• Gaming Rankings
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Apex Legends
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for ARK: Survival Evolved
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Battlefield 5
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Borderlands 3
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Cyberpunk 2077
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Darksiders Genesis
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for DOOM Eternal
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Dota 2
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Far Cry 5
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Far Cry New Dawn
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for FIFA 21
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for For Honor
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Fortnite
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Gears 5
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for GTA V
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Halo: Reach
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Hearthstone
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for League of Legends
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Metro Exodus
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Minecraft
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Need For Speed Heat
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Overwatch
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for PES 2021
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for PUBG
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Red Dead Redemption 2
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Resident Evil 2
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Rise of the Tomb Raider
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Rocket League
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Shadow of the Tomb Raider
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Team Fortress 2
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for The Witcher 3
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Total War: THREE KINGDOMS
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for Warframe
    • Top 100 Best Laptops for World of Tanks
  • Display Profiles
  • Laptop Rankings
    • Top Laptop CPU Ranking
    • Top Laptop Graphics Ranking
    • Top 100 Best Gaming Laptop Deals (Price/Performance)
    • Top 100 Most Powerful Gaming Laptops
  • M.2 SSDs
    • Laptop M.2 Compatibility List
    • Top M.2 SSDs Performance Rankings

Choose country...

  • United States
  • United Kingdom
  • India
  • Italia
  • Deutschland
  • France
  • Canada
  • España
  • Australia
  • България
  • 中国
  • 日本
USA ($)

LaptopMedia.com

  • Home
  • Laptops Specs
  • Laptop Series
  • Reviews
  • Comparisons
  • All Laptops
  • Acer
  • ASUS
  • Apple
  • Alienware
  • AORUS
  • Dell
  • Gigabyte
  • HP
  • Huawei
  • Lenovo
  • LG
  • Microsoft
  • MSI
  • Razer
  • Samsung
  • Toshiba

    Dell Vostro 5490 review – a hodgepodge between an XPS and a ZenBook

    LaptopMedia.comReviewsDell Vostro 5490 review - a hodgepodge between an XPS and a ZenBook

    From: Alex Iliev & Kroum Nikolov 14 November 2019 / 10:10 | 10

    PLEASE WHITELIST US. If it weren’t for the ads, LaptopMedia wouldn’t be running.
    Our articles are free to read but the equipment in our Labs isn’t. We want to be as objective and unbiased as possible, and you can help us keep our jobs by whitelisting our media in your adblocker.

    Maybe you remember the Vostro 5590? We tried it out recently, and it was a heck of a deal! Great looks, good performance, and versatility – both at a good price. Well, nowhere is its smaller brother. Since we’ve tested the big one with only the integrated graphics card, now we’ve decided to max out the Vostro 5490 in terms of computational and graphics performance.

    Currently, the max out configuration includes the Core i7-10510U in a combination with the GeForce MX250 (25W). All of this is hidden inside of a chassis that resembles the more premium XPS (and previously Precision) brands of Dell. So, to put it clearly, this notebook is not a budget offering by any means, but more like a compromise between quality and cost-efficiency.

    You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-vostro-14-5490/

    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    $899.00
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 512GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    $1179.99
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 512GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    $1180.00
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    #CommissionsEarned
    View more laptops...

    Contents

    1. Specs Sheet
    2. What’s in the box?
    3. Design and construction
    4. Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance
    5. Display quality
    6. Health impact – PWM / Blue Light
    7. Buy our profiles
    8. Sound
    9. Drivers
    10. Battery
    11. CPU options
    12. GPU options
    13. Temperatures and comfort
    14. Verdict

    Specs Sheet

    Dell Vostro 14 5490 - Specs

    CPU
    Intel Core i7-10510U 74 Intel Core i5-10210U 78
    GPU
    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W) 94 Intel UHD Graphics 211
    Display
    14.0”, Full HD (1920 x 1080), IPS
    HDD/SSD
    up to 2000GB SSD + up to 1000GB HDD
    M.2 Slot
    1x 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 See photo
    RAM
    up to 32GB
    OS
    Windows 10 Pro, No OS
    Battery
    42Wh, 3-cell
    Dimensions
    321.7 x 227.6 x 17.9 mm (12.67" x 8.96" x 0.70")
    Weight
    1.49 kg (3.3 lbs)
    Body material
    Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
    Ports and connectivity
    • 1x USB Type-A 2.0
    • 2x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
    • 1x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
    • HDMI 1.4b
    • Card reader SD, SDHC, SDXC
    • Wi-Fi 802.11ac
    • Bluetooth 5.0
    • Audio jack 3.5 mm combo
    Features
    • Fingerprint reader optional
    • Web camera HD
    • Backlit keyboard
    • Optical drive
    • Security Lock slot

