the envelope are three paper documents of P1G3, Note: This P1G5 is a model sold in North America, so the paper documents that come with it are different from those sold in Chinese mainland.


The upper cover of this P1G5 is
gray, 37 degree twill CF woven pattern, and the material is CFRP/GFRP mixed material.
It looks elegant and stable, and the author personally feels good.


The bottom color is black, and nearly half of the area behind the bottom is a heat dissipation grille. The rear is a long foot pad, and the front and left and right are short long foot pads.


"ThinkPad P1 Gen 5, Carbon Fiber + Magnesium" is marked near the bottom left foot pad, indicating that the body material of the P1G5 uses carbon fiber and magnesium alloy.


There are two labels on the bottom right foot mat attachment, which are the pre-installed Windows 11 system logo, and the serial number of the machine, the detailed model (21DC-0030US) and the place of manufacture (MIC), and the year of manufacture (2022/06).


There is a thin hole on the side of the bottom center locking screw for the system emergency reset jack, which can be used to insert a thin needle to perform the system emergency reset in the event of an outage of the P1G5.


There are no ports on the front of the P1G5, only the camera privacy switch in the center of the upper cover edge.
On the left side of the picture below is a Samsung Note 9 with a thickness of 8.8 mm, this P1G5 has a body size of 359.5 x 253.8 x 17.7 mm (14.15 x 9.99 x 0.7 inches), and in the case of the touchscreen version, the size will be 359.5 x 253.8 x 18.2 mm (14.15 x 9.99 x 0.72 inches) due to the relatively thick touch screen---- That is, the difference in thickness between the two is only 0.5 mm, which can be ignored.


The P1G5 does not have any ports on the rear.


The left side of P1G5, from left to right, is:

• External power indicator;

• External power connector;

• Two Thunderbolt 4 ports (support USB4 40Gbps data transfer, Power Delivery 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.4);

• One HDMI (support 8K@60Hz, if it is an integrated graphics model, only support 4K@60Hz);

• One 3.5mm headphone/microphone combination port.

 
The left side of P1G5, from left to right, is:

• SD card reader;

• Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports (the far right of which supports shutdown power);

• Safety keyhole (Kensington Nano security keyhole, 2.5 x 6 mm).

• The P1G5 has an optional WWAN card model, which will have a Nano-SIM card slot, and the position of 7 is marked in the small picture.

 
The P1G5 opens the front of the screen cover to see the front, because the front, left and right sides of the bottom of the fuselage are designed with indented bevels, resulting in a thin look, and the overall feeling is thin and stable.


The screen ratio starts from the previous generation P1 Gen 4, from 16:9 to 16:10, the screen-to-body ratio is increased, and the two frames of the screen frame are very narrow, slightly wider above and below.



In the center of the upper border of the screen is the FHD camera, autofocus, plus the infrared camera. This supports Windows Hello face recognition, both of which are protected by hardware privacy switches. (IR & FHD 1080p hybrid, with privacy shutter, fixed focus)


The P1G1 is a ThinkPad, and its screen can be unfolded at 180 degrees.


The P1G5's keyboard is a 6-line splash-proof keyboard with ThinkPad's recent layout, supporting 6-row, spill-resistant, multimedia Fn keys with Unified Communications controls）。
Although it is a 16-inch body, due to the pursuit of thin body, the ports on both sides occupy the internal space, so there is not enough thickness to arrange the numeric keypad. The bar holes on either side of the main keyboard look like speakers, and the speakers below are indeed located, but half of them are used to retouch so that the sides of the keyboard are not too empty.


The keyboard of P1G5, the author only based on the experience in the evaluation process, I think it is still an excellent laptop keyboard, do not delve into it.


In the upper right corner of the C surface where the keyboard is located, the independent power button integrates fingerprint recognition, and there is a small power status indicator on the left side.



There are two labels on the left corner of the palm rest, and the white one is the Pantone color certification label, indicating that the native screen has passed the X-rite PANTONE color calibration (Factory Color Calibration on UHD). panels）。
The other is an Intel i9 processor that supports vPro technology.



In the upper right of these two labels, near the Fn key, there is the label Dolby Atmos SPEAKER SYSTEM, indicating that the native speaker system uses Dolby Atmos technology.


Finally, there is the P1G5 dual-mouse system, whose official English name is "3-button TrackPoint pointing device and glass surface multi-touch touchpad", which translates to " three-button pointing stick and glass-surface multi-touch trackpad".
The dimensions of the touchpad are 67.6 x 115 mm, and the glass surface is good to use.


