For nearly a year, I’ve been using Lenovo’s ThinkVision monitors at home and at the office for all of my work. The one I have at home is the ThinkVision P32u-10 and the one at my job is the P27u-10. They’re both the same monitor just in different sizes, and they do their jobs exceptionally well. For my line of work, I don’t need screens with professional-grade color accuracy. But once you make the switch to a monitor of this class, it’s hard to go back to just another 4K panel.
[This is the first entry in my new monthly series Tech of the Month. Just as the title suggests, Tech of the Month is a column where I highlight a piece (or pieces) of tech that I’ve been using to get my work done. It isn’t necessarily a review and it’s not entirely an opinion piece. It’s a way to highlight the gadgets and gizmos that I use on a daily basis. I hope you enjoy!]
The ThinkVision P series comes in two sizes and I have them both (thanks to Lenovo, by the way). The 27-inch (P27u-10) model is the one I have at my office, and the 32-inch (P32u-10) panel sits on my desk at home. Some time after this piece goes live, I’m probably gonna send back the P32 and buy a P27 for my house. Having a 32-inch screen blaring bright colors in your face all day can get a bit overwhelming.
That’s not to take away from the quality of the panel. Like I said, the ThinkVision P series has professional-grade color accuracy. Whether you go with the 27-inch or 32-inch form factor, you get the same screen with the same array of built-in color settings.
A little insight into my daily workflow: I use Microsoft Publisher every single day, Edge for writing Matridox articles, Photoshop CS5 for touching up pictures that aren’t in tip-top shape, and OBS for live streaming church services at my job. Clearly, none of these tasks require a 4K 32-inch monitor with near-perfect color reproduction. I don’t even need it for Photoshop since I never get too deep into color science.
But! Having something as color accurate and future proof as one of these ThinkVisions is extremely convenient. Both monitors are good investments if you think you’ll ever need the tech they give you.
Lenovo says the ThinkVision P32 and P27 support 99.5% of the AdobeRGB color space, 145.7% of the sRGB color space, 97.9% of the DCI-P3 color space, and 99.5% of the BT.709 color space. That’s a lot of color space! But it’s all built directly into these monitors, giving you tremendous accuracy and vibrancy.
I’m no genius when it comes to monitors and color reproduction, but the folks at PCMag seem to be. They gave the P32 a great review and detail all of the technical aspects surrounding it. You should definitely give it a read if you’re interested.
Since this isn’t a review, I won’t be diving that deep. I will, though, mention my favorite part of the monitors: their IO.
With both the P32 and P27, you get four USB-A ports (two of which are USB 3.1). There’s a Thunderbolt 3 port for connecting to your computer, two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort, and a headphone jack. All of these add tremendous convenience to your workflow, especially when your laptop only has USB-C ports. At work, I use the USB-A ports to connect all of my cameras and audio equipment to my laptop for live streaming. It’s incredibly convenient.
(Fun story: the P27 was the only way my laptop could handle three camera inputs when we tried to live stream during the Easter season. I had a workstation that supported USB-A, but it was nowhere near as powerful as the ThinkVision. The workstation failed me one night and I had to bring the monitor back in to get things running. I’d like to thank Lenovo for paying attention to how much power the IO on the monitor could draw – it’s what practically saved my job.)
Rounding things off, the ThinkVision P series has matte finishes over their displays which makes for a great viewing experience (especially now that both of my offices have windows). The bezels are slim; they don’t take up a terrible amount of space on your desk; and while they’re heavy, you probably won’t be moving them around all that often (unless you’re me and you have to move them to a church every weekend).
Another reason this column isn’t a review is because I really don’t have any problems with the monitors. Besides the P32’s size (32-inch screens just aren’t my thing), I love everything about the ThinkVision series. They’re just great monitors.
Granted, they’re expensive. At full price, the P32 goes for $1,349 while the P27 is $619. Right now, you can get both for much cheaper at a variety of retailers. Still, they’ll cost you a decent chunk of change. But if you can afford it, you won’t regret buying either of them. They’re overkill, sure, but they’ve really served me well.
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