Just arrived: ThinkPad T490s and X390 in review

[Redaktion]

The 2019 ThinkPad have been comparatively small refreshes so far, but now we get our hands on the first really new models. Lenovo wants to address two big issues with this generation: A bigger screen for the smallest X-ThinkPad and brighter panels for the T-series.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Just-arrived-ThinkPad-T490s-and-X390-in-review.416256.0.html

[kevinthinkpad]

Let me know the producer of the panel.

[kevinthinkpad]

Will the thunderbolt 3 port support 40G speed?

[Moo]

I would like to compare these 2 in detail to the older t480s, to see effects of the lack of the mx150, and the smaller thermal cooling system. The display is also important for professional photo processing.

[kevin20135]

Is it possible on the X390 to have 2 ssd drives?

[Andreas Osthoff]

Hi, we included the panel IDs of the two devices in the article.
Both devices have a Thunderbolt 3 connection with just 2x lanes (20 Gbps).

[Unkasos]

Hi. I have the L390 and it has an ELAN trackpoint. I want to know if the trackpoint of the x390 and the other one is ELAN too.

There are two kinds of trackpoints, ELAN and SYNAPTICS.
more generally, you never talk about the manufacturer of the trackpoint in your reviews of thinkpads, whereas it is the most important.

[jeremy]

Hi, we included the panel IDs of the two devices in the article.
Both devices have a Thunderbolt 3 connection with just 2x lanes (20 Gbps).

What is the PCIe topology, then? Whiskey Lake's PCH gained 4 extra PCIe lanes, where did they go? On these models, they don't have dual NVMe M.2 connectors, nor do they have a dGPU. 16 lanes are more than enough for a 4x lane NVMe, 1x lane Wifi, 2x lane WWAN, 1x lane (at half speed) Intel GbE, 1x lane SD card reader (do they even have this anymore?), 4x lane TB3. 13 lanes, 6 ports used. All well within the configuration limits of Whiskey Lake's PCH.

A dGPU would require a sacrifice of one of these devices, since there are only 6 PCIe ports available. On the Dell Latitude 5480/90, the promised TB3 controller never materialized due to this. On the Thinkpads, usually the SD card reader is downgraded to an USB-based controller, if one is present anymore.

[MarkCrystal]

Hi, we included the panel IDs of the two devices in the article.
Both devices have a Thunderbolt 3 connection with just 2x lanes (20 Gbps).

Looks like they want the people to buy the X1 Carbon if they want the good performance speeds.

[D0cz]

any word on the T490? I'm going to Europe and I'd like to buy one there (I'm from Brazil and thinkpads are impossible here.. wosts specs and 2x the price).

[Andreas Osthoff]

We were told the T490 will be available in about two weeks here in Germany.

Both the ThinkPad T490s as well as the X390 use trackpoints from Elan.

[yttrium]

Hi, we included the panel IDs of the two devices in the article.
Both devices have a Thunderbolt 3 connection with just 2x lanes (20 Gbps).

Looks like they want the people to buy the X1 Carbon if they want the good performance speeds.

For what it's worth, they're configured this way on the non-X1C devices because those devices use the other available PCI-E lanes for dGPUs. They use the same motherboard for both iGPU-only and dGPU models. If they wanted to provide those lanes to the Thunderbolt controller on iGPU models, they would need to use a separate motherboard. Having two motherboard models vastly increases the cost to manufacture.

[sticky]

2019 MateBook X Pro and Blade Stealth both have 4-lane TB3, 4-lane dGPU and 4-lane NVMe SSD. Neither laptops use a separated motherboard.

LG Gram series actually use separated board design to allow easy serviceability and repair, and is cheaper than the majority of flagship and business laptops. So the issue here is not the cost, but a lack of consumer friendliness.

[boutch55555]

On my x390 (touch 20Q0002EUS) the panel is AUO B133HAK02.2. lspci -vv lists both NVMe and TB3 as 4x.

[aff]

no such thing as diffx or interesx or not, any be infix any