ThinkPad X1 Carbon vs. ThinkPad T490

Lenovo has just a few classes of ThinkPad laptops, every aimed at totally different kinds of people. The X1 Carbon is an instance of a ThinkPad aimed at jet-setters who love skinny and light laptops, while the T490 is for people who perceive ThinkPads as stable, honest, and — let’s face it — a little more pedestrian laptops.

We pitted the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 against the ThinkPad T490 to place whether the greater designate of the veteran is justified over the stable reliability of the latter.

Contain

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 appears to be like to be and feels very such as the slim Gen 7 mannequin, striking ahead its combine of magnesium alloy and carbon fiber making up the chassis. If you catch the model with the 4K place, then you definately’ll love the woven carbon fiber pattern adorning the lid. Besides the thinner kind, the X1 Carbon appears to be like to be quite a bit love the T490, every of which highlight the usual iconic dark chassis with red accents as adorns the bulk of ThinkPads. Both also uncover pleasure from the gentle-touch feel that makes carrying and using the reasonable ThinkPad so gratified. The T490, on the opposite hand, is constructed of plastic with glass fiber backing.

By advance of their keyboards, you would imagine every laptops to uncover pleasure from identical ThinkPad quality. That’s no longer the case, even though, as the X1 Carbon Gen 9 has a a little shallower keyboard thanks to its thinner chassis. It light feels colossal, nonetheless so as for you the ragged ThinkPad keyboard, then the T490 is the easier different. Both offer backlit and non-backlit versions.

Both laptops sport the reasonable red TrackPoint nubbin within the heart of the place with a further space of buttons above the touchpad. Both touchpads improve Microsoft’s Precision touchpad drivers for splendid Windows multitouch gesture improve, nonetheless the X1 Carbon Gen 9 does possess a distinguished wider pad with more room to your fingers. Both laptops also improve Windows Howdy password-much less login by process of like a flash and correct fingerprint scanners, with a ThinkShutter privacy panel that slides over the webcam for some extra privacy.

Speak alternatives are the place the 2 laptops seriously diverge. The X1 Carbon offers a host of place alternatives, from burly HD (1920 x 1080) panels with low-energy or anti-glare touch improve, up to a 4K (3840 x 2160) place with 500 nits of brightness, and Dolby Imaginative and prescient excessive-dynamic differ (HDR) improve.

We are able to attest to how splendid the latter place is, with colossal colours, brightness, and just a few of basically the most attention-grabbing Netflix HDR improve you’ll uncover on a laptop. The T490 is more restricted, with HD or burly HD shows nonetheless few totally different alternatives and no UHD mannequin — it’s no longer the largest consideration for a 14-roam masks the place the extra pixels obtained’t be uncared for as distinguished, nonetheless it’s worthy for people who desire burly 4K.

At final, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon has better connectivity, with two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 improve, an Ethernet/docking place connector (that sadly requires an no longer valuable adapter), two USB-A 3.2 ports, and HDMI 2.0. The T490 most productive has two USB 3.1 ports, a USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 port, and a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 port with Thunderbolt 3, plus an HDMI 1.4 port.

Both laptops may perhaps fair even be upgraded to Intel’s Wi-Fi 6 card with Bluetooth 5.0, no longer no longer up to on those versions with Intel’s 10th-period CPUs (more on this beneath). That you just would be able to also configure no longer valuable WWAN SIM slots.

Performance

The X1 Carbon Gen 9 line has most productive 11th-gen Intel Comet Lake processors, ranging from the four-core i7-1135G7 to the four-core i7-1185G7. These 11th-gen processors are just some of the quickest spherical, essentially based mostly on our tests, and a in actual fact wide form for a performance upgrade whenever you occur to haven’t sold a new laptop in just a few years (there’s also a mannequin with built-in Linux compatibility whenever you occur to clutch that working procedure).

The T490, on totally different hand, offers essentially eighth-gen Intel processors, starting with the four-core i7-8665U. The most developed T490 model does advance with a 10th-gen i7-10510U chip, nonetheless it’s for the time being out of stock, and that requires basically the most upgrade for the T490. Here is a compromise that the T490 makes to stay the more cheap laptop, nonetheless it’s a fundamental lower in energy.

On the GPU entrance, the T490 offers built-in Intel UHD graphics, while the X1 Carbon Gen 9 uses the more developed Intel Iris Xe graphics for an improved experience.

Both devices also offer alternatives for up to 1TB PCIe stable-roar force storage. Nonetheless in phrases of RAM, the T490 is limited to 16GBs, while the X1 Carbon Gen 9 has alternatives up to 32GB of RAM.

Portability

The X1 Carbon is a distinguished lighter, smaller, and thinner laptop than the T490. It’s more straightforward to toss accurate into a backpack and elevate spherical. The X1 Carbon is seriously smaller than the T490 despite every laptops using 14-roam shows.

The T490 is wider (12.95 inches versus 12.71 inches) and deeper (8.94 inches versus 8.54 inches) than the X1 Carbon, thanks mainly to thicker place bezels, and it’s thicker at 0.70 inches versus 0.58 inches. At final, the X1 Carbon weighs 2.49 pounds, almost a burly pound lighter than the T490 that is accessible in at a starting weight of three.23 pounds (up to 3.56 pounds with the PrivacyGuard place). That makes the X1 Carbon a more stylish and attention-grabbing kind.

The T490 comes with a 50Whr battery rated up to 16.11 hours, while the X1 Carbon comes with a 57Wh battery rated up to 16.7 hours. Nonetheless, the processor and shows decisions you kind will in actual fact possess a huge impact on battery life, so utilize these specs into yarn alongside totally different decisions.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is the more stylish ThinkPad iteration

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 is surely the more costly laptop. The unsuitable mannequin begins at $2,321 (all of the manner down to $1,392.60 with Lenovo’s computerized coupon), and looking on what upgrades you desire, that designate can climb as excessive as $3,889 (all of the manner down to $2,333.40 with the coupon). If you would uncover these kinds of provides, then you definately in actual fact possess no excuse to no longer utilize the drop and catch the brand new ThinkPad X1.

The ThinkPad T490’s recent pricing puts it inner a in actual fact identical designate differ despite the slower performance. The unsuitable mannequin begins at $2,409 ($799.99 with provides) and may perhaps attain up to $2,859. It is likely you’ll perhaps maybe uncover totally different parts and upgrades to this mannequin, similar to the 10th-gen CPU, nonetheless you’ll need to investigate what the cost will be for that.

There’s no denying that the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 is the superior product attributable to an upgraded processor and 4K choices. That acknowledged, whenever you occur to’re on a tight funds, then the T490 offers decent specs at an cheap designate. If your funds permits some wiggle room for upgrades, then the X1 Carbon is what we counsel. Overall, it’s a superior machine, and recent provides mean that there’s most productive a tiny designate distinction between the 2 alternatives, and with that in thoughts, we highly counsel the Gen 9 Carbon mannequin.