Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon vs. Lenovo ThinkPad T490

Lenovo has a couple of courses of ThinkPad laptops, every geared toward several types of individuals. The X1 Carbon is an instance of a ThinkPad geared toward jet setters who admire skinny and light-weight laptops, whereas the T490 is for many who see ThinkPads as strong, reliable, and — let’s face it — barely extra pedestrian laptops.

We pitted the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7 towards the ThinkPad T490 to see whether or not the upper worth of the previous is justified over the strong reliability of the latter.

Design

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon loved a little bit of a refreshed design on this technology. Particularly, it’s smaller, thinner, and lighter than its Gen 6 predecessor, whereas sustaining its mixture of magnesium alloy and carbon fiber making up the chassis. In case you purchase the model with the 4K show, you then’ll love the woven carbon fiber patter adorning the lid. In any other case, the X1 Carbon seems to be so much just like the T490, each of which spotlight the standard iconic black chassis with purple accents as adorns the vast majority of ThinkPads. The T490, although, is constructed of plastic with glass fiber backing, and each ThinkPads really feel sturdy in hand. Each additionally benefit from the soft-touch really feel that makes carrying and utilizing the standard ThinkPad so comfy.

When it comes to their keyboards, you may think each laptops to get pleasure from an identical ThinkPad goodness. That’s not the case, although, because the X1 Carbon Gen 7 has a barely shallower keyboard due to its thinner chassis. It nonetheless feels nice, however if you need the standard ThinkPad keyboard then the T490 is the higher alternative.

Each laptops sport the standard purple TrackPoint nubbin in the midst of the show with an additional set of buttons above the touchpad. And the touchpad on each is giant and helps Microsoft’s Precision touchpad drivers for wonderful Home windows 10 multitouch gesture assist.

Notice that whereas each laptops assist Home windows 10 Hey password-less login by way of quick and correct fingerprint scanners, solely the X1 Carbon has the ThinkShutter privateness panel that slides over the webcam for some further privateness. That makes the X1 Carbon the safer laptop computer.

Show choices is one space the place the 2 laptops severe diverge. The X1 Carbon presents a number of show choices, from Full HD (1,920 x 1,zero80) panels with low-power, PrivacyGuard, or anti-glare contact assist, a WQHD (2,560 x 1,440) anti-glare panel, and a 4K (three,840 x 2,160) show with 500 nits of brightness and Dolby Imaginative and prescient excessive dynamic vary (HDR) assist.

We are able to attest to how wonderful is the latter show, with nice colours, brightness, and a few of the greatest Netflix HDR assist you’ll discover on a laptop computer. The T490 is extra restricted, with low-power, PrivacyGuard, and touch-enabled Full HD shows to go along with a WQHD choice. The T490 doesn’t have a 4K show, nonetheless, leaving out anybody who hates watching pixels.

Lastly, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon has higher connectivity, with two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt three assist, an Ethernet/docking station connector (that sadly requires an elective adapter), two USB-A Gen 1 ports, and a full-size HDMI port. The T490 is not any slouch, nonetheless, two USB three.1 ports, a USB-C three.1 Gen 1 port, and a USB-C three.1 Gen 2 port with Thunderbolt three. It, too, has a full-size HDMI port and an RJ45 gigabit ethernet port.

Each laptops use Intel’s Wi-Fi 6 card with Bluetooth 5.zero, at the least on these variations with Intel’s 10th-gen CPUs. It’s also possible to configure elective WWAN SIM slots.

Efficiency

The X1 Carbon could be configured with as much as Intel’s 10th-gen Comet Lake Core i7-10710U, a six-core CPU that we’ve discovered is the quickest 15-watt processor round. The T490 maxes out on the quad-core Core i5-10210U, making the X1 Carbon a a lot quicker laptop computer in terms of sheer processing energy. The T490, although, could be configured with the Nvidia GeForce MX150 discrete GPU, which means will probably be a greater gamer (although restricted to informal video games and fashionable titles at low resolutions and graphical element) whereas additionally dashing up artistic functions that may use the GPU.

We haven’t examined these laptops with the 10th-gen CPUs, and so we’re unsure precisely how a lot of a distinction there shall be with every laptop computer in its highest configuration. However clearly, the X1 Carbon Gen 7 has made a major soar over its Intel Eighth-gen predecessor.

Portability

The X1 Carbon is a a lot lighter, smaller, and thinner laptop computer than the T490. It’s simpler to toss right into a backpack and carry round. The X1 Carbon is considerably smaller than the T490 regardless of each laptops utilizing 14-inch shows.

The T490 is wider (12.95 inches vs 12.71 inches and deeper (eight.94 inches vs eight.54 inches) than the X1 Carbon, thanks primarily to thicker show bezels, and it’s thicker at zero.70 inches versus zero.58 inches. Lastly, the X1 Carbon weighs 2.four kilos, nearly a full pound lighter than the T490 that is available in at a beginning weight of three.23 kilos (as much as three.56 kilos with the PrivacyGuard show). That makes the X1 Carbon a extra fashionable and engaging design.

The T490 comes with only a 50 watt-hour battery, whereas the X1 Carbon boasts a a lot bigger 80 watt-hour battery.  We don’t know but how Comet Lake CPUs will carry out by way of battery life. However you’ll wish to take note of which processor you configure and which show — select a Core i5 and a low-power Full HD show and also you’ll seemingly get wonderful battery life. However up the processor and show decision and also you’ll end up hankering in your charger.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is the extra fashionable ThinkPad iteration

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7 is an expansive laptop computer. It begins at $2,149 (on sale for $899) for a Core i5-8265U CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB PCIe SSD, and a non-touch Full HD show. You may spend as a lot as $3695 ($2,561 on sale) for a Core i7-8665U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe SSD, and a non-touch 4K show.

The ThinkPad T490 is extra economical, beginning at $1,889 (on sale for $674) for an equal configuration. It maxes out at $2,589 ($1,812 on sale) for a Core i5-10210U, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and 14-inch WQHD show.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7 is the perfect X1 Carbon ever, and that makes it a extra engaging choice than the considerably stodgy ThinkPad T490.

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