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ThinkPad E470

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Recently I’ve been looking for a Linux-friendly, budget laptop. I like ThinkPads, and all of my laptops have been either T-series or X-series but this time I didn’t want to spend that amount of money and was looking for cheaper alternatives.

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Browsing Lenovo website, I realised that a reasonably configured E470 would cost about €1000 which was about how much I was willing to pay. I configured it, so it has:

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  • Intel® Core™ i7-7500U
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  • 16GB RAM
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  • NVIDIA® GeForce® 940MX 2 GB
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  • 14" FHD (1920x1080) anti-glare IPS
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  • 256GB SSD
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Including VAT it set me back €1032 which I think is reasonable.

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Unlike my other laptops, this time I kept the Windows mainly because it has a discrete GPU—granted not a high-performance one but still much better than Intel HD ones—and I thought I might be able to use it for some light gaming.

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I installed Debian testing on it, and everything worked out of the box! The only issue I have with it is that middle-click isn’t working, but this patch will fix it.

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Being a budget laptop, E470 lacks some features of X and T series. For example, it doesn’t have ThinkLight or the keyboard isn’t backlit. Its only video output is HDMI which caused me some headache. My monitor only has DisplayPort input; so I bought an HDMI to DisplayPort adapter not realizing that those cables aren’t bi-directional. They’re suitable for scenarios in which you need to connect your DisplayPort-capable device to an HDTV, not the other way around. However, there are converters capable of doing such transformation, at higher costs.

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The Good

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  • Reasonably priced.
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  • 45WH battery lasts 8 hours.
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The Bad

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  • FHD is the most high-resolution option.
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  • Keyboard is not backlit.
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  • No ThinkLight.
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The Ugly

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  • It’s weighty, ugly, bulky, and the design is unimaginative.
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