Dell Latitude 5490 (i5-8350U, FHD) Laptop Review

[Redaktion]

Heavy on options.  The Latitude 5490 by Dell is marketed as the notebook equivalent of a safe. The relatively high price tag of this 14-inch productivity device justifies itself with a large number of security options, making this laptop suited for security-conscious companies. We shall not only put its security features true its paces but also compare it to other productivity-focused devices.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Latitude-5490-i5-8350U-FHD-Laptop-Review.289350.0.html

[Smudger]

1.7kg counts as 'rather heavy' these days?
As someone with an E5440, this is looking like an enticing upgrade.
Maybe you should mention in the review if the M.2 slot would work with an NVMe drive, if the user chose to install one instead of the SATA drive. Judging from Dell's spec page for the E5490, it would.

[Leonardo Visentin]

For what I know, Latitude 5x90 will NOT support Thunderbolt 3 port, the fact all websites (US and Italy) indicate that is it optional I have been told from Dell CS and a Dell reseller to be a typo.

No NVME support either, at least for what I remember looking at the maintenance guide.

This is unfortunate, they could have been excellent  workhorse for professionals too, not only for business employers

[David O'Sullivan]

Please test the anti-ghosting on the keyboard  and the wifi range. Knowing whether you can use keyboard shortcuts in applications and whether the wifi is usable at a 'coffee shop' distance from the router is arguably more important than anything else regards the productivity of a laptop.

[Georgiy]

 Vorgänger = predecessor.

[Daniel G]

May we please have the comparison with HP x360 based on AMD Ryzen Mobile in the reviews ?

After all , if we have a good alternative and a real competitor to Intel-based solutions, we should we only see 100% Intel-based laptops in the reviews ?!

[David O'Sullivan]

For what I know, Latitude 5x90 will NOT support Thunderbolt 3 port, the fact all websites (US and Italy) indicate that is it optional I have been told from Dell CS and a Dell reseller to be a typo.

No NVME support either, at least for what I remember looking at the maintenance guide.

This is unfortunate, they could have been excellent  workhorse for professionals too, not only for business employers

Also to know if it could be an excellent work horse you would need to know if it can handle common keyboard shortcuts in applications and whether it can pick up a wifi signal when you are in an office or airport bussiness lounge etc...

[jayg30]

I just received my first 5490 with an i7 8th gen, , 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD, 1920x1080 screen, optional backlit keyboards, and fingerprint reader . Our company moved to these from the previous 14" 7000 series. Seems plenty fast but I am greatly disappointed. The screen is definitely WAY worse then even the 7450 and 7470 machines I have here. And just sitting here on my desk idling I've heard the fan rev up multiple times and it's very audible. In comparison the 7470 I'm typing on right now with a bunch of stuff open hasn't even made a peep. And the speed difference is negligible for office use. This was clearly a move by our department because the old models have been discontinued (they don't buy old hardware) and desire to save a buck on the lower model, but at least for the next few years if you have the option I'd much rather buy a 7470 on the 2nd hand market at a discount instead.

[jeremy]

I just received my first 5490 with an i7 8th gen, , 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD, 1920x1080 screen, optional backlit keyboards, and fingerprint reader . Our company moved to these from the previous 14" 7000 series. Seems plenty fast but I am greatly disappointed. The screen is definitely WAY worse then even the 7450 and 7470 machines I have here. And just sitting here on my desk idling I've heard the fan rev up multiple times and it's very audible. In comparison the 7470 I'm typing on right now with a bunch of stuff open hasn't even made a peep. And the speed difference is negligible for office use. This was clearly a move by our department because the old models have been discontinued (they don't buy old hardware) and desire to save a buck on the lower model, but at least for the next few years if you have the option I'd much rather buy a 7470 on the 2nd hand market at a discount instead.

It's a sad reality of this range of the market. Midrange business laptops across the board for the past ~5 years had horrible screen options. Even the "upgrade" screens were usually junk (and were still better than the base 1366x768 TN panels).

At least in the last year or so, some of the options started picking up again. HP has much brighter screens as an option for their midrange corporate laptops, Lenovo finally offers something with more than 60% sRGB coverage for their 1080p displays in their T series, etc. Dell... hasn't got the memo. Their current gen 5000 series (5400 and 5500, just released) actually kept the same, bad display options, and regressed in terms of GPU (the Radeon RX540, notoriously inefficient and hot running in the few laptops it's in, to the point of being useless - notably, the workstation version of the 5500, the Precision 3541, uses a Nvidia Quadro P620 instead).

[sticky]

Waiting for reviews of 2019 Dell Latitudes, some interesting new models such as 5300 2-in-1 and 7400 2-in-1. Hopefully Dell and HP can turn the tide of business laptops.

[abipook]

I've been using an E5470 for 3 years. Only issue was the battery had to be replaced after 2.5 years, but apart from that it's a very handy and reliable tool for everyday office usage. I just received the E5490 as a replacement and I can't tell how disappointed and angry am I. The screen is just terrible: yellowish white color, low brightness, distorted colors when viewed from an angle. Fan is almost always on even if the computer is idling, and noise is really-really noticeable. I think even my low budget Toshiba L30 was not this noisy at that time. Speaker quality is bad, and I'm also not convinced about Type-C dock station. Just after 2 hours of usage I already hate the E5490. Even though it looks very similar to its predecessor, the user experience is nothing close. I see absolutely no benefit over the old machine, only disadvantages. Now I will try to use my old computer until Windows 7 is not completely kicked out from the company. Shame on you DELL!  >:(

[Michał]

1.7kg counts as 'rather heavy' these days?
As someone with an E5440, this is looking like an enticing upgrade.
Maybe you should mention in the review if the M.2 slot would work with an NVMe drive, if the user chose to install one instead of the SATA drive. Judging from Dell's spec page for the E5490, it would.

I received this unit with optional 1TB SSD (Micron 2200) and AS SSD Benchmark claims it's and NVMe drive.