ThinkPad P15 & ThinkPad P17: Redesigned workstations introduce a new modular design

[Redaktion]

Lenovo is revamping its workstation lineup. The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 and the bigger ThinkPad P17 are at the core of the 2020 ThinkPad P series: The new models are internally completely redesigned, with a stronger cooling system, higher clocked GPUs and a modular design with daughtercards instead of a soldered solution.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/ThinkPad-P15-ThinkPad-P17-Redesigned-workstations-introduce-a-new-modular-design.476735.0.html

[Nodir]

Finally, some good news regarding modularity.
Looking forward for the reviews.

[_MT_]

It's commendable that they've focused on cooling. However, P73 already offered AX200 Wi-Fi 6. Hopefully, pricing will improve. €550 for a 9880H compared to 9750H is steep (for example Apple charges €100 IIRC for the same upgrade). €400 for a 4K screen, that must be one hell of a display. Not to mention €750 for RTX3000. I know that Quadros are expensive. Perhaps a GeForce option for those that don't do CAD?

[abqnm]

So they're basically doing what HP (now HPE) has been doing for like a decade. Awesome!

I do hope the CPU is on a daughter board too, because CPU upgrades to not create more ewaste would be fantastic and could finally make workstation laptops last more than 1-2 years.

Intel Core i9-11900 & Quadro RTX a6000 (I'm assuming they'll still call them RTX plus the 'a' designation for Ampere, like the past Quadros were named, like p4000 for Pascal) as the next gen, perhaps?

I really want a 15" with an i9 and an RTX 5000, with the ability to upgrade to an 11th gen i9 and Ampere based Quadro card next year. If they can make this happen, I'm on board!

But if it's just going to be the GPU that's replaceable, like how HPE does it, I'm less interested. I want CPU upgradability too, else I may as well just get a gaming laptop with a Ryzen 4800H and 2070 mobile which will cost half as much. No certified drivers, but my workload isn't 100% mission critical, so I can deal with GeForce drivers with Solidworks & AutoCAD.

Please, everyone, more modular mobile systems, both workstation and gaming!

[_MT_]

I do hope the CPU is on a daughter board too, because CPU upgrades to not create more ewaste would be fantastic and could finally make workstation laptops last more than 1-2 years.

I very much doubt it. Connecting a processor would require a lot of pins. And chipset would have to be there as well. Even if they actually did it, there is still the question of future support as you're dealing with proprietary hardware and you're dependent on BIOS updates.

Frankly, if you wanted the option to upgrade CPU, it would make more sense to simply swap the whole motherboard rather than bother with a daughter card. After all, RAM and SSD are still modules. If GPU is modular too, waste would be minimized and you'd avoid many headaches. But don't count on them offering upgrade motherboards. If they reuse the chassis, it just might be possible to hack it together. But official upgrade, I don't think so.

At this point, you don't even know whether they've committed to a standard and future cards are going to have the same format. Or whether it just serves to decrease manufacturing/ logistics costs and to enable them to offer larger number of configurations and next generation can use a different layout.

[ngazi]

You can never switch generations of Intel CPUs without a new motherboard. Better wait for AMD CPUs.

[sarkaaara]

It's commendable that they've focused on cooling. However, P73 already offered AX200 Wi-Fi 6. Hopefully, pricing will improve. €550 for a 9880H compared to 9750H is steep (for example Apple charges €100 IIRC for the same upgrade). €400 for a 4K screen, that must be one hell of a display. Not to mention €750 for RTX3000. I know that Quadros are expensive. Perhaps a GeForce option for those that don't do CAD?

P series is always about workstation graphics card, always Quadro card. If you need similar high performing laptop without quadro card, then you should go for X1 Extreme series with consumer GTX card.

[_MT_]

P series is always about workstation graphics card, always Quadro card. If you need similar high performing laptop without quadro card, then you should go for X1 Extreme series with consumer GTX card.

Except X1E performs rather poorly (poor cooling) and you couldn't configure an 8 core CPU, at least in Germany (plus some other limitations - it's a thin and light laptop, which I'm not really interested in). Not to mention that I prefer 17" displays when I'm forced to deal with 16:9. I know that it has always been this way. I'm saying that it would be a nice option for those that don't need certified drivers. Why limit yourself to CAD users or perhaps video editors that want Quadro specific features (I'm not sure what the mobile versions offer)? The cost of Quadro cards is just too obscene otherwise. My desktop workstation also has a GeForce, not Quadro. It's their choice. They can either sell me a basic Quadro (T2000 at most), or they can take my money and sell me a decent GeForce. I'm not going to pay top dollar for a Quadro card so I can toy around with Cuda.

[ngazi]

The problem with modular Thinkpads is they don't stick to standards. The docks are only supported for a few generations. The external and internal batteries change every few years. Even the port layout changes every time the motherboard changes. Daughter board graphics cards have been quite common in recent years with a lot of generic laptops especially out of China, so it is possible that they will use the same daughter boards as the rest of the industry. In a few years, you could conceivably get a used P15 or T15g and a used 1080 etc and get a good value gaming laptop.