Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 drops AC adapter port, switches to smaller USB-C charging only

The ThinkPad P1 16 Gen 8 is a mobile workstation focusing on ultrathin portability while still offering Core Ultra H performance and discrete Nvidia graphics options. It shares the same external design and dimensions as last year's ThinkPad P1 16 Gen 7 but with updated internals and a newer, smaller USB-C AC adapter. The latter in particular is interesting as the slimmer adapter is rated for only 140 W compared to 170 W on last year's model. Thankfully, performance doesn't appear to be impacted by the smaller power ceiling.

In our review of the 2025 ThinkPad P1 16 Gen 8, we found both CPU and GPU performances to be consistently faster than on the 2024 Gen 7 version despite the smaller AC adapter as shown by the benchmarks below. Note that power consumption remains about the same as before when running demanding loads meaning that even the last year's Gen 7 model didn't fully exploit the higher 170 W power ceiling for performance.

There is nonetheless one key advantage of the larger 170 W adapter. The ThinkPad P1 16 Gen 7 is able to charge at a faster rate when running demanding loads simultaneously as the larger adapter provides power overhead for charging. In contrast, running demanding loads on the newer Gen 8 model already draws 120 W to 140 W or almost the full capacity of the 140 W USB-C AC adapter. Thus, charging would slow to a crawl if the CPU was busy for extended periods. For most travel and usability purposes, however, we much prefer the universal USB-C AC adapter over the heavier proprietary ones that were standard on older ThinkPad models.