    All Dell Vostro 14 5490 configurations

    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    $899.00
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    $1179.99
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    $1180.00
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i5-10210U
    • Intel UHD Graphics
    • 0256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i5-10210U
    • Intel UHD Graphics
    • 0256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i5-10210U
    • Intel UHD Graphics
    • 0256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 01000GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 14 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0256GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 02000GB SSD
    • 24GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 24GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 01000GB SSD
    • 24GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0256GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 01000GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 1000GB HDD + 512GB SSD
    • 32GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 32GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 02000GB SSD
    • 32GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 1000GB HDD + 1000GB SSD
    • 32GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 01000GB SSD
    • 32GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 1000GB HDD + 512GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 02000GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 1000GB HDD + 1000GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 01000GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 1000GB HDD + 512GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 1000GB HDD + 256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i5-10210U
    • Intel UHD Graphics
    • 0256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i5-10210U
    • Intel UHD Graphics
    • 0256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i5-10210U
    • Intel UHD Graphics
    • 0256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i5-10210U
    • Intel UHD Graphics
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i5-10210U
    • Intel UHD Graphics
    • 0512GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    Not available
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    #CommissionsEarned
    See all Dell Vostro 5490 review – a hodgepodge between an XPS and a ZenBook configurations

    What’s in the box?

    Packaging-wise, the box is square-ish in form. When you open it, you are first met by the 65W power adapter and the appropriate cord for your region. After you remove this cardboard compartment, you can see the laptop itself.

    Design and construction

    In terms of size, this 14-inch business notebook is as small as it can get. Well, sure, the likes of ZenBook from ASUS can go way smaller, thanks to its ErgoLift hinge mechanism, but Dell has certainly passed on this one… Or were they? Actually, the Vostro 5490 also employs an interesting way of lifting the base of the ground. It is way more subtle than the ZenBooks and does so when you tilt the display way more back. While the laptop weighs 1.49 kg which is great, it also has a reasonable thickness – it is a good balance between breathing space and the actual thickness of the notebook – around 18 mm.

    Although the entire body of this laptop is made out of plastic, the lid has an aluminum cover. This makes it a lot stronger than what a polycarbonate one would do. However, the hinges don’t let you open it with a single hand. Nevertheless, we are happy to see a camera above the display, despite the super-thin bezels.

    Then we come to the base. As we said for the larger model, the Vostro 5490 also has a little bit of bending going on when you type more aggressively. However, there is no problem when you are not that passionate. The keyboard itself has a decent key travel but is a little mushy. On the bright side, it is equipped with a backlight and the spacing between the keycaps is great, which makes it ever so easy to get used to this keyboard.

    Sadly, we were once again unable to test the touchpad as we had problems with this laptop’s drivers as well. It is interesting how a second device of the new Vostro 5000 series has issues with the drivers for its touchpad.

    nevertheless, turning the laptop upside down shows us its ventilation and speaker grills, while the hot air is exhausted by a single cut-out from in between the lid and the base.

    Ports

    On the left side of this notebook, you’ll see the power plug, an HDMI connector, followed by two USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) ports as well as a USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 1) port with DisplayPort capabilities. On the other side, there is the RJ-45 connector, a USB Type-A 2.0 port, a headphone jack, and a MicroSD card reader.

    Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

    Vostro 5490’s bottom panel has to be removed if you want to access its internals. First, remove all 9 Phillips-head screws. Then carefully pop the bottom panel with a plastic tool. It is easiest to start from the hinge area, as the front side that has tiny creases.

    Its cooling doesn’t look terribly sophisticated. There is one rather bulky heat pipe that goes all the way from the CPU to the GPU and finally to the heat sink.

    Now, one of the strong points of the Vostro 5490 – upgradability. You can plug up to 1TB of PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 drive and up to 2TB of 2.5″ SATA drive. While there are 4GB or 8GB already soldered to the motherboard, you can also expand it with up to 16GB of DDR4 memory with speeds of 2666 MHz.

    Lastly, most of the bottom portion of the notebook’s guts are taken by the 42Wh battery. We really hope it will do the job, as we keep seeing larger batteries inside smaller devices – pretty much not the case here.

