Lenovo ThinkPad E490 review: Budget business laptop with all-day battery and upgradeable hardware
Lenovo does its best to ensure there'southward a ThinkPad for anybody, from those who'd like a upkeep workhorse without any unnecessary frills, to those who'd similar a premium device with all the latest technology. The ThinkPad E490 that I've been using for near a week is in the former camp, with a starting price that's cheaper than about ThinkPads and a feature gear up that is more than geared toward a life of hard piece of work rather than anything fancy. Permit's see whether or not information technology's worth the coin and whether or not it has the right stuff to be your next laptop.
Budget 14-inch ThinkPad
Lenovo ThinkPad E490
From $657
Bottom line: Equally long as you lot don't heed an underwhelming display, the ThinkPad E490 is a solid business laptop that comes at an affordable price.
Pros
- Upgradeable Chiliad.2 SSD, hard bulldoze, and RAM
- Competitive pricing
- All-24-hour interval bombardment life
- Generous port selection
- Outstanding keyboard
Cons
- No Thunderbolt three
- Underwhelming display
What you'll honey well-nigh the ThinkPad E490
Similar the majority of ThinkPads, the E490 has a chassis that's made up of a polymer alloy covered in black soft-bear on paint. It picks up fingerprints and smudges, only information technology's durable; information technology has undergone MIL-STD 810G certification testing to ensure information technology can put up with extreme weather condition you wouldn't ordinarily find in an office, so information technology's ready to follow you into the field. A single hinge runs along the majority of the intersection betwixt lid and bottom chassis, and it allows the display to rotate dorsum about 180 degrees to sit flat. Information technology'southward a bit wobbly, just information technology does let you to open the lid with i hand, a characteristic often seen on premium devices.
| Category | Spec |
|---|---|
| Processor | 8th Gen Intel Core i5-8265U Up to 3.90GHz 4 cores |
| Graphics | Intel UHD 620 |
| RAM | 8GB DDR4-2400MHz |
| Storage | 512GB Grand.ii PCIe SSD |
| Brandish | 14 inches 1920x1080 (FHD) Non-touch IPS, matte |
| Security | Fingerprint reader dTPM 2.0 Kensington lock slot |
| Wireless | Intel Wireless-Air-conditioning 9260 802.11ac (ii 10 2) Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Ports | USB-C 3.i (Charging) 2 USB-A 3.1 USB-A 2.0 HDMI 1.4b RJ45 Ethernet microSD card reader 3.5mm audio |
| Bombardment | 45Wh |
| Size | 12.9 inches x nine.5 inches 10 0.86 inches (329mm x 242mm 10 21.9mm) |
| Weight | From 4.06 pounds (one.84kg) |
The E490's budget condition means it's slightly thicker and heavier than the premium ThinkPads, coming in at about 0.86 inches thick and weighing in at about 4.06 pounds (one.84kg). However, the chassis holds quite a bit of hardware, including dual SODIMM RAM slots, 2.5-inch SATA hard drive, and Grand.2 PCIe solid-state drive (SSD), all of which can be upgraded mail purchase if you'd similar to proceed the laptop upwardly to engagement. Simply pop off the back encompass, and y'all have easy admission to everything.
Forth the sides, you'll find a generous selection of ports. On the left is a single USB-C that doubles every bit a port for the AC adapter, HDMI, two USB-A 3.1, and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the right side is a microSD menu reader, USB-A ii.0, RJ45 Ethernet, and a Kensington lock slot if you lot'd like to keep your laptop safe on your desk-bound overnight. There are plenty ports here that you should have no issues connecting most of your accessories, though it would be prissy to run into Thunderbolt 3 to assist proceed the laptop relevant longer into the futurity.
With the E490 comes an outstanding ThinkPad keyboard, consummate with cupped keys, ample travel, and perfect spacing. If yous type all day, yous won't have any bug here, though make sure you lot opt for the backlit keys. It will price a chip more than, but yous won't have whatever problems working in the night.
Congenital into the keyboard is a TrackPoint system, which includes a scarlet pointing nub and physical buttons above the Precision touchpad. It all works as it should, and the standard touchpad with mylar surface is smoothen and responsive. To the correct of the touchpad, congenital into the armrest, is a fingerprint reader for Windows Hello. It worked almost instantly every time I opened the laptop, and so no problems there.
The durable ThinkPad E490 has a stellar keyboard, all-day bombardment, and upgradeable hardware, all for a upkeep price.
One of the laptop'due south finer features is its battery life. I ran the 45Wh battery from full while streaming video and saw about 8 hours from the accuse, which translates to about x hours of standard usage at 60 percent screen brightness. An E490 model with Hard disk rather than FHD brandish would likely concluding longer, but we recommend you get the higher-res display. To add to the impressive battery life, charging with USB-C delivers most 80 per centum battery life in an hour, so you can top upwards quickly and get back to work.
The review model I have here is one of the more expensive models on offer, coming in at about $945, but it includes an 8th Gen "Whiskey Lake" Intel Core i5-8265U processor (CPU), 8GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB PCIe K.2 solid-country drive (SSD), which together evangelize respectable functioning that can cut through merely most any non-specialized chore with ease. You can driblet down to a Cadre i3 CPU, 500GB hard-disk drive (HDD), and HD display and pay closer to well-nigh $657.
