Quote from: Neenyah on February 11, 2024, 18:51:16T490 is still a great machine today in 2024.

(No)

Quote from: Joanna on February 11, 2024, 17:26:41After one year both usb-C ports stopped working and I had to replace them, of course out of the warranty. This is a laptop designed to work for one year, afterwards one has to learn how to replace components.

That's why you apply critical updates in time and not after it's too late (all OEMs were affected, not just Lenovo): https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht508988-critical-intel-thunderbolt-software-and-firmware-updates-thinkpad

T490 is still a great machine today in 2024.

This is my last Thinkpad and last Lenovo laptop. Design is terrible and it has nothing to do with IBM quality. After one year both usb-C ports stopped working and I had to replace them, of course out of the warranty. This is a laptop designed to work for one year, afterwards one has to learn how to replace components.
I have been using Thinkpads all my life but it is no longer Thinkpad. Thinkpads were durable and well-designed. This laptop does not have replacable battery, is poorly designed and its charging ports get broken no matter how delicately You treat them.
If You have it, buy magnetic adapters, otherwise You are going to deal like me with the replacement of both usb-c ports.
I am left with Dell but I have to be careful with their soldiered RAM memory chips.
All my Lenovo laptops worked for one year without problems, afterwards, I had to fix them starting with motherboard and ending with everything else.

poor translation: "PowerBridge was an interesting and comfortable feature"
That should be: PowerBridge was an interesting and convenient feature

I own the T490.
REGARDING OPENING OF THE CASE:

It is NOT hard to open, at all.
It is very easy if you have one of those small plastic phone opening tools with the little lip, or any little plastic piece to slide in between the crease and "pop" the case off. It's actually way easier to open than many other laptops. Seriously, disregard the complaints about that aspect, it's not a deal killer, at all.

Aside from that, the T490 isn't all that powerful as one might expect, and it is a little noisy, but it is super light. Screen response time is pretty slow and can be annoying (using WQHD).

Just small warning
I just bought the same model and I am really disappointed
CINEBECH
Mulit - 460 cb
Single - 146 cb

any advice what could possibly go wrong

just minor change:
I've added RAM module DDR 4 16 GB 2666MHz, SODIMM CL15 Kingston HyperX

I am deciding between T490 and T480s. The i5 version of T490 is same price with the i7 version of T480s (both with iGPU).

Considering that T480s have SD card slot and slightly lighter than T490, is it better to get T480s?

Will the performance or any other aspect that differs a lot?

As a Dell Latitude 7490 user, I am quite disappointed by the fact that you're comparing the i5-8350U of the 7490 to the 8th gen i7 processors of the T-series. I love T-series Lenovo laptops, but be fair and modify the review to include comparisons between identical processors!

Why is there such a drive to make the thinnest and lightest laptop?  What about a workhorse laptop with long battery life and a keyboard with good key travel that I can bang on all day?  Why does every company have to copy Apple?

Sooo, the T480 with MX150 was terrible. I only tried it once under Windows 10 with CS:GO and after about 1 minute I would have 30-40FPS with stutters (1080p low preset; good thing I only did bot practice).
Under Linux (specifically Ubuntu 18.10), if I want to game (tested with CS:GO and GPUTest+stress) I have to disable HT (not a problem with 4-cores) and underclock GPU by -200/-2000MHz (max drivers allow) to prevent thermal trip (and I cannot set this once and forget).
You see, EC trips when GPU reaches ~76C, but NVIDIA has unchangeable slowdown temp in 90+C range. So, without those changes, NVIDIA stays at 1600MHz until EC trips (about 10s) and drops CPU to 400-800MHz and GPU to 400MHz. With GPUTTest (linux furmark)+4-core stress-ng. And a reboot is needed to restore any performance (with CPU I found tools that change MSRRs, but nothing for GPU).
PS: In Win10, with furmark, it would start with 1400 and gradually get to 1100. But in Linux will keep GPU at 1600 unless tripped or underclocked.

Simple put, T490 is worse than T480, end of story. And if any T480 user needs a better screen, they can mod their machine. Thinkpad brand stands for great maintnance - but here there's a crap unopenable case. It stands for versatility - but here there's a builtin 50Wh crap battery instead of 3 options. It's a degradation machine.

Great review. 

I ordered a T490 with the i5 chip and the low power display, before your review came out.  Still waiting for it to be delivered.  Do you think this configuration will have longer battery life than the review unit? 

In your review of the T490s you detail the steps to under-volt the processor - but you didn't do that in this review.  Is it correct to assume the steps to under-volt the T490s will work on the i5 version of the T490?

I see what you did there Lenovo.

• T480 dumped
• T480s renamed to T490
• X1(ish) renamed to T490s

Farewell Thinkpad T, it's been good while it lasted.

@gggggg,
yes, the iGPU versions have a weaker cooling system with a single heatpipe. The dGPU version has a dual-heatpipe design.

Oh, i just noticed on the lenovo website for the T490 that the MX250 is only available with the i7 CPU, which is not good for me. I want to have the MX250 with the i5 CPU for better CPU performance, (since the i5 is faster than the i7 on sustained load due to throttling).  I guess I'll think about the T480s again with the i5 and MX150.

Is the cooling system for the T490 for the i5 without MX250 really worse than the cooling system for the i7 with MX250, as the article describes?