Mobile workstations are a totally different breed of machine from almost any other consumer laptop. They boast processors from expert lines like Xeon, Nvidia cards intended for developers, and huge blocks of memory and storage. The new Lenovo ThinkPad P50 and P70 belong to this elite family of mobile workstations, and while they’re intended for users handling big data or developing software, it’s still interesting to see what’s happening at the extreme upper end of mobile computing.
The ThinkPad P50 is the 15.6-inch offering, but offers a 4K resolution display with incredibly powerful Nvidia Quadro graphics. The processor is a mobile 6th Generation Intel Xeon processor, a chipset that’s only been announced so far as a series, with no specific CPU information as of yet.
The specs on the ThinkPad P70 are almost identical to the P50, with the exception of the display. Instead of a 15.6-inch screen, the P70 steps up to a 17-inch display, in either multi-touch 1080p, or 4K non-touch. Both machines also have enough room for three storage drives, so you can store tons of data, or set up your laptop in a RAID 0 or 1 array.
Connectivity is improved over most standard consumer laptops as well. Aside from four USB 3.0 ports, both laptops features HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, two Thunderbolt ports, Ethernet, 3.5mm in/out, a card reader, an ExpressCard slot, and a docking connector for when you finally settle down.
The machines aren’t intended for individual users who just want to play games or get work done, but the P50 starts at $1,599, and the P70 starts at just $1,999. Whatever you decide to use it for, you’ll get a healthy amount of performance for that price, and you can start shopping when they hit shelves in the fourth quarter of 2015.
