Lenovo pitches its IdeaPad V470 laptop as business casual, and that's a pretty fitting description for this 14-inch laptop. The brushed-aluminum design is sleek instead of stuffy, and its Core i3 processor has enough power to handle your workload. On the other hand, the V470 is anything but casual about security, featuring a fingerprint reader and lockable USB ports. This $599 lightweight notebook has some pretty stiff competition in its price range, so read on to find if it should earn a spot in your bag.
Design
Lenovo has hit a home run with the IdeaPad V470's modern, austere design. Its lid is brushed aluminum bordered up top by a thin strip of silver plastic. A slightly raised and textured silver Lenovo logo sits just below the strip in the top left corner. Inside, the deck is draped with the same brushed aluminum as the lid, giving it a sturdy feel. The glossy black display bezel and matte black keys help break up the aluminum, while the orange function icons help give the design a little extra pop.Running along the length of the deck just above the keyboard is a single perforated strip of metal that houses the system's four LED indicator lights on its right side and the power button and OneKey Recovery button on its left. The power button's design is particularly interesting, because Lenovo chose to stamp small holes into it, allowing thin strands of white light to shine through. It's a simple touch, but one that adds character to the system.
The V470's speakers, which have unique slotted grilles, are located on the extreme edges of the deck above the keyboard. Below and to the right of the keyboard you'll find the V470's fingerprint scanner, which works with Lenovo's BioExcess security feature.
For a 14-inch notebook, the IdeaPad V470 is fairly slender, but Lenovo's decision to taper the rear of the system makes it look slimmer than its 13.4 x 9.2 x 1.2-inch size would suggest. And at 4.6 pounds, this laptop is just about the average weight for a 14-inch notebook in this category. By comparison, the Toshiba Satellite E305 weighs 4.4 pounds and measures 13.7 x 9.3 x 1.2 inches.
Heat
The V470 kept its cool during our heat test, which entails streaming a full-screen Hulu video for 15 minutes. At its hottest point--the middle of the underside--the system reached a relatively comfortable 86 degrees Fahrenheit. The touchpad and keyboard were even cooler, reaching only 84 and 81 degrees, respectively. We generally find temperatures below 95 degrees comfortable, and the V470 stayed under this with ease.Keyboard and Touchpad
If Lenovo is known for anything, it's exceptional keyboards, and the IdeaPad V470 keeps that tradition alive and well with its Accutype chiclet-style keyboard. The slightly concave keys were responsive and provided excellent feedback, and their spacing helped reduce errors caused by accidental input. While some keys are undersized--including the Backspace and right Shift key--this didn't impact our typing experience.When we used the Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor, we managed to type an average of 73 words per minute with no errors, which is actually five more words per minute than we usually type using our desktop keyboard. The palm rest isn't terribly comfortable, but that's to be expected when the deck is covered in brushed aluminum. We would have preferred a backlit keyboard, but we suppose that's one concession you need to make for the $599 price.
The IdeaPad V470's 3.25 x 1.6-inch Elan touchpad provided smooth and responsive navigation. Unfortunately, multitouch gesturing is limited to two- and three-finger tapping. We're disappointed that the touchpad doesn't support pinch-to-zoom, a common feature on most notebooks; instead, you're supposed to double-tap to zoom in small increments. A three-finger tap zooms out. Lame. We also would have appreciated the ability to rotate images with the touchpad.
Display and Audio
The Lenovo's 14-inch, 1366 x 768 glossy display provided sharp, bright colors, but when viewed from an angle, images washed out quickly. The screen's glossy coating caused distracting reflections. When watching a trailer for the movie 13 Assassins, blacks seemed to smudge together, but when we watched an episode of Family Guy, the image quality improved significantly.
The V470's speakers delivered loud and distortion-free audio. Less bass-intensive songs such as Them Crooked Vultures' "Reptiles" sounded clean, but Lil' Wayne's bass-heavy "A Milli" sounded dull without its constant low-end hits. Above all, we were glad that nothing sounded tinny.
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