Lenovo ThinkPad T490s Evaluate

The Lenovo ThinkPad T490s means enterprise. Look past the defiantly anachronistic stylings and you will find a stable, dependable machine with security measures past these of most different consumer-grade gadgets.

Execs

• Strong building
• Excessive-quality show
• Good battery life
• Constructed-in security measures
• The traditional design hasn’t modified

Cons

• Extension required for Ethernet connection
• The traditional design hasn’t modified…

Key Specs

• 14-inch Full HD show
• Intel Core i5-8265U / i7-8565U / Core i5-8365U / Core i7-8665U
• 128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB
• 8GB / 16GB
• Trackpad with middle-click button
• ThinkPad pointing stick/nub
• Lenovo good card reader
• 329mm x 226.15mm x 16.7mm
• 1.35kg
• USB-C, USB-C w/ Thunderbolt 3, 2 x USB-A 3.1, HDMI 1.4, microSD/micro-SIM slot, good card reader, 3.5mm headphone/mic jack

What’s the Lenovo ThinkPad T490s?

The Lenovo ThinkPad T490s is the most recent in a collection of the legendary workhorse laptops geared toward enterprise customers. 

Should you’re about to begin a brand new job then likelihood is it’s possible you’ll discover one such unit ready for you in your desk in your first day. If not, and also you’re simply after a dependable Home windows 10 laptop computer primarily for workplace or college work, then learn on. 

I’m typically requested for recommendation over which laptop computer needs to be the subsequent buy, shortly adopted by “I primarily want one thing for writing and searching the online, and likewise Netflix”. Whereas there are many laptops on the market that may cater to these wants, and for lower than the price of even the most affordable Lenovo ThinkPad T490s (take a look at our greatest price range laptops roundup), few come near matching the T490s for construct high quality, versatility or longevity. 

The Lenovo ThinkPad T490s is a well-built laptop computer that’s decidedly unflashy. It means enterprise – and should you do, too, then this can be the laptop computer you’re on the lookout for. 

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The ThinkPad T490s – a 1999 exterior hides a 2019 inside

Design – The Lenovo ThinkPad T490s seems to be like a black field recorder

When it comes to fashion, the brand new T490s does nothing to buck the ThinkPad development. The boxy black design has remained unchanged. The truth is, should you have been to put it in a lineup subsequent to a ThinkPad T460s ,T470s, or T480s, you’d actually should squint with a purpose to inform them aside. 

The glowing purple LED sitting above the dot of the “i” within the ThinkPad emblem is current and proper, as is the trackpad with a middle-click button and the pointing stick – the atavistic rubbery nipple that sits between the “G”, “H”, and “B” letter keys. 

The variations are primarily discovered beneath the hood. You get the choice of Intel Core i5 or Core i7 Whiskey Lake processors – which, till Ice Lake and Comet Lake laptops begin touchdown on cabinets, is your only option. 

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The keys would possibly look old-school, however they make for a superb typing expertise

Measurement-wise, the ThinkPad T490s is a bit of smaller than final yr’s T480s – 329mm x 226.15mm x 16.7mm vs 331mm x 226.8mm x 18.45mm – nevertheless it weighs a barely heavier 1.35kg. 

There are just a few security measures that make the T490s stand out out of your typical way of life laptop computer. As with the T480s, Lenovo has added a fingerprint scanner to the T490s, which is safer and arguably extra handy than having to enter (and keep in mind) advanced PINs and passwords. 

There’s additionally a built-in webcam management that permits you to cowl the sensor of the 720p webcam for instances whenever you’re not utilizing it. 

The mannequin I picked up for evaluate featured an ordinary LCD panel with IPS (in-plane switching), however Lenovo’s website mentions which you could choose up a ThinkPad T490s with a PrivacyGuard show. This works in the same solution to HP’s SureView anti-snooping tech, seen on laptops such because the HP EliteBook 1050 G1. It narrows the viewing angle of the show, stopping anybody trying over your shoulder or sat subsequent to you from seeing what’s in your display screen. It doesn’t appear to be it’s available for purchase on the time of writing, so hopefully Lenovo will re-stock quickly. 

When it comes to ports there’s lots right here: two Kind-C USB ports, one supporting Thunderbolt 3, Ethernet, HDMI, a 3.5mm headphone jack, two USB-A ports, and a Kensington lock slot.

Some minor downsides: you’ll want to purchase a separate RJ-45 Extension Connector (£15.60) if you wish to make use of that Ethernet port, and the HDMI port is 1.4, which caps 4K video at 50fps as an alternative of the extra up-to-date HDMI 2.0 normal that helps 4K at as much as 60fps.

