Lenovo ThinkPad P16v: Affordable Workstation ThinkPad receives 16:10 redesign

Not long ago, we reviewed the Lenovo ThinkPad P15v G3. In the 2022 lineup, it was an oddity: still 16:9 screens, still a 1.8 mm travel keyboard. Almost all other ThinkPad laptops adopted longer 16:10 screens and shorter 1.5 mm travel keyboards last year.

The special status of this product line ends this year, there will not be a ThinkPad P15v Gen 4. It will be replaced by the ThinkPad P16v.

The ThinkPad P16v is still the affordable counterpart to the ThinkPad P16 Gen 2. New this year is the design, the ThinkPad P16v looks a lot like the ThinkPad P16. One of the design changes is the transition away from drop down hinges to classical top base hinges. This made it possible to move the fan outlets from the side to the back - outlets in plural, because the P16v now has a dual fan cooling. The P15v only had a single fan.

Like the P16, the P16v has a red stripe at the back of the system. Different from its more expensive sibling, the ThinkPad P16v is still dressed in "Thunder Black" instead of "Storm Grey". Other new features include a bigger touchpad, a second Thunderbolt 4 port and the Fingerprint reader is now integrated into the power button.

On the inside, the ThinkPad P16v is changing as well. The battery capacity is increased from 68 Wh to 90 Wh, compared to the P15v G3. The RAM is expanded too, from 64 to 96 GB. Like its predecessor, the P16v has two M.2 slots with up to 4 TB of storage, though unlike the ThinkPad P16 Gen 2, no PCIe 5.0 SSDs are offered.

Certainly, the hardware is downgraded a lot compared to the more expensive model ThinkPad P16 G2. The P16v only uses H45 CPUs instead of the more powerful HX55 chips, instead of the RTX 5000 Ada, the best GPU offered is the RTX 2000 Ada, and Lenovo uses cheap 45 % NTSC panels on the entry level models. At least there is an optional 800 cd/m² panel with a WQUXGA resolution offered.

No part of the announcement is an AMD variant of the ThinkPad P16v. But the listed model is explicitly called "P16v Gen 1 i", so a Ryzen version should eventually come out.