Lenovo B470 Battery Life, Heat and Noise

Heat and Noise
The Lenovo B470 did well with controlling its heat when the processor and graphics card were under considerable pressure. The highest hotspot on the notebook reached 97 degrees Fahrenheit (on the bottom). This number is slightly high, but the temperature as a whole isn't close to threatening. The cooling fan inside most notebooks can sometimes be a distraction while the notebook is being worked hard, but the fan inside the B470 made no noticeable noise.

Battery Life
During our battery test we set Windows 7 on the balanced power profile, lower the screen brightness down to 70%, have wireless active, and refresh a web page every 60 seconds. The 6-cell Li-ion battery (48Wh, 10.8V) in B470 was able to stay on for 6 hours and 17 minutes. This is one of the main highlights of the system--having great battery life like this means a lot of work can get done while traveling or away from a power source.

As you can see in the comparison chart below, the Lenovo B470 delivers some impressive battery life. Keep in mind that the Dell Inspiron 15R shown in the chart was using a 9-cell battery.

Battery life test results (higher scores mean better battery life):

Conclusion
The Lenovo "Essential" B470 notebook is a decent purchase if you're in need of a notebook for your office or school work. It offers good performance with its fast second-generation Intel Core i5-2410M processor and is equipped with enough memory to help with multi-tasking and office productivity. It also stays relativity cool and the 6-cell Li-ion battery provides an excellent 6 hours of battery life, which is a huge perk while traveling or away from a power outlet.

The only disadvantages are the lower resolution 720p glossy display and the below average audio output (which can be solved with a good pair of external speakers or headphones). The display does, however, provide average contrast and the LED backlighting is very bright. The port selection on the notebook is also good, with a 6-in-one memory card reader, plenty of USB 2.0 ports, eSATA, HDMI and VGA. The Lenovo B470 is also currently on sale at the time of this writing, with the lower configuration going for a very doable $589 and the higher configuration which we reviewed is going for $669. The Lenovo B470 is available now through Lenovo and select resellers.

Pros:

• Decent overall performance
• Excellent battery life: 6 hours
• Good keyboard and touchpad
• Price

Cons:

• Below average audio (two small speakers)
• Low res glossy screen
• Boring design

Individual Ratings: *

Software & Support 
Upgrade Capabilities 
Usability 
Design 
Performance 
Features 
Price/Value Rating 
* Ratings averaged to produce final score