Lenovo's ThinkPad P53s combines a workstation with a low price

You don't always have to pay 2,000 Euros (~$2,213) or more for laptops with a graphics card specialized in applications. With the ThinkPad P53s and Nvidia's Quadro P520 GPU, Lenovo shows that it can be cheaper.

by Mike Wobker, 2019/11/09

Based on the ThinkPad T590, Lenovo offers the ThinkPad P53s workstation. The hardware configuration remains unchanged, except for the use of an Nvidia Quadro P520. It's optimized for 3D applications with the exception of video games and is roughly comparable to the performance of the GeForce MX250. In the world of workstations, GPU performance is slightly higher than that of an AMD Radeon Pro WX 3200.

However, the GPU is also the only specialization that Lenovo has made with the P53s. Features such as the Thunderbolt 3 port, a smart card reader and the optional 4K display are also found in the externally identical ThinkPad T590. In terms of processing quality and input devices, this is not to be understood in a negative way though. These are of high-quality, as usual, and are also suitable for long work sessions.

However, the Lenovo ThinkPad P53s tested by Notebookcheck uses a quite dim Full HD display. While the contrast ratio and the black value are still quite acceptable, the color-space coverage also disappoints at only 59.2% in the sRGB color space. With Intel's Core i7-8565U, the CPU is rather common too. But its performance is used comparatively well in return. Overall, the hardware remains moderate, which is perfectly fine for the price though.

Buy ThinkPad P53s now on Amazon