HP EliteBook Folio 9470m Ultrabook Review: Ultrabooks in Enterprise
by Dustin Sklavos on March 29, 2013 12:01 AM ESTDisplay Quality
There are crappy, low resolution TN panel displays, and then there are panels that suck out loud. Jarred and I have been over this a million times, but sometimes you get a display that's bad even by bad standards. That's the stock display in the HP EliteBook Folio 9470m, and if you're interested in this notebook I sincerely urge you to consider buying a unit with the 1600x900 panel, which cannot possibly be as bad as the stock panel.
Don't believe me? See for yourself:
This is without a doubt one of the worst panels I've ever tested, and it's a testament to how obnoxiously cheap vendors behind the Windows PC market really are. It's difficult for me to be professional when I'm looking at a notebook that has a panel I would've judged poor even when I started writing reviews at AnandTech, before tablets with crisp IPS panels started proliferating in the marketplace. There's no excuse at all for this panel to even see the light of day except in a $300 budget junker, let alone in a notebook you're paying north of $1,300 for.
We bumped up our battery testing to start panel brightness at 200 nits instead of 100 nits; that means this notebook's battery life was tested with the backlight at its highest level. This is an ugly, ugly panel, and in 2013 there's simply no excuse for it. I've personally told reps at HP and other vendors that this isn't going to fly anymore, I know Jarred has as well, and Anand's even told manufacturers that this kind of penny-pinching will allow the burgeoning convertible tablet market to subsume the notebook market at large.
Battery Life
Speaking of battery testing, I was able to test the Folio 9470m with both its substantial 52Wh stock battery and its 60Wh extended slice battery. If ultrabooks can be relied upon for anything, it's producing excellent battery life, and that turned out to be true here despite the screen running effectively at maximum brightness.
As it turns out, the slice battery not only more than doubles the 9470m's already healthy battery running time, it actually improves the system's efficiency somewhat. For basic use, the 9470m can give you a healthy five hours at least. Add the slice battery, and suddenly you're good for roughly the whole day.
Heat and Noise
Battery life is good, but heat and noise are a bit less desirable.
The Folio 9470m's thermals are actually very good, but HP has clearly tuned the system to favor temperatures over acoustics. The result is that while it's impressively cool under load (sub-80C in an ultrabook is excellent), the fan spins up and produces a high-pitched whine. Under the circumstances I honestly favor tuning for silence over thermals; the XPS 13 proves that you can let the processor run a little toasty without that heat transferring too directly to the end user, and I'd prefer the 9470m took that tack.
That in mind, though, the cooling system is handled almost entirely through the side of the notebook as opposed to the bottom, which is greatly appreciated as it allows the 9470m to actually be used as a laptop.
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Tipsy McStagger - Monday, May 6, 2013 - link
I just ordered a C6Z63UT from BB. While the specifications indicate it is a 1366x768 display, it says that it is an HD Active Matrix TFT Color Backlit LED LCD. Is this the same display as tested in this review?john12345p - Monday, October 14, 2013 - link
Can't decide between 2 HP laptops that you reviewed here on that site last year. HP EliteBook 2170p and HP Folio 9470m.Our IT department at work is offering either one of these and I don't know which one to choose. The are no other choices. Which one to choose among these two? Which one is better ultimately?
john12345p - Monday, October 14, 2013 - link
Basically, which one of the two sucks less? 2170p or 9470m?CTIBWI - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
I am in the market looking for a skinny companion to my luggable HP EliteBook 8560w Dreamcolor. HP pre-sales directed my attention to the EliteBook Folio, which is a waste of my time! HP is surely falling behind here, which disappoints me when I have been an HP fan since the HP35 calculator. HP shall strive with implementing the leading edge technologies above milking the customer with incrimental improvements. Only then will HP beat Apple and the like gaga evangelistas.Davbaster - Thursday, October 31, 2013 - link
I received one hp 9470m laptop for Work but with a 1600x900 screen resolución, a 256gb SSD, and 8gb of ram. This Computer is super fast, and it's very light compared with the normal bussines Computers I used to have. I will recommend it for Work; turning it on and off is fast. I used to avoid using My Work Computers at home because the customised OS windows My company uses take a lot of time to boots up, and power off. But not with this laptop. Now I'm ready to Work in less than a minute. I really recommend the HP 9470m for Work . I'm really Happy with this Computer.lbluepromo01 - Sunday, December 29, 2013 - link
I tell you guys i recommend to you when you buy some hardware should be branded. My loptops and other gadgets as of now they are good in performance. I used them everyday. thanks for this good site. <a href="http://tigerdirect.bluepromocode.com/tigerdirect-p... direct coupons</a>daNY_b - Thursday, January 16, 2014 - link
Hey guys what kind of battery life do you get with this? Im on Power saver with screen brightness pretty low and only get about 4-4.5h of use(browsing, youtube, wifi) nowhere near the 7:30 h that this article says. Suggestions will be appreciated !tomrocksalot - Friday, February 21, 2014 - link
Yes that is right I run linux mint and battery power usage minimum is 8.8W on minimum brightness doing nothing. 52Wh/8.8 = 5.9hRealistically I have the brightness on full or near full most of the time and power consumption is around 10-14W. Say 12w - 52wH/12 = 4.3h sounds about right.
linopks - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
I bought this HP Folio 9470m with i5-3427U @1.8GHz w 8GB RAM 180 SSD from Newegg. This is a fast booting Win 7 machine (about 12 sec) versatile business grade laptop that you can use it around at home due to its relatively light weight (compared to average laptops). While the dual-channel 8GB RAM somewhat boosts up the HD4000 graphics capability so that we can still play some graphic games, and also a spare room for a second mSATA drive to install large games. At native resolution 1368 x 768, the native font (without distortion) is just the right size. A second large 1080p extra monitor can be attached to the slim docking station for graphic and serious business work. Why would anyone need a 1080p resolution crammed into a 14 inch laptop monitor (the native size fonts will be so small).WalkInTheGlow - Wednesday, December 16, 2015 - link
Laptop HP EliteBook 9480m - is a beast. http://topchoice.best/main-review/best-ultrabooks Yes, of course the price exceeds the limit. But the laptop very cool. Design excellent. It works like a clock, do not hang. The speakers are loud, even at full volume include, neighbors regret. The video quality is very good, my favorite movies pleased to review on this Toshiba, get aesthetic pleasure. The battery holds 4-5 hours, for such a machine, which is very good