The author prefers the pointing stick system with independent buttons, and in the current big-name mobile workstations, Dell and HP have abandoned the pointing stick system, leaving only the ThinkPad still holding on---- P1G5 is one of them.


The upper cover of P1G5 is made of carbon-brazing composite material, the body is made of magnesium alloy, and the bottom cover is made of aluminum. The author used both hands diagonally to twist the body vigorously, and did not find obvious deformation and abnormal noise, but when the screen cover was operated the same, it was found that there was a slight distortion, but the display effect of the screen was not greatly affected. The author believes that the body strength of P1G5 is excellent enough.


P1G5 machine size is 359.5x253.8x17.7/18.2mm (the latter is a touch screen model), the minimum weight is 1.81 / 1.86 kg (or a touch screen model), this data is exactly the same as the previous generation P1G4, you can see, The body of the P1G5 is exactly the same as the previous generation P1G4;
The overall size of P1G3 is 361.8x245.7x18.4/18.7mm (the latter is a touch screen model), and the minimum weight is 1.7/1.8 kg (the latter is a touch screen model), in contrast, P1G5 is slightly narrower and slightly higher in width because of the use of a 16:10 screen; The minimum weight is 60~110 grams, which is because of the use of a higher-end discrete graphics card, which has to strengthen the heat dissipation system, so that the weight of the whole machine has to increase.



Gentle disassembly
Maintenance of the P1G5 is carried out by opening the bottom cover of the fuselage, which is locked by 7 Phillips screws (see photo above). The 7 screws adopt an anti-loss design, loosen the screws, carefully pry the buckle, and you can remove the bottom cover (the bottom cover material is Aluminum + PC / ABS).


The large rear part at the bottom of the P1G5 is occupied by a large area of dual-fan cooling modules, with the larger fan on the left responsible for the GPU and the smaller fan on the right responsible for the CPU. In front of the fuselage is a built-in battery.


The intel AX211 wireless card close to the GPU cooling fan and connected to the gray and black antenna (MIMO 2x2) is directly soldered to the motherboard, and the user generally cannot replace it by himself. The black plastic module labeled LCH-R on the right side of the wireless card is the right speaker.



The M.2 2280 SSD near the CPU cooling fan, completely wrapped in black insulating paper. Below it is the CR2016 motherboard button battery, and the black plastic module labeled LCH-L on the right side of the button battery is the left speaker.


Between the battery and the thermal module are dual memory slots.


Some official models, located between the GPU cooling fan and the battery, have an M.2 2242 slot for installing WWAN cards.


In addition, the graphics card is RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080 Ti, RTX A3000, RTX A4500 and RTX A5500 models, due to the larger cooling module, between the WWAN card and the GPU cooling fan, P1G5 and P1G4 are the same. There is still no room for a second M.2 2280 SSD, which is a regrettable and helpless thing.


So, the P1G5 reviewed only has one M.2 2280 SSD slot:




After the disassembly, in order not to affect the heat dissipation effect of the original factory, the author did not continue to disassemble further, but only carried outOperation of replacing the hard drive: Replace the original 1TB SSD with a Western Digital SN850 2TB SSD, the reasons will be explained during the hard drive performance testing phase.



The detailed model (Type Number) of the P1G5 evaluated is 21DC-0030US, and its detailed configuration is shown in the following chart , of which the red font part is the only replacement part (SSD) in this review.
Please click here




for the US version purchase address The official promotional page for P1G5 is as follows, and the author tried to translate it as follows:

Do you need performance?
I'm a dream!
Powerful, portable, and first-class screen, the ThinkPad P1 is beautiful and beautiful inside, which is admirable!
The P1 has a hidden spring color under the all-in-one formfactor: the latest Intel Core processor and the most powerful NVIDIA RTX A5500 graphics card.
Liquid metal heat dissipation, long-term work, cooler and more stable!
16-inch narrow border 16:10 screen, screen-to-body ratio greatly increased, low blue light, Dolby Vision and color calibration blessing, ultra-clear display effect, is the ideal dream machine for content creators!
Optional built-in 5G Internet access, the perfect combination of high performance and high portability!

 
So, is that really the case with the P1G5?
In the next part, the author will try my best to conduct a comprehensive test of the P1G5 to see if the ThinkPad P1 Gen 5 is an "ideal dream machine"!
Stay tuned!