Thinkpad P1 Gen 7 Review – XPS Destroyer!

Lpddr5x seems soldered

1:20 looks like LPCAMM2

Man this laptop is almost perfect. Only if it came with a Ryzen 9 HX 370 or a Core Ultra 9 288V. Lunar Lake just came out and absolutely brought Intel back into the game against AMD (at least on mobile…they still lacking behind on desktop for now). Lunar Lake brings in amazing battery life and low fan noise…something never seen on any Intel powered laptop before. If they offer this with a 288v, 4060 and CAMM2, you have something that will take out Dell and Asus all day long.

They lost me at removing the soft rubbery feel in the lid and no buttons for the red dot.🔴

The price is mental no thanks

I have the Gen 6 chassis P1. I understand why Lenovo is experimenting with these changes, but not for me. I want the buttons, not screen bump, etc. This laptop was perfect last gen. They just should've improved the innards

Yeah, there are a lot of new pros and cons in the latest model. I'm sure that in a couple of years, the Gen 7 will become one of the least popular options for the P1.

My recipe for the perfect future ThinkPad is:

Chassis of the P1 Gen 7 but with physical trackpad buttons and upward-firing speakers (at least on par with the new Asus Zephyrus). Downward-firing speakers feel awkward when used on your lap or a soft surface.
It would be amazing to have an option with the vintage 7-row keyboard with black and blue keycaps.
The notch doesn’t bother me much—better this one than the atrocity Apple inflicted on their MacBooks.
A Lunar Lake processor (or something better) for energy efficiency and quietness.
RTX 5080 or 5090. Rumors suggest that the 5000 series will be much more energy efficient. Also, it's a cruel joke that the P1 Gen 7—a workstation-level machine—is limited to 8 GB of VRAM. If you're into Unreal Engine development, 3D rendering, or 4K gaming, that’s just not enough. It would be nice to have at least 16 GB of VRAM, if not more.
CAMM2 RAM.
USB-C charging so we can ditch the proprietary port and those ugly, huge power bricks.
A card slot that can take a full SD card without it sticking out, and an Ethernet port—because why not?
A vapor chamber for better cooling.
PTM7950 (or something better) instead of liquid metal, which is awkward to work with and potentially harmful to the internals.
Swappable Wi-Fi card and USB-C ports for better repairability.
Two NVMe 2280 slots.
It would be nice to have a WWAN card because it’s always better to have the option, but for me, it’s easier to use my phone's hotspot.
I think all of this is completely doable, especially in a couple of years. It’s sad to see that today’s manufacturers aren’t chasing the best possible quality. They introduce new features one by one just so they can say, "Buy this year's model, it's better than last year’s; look, we added a new feature," like CAMM2.

Since we’re dreaming, it would be fantastic to have a workstation-level laptop with passive cooling. I’d love to safely use my laptop in bed and forget about cleaning out the dust—but that might be hard to achieve in the near future.

Why this proprietary power input? USB-C is just fine and should deliver enough power for this machine.

i always forget how wonky the UK enter button is until I watch your videos

you're reviews are top notch, MUCH better than Andrew marc David IMO.

Which is better p16 gen 2 or p1 gen 7 ? For electrical engineer

Since actual MacBooks have everything soldered to the motherboard, I’m thinking of getting this P1 Gen 7 but with OLED display, just because it has an DCI-P3 color space, also because these machines are easy to repair and upgrade, something that it’s almost impossible to do with the macs, and also the fact that almost all of their parts are “serialized” or “linked” to the motherboard, and its price, too.

Macs nowadays are very expensive and hard to repair, while ThinkPads are still sort of “reliable and accessible” machines.

I like it. Maybe I’ll buy it. As a civil engineering student i need the power but i have heard nothing good about the fan noise. Maybe I wait for the new lunar lake cpu or buy another laptop. But thinkpads are so durable and are common in the industry. Idk

Thanks for the review. 👍 Of course, no WWAN, no buy. I wonder if they'll yank out Wi-Fi next year in their puzzling quest against connectivity.

I purchased two P1 gen 7, one with liquid metal, one without. Ended up returning both, as the fan noise isn't something I can bare with. This is absolutely a loud laptop not good for daily use.

Not a fan of the aluminium exterior lid, soft touch FTW, especially since it's usually carbon fibre or Magnesium underneath. Feels premium and is much more durable.

Im waiting for the P14s Gen 6 (14" AMD). For my ideal workstation, get rid of the GPU, give me a Ryzen 7 PRO, OLED 120hz, Haptic touchpad, CAMM2 memory modules and svelte 65w charging adapter to run it with. I would pay a lot of money to have that in a thinkpad. You couldnt pay me to run anything intel.

I'd wait for Lunar Lake at this time.

Solid. Been waiting for this. Super thanks.

The new Dell XPS touchpad is one of the worst I have ever used. Apple is still king in that regard. I hope Lenovo is closer to Apple than Dell in this regard, but I'm not a fan of removing the trackpoint buttons…

WTF happened to the touchpad.? Migthy IBM Thinkpad turned into just another Apple copycat. Might as well buy Apple. That 16 inch M3 Macbook Pro enticing enough

I want it but I don't want it lol. Trackpad buttons gone is insane to me, I use those 1000 times a day and I'm not sure about the 2 tone colour. I cant believe I'm saying this but I think I'll stick to my g6 and see what the g8 is like!

Thanks for the review! 👍👍