My experience with the P16 (and P1) so far:
I purchased my first P16 over the summer and received it in September. i7-12800HX, A1000, 16GB, 512GB SSD, UHD+ display. There were 3 issues I observed during the first couple weeks:
- Getting hot while asleep. HWinfo was reporting max temps in the 80 and 90°C range while asleep.
- Display flicker. A single brightness setting (6 steps below max brightness) was flickering badly.
- Trackpad not responding consistently. Tapping the track pad would not always give a response. Even if I repeatedly tapped the same spot many times, it wouldn’t respond. If I lifted my finger and moved to another spot, it would then respond.
I worked with a premium support tech who assisted me with reinstalling Windows. This seemed to resolve the display flicker, but the other two issues remained. Regarding the heating while asleep, the support tech knew I was using ethernet via dongle so he suggested I disconnect that before putting to sleep. The machine didn’t get nearly as hot while asleep without ethernet, so next step was to try using Wifi, which also seemed to be much better. Unfortunately, my 30 day eval window was ending so I opted to return the machine.
I then purchased a P1 Gen 5. I7-12700H, A1000, 16GB, 512GB SSD. With this machine I observed that it ran hot under normal operating conditions (ie. not asleep). Temperatures for this machine were often in the 80 – 90°C range while just doing some basic surfing or Office tasks. But the concerning part for me was that the fans weren’t running when the temps were high. They almost never came on. I believe during initial Windows updates they came on but other than that it was very rare. I did really enjoy the silence, but I wondered about the long term durability of the machine. I also missed the numeric keypad so I opted to return it.
Next and current, I purchased another P16. Same config as first except 32GB and 1TB (for lower price than first machine). Regarding the issues observed with the first machine:
- There is no heating up while asleep. With the first machine I could just place my hand on the keyboard (while asleep) and feel the heat. This is no longer happening. Core temperatures seem to be in the 20°C range while asleep and ethernet connected.
- Display flicker is gone – or at least not present enough for me to notice.
- Trackpad from time to time still doesn’t respond to taps, but I’m dealing with it and hoping a driver update comes along.
I’m going to guess that the heating while asleep issue was resolved by a driver update that happened in the interim between my first and second P16 machines.
I’m at the end of my eval window for the second P16 and it looks like I’ll be keeping it. Based on my early experience with overheating though, I’m keeping a close eye on temperatures as reported by HWinfo. The typical CPU operating temperatures I see now are in the 30 – 40°C range (surfing, word processing). The fans seem to come on with temps very approximately 38°C. As I’ve been typing this post over 30 minutes, the fans haven’t come on yet. On occasions when I’ve watched video over the internet for 30 mins, HWinfo reports max temperatures in the 60-70°C range, maybe touching 80°C.
Which brings me to one area I’m still concerned with - I have noticed that as soon as HWinfo shows (some of) the core temperatures above 50°C, it also reports:
- Core power limit exceeded
- Package/Ring power limit exceeded
And then when core temperatures exceed 70°C, HWinfo reports:
- Core thermal throttling
- Package/Ring thermal throttling
I was under the impression that CPU temperatures in this range (50-70°C) were pretty normal for these processors. Is it normal to expect that the CPU will be throttling when doing a basic task like surfing or watching video? Or is there more interpretation required of what HWinfo is actually telling me?
Here is a typical display from HWinfo that I see after 30 mins of watching video.
