Dell Latitude 7490 (i7-8650U, FHD Touchscreen) Laptop Review

[Redaktion]

Same body, new engine. The 14-inch Dell Latitude 7490 retains the same design as last year's Latitude 7480 but sports a new quad-core U-series CPU. The Core i7-8650U is a significant upgrade over the dual-core chip in the previous iteration. Does the increase in power warrant an upgrade?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Latitude-7490-i7-8650U-FHD-Touchscreen-Laptop-Review.294460.0.html

[SimonAB]

Hmm so 2h40m less battery life in "wifi test" than the Latitude 7480.

[ncheck]

"The updated PM981, found in the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, is a significant improvement over the PM961, however. Users in need of a faster drive should look to Lenovo"

Users in need of a faster drive do not have to look to Lenovo: The 1TB SSD in a Latitude 7490 is a PM981

[Sam Medley]

@ncheck:

The review was based on the models that we've actually gotten our hands on, but thank you for pointing out that Dell offers other drive models as well.

[powerslave12r]

Thank you for an excellent review.

Is there a possibility of testing a non-touchscreen display as well?

I suspect the battery life might improve on a non-touch model.

[Rulai]

Have to pointed out, Latitude 7480 reviewed was a non-touchscreen version, while 7490 here is a touch-screen one. So they are not directly comparable. Touch version will definitely consume more power. Also 7490 offers an optional  super low power (SLP) panel. I assume that one can save a lot on battery.

[macdac123]

Seems a good laptop, but I find the older Dell Latitude 7480 better because of the battery life and because of the slightly better display. By the way, can you please check (if possible) how the battery life of the non-touch FHD version of Dell Latitude 7490 compares with the version used in this review? Can you please also tell if there are any differences in displays between the non-touch and the touch version?

[Rulai]

I have a XPS 13 9350 touch (with i7). I heard the battery can last for over 12 hours for xps 13 non-touch version.  However, my touch one can only last for 4 or 5 hours at most.  So the touch screen can really cost a lot on battery.

[IvanSafonv]

Got one, Dell Latitude 7490 Intel Core i5 Non-touch (7490-1689).

It has problem with keyboard and touchpad. Sometimes it misses some keys, like typing "ubuntu" I'm getting "ubntu". And sometimes it misses touchpad move events.

There was exactly the same problem with the 7480, that was fixed by the new BIOS update. Here's the link to the discussion about this issue. www.dell.com/community/Latitude/Latitude-7480-keyboard-issue-mostly-missed-keys/td-p/5824361 (No links allowed in the message for users with low post count!)

[Earl J]

"The updated PM981, found in the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, is a significant improvement over the PM961, however. Users in need of a faster drive should look to Lenovo"

Users in need of a faster drive do not have to look to Lenovo: The 1TB SSD in a Latitude 7490 is a PM981

My 7490 with a 512GB SSD also has a Samsung PM981.

[Dennis Jensen]

"trackpoint is too sensitive (but can be adjusted in software)"? Seriously? I've NEVER had a laptop hver the pointer didn't have to be put at least up to double speed.I like it when I move my finger a little bit the pointer can get from one side of the screen to the other. Noobs xD

[doa379]

It's funny how these users quibble over incremental differences in battery life. Even a two or three year old model will give you plenty of battery life for whatever you're doing.

[graphenic]

"Another small quibble is that the keyboard itself is non-replaceable (unlike some other Latitude devices)."

The 7490 parts/repair manual which is available here: I cant paste it so google "7490 manual keyboard assembly pdf" its the second link.

not only shows it is replaceable but some excellent colour diagrams and instructions.

Granted it requires removing almost everything to change, As it would only likely be a 2-5 year occurrence this is not a big deal. Dell refers to the part as the "Keyboard Assembly"

[CASteinman]

According to the review, the trackpad is nearly perfect -- Dell has done a good job.

But the score for the trackpad is only 72.  That is a long way from perfect. 

Did it really drop 28 points because you had to make some adjustments to the software?

[Faust]

Non-touch, Intel i5 version here. Work bought it and partly I'm grateful, because now, having used it for a while, wouldn't recommend to anyone.

Since day one having touchpad issues (mouse moves all the time upwards), keyboard quality is inferior to Thinkpad T series, but good overall, battery started to decrease in charge capacity unusually quick (after two month use by ~ 20% or more), gets hot using mundane tasks such as Word, PDFs and Chrome, after a while USB stick isn't recognized (need to plug/unplug) and after one month of use started to get random BSODs, and by trying to get microphone working for videoconferencing everything now has horrible echo and humming sound. 30 chrome tabs, three word files and PC is lagging. Haven't tested the dockstation, but colleagues dockstation just died after 1 year. These laptops are new (~ 1400 EUR w/ bag). WTF DELL? This whole shebang just confirmed my belief to not buy DELL laptops and use Thinkpad instead.

Material and chasis is good. Keyboard has small lightbleed, but at least dimmable.