Lenovo ThinkVision P27u-20 monitor review: Great for content creators and beyond

I've reviewed a lot of great monitors, and the ThinkVision P27u-20 is one that I like the most, especially after putting it in my setup in my home office with my Lenovo laptop. With Thunderbolt 4 technology, KVM support, a USB Hub, various pre-set profiles for color accuracy, and a great selection of ports, the ThinkVision P27u-20 can be your new content creation hub.

Just be aware that there are some tiny faults, like the speakers being tough to control and the not-so-intuitive menu system. Other than that, there's a lot of great value with the ThinkVision P27u-20, and it shouldn't be passed over if you're the creative type or just need a new color-accurate IPS monitor.

About this review: Lenovo sent us the ThinkVision P27u-20 monitor for review. The company did not see the contents of this review before publishing.

ThinkVision P27u-20 monitor: Price and availability

• The ThinkVision P27u-20 monitor is available on Lenovo's website
• It's listed for $769 but sales at the time of writing have it down to $549
• You also can find it at Amazon & B&H

If you want to buy the ThinkVision P27u-20 monitor, you can do so today through Lenovo.com. It is listed there for $769, but seasonal sales have reduced the price down to $549 at the time of writing, so you're likely to find other discounts. The monitor is also listed, though sales pricing and availability may be different.

Design: A sleek monitor with a phone stand and integrated speakers

• The ThinkVision P27u-20 has a sleek ThinkPad-like design
• There's a spot in the stand for you to hold your phone
• There are integrated speakers
• A Smart Light sensor can adjust the brightness of the monitor automatically

The ThinkVision P27u-20 is one sleek monitor. It resembles Lenovo's ThinkPad products, which makes sense considering the ThinkVision branding. It matches up perfectly with the looks of my ThinkPad X13s, right down to the edgeless panel.

Other than that, the ThinkVision P27u-20 is easy to set up out of the box. Just screw the arm to the rectangular base with an included pin and then attach the monitor to the circular-shaped arm at the top. That arm is what gives this display full tilt, pivot, swivel, and lift support. You can even rotate it completely vertical to view vertical content like social media feeds.

Moving between the various modes is butter smooth, with no harsh feedback. This monitor is adaptable and can fit any setup. Lenovo even says this monitor is compatible with a hood, which many content creators tend to use.

There are a lot of other great design elements. There's a little box-like hub on the back that is actually lighter in color than the monitor itself. It extends to both the middle left side and middle right sides of the display for a cool dual-tone look. When the monitor faces the user, on the left is a USB hub with USB-A, USB-C (27 watts of power), and a headphone jack. The right side has no ports with just the speaker and vent holes.

It's nice to have integrated speakers on a monitor since this can free up the mess on your desk. It is just a little sad that Lenovo didn't jump the speaker quality over competing monitors. There are two three-watt speakers onboard, but other monitors have gone with dual five-watt speakers. The sound quality isn't the best on the Lenovo, and the volume is hard to control, as you'll have to go through multiple menus.

There is also a neat phone stand at the base. It's a small thing to consider, but it props up your phone, so it's easy to peek at incoming messages and other notifications while working on your PC. No other monitor I can think of has this kind of thoughtful feature.

The final design element to mention is the tiny Smart Light sensor at the front of the monitor. If isn't on by default but similar to what you get on a laptop, this sensor can adjust the screen's brightness based on the lighting of the room you're in. Photographers might not want this when editing photos, but for productivity and everyday work, it's quite neat.

Display: Color accurate, bright, and great for content creation

• The ThinkVision P27u-20 is quite color-accurate for an IPS display
• The monitor gets really bright and the viewing angles are great
• There are a lot of color profiles you can choose in the menu

This is a great-looking monitor, but the real reason to buy the ThinkVision P27u-20 will be for color accuracy. For a display with an IPS panel, the color spectrums it can cover is quite impressive. It gets bright, and the viewing angles are superb, with no glare under office lighting. Plus, there's HDR400 certification for viewing HDR content, which can make the content look more realistic.

Out of the box, the ThinkVision P27u-20 is set to DCI-P3 mode with 75% brightness and 75% contrast. Those settings were a little too cool for me, so I spent most of my time with the monitor in Adobe RGB mode. These are two of the eight total modes on the monitor that will impact color accuracy accordingly. There are also sRGB, BT.709, BT.2020, Neutral, Warm, and Cool modes.

