Dell is one of the manufacturers that updated their devices with the new Comet Lake processors from Intel. In addition to that, they have presented a slight design refresh to their Inspiron 14 5000 series. The new model is called the Inspiron 14 5490 and can now be maxed out with the Core i7-10510U and a GeForce MX250 graphics card.
Let’s not forget to say that it also features a 1080p IPS panel and a redesigned fingerprint reader. Similar to last year – it is embedded into the power button, but instead of being separated from the keyboard deck, it is now standing in its top-right corner. Enough details, let’s get right onto it!
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-inspiron-14-5490/
Contents
Specs Sheet
Dell Inspiron 14 5490 - Specs
All Dell Inspiron 14 5490 configurations
See all Dell Inspiron 14 5490 review – two workdays on a single battery charge? configurationsWhat’s in the box?
This device comes with a 65W power adapter inside the box.
Design and construction
This notebook is mostly made out of plastic. So, keep in mind that its body is extremely scratchable, so you might want to keep sharp objects away from it. On the bright side, the lid is aluminum and kudos to Dell for shaving off a couple of millimeters and some 130 grams of the overall weight of the device.
The Inspiron 14 5490 happens to be another notebook whose lid can not be opened with a single hand. However, we can find a mild change around the display. Instead of putting a couple of rubber feet to prevent it from slapping flat on the base and eventually scratching the display, Dell has made an entire plastic rim around it. This should provide more stability… we guess. Another thing that is introduced is the mechanism that a lot of manufacturers implement nowadays – the lid is used as a lever that lifts the base to increase the breathing space for the fan.
Let’s swiftly move to the aforementioned base. It is traditionally home to the keyboard, which is more or less the same as last year. Our unit lacks a backlight, but according to Dell’s official web page, you can get it as an optional extra. The board, itself, has a decent key travel and somewhat clicky feedback. A thing we don’t really like is that its deck is prone to bends even when you are not typing that aggressively.
By the way, the “Arrow key” layout is still terrible, as is the location of the “Page Up” and “Page Down” keys, which are awkwardly placed just above the left and right “Arrows”. Additionally, you get a fingerprint reader optionally embedded into the power button. It is crazy fast and will unlock your device as soon as you put your finger on it. Lastly, there is the touchpad, which is not the fastest out there, but it will seem fine if you haven’t tried a MacBook in your life.
We also have to mention that we also had problems with making the touchpad work, but as one of our readers (02nz) suggested on our Dell Vostro 5590 review – as soon as you install the Intel Serial I/O driver from Dell’s official download page, it starts working.
When you turn the laptop upside down, you are going to see the ventilation grill, as well as the speaker cut-outs. Sadly, the hot air is being blown towards the bottom part of the display. We are about to check if this makes the display warm up, or it just dissipates by itself.
Ports
On the left side, you will find the power plug, an HDMI connector, as well as two USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) ports and one USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 1) port with Power Delivery and DisplayPort capabilities. Switch sides, and you’ll see an archaic USB Type-A 2.0 port, a headphone jack, and a MicroSD card slot.
Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance
There are 9 Phillips-head screws you need to remove before you can remove the bottom plate. Interestingly, two of them stay attached to the panel, and as you unscrew them, they lift it up, so you can start your prying and picking from there.
So, the cooling solution is nothing special – basically, there is a single (yet bulky) heat pipe that cools down both the CPU and the GPU via a single fan – something very common with these notebooks.
There are 4GB soldered to the motherboard, and you can upgrade with up to 16GB for a total of 20GB of DDR4 memory, that works at 2666 MHz. As of the storage – it supports PCIe x4 drives via its M.2 slot.
Battery-wise there is a 51Wh unit.
Display quality
Coming soon!
Drivers
All of the drivers and utilities for the Inspiron 14 5490 can be downloaded from here: https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/inspiron-14-5490-laptop/drivers
Battery
Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with.
This device’s 51Wh battery seems to provide quite a lot of screen on time – 16 hours and 20 minutes of Web browsing and 15 hours and a half of video playback.
In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.
For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.
We use F1 2017’s built-in benchmark on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.
CPU options
You can pick the notebook with one of the following processors – Core i3-10110U, Core i5-10210U, and Core i7-10510U.
Results are from the Cinebench 15 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)
GPU options
Its graphics options comprise the integrated Intel UHD Graphics, as well as the dedicated GeForce MX230 equipped with 2GB of GDDR5 memory.
Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Gaming tests
These tests were performed with the 441.66 drivers from NVIDIA.
| CS:GO | HD 1080p, Low (Check settings) | HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings) | HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce MX230 | 82 fps | 61 fps | 47 fps |
| DOTA 2 | HD 1080p, Low (Check settings) | HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings) | HD 1080p, High (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce MX230 | 73 fps | 59 fps | 36 fps |
Temperatures and comfort
Max CPU load
In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.
Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.
| Intel Core i7-10510U (15W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dell Inspiron 14 5490 | 3.62 GHz (B+101%) @ 80°C | 2.39 GHz (B+37%) @ 74°C | 1.92 GHz (B+7%) @ 65°C |
| Dell Inspiron 13 7391 2-in-1 | 3.50 GHz (B+94%) @ 98°C | 2.27 GHz (B+26%) @ 82°C | 2.09 GHz (B+16%) @ 79°C |
| Dell XPS 13 7390 | 3.62 GHz (B+101%) @ 89°C | 3.16 GHz (B+76%) @ 99°C | 2.70 GHz (B+50%) @ 85°C |
| Dell Vostro 5490 | 3.57 GHz (B+98%) @ 90°C | 2.51 GHz (B+39%) @ 87°C | 2.10 GHz (B+17%) @ 66°C |
In terms of temperature, this device proves to be quite cool. It has a similar cooling solution to the Vostro 5490, and despite it works quite cooler in the beginning, up to the end, things go even, and the Vostro actually works at a similar temperature, while its clock speeds are 180 MHz higher.
Real-life gameplay
| NVIDIA GeForce MX230 | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min) | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min) |
|---|---|---|
| Dell Inspiron 14 5490 | 1387 MHz @ 67°C | 1305 MHz @ 67°C |
| Dell Inspiron 5593 | 1318 MHz @ 74°C | 1251 MHz @ 74°C |
| Acer Aspire 3 (A315-55G) | 1692 MHz @ 74°C | 1612 MHz @ 74°C |
| Lenovo Ideapad L340 (15″) | 1632 MHz @ 69°C | 1532 MHz @ 69°C |
| Lenovo Ideapad C340 (15″) | 1658 MHz @ 74°C | 1300 MHz @ 64°C |
On the downside, as soon as you get to the GPU-intensive tasks, the cooling starts to suffer. If we compare it directly with the Ideapad L340 (15) or the Aspire 3 (A315-55G), we see that the frequency of the core is some good 300 MHz lower, with the temperature only marginally cooler.
Comfort during full load
While the laptop is pretty quiet, its base can become quite warm. As we feared, the bottom right part of the screen is absorbing a decent amount of the heat coming from the fans.
Verdict
As we already said, the Inspiron 14 5490 doesn’t really inspire with a ridiculous innovation in terms of design. However, it is good to see that Dell has accepted and implemented the lifted base system that was massively pushed out by ASUS last year.
With that said, we still think that they have more stuff to do before they perfect it, as the “lifting” begins only when you are way beyond 90-degrees and ultimately – when you place the device in an uncomfortable position.
Another not very viable aspect of its design is the flimsy base, which tends to bend as soon as you hit the keyboard. Indeed, it is nothing too dramatic, but they could have put more effort into the quality of the build.
With that said, we cannot miss praising Dell for leaving at least one RAM SODIMM on the motherboard, as well as supporting PCIe x4 drives via their PCIe x4 slot. However, what gave us the biggest enjoyment was the battery life of this sucker. With its larger than average 51Wh battery pack, we were able to get more than 16 hours of Web browsing and around 15 hours and a half of video playback. This is a huge improvement over its predecessor, despite the latter got pretty decent results, as well.
Then, on the downside, its keyboard backlight is only optional, while the absent RJ-45 connector is kind of disappointing. We clearly didn’t expect to see fewer features on the new device, but obviously, Dell thinks otherwise.
Nevertheless, as a daily driver, the Inspiron 14 5490 can be a real deal for the money. However, if you want something different, you can check out Acer and their Swift 3 (SF314-57) or Lenovo Ideapad S540 (14).
Pros
- Tremendous battery life
- Upgradable memory and storage that supports PCIe x4 SSDs
- IPS display with wide viewing angles and decent contrast
- Very fast fingerprint reader
- Equipped with a MicroSD card slot
Cons
- Its base bends upon the slightest of touches
- Lacks an RJ-45 connector, unlike its predecessor
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-inspiron-14-5490/
” As we feared, the bottom right part of the screen is absorbing a decent amount of the heat coming from the fans.”
what effect this flaw will have on laptop for a long term ??? will it make the screen dead?
When can the display section will be updated? Interested in known the full characteristics specially sRGB % and flickering