I ran some synthetic benchmarks to get a better idea of how well the E490 stacks upward against other laptops we've recently reviewed.
CPU
Geekbench four.0 Benchmarks (College is better)
| Device | CPU | Single core | Multi core |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo ThinkPad E490 | i5-8265U | 4,402 | 12,021 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad L390 | i5-8265U | iv,320 | eleven,499 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad L380 | i5-8250U | 3,945 | 9,775 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad T490 | i7-8565U | v,431 | 15,608 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad T480 | i5-8250U | three,940 | 12,559 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X390 | i7-8565U | 5,472 | 18,059 |
| MSI PS63 Modern | i7-8565U | 4,909 | 14,466 |
| Huawei MateBook X Pro | i7-8565U | v,192 | 16,757 |
| HP Spectre x360 13t | i7-8565U | v,056 | xiv,767 |
| Surface Laptop 2 | i5-8250U | four,203 | 13,233 |
| LG gram 14 2-in-1 | i7-8565U | 4,829 | 13,889 |
PCMark
PCMark Home Conventional iii.0
| Device | Score |
|---|---|
| Lenovo ThinkPad E490 | 3,212 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad L390 | iii,217 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad L380 | 2,762 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad T490 | 3,620 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad T480 | 3,254 |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X390 | iii,934 |
| LG gram 14 2-in-1 | iii,452 |
| Lenovo Yoga C930 | 3,506 |
SSD
CrystalDiskMark (Higher is ameliorate)
| Device | Read | Write |
|---|---|---|
| Lenovo ThinkPad E490 | 1,606.half-dozen MB/southward | 800.eight MB/s |
| Lenovo ThinkPad L390 | 2,189.3 MB/due south | 1,350.iv MB/s |
| Lenovo ThinkPad L380 | 545 MB/south | 528.9 MB/s |
| Lenovo ThinkPad T490 | 3,254.8 MB/s | 2,954.ix MB/s |
| Lenovo ThinkPad T480 | ane,738.1 MB/s | i,174.9 MB/due south |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X390 | iii,024 MB/south | 1,563.2 MB/s |
| Huawei MateBook X Pro | 3,0416 MB/southward | 2,779 MB/south |
| HP Spectre x360 13t | 3,085 MB/south | i,182 MB/s |
| LG gram 14 2-in-1 | 558.1 MB/s | 523.1 MB/southward |
| Lenovo Yoga C930 | 2,596.2 MB/s | 806 MB/s |
The speedy Toshiba M.2 PCIe SSD can be replaced with something even faster, and there's always the 2.5-inch storage bay (in this instance sitting fallow) that you tin can use for bulk SATA storage in the class of either an HDD or SSD.
What you'll dislike nearly the ThinkPad E490
Lenovo must cut corners somewhere to keep the price of the E490 down, and unfortunately, it'south the display that takes the biggest hit. Information technology doesn't go bright enough to hands work outdoors on a sunny twenty-four hours, but at least it does have a matte terminate to cut downwardly significantly on glare in normal working conditions. And while it does but fine for near productivity tasks, color reproduction is beneath average, hit 67 percent of the sRGB gamut and 51 percentage AdobeRGB. Contrast is really slap-up, and you lot likely won't detect the colour reproduction during everyday use, at least until you lot compare it to a more than expensive laptop.
The other thing you might dislike nearly the E490 is its size and weight. Compared to the 14-inch ThinkPad T490 — weighing in at just three.17 pounds (1.44kg) and measuring 0.70 inches at its thickest — the E490 is beefy. However, the T490 has a starting price, that's about $400 more. I quickly got used to the E490'due south size, even moving from the lightweight LG gram 15Z980, and information technology'south still sized to hands slip into a backpack or messenger and be carried effectually with you lot wherever you go.
Should y'all buy the ThinkPad E490?
The E490 is a ThinkPad in the classic vein, with a durable body, outstanding keyboard, respectable performance, and long-lasting battery life. It's a bit bulkier than other, more expensive models, but it also comes at a starting $657 cost that's well into the budget field. For those who just need a solid workhorse and don't mind a display with sub-par colour reproduction and no Thunderbolt 3 port, this is going to be an crawly device. The ability to upgrade SSD, 2.5-inch hard bulldoze and RAM just means it will last longer into the future.
If you lot like the idea of a far better 14-inch display (WQHD resolution and HDR back up), better port selection, optional LTE, and a thinner and lighter chassis, you lot should check out the ThinkPad T490. It's more expensive, but for some, the upgrades will exist worth the toll. And if you're looking for a ThinkPad that's about the same price but comes with a touch display option, have a look at the ThinkPad L390.
Upkeep 14-inch ThinkPad
Lenovo ThinkPad E490
Basic ThinkPad at a not bad cost
The ThinkPad E490 combines durable chassis, generous port pick, all-day battery life, and decent functioning, making it a solid budget choice.
Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/lenovo-thinkpad-e490-review
Posted by: petersenloure1948.blogspot.com
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