u/syscn

After weeks of overthinking and falling into the Reddit/ThinkPad rabbit hole, I finally pulled the trigger on a ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 instead of the P1 Gen 7 / upcoming P16 Gen 3.

Specs: i9-13950HX \ RTX 4000 Ada 12GB \ 64GB RAM \ 1TB SSD \ 16" 165Hz IPS 500 nits 100% sRGB

It’s a Lenovo Manufacturer Certified Refurbished unit in Grade A / like-new condition from a seller with 100% positive feedback, and it includes the original charger. Total came out to around $2500.

My main use case is homelab, Linux VMs, Docker/K8s labs, local AI experimentation, photo editing, and general workstation/productivity stuff. I’m also guilty of keeping an absurd number of tabs open between Chrome and Firefox, usually with Excel, terminals, and ChatGPT running at the same time.

I was honestly very close to getting the P1 Gen 7 because I really like the thinner and more modern form factor. But the more I researched, the more the P16 Gen 2 started feeling like the actual workstation I was looking for. Better cooling, four RAM slots, higher sustained GPU power, more upgradeability, and overall fewer compromises once you start pushing VMs or GPU workloads for long sessions.

The RTX 4000 Ada also felt like a really good long-term sweet spot without going completely overkill, and I kept seeing people praise the 165Hz WQXGA panel on the P16 G2.

I also realized I kind of wanted the full oversized “mobile tank” ThinkPad experience at least once before everything becomes ultra-thin and soldered.

Only thing that still annoys me is the lack of built-in RJ45 on a machine this big.

Curious to hear from people who’ve used both long term!