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That’s the other weakness of this design, but it shares this limitation with every Intel 8th-gen machine of whatever specification. The ports haven’t changed at all from the 7480 series, with triple USB 3.1 (Gen 1) Type-A ports and a single Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C. There is also an RJ-45 Ethernet port, Smart Card slot, microSD card and SIM card receptacles. The Dell Latitude 7490 offers decent battery life, but we've seen better. When running the Laptop Mag Battery Test (web browsing at 150 nits), Dell's laptop burned through its charge in 8 hours and 55 minutes, which is pretty close to the 8:50 average for premium notebooks. The Huawei MateBook X Pro (9:55) lasted an hour longer, while the Lenovo ThinkPad T480 lasted less time in the default configuration (8:07) but provided many more hours of activity with its extended battery (17:19).
Latitude 7490 14 inch Business Class Laptop | Dell UK Latitude 7490 14 inch Business Class Laptop | Dell UK
According to our colorimeter, the Latitude 7490 reproduces 118 percent of the sRGB spectrum -- a measurement that rises above the 113-percent premium-notebook average. It's close to the 124-percent rating from the Huawei MateBook X Pro and the 114-percent rating from the HP EliteBook 1040 G4. The Lenovo ThinkPad T480 posted a less-colorful 77 percent. The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620 GPU in the Dell Latitude 7490 pushed it to an Ice Storm Unlimited graphics test score of 87,894, which beats the 83,013 average and the 84,917 from the EliteBook 1040 G4 (Intel Integrated Graphics 630). We saw higher scores of 116,359 from the MateBook X Pro (Nvidia MX150 with 2GB of memory) and 132,991 from the ThinkPad T480 (Intel HD Graphics 620). The ease of the disassembly process has not changed since our last review; some eight captive Phillips Head screws secure the bottom cover, and nearly every replaceable component is available immediately beneath the panel. One gripe which still applies here is that the keyboard is among the hardest of all FRUs to replace since it’s beneath the motherboard—though this is unfortunately a pretty common trend these days thanks to the thinness of the devices populating even the business segment (which are more and more akin to their consumer-grade counterparts as the years pass). There’s also an adhesive lining the LCD panel to help keep a consistent seal between the bezel and display that’s perilous during disassembly. In the event of a broken screen, technicians will need to take care to separate the bezel and panel surround without damaging anything.As a replacement for the previous 7480 models, the new 7490 looks much the same from the outside, but has had a complete overhaul internally.
Dell Latitude 7490 review | TechRadar Dell Latitude 7490 review | TechRadar
Ergonomically, this is one of the smaller machines in this category, if only by a few millimeters. There are smaller machines, like the Lenovo X1 Carbon, but this device is certainly very portable.I should note that I had to take the photo in front of the window, where I had natural light, because images taken at my desk were far darker. Once again, we come away from a Dell Latitude 7000 series machine thoroughly impressed. Along with Lenovo’s ThinkPads and HP’s EliteBooks, the Latitudes stand head and shoulders above the rest of the business competition. They’re thoughtfully designed, smartly updated, and carefully revised. While the 7490 remains a mere iterative update to the 7480 in every sense of the term, it truly leaves little to be desired. The case is sturdy, subdued, and attractive, the weight is manageable, the input devices are top-notch, performance is very good, battery life is lengthy, and it’s a quiet companion. The few areas of improvement we’d like to see are display options to match its competitors, improved thermal management, and better speakers.
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