Whereas there’s no full-sized SD card reader right here, there’s a microSD slot on the laptop computer’s rear. The tray pops out, in the identical manner it might on a cellphone. It’s also possible to match a SIM card in right here, if you want – though since popping in my common O2 SIM didn’t do something, I can’t report on how efficient that is. 

Lastly, there’s a slot for good playing cards on the left aspect, which can be utilized to encrypt information saved on the exhausting drive, for instance, and to grant your ThinkPad entry to your organization’s VPN. 

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In contrast to a whole lot of chiclet-type keyboards seen on laptops of this dimension, the ThinkPad T490s keys hearth again shortly and boast beneficiant journey

Keyboard – What’s the Lenovo ThinkPad T490s keyboard like for engaged on?

Most notebooks this skinny have keys with puddle-shallow journey – or, within the case of the MacBook Air 2018’s butterfly switched keys – principally no journey in any respect. The Lenovo ThinkPad T490s isn’t most notebooks – the keys right here supply 2mm of journey. 

Whereas that’s nowhere close to as deep as what you’d get on a typical gaming keyboard, in comparison with most laptop computer keyboards, the T490s keys really feel deeper than the Mariana Trench. The keycaps themselves additionally really feel powerful as nails, with not considered one of them exhibiting off any telltale indicators of wobble once I was tapping away at them. 

That depth and solidity mixed with snappy key switches make for a typing expertise that’s not like the rest I’ve skilled on a laptop computer for some time. I get the impression that some folks will discover it troublesome to adapt, in the identical manner that some folks dislike Apple’s butterfly switches – as a result of it’s so totally different to the norm. For probably the most half, I beloved typing on the ThinkPad T490s. 

I appreciated that the Print Display screen button could be discovered on the underside row, and holding down the Fn key whenever you press it sees Snip & Sketch loading up, so you may simply seize a portion of the display screen. It’s just like urgent Cmd + Shift + 4 on a MacBook. I additionally like which you could toggle the keyboard’s underlight by urgent Fn + Area Bar. 

There are some things by which I used to be much less enamoured. The positioning of a few of the keys felt a bit of off in locations – notably the Operate (Fn) key, which sits within the backside left nook; it’s the place you’d usually anticipate finding the Management (Ctrl) key. 

Initially, I’d discover myself trying to repeat and paste textual content from Google Docs to the Trusted CMS, questioning why there was nothing within the clipboard. Seems I used to be urgent Fn + C as an alternative of Ctrl + C. 

Muscle reminiscence is partially accountable right here. I’m positive you’ll get used to the arrange as I quickly did. I’m much less forgiving concerning the tiny, Hobbit-sized arrow keys and the truth that they’re bunched into the bottom-right nook together with the Web page Up and Web page Down keys, nevertheless. The opposite navigation keys (Residence and Finish) are equally squashed, and have been relegated to the highest proper. 

ThinkPad followers will likely be fast to level out that this has been the case for years, and should you don’t prefer it then powerful. Not everyone seems to be a diehard ThinkPad fan, so maybe some keyboard feng shui is so as right here for future variations.  

Regardless of just a few odd structure decisions, the ThinkPad T490s’s keyboard is without doubt one of the finest I’ve used

Likewise, I simply can’t get on with the nub; personally, I subscribe to the LinusTechTips philosophy on this regard. I perceive that some folks love the pointing stick, however I’m not considered one of them. In reality, although, I made solely a few typos on account of the nub on the centre of the deck. 

Whereas I wasn’t too eager on the pointing stick, the trackpad is super-responsive. By default, it’s delicate sufficient to have the ability to have the cursor whip from one aspect of the display screen to the opposite with only a mild flick, which compensates for its comparatively small dimension. 

North of this isn’t one, not two, however three buttons – left, center, and right-click. Left and right-click do what you’d count on. Should you’re not acquainted with three-button tips on Home windows, most helpful is the middle-click perform on net browsers. 

Clicking on any non-hyperlinked space of an online web page will see the mouse cursor flip right into a directional management, which is able to permit you to scroll by way of massive pages with larger ease. 

Additionally, should you hover over again, ahead, or refresh, and click on with the center button as an alternative of navigating away from or refreshing that web page, your browser will open a brand new tab and the URL you’d in any other case have moved to (or refreshed) will seem in that new tab as an alternative. 

Not utilizing the webcam however would relatively not have a chunk of tape over the lens? Lenovo’s actually acquired you coated

Show – Is the Lenovo ThinkPad T490s OK for photograph work?

