ThinkPad P Series 15″

This covers the 2015 P50 to the 2021 P15 G2. 17″ and 16″ P Series will be on a different page. P15s, P50s or P15v won’t be covered here.

The P Series is a workstation class laptop or desktop replacement. It is the successor to the W Series ThinkPads. The P50 & P15 are the 15″ form factor machine, and the P70 & P17 are in 17″ form factor, both systems have their own chassis that is specific to those machines. The T15g is basically a P15 but with gaming nVidia graphics and doesn’t have ISV certifications, it also has a lower starting price.
These P Series machines retain the classic hinge design of the IBM T Series, and not the drop hinge type.

Confusingly, Lenovo has a slim line of the P50 an P15, called the P50s and P15s respectively; they are based on the T560 and T15 machines. These systems have lower voltage, ultrabook CPUs, so they are not recommended for heavy tasks, though I was able to render video and photoshop tasks on my W550s which is an i7-5500U and a 2GB nVidia card.

There is a P15v ThinkPad as well, it is similar to the T15p, which seems to be a slightly modified T15 (doesn’t have two dedicated fans w/ four vented outlets).

Model      Machine Type    Released    Withdrawn
P50        20EN 20EQ       2015 11     2018 02
P51        20HH 20MM       2017 03     2018 06
P52        20M9            2018 06     2019 10
P53        20QN 20QQ       2019 07     2020 11

P15  G1	   20ST 20SU       2020 07     ????
P15  G2	   20YQ 20YR       2021 06     ????

T15g G1	   20UR 20US       2020 07     ????
T15g G2	   20YS 20YT       2021 06

Prices

Support Pages

Processors

All Processors are soldered onto the system board.

Note, sellers sometimes confuse or don’t put the “s” in the P50s or P15s machines. Check the bios photo or make sure it does not have a drop hinge so you can get the proper workstation!

Graphics Cards

P5x systems have soldered dGPUs, along w/ it’s CPU, so chances are higher end CPU systems can be equipped with better dGPUs. One day I’ll have a FRU list for system boards that will make sense of what CPU/GPU combo it has (amoung other things). I’m guessing around maybe late 2025 or 2026, or someone can pick up that project and I will ink to it 🙂

The P15 and T15g have the same HMM, I don’t know if the system boards are compatible with each other’s chassis, but both systems have an MXM style connector that has a proprietary shape than the traditional square or rectangular one’s we’ve had in the past. Lenovo (like IBM did in the past) like to use whitelists for their GPUs. This is done so you need to order from them and not use a different OEM or vendor. This had been done with the W7xx series and the P70/1. Basically whatever model laptop you got, the max is what was offered on that machine, you won’t be able to get something newer.

If you want to go the eGPU route, you do have options, like the PCI Express slot (P50, P51 only) and Thunderbolt ports, the latter being faster and should be available on all machines here.
P15 G1 eGPU IO Post
P50 leddit eGPU post

Memory

Note I am not writing down m.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 everyt ime, its simplified as 2280 3×4.
The SATA drives required a proprietary cable to to connect to, and a caddy to secure it onto the machine.
P50 thru P52 required an m.2 SSD sled (aka caddy) that had a thermal pad built in it, about $6 to $14 each.
P53 thru P15 Gen 2 don’t require a sled, but have space for a thermal pad.

Display Type & Screen Options

N Stands for Nits, C Stands for contrast ratio

Note Lenovo didn’t specify which color range some of the screens had, it would just say “72% Gamut”. I don’t know if it was NTSC or RGB specification. Additionally when getting these screens, note that there are sometimes 2 or more panels made by different manufacturers for this resolution & color density. Not all panels are the same, sometimes you get lucky, othertimes you don’t, plus we don’t know if it was replaced. When looking up FRU’s on Lenovo’s site, take note of the photos they upload and what panel it is from the pictures. From there go on Panelook and see if it meets the color range, brightness, LCD type and so on. Note when buying a screen, becareful when you see “compatible” on the description or title… it means that a lower quality screen just works on the laptop for a broken screen replacement (sometimes we were talking HD panel to replace an FHD screen….)

Power supply and other info

Base Power supply is 170W Rectangle for all systems
From P53 and onwards, a 230W Rectangle is required for more powerful systems. I am assuming its for the systems w/ 8GB graphics cards, and maybe more powerful CPUs.
For the GPUs, I say this because as prior to the P53, the graphics cards pushed a max of 4GB and 6GB, while 8GB and up were on P70 systems, which required a 230W charger.
P50 to P52 had an “easy swap” battery, P53 & onwards requires removal of the screwed in bottom cover.

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