Large laptops aren’t really well appreciated in the community, especially if they’re not part of any gaming lineup. However, the HP 470 G9 can satisfy your daily computing needs and even more, as some 17.3-inch devices get lucky and are outfitted with great displays that show good color coverage and accuracy.
Turns out, this device is one of them, so when you factor in the Alder Lake processors and the option for discrete graphics you can get a good machine for image editing and other types of Creator work.
Today we present you with LaptopMedia’s top 5 picks about the HP 470 G9.
HP 470 G9: Full Specs / In-depth Review
3 reasons to BUY the HP 470 G9
1. Design and build quality
The device comes with a plastic body, using the same design and chassis as its predecessor, the 470 G8. The laptop weighs 2.08 kg and has a profile of 19.9 mm. This makes it one of the best notebooks in the 17-inch market in terms of portability. In terms of durability, both the lid and base show some flex, however, we’ve seen way worse. The lid opens with one hand up to 80 degrees, after which the base finally lifts off the ground. Once you go past that and the laptop is fully opened, the back of the base is elevated, increasing airflow to the cooling.
The base houses the keyboard, which turns out to be pretty damn good, with long key travel and clicky feedback. You also get a NumPad, while the keycaps have decent spacing between one another. The touchpad isn’t as good, as the surface feels plasticky, but overall the pad gets the job done.
2. Display quality
The 17.3-inch Full HD IPS panel of the HP 470 comes with excellent viewing angles and a peak brightness of 310 nits. This is on par with other more budget-oriented laptops. What this notebook does better than the rest, is to cover 98% of the sRGB color gamut, providing a vibrant and punchy image.
Next, looking at the color accuracy, you can see that the panel utilizes our Design and Gaming profile really well, lowering the dE value from 4.2 down to 1.0. Here are the results of our test with the stock settings (left) and with our profile applied (right).
Buy our profiles
Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for HP 470 G9 configurations with 17.3″ FHD IPS AUO B173HAN04.3 (AUO439D).
*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].
Read more about the profiles HERE.
In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.
Office Work
Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.
Design and Gaming
This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.
Health-Guard
Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.
Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount
3. Upgradeability
As this isn’t a small laptop, we’re expecting good upgradeability. HP delivers on that, offering the device with two SODIMM slots for up to 32GB of DDR4 memory, one M.2 slot, and space for a 2.5-inch SATA drive. However, we don’t see any mounting hardware, so you’d have to buy it yourself.
Here is our teardown video, which shows how to access the RAM and storage slots.
2 reasons NOT to buy the HP 470 G9
1. Battery life
There is a place inside the device for a larger battery, however, what we get is a 41Wh unit. It lasts for 5 hours and 41 minutes of Web browsing, or 4 hours and 44 minutes of video playback. Now, we conduct the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with.
2. Thermal management
The cooling setup here consists of one heat pipe, one fan, and a pretty long heatsink.
Max CPU load
Intel Core i5-1235U (15W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
---|---|---|---|
HP 470 G9 | 1.43 GHz @ 1.39 GHz @ 54°C @ 15W | 1.43 GHz @ 1.39 GHz @ 57°C @ 15W | 1.44 GHz @ 1.39 GHz @ 64°C @ 15W |
For some reason, the CPU doesn’t boost to high clock speeds or wattage.
Comfort during full load
Due to the behavior of the cooling setup, the laptop doesn’t really heat up on the outside, while noise levels are down.