The Lenovo ThinkPad T490s show is superb, and sure, it ought to cope wonderful with primary photograph work. The show provides excessive ranges of color area protection, good distinction, punchy ranges of brightness – all of which, mixed with the anti-glare coating, ensured excellent visibility in a wide range of working environments. 

I used to be even capable of full just a few paragraphs of this evaluate outdoors lately, returning indoors to complete off not due to poor visibility however as a result of it was simply too sizzling. 

I recorded most brightness ranges of 396.16 nits, which is first rate, far above the 300-nit stage you must count on from a premium laptop computer. A black stage of 0.3 nits can be wonderful, if not fairly nice. In a great world, each show would have a black stage of zero – in different phrases, each black pixel on a panel could be completely black – however, realistically, you’re not going to get that except your laptop computer has an OLED display screen, and people are costly. 

Nonetheless, these two scores add as much as a excessive distinction ratio (1290:1). The distinction between the brightest and lowest factors on the show imply that images, movies, and net pages will look richer and come out greater than they’d on a much less brilliant show. I particularly appreciated how crisp, inky, and outlined black textual content would look on the white background of a doc. 

Regardless of getting a color temperature studying of 7476K, above the 6500K pure white mild temperature, nothing regarded particularly chilly or bluish to my eyes. That stated, you would possibly need to crank up the Night time Gentle setting a bit of  should you’re fearful about eye pressure, particularly should you’re working late. 

The mannequin I examined featured the usual IPS (in-plane switching) show, which supplied good viewing angles. Generally, laptops with anti-glare coatings don’t supply the most effective viewing angles, however on the ThinkPad T490s, two folks can comfortably watch streamed content material collectively. 

The ThinkPad T490s’s show isn’t fairly best-in-class – no laptop computer I’ve examined has been capable of beat the MacBook Professional 2018 by way of color gamut protection or general high quality – nevertheless it’s up there with the most effective. Beneath are the outcomes recorded on operating the usual Trusted Critiques laptop computer show check utilizing DisplayCAL 3 and an X-Ceremony i1 Show Professional colorimeter, in opposition to competing laptops:

As you may see, the T490s is roughly on par with the HP EliteBook 1050 G1 ( geared toward enterprise customers) color space-wise, however a bit of beneath what you will get with the brand new Dell XPS 13 and, as I stated earlier than, the MacBook Professional 2018. 

As such web sites, digital artwork, and most digital images (these shot within the sRGB area, anyway) will kind of look as they need to on the Lenovo ThinkPad T490s. 

Whilst you wouldn’t need to do any intensive photograph modifying on this laptop computer (for that you just’d want a tool with a devoted graphics card – the ThinkPad T490s simply makes use of the processor’s built-in UHD Graphics 620), tweaking your vacation snaps shouldn’t show an issue.

The low Adobe and DCI-P3 scores imply that this isn’t the laptop computer for you if you wish to significantly get into digital images (some want the broader and extra ‘pure’ colors achieved when taking pictures in Adobe); videographers will need to work within the DCI-P3 area. 

If you wish to make use of the Ethernet port right here, you’ll have to cough up additional for an adapter (left-hand ports L-R: USB-C, USB-C with Thunderbolt 3, Ethernet, USB-A, HDMI 1.4, 3.5mm audio jack)

Efficiency – The Lenovo ThinkPad T490s is smoother than a 20-year-old Whiskey (Lake)

The mannequin I examined featured an Intel Core i7-8565U Whiskey Lake processor and 16GB of RAM. That’s greater than sufficient processing energy and reminiscence for workplace functions. Contemplating you’re not going to be taking part in triple-A video games on this, or modifying video, you’re effectively geared up to tear by way of your day by day to-do lists on the ThinkPad T490s.  

I ran the standard suite of Trusted Critiques benchmarks to see how the ThinkPad compares to comparable methods. 

Not surprisingly, efficiency right here is just like what I’ve seen on laptops such because the Asus ZenBook 15 (UX533F), and Asus ZenBook Professional 14 (UX480), and what my colleague Ryan Jones noticed with the Dell XPS 13 and Razer Blade Stealth – all of which function the identical processor – and the HP EliteBook 1050 G1. 

PCMark 10, which simulates a spread of workplace duties, output a rating of 4000. That’s a bit of beneath the 4500 that PCMark 10 developer UL says signifies a laptop computer that’s appropriate for workplace use and light-weight PC work. That’s the same rating to what we’ve recorded with different Whiskey Lake laptops, and none of these have been slouches performance-wise.  

The outcomes from operating Geekbench 4 – a CPU stress-test – have been additionally broadly comparable. The Lenovo ThinkPad T490s gave me single-core and multi-core scores of 4647 and 13,742 respectively. 