Lenovo says the monitor can cover 99.1% DCI-P3 and 99.5% Adobe RGB gamuts. I sought to verify this using my colorimeter in the two modes I used. The results were a bit off, but it still hit content 80% standards that are great for photography and above the 70% standard.

On the default DCI-P3 color profile, the monitor covered 86% Adobe RGB, 81% NTSC, 88% P3, and 99% SRGB spectrums. Switching to Adobe RGB mode, the monitor hit 88% of Adobe RGB, 82% NTSC, 79% P3, and 95% SRGB spectrums. If you want, you can set a custom color mode and adjust the Red, Green, and Blues as you see fit for color accuracy results better than what I recorded.

The monitor still hit content 80% standards that are great for photography and above the 70% standard.

These are great results, and considering the 1000:1 contrast ratio and the 450 nit brightness I recorded, this monitor is perfect for those into photography.

Outside my testing, I also watched a video showcasing landmarks of New York City. I adored how realistic the shine of lights in One World Trade Center looked at night, as well as the orange and red shine of tail lights from the traffic of cars heading uptown. In another scene with the sunset, the orange sun perfectly bounced off buildings in the background.

This monitor perfectly replicates the colors in videos and photos and is even great for productivity. Web pages looked bright, and I could easily stack content side by side to spread out my work.

Ports: There's a port for everything you own

• There are a lot of ports on the ThinkVision P27u-20
• The Thunderbolt 4 support is a huge plus
• The HDMI port is not HDMI 2.1

As a monitor designed for creators, there are a lot of ports that are on the ThinkVision P27u-20 for connecting to any device or accessory you might own, be it for work, play, or content creation. The most important port, though, is the Thunderbolt 4 port, along with a second one for easy daisy-chaining with just one cable on your laptop or PC. The Thunderbolt 4 port can provide up to 100 watts of charging for your laptop.

There are a lot of ports on this display for connecting to any device or accessory you might own.

The main ports on this monitor for video signals are Thunderbolt 4, two HDMI 2.0 ports, and DisplayPort 1.2. Other than that, there are a lot of USB ports for connecting accessories without using a dongle or dock. I already mentioned the USB-A, USB-C port, and headphone jack in the hub on the left side, but there's more beyond that. You'll also find an Ethernet port, two USB-A 3.1 ports, and a USB downstream at the rear underside of the monitor.

The HDMI ports were the most exciting. While I had my PC hooked up to Thunderbolt 4, I used my Xbox on one HDMI 2.0 port and my Mac mini on the other. It's nice to have a monitor that could act as an entertainment hub. However, it's a shame that the HDMI port is only 2.0. I would have liked for this monitor to sport HDMI 2.1 and a faster 120Hz refresh rate, but that's not as important for the content creator audience.

As a ThinkVision product, the monitor also sports KVM support, which helps you view and control two or more PCs using a single mouse and keyboard.

OSD interface and buttons: Not the easiest to navigate

• You have to navigate the ThinkVision P27u-20 menu system with the buttons at the front of the monitor
• The buttons are tactile
• The menus are hard to navigate

This is a problem with a lot of monitors and not just the ThinkVision P27u-20, but the menu system is frustrating to use. Even though Lenovo put tactile buttons at the lower right front of the monitor for getting into the menus, there were annoying steps you had to follow.

To initially switch inputs, you need to press the menu button once, the down button three times, and then the menu button twice. That's a lot of presses for something that should be done with just one button. The monitor remembers the last menu you were in the next time you summon the menu system, but it shouldn't be this complicated. The same multi-tap problem also applies if you want to switch between the color profiles.

I said this with my ThinkVision M14D review, and I'll repeat it again: Lenovo should include a Trackpoint-like nub for menu navigation. It would make life simpler.

ThinkVision P27u-20 Monitor: Should you buy?

You should buy the ThinkVision P27u-20 Monitor: if:

• You're a content creator that wants an IPS monitor with great color accuracy
• You want a monitor that connects with all your devices
• You want a monitor with integrated speakers and a USB hub

You shouldn't buy the ThinkVision P27u-20 Monitor: if:

• You're a gamer
• You don't have patience when navigating OSD menus

It might be expensive at $769, but the ThinkVision P27u-20 Monitor is great for those who are into content creation. It's color accurate, has a lot of ports, has a thoughtful design, and is a solid alternative to the Apple Studio Display for those who prefer a display that might play nicer with Windows PCs.