Lenovo ThinkPad L470 review

Where the ThinkPad L470 stands

The Lenovo ThinkPad L470 is a 2017 business laptop now priced at roughly $189 — firmly in the ultra-budget segment of the workstation class, well below the $297 category median. Nine years of depreciation have stripped the premium that once applied to a ThinkPad-badge office machine. What remains is a value question: is a 2017 ThinkPad still serviceable in 2026, and at what price does it stop making sense?

An honest profile: balanced, not standout

The ThinkPad L470 has no axis where it meaningfully exceeds the workstation-class median. Its strengths are the things that age gently: a 32 GB memory ceiling, a ThinkPad keyboard, and a chassis built for fleet use. These are not measurable surpluses against the median, but they explain why the laptop still commands a price at all. The honest framing is "balanced for its age" rather than "exceptional on any axis".

The graphics floor

The constraint that defines the L470 in 2026 is graphics capability. With an integrated GPU and a best-GPU score at the absolute floor of the category, the laptop handles office productivity, browsing, video calls, and document work without issue — but it has no headroom for anything GPU-bound. Measured game benchmarks confirm this: GTA V does not reach a playable minimum, and the laptop is firmly outside the gaming envelope. For its intended office use, this is not a limitation; for buyers hoping for occasional creative work, it is.

Price trajectory

At nine years old, the depreciation curve is essentially complete. From an estimated $1,300 MSRP in 2017, the laptop has settled at $189 today — a 7.6% annualised rate that reflects the long, slow tail of business-hardware value loss. The projected two-year price of $162 is a further 14.6% decline, meaning the asset will continue to lose value but slowly. A buyer at $189 is paying for remaining service life, not for resale value.

How it compares

In the sub-$220 business segment, the L470 competes with HP's EliteBook 850 G4 ($207) and ProBook 640 G4 ($204) upward, and the HP ProBook 455 G2 ($174) and EliteBook 745 G4 ($172) downward. These are all 2016–2017 vintage machines with comparable office capability. The ThinkPad's distinguishing factor is keyboard quality and chassis durability — Lenovo's L-series was built for fleet procurement, and surviving units tend to be in better cosmetic shape than consumer-tier alternatives from the same era.

Bottom line

The ThinkPad L470 at $189 is a budget-friendly pick for buyers who need a no-frills office machine with a good keyboard and proven durability. It is not a laptop for gaming, creative work, or any GPU-accelerated task — those workloads are structurally out of scope for a 2017 integrated-GPU business laptop. Within its actual envelope (documents, browsing, video calls, light development), it remains serviceable and is priced honestly for what it offers.