That is in the same ballpark to the Dell XPS 13 (4877, 14,509) however not fairly pretty much as good because the Asus ZenBook 15 (5166, 17,378). The T490s didn’t rating as effectively right here because the HP EliteBook 1050 G1. This isn’t stunning, provided that the mannequin I examined ran on a high-performance Core i7-8850H Espresso Lake processor. 

Regardless of these respectable however maybe not class-leading scores, I discovered that day-to-day the ThinkPad T490s was a dream to work on. 

The SSD, a 512GB Intel Professional 7600p (477GB consumer obtainable) additionally delivered super-fast learn and fast-ish write speeds of 3145.20MB/s and 1570.80MB/s once I ran the CrystalDiskMark benchmark. 

Which means that not solely will saving any work to the exhausting drive will likely be a fast, near-instant course of (except you’re saving a whole lot of photograph information), however common operations will likely be silky-smooth.  

Battery – Will the Lenovo ThinkPad T490s final all day?

Simply. Count on to get round 10 hours out of a full tank on the ThinkPad T490s. Operating the PCMark 8 “Work” benchmark, which runs a loop of simulations of each day workplace duties, from video calling to phrase processing to net searching, till the battery reaches crucial ranges, I managed 9hrs 8mins with the show’s brightness locked at 150 nits. 

Ports on the right-hand aspect: Lenovo good card port, USB-A, Kensington lock slot

Observe that PCMark 8 tends to understate laptop computer battery efficiency, and should you dip the brightness additional, you may squeeze a bit extra energy out of the T490s. 

One of many touted advantages of the Whiskey Lake line of chips is superior energy administration, and lots of the laptops I’ve examined with the identical processor supply round 8-10 hours of juice – typically a bit extra. As such, the Lenovo Thinkpad T490s is pretty typical on this regard. 

Charging up the ThinkPad from empty takes simply over two hours. After half an hour on the mains, you’ll have round 40-45% energy, and over 75% after an hour. 

“I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do this”

Worth – How a lot are the brand new Lenovo ThinkPads?

Should you’re shopping for straight from Lenovo’s website, you may change the person parts – the processor, the show, and the quantity of RAM, for instance. 

Listed below are the specs and costs of the 2 normal configurations you’re more likely to discover on-line, in addition to indicative costs for parts do you have to want to construct your individual customized model. 

Observe that the usual Lenovo ThinkPad T490s choice features a Core i5-8265U processor, 8GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD, and a 14-inch Full HD IPS show.

• Intel Core i7-8565U processor: £96
• Intel Core i5-8365U processor: £99.60
• Intel Core i7-8665U processor: £301.20
• 16GB 2400MHz DDR4 RAM (reminiscence): £96
• 256GB SSD M.2 2280 NVMe (storage): £27.60
• 512GB SSD M.2 2280 NVMe (storage): £178.80
• 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVMe (storage): £364.80
• 400-nit anti-glare show: £66
• 300-nit anti-glare, multi-touch show: £66

Editor’s Observe – The value for the Privateness Guard display screen choice wasn’t obtainable on the time of writing. 

Ought to I purchase the Lenovo ThinkPad T490s?

In case the ThinkPad pedigree isn’t talking for itself, causes for purchasing a brand new Lenovo T490s are as follows: it’s an un-flashy however versatile laptop computer that’s a pleasure to make use of, and it comes with ample security measures included to maintain your IT division joyful. 

Whether or not or not you’re working in a company setting, freelancers of all stripes after a dependable Home windows 10 laptop computer will seemingly respect this utilitarian packhorse. Whereas the ThinkPad T490s could be priced too extremely for some college students – the vary begins at £1399.99 – I can see this interesting to anybody about to begin a BA or BSc, particularly in the event that they want a dependable and hard-wearing system that may see them by way of the years. 

Fashion-wise, the T490s isn’t probably the most fashionable of laptops on the market, though its bare-bones anti-aesthetic is a part of the ThinkPad appeal. If seems to be are simply, if no more, vital to you as efficiency, then you would choose up the Asus ZenBook 15. The HP EliteBook 1050 G1 stays a fantastic alternative for enterprise customers, too, and comes with a privateness display screen function for no additional price. 

Verdict

The Lenovo ThinkPad T490s means enterprise. Look past the defiantly anachronistic stylings and also you’ll discover a stable, dependable machine that gives a stage of safety past what most different consumer-grade gadgets can supply.

A succesful, highly effective, and good – if retro-looking – Home windows 10 laptop computer.