Lenovo ThinkPad P51

6owners with an opinion

80%of verdicts positive

2/0positive/negative since 2024

1 yrslongest happy owner

0happy after 3+ years

Praised for build quality and performance; criticized for portability.

What owners wrote

Likes itOwned 1 year

I’ve use an P51 for about a year now with no issues. I initially bought 6bay DAS, but I’ve since moved to pure SSD storage inside the laptop.

Likes it

A P51 is my daily driver, and I personally really like it. The charging brick is indeed huge, but I throw it in my backpack and it doesn't bother me. I hate that the processor isn't compatible with Windows 11, because it's a solid laptop with good build quality. I have 64 GB of RAM and it gives no grief with Factorio or Solidworks (admittedly I haven't pushed the limits in Solidworks), though I am could see VR causing challenges.

Likes it

Ohh I have the same MacBook right now, because I needed something for building iPhone apps for a freelance thing. The keyboard feels fine, but I definitely preferred the ThinkPad T480 or P51 keyboard over this one. Perhaps the best laptop keyboards I've used to date.

Doesn’t like it

I had a P51 from work but I hated it. It was too laptopy to be a good desktop, and wayyyy too heavy to be a good laptop :P Seriously, along with the power supply it's like 3,5kg. Not fun to travel with or even carry home on the subway. I really prefer a lightweight laptop and a separate desktop. Which is what I have now, luckily. Our work has a strict "one laptop per employee" policy but I got a desktop for "testing" purposes which is now my daily work driver :P

Likes it

I did not realize just how much nostalgia I have for that original Game Boy start-up sound. Also, I honestly would love if more modern mobile hardware was built as solidly as the Game Boy was. The last thing I owned like it that felt kinda similar to it was my netbook, an Asus Eee 1005HA-P. I have an absolute powerhouse of a laptop now (Lenovo P51) and I'm extremely happy with it - it basically feels like I own the power of a desktop PC but in portable form, but I have to say, that little laptop served me really well for many years (especially after I put Lubuntu on it). It had an unbeatable battery life, and trying to squeeze as much performance as possible out of that little machine was weirdly addictive. I'm considering pre-ordering a Dragonbox Pyra to see if it will have a similar feeling, or I'm just being nostalgic but really prefer this big beast of a laptop these days. [0] https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/

Neutral

This post will be a little different; I'm going to tell you a laptop that I wouldn't strongly recommend for running Linux. Thinkpad P51 is a really great laptop imo, but unfortunately it has some issues on Linux due to the Optimus setup. It can be disabled in BIOS, but then there are some issues with external displays with the dock. `gnome-shell` goes insane if I connect the dock with the internal display on, eventually resolving to switch to internal-only mode. It's a shame because the laptop is great, but it is still acting pretty poorly with latest Arch Linux and the proprietary NVIDIA drivers. I'd be OK with Nouveau myself, but unfortunately external displays won't even connect in Nouvuea. In defense of Linux: even the Windows drivers stammer a bit with Optimus disabled, so it's clearly not that well-supported. Not so with Optimus enabled though, so that one is covered by the famous Linus Torvalds quote. I've heard the Thinkpad X270 is all around a better option for Linux. I've had a Thinkpad X1 Carbon and it worked great with Linux, but I found it to be too "ultrabook"-y for my tastes, which is why I resolved to the much bulkier P51.