Lenovo ThinkPad P52s (i7-8650U, Quadro P500, 4K) Laptop Review

Color accuracy is good. The DeltaE 2000 scores for colors and gray sit at 3.5 and 4, respectively, which are fairly respectable measurements. In general, a DeltaE 2000 of 3 or less is considered acceptable for professional color work, and the 4K panel comes close to this threshold. The tight variance in color accuracy (maximum DeltaE 2000 of 7.28) is also praiseworthy. Color temperature is a bit off-center at 7291 (6500 is ideal) when uncalibrated. White backgrounds are cooler and have a subtle blue shift to them, but this isn't distracting in everyday use. All said, colors look vibrant on the 4K screen, but there are better options (like Dell's Precision 5520) for professionals on the hunt for a color accurate screen.

Owing to its IPS panel, viewing angles are excellent. Images remain clear and color accurate when viewed at an angle. There is a bit of wash-out if the screen is viewed from the bottom (see the first picture below). The matte finish across the display helps to cut reflections, and the screen is usable under bright light or outdoors. There is some very slight grain visible on lighter backgrounds, but this can only be seen when viewing the screen closely (6 inches or less). Backlight bleed is minimal, present only along the bottom edge and barely noticeable to the unaided eye.

We've seen the Intel Core i7-8650U in several machines, and the ULV processor typically performs well. The 15 W processor ushers in a big change to Intel's ultrabook-class CPUs, doubling the core count without raising the TDP. Unfortunately, the P52s is not the best showing for the 8650U. In Cinebench R15's multicore test, the P52s surprisingly came in about 10% behind the Core i7-8550U; while similar, the 8550U has a slightly lower boost clock.

In long-term workloads, the limits of the P52s become evident. After its first pass in our Cinebench R15 loop, the P52s sees about a 20% reduction in performance during its second run. Subsequent runs see further degradation, coming in about 30% lower than the initial test. While the cause for this throttling is not readily discernible (see the Stress Test section below), it is nonetheless disconcerting and may be a point of frustration for those that tax the CPU with lengthy projects. As a workstation, this result is particularly disappointing.

For more information on the Intel Core i7-8650U, please see our dedicated CPU page here.

Despite the disappointing CPU performance, overall system speed is good. The snappy NVMe SSD makes for a highly responsive system; apps open immediately and never seem to hang. Standard office tasks (web browsing, word processing) are fluid, and more demanding workloads (video rendering, 4K video streaming) leave little room for complaint. As a standard office machine, the P52s is excellent. However, heavy projects like CAD design are better handled by more robust machines (e.g., Dell's Precision 3520 and MSI's WS63VR).

As we mentioned in our review of the FHD P52s, the Nvidia Quadro P500 is a weak point in the machine. The P500 roughly sits between Nvidia's MX130 and MX150, both of which are low-powered GPUs designed for office machines. It's curious, then, why Lenovo chose this GPU for what they advertise as a workstation. While performance is a fair bit better than Intel's UHD Graphics 620, it's a far cry from what is to be expected of a workstation class machine. The P52s falls 4% behind last generation's ThinkPad P51s in both Fire Strike and Cloud Gate, raising questions as to whether or not an upgrade is worth the price. Other compact workstations, such as Dell's Precision 5520, are better positioned for professional design and engineering work. The P500 requires less power than these beefier GPUs, but with workstations, power efficiency commonly comes second to raw performance.

The biggest problem with the GPU is its inconsistency. As seen in the Stress Test below, frame drops are common and performance can vary wildly in some situations. This may be due to the Quadro P500 drivers from Nvidia; at the time of this review, the only driver listed for the P500 is still in beta.

For more information on the Nvidia Quadro P500, please see our dedicated GPU page here.

Stress shows how unstable the P52s can be in certain workloads. Running Prime95 presents no major problems, although the CPU does seem restrained. After boosting to 3.9-4.2 GHz at the beginning of the test, the processor sits near its base clock at 2.0 GHz for the majority of the hour-long run. FurMark is also well-handled by the GPU, which never sees temperatures higher than about 70° C. Even running Prime95 and FurMark together cannot make the P52s break a sweat, although there is some headroom for increased performance.

It's in real-world testing that the P52s falls apart. During an hour-long session of The Witcher 3 (1366x768, Medium settings), frame drops were rampant after about 15 minutes of gameplay. Even when holding the same scene for an hour with no changes outside of the game's day/night cycle, the frame rate drastically dropped for about 30 minutes before correcting itself (see the chart below). Again, this is likely due to a lack of optimization on the part of the GPU. As a Quadro card, the P500 is designed for professional use rather than gaming, and the drivers are so new they haven't yet left beta testing. This inconsistency is present in a select few applications and is mostly present in workloads demanding real-time rendering (such as games).