    Display quality

    Dell Vostro 5490 has a Full HD IPS display, model number Chi Mei N140HAC-EAC (CNM14D4). Its diagonal is 14″ (35.56 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 157 ppi, their pitch – 0.161 x 0.161 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 56 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

    Its viewing angles are excellent. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.

    The maximum measured brightness is 234 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 224 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 13%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6930K (average) – slightly colder than the 6500K optimum for sRGB. The average color temperature through the grey scale before profiling is 6830K.
    In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 60% Brightness (White level = 145 cd/m2, Black level = 0.12 cd/m2).
    Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is very good – 1200:1.

    To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

    Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is an essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

    Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

    The yellow dotted line shows Dell Vostro 5490’s color gamut coverage.

    Its display covers just 54% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

    Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

    We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

    Below you can compare the scores of Dell Vostro 5490 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

    The next figure shows how well the display can reproduce dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

    The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

    Response time (Gaming capabilities)

    We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

    We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 31 ms

    Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

    PWM (Screen flickering)

    Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

    Dell Vostro 5490’s display is using PWM to adjust the brightness up to 60 nits. After that its flicker-free. Moreover, the PWM it uses has a very high frequency, making the display comfortable for long hours of work and safe for your eyes in this aspect.

    Blue light emissions

    Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

    Conclusions

    Dell Vostro 5490 has an IPS panel with comfortable viewing angles and good contrast ratio. While it doesn’t use aggressive PWM to adjust its brightness levels, it covers only 54% of sRGB.

    Buy our profiles

    Since our profiles are tailored for each display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Dell Vostro 5490 configurations with 14.0″ Chi Mei N140HCA-EAC (CMN14D4) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS panel.

    *Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected]

    Read more about the profiles HERE.

    In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

    Office Work - screen profile

    Office Work

    Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

    $4.96
    Buy Now Checkout Added to cart
    Design and Gaming - screen profile

    Design and Gaming

    This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

    $4.97
    Buy Now Checkout Added to cart
    All
    $9.99
    Buy Now Checkout Added to cart

    Sound

    Dell Vostro 5490’s speaker quality is not bad. However, there are deviations across the entire frequency range.

    Drivers

    All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be downloaded from here: https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/vostro-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 notebooks 42Wh battery happened to be pretty effective.

    We got 11 hours of Web browsing and 10 hours and 30 minutes of video playback from it.

    • Web surfing
    • Video playback
    • Gaming
    In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.
    Dell Vostro 5490
    42Wh, 3-cell
    price
    667 min.
    battery
    Lenovo IdeaPad S540 15
    683 min.+2.4%
    ASUS VivoBook S15 S532
    42Wh, 3-cell
    $969
    464 min.-30.4%
    Acer Swift 3 (SF314-56G)
    700 min.+4.9%
    For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.
    Dell Vostro 5490
    42Wh, 3-cell
    price
    633 min.
    battery
    Lenovo IdeaPad S540 15
    731 min.+15.5%
    ASUS VivoBook S15 S532
    42Wh, 3-cell
    $969
    458 min.-27.6%
    Acer Swift 3 (SF314-56G)
    625 min.-1.3%
    We use F1 2017’s built-in benchmark on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.
    Dell Vostro 5490
    42Wh, 3-cell
    price
    72 min.
    battery
    Lenovo IdeaPad S540 15
    ASUS VivoBook S15 S532
    42Wh, 3-cell
    $969
    Acer Swift 3 (SF314-56G)
    66 min.-8.3%

    CPU options

    The Vostro 5490 can be paired with a trio of 15W Comet Lake processors from Intel. The first has two cores and four threads and its name is the Core i3-10110U. Next in the line comes the Core i5-10210U, which has double the number of cores and threads. The same can be said about the most powerful of the bunch – the Core i7-10510U.

    • 3D Rendering
    • Adobe Photoshop
    Results are from the Cinebench 15 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)
    Intel Core i7-10510U
    Dell Vostro 5490
    price
    710.00
    performance
    Intel Core i5-8265U
    Lenovo IdeaPad S540 15
    654.00-7.9%
    Intel Core i5-8265U
    ASUS VivoBook S15 S532
    $969.00
    730.00+2.8%
    Intel Core i5-8265U
    Acer Swift 3 (SF314-56G)
    562.00-20.8%
    Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)
    Intel Core i7-10510U
    Dell Vostro 5490
    price
    0.00
    performance
    Intel Core i5-8265U
    Lenovo IdeaPad S540 15
    0.00
    Intel Core i5-8265U
    ASUS VivoBook S15 S532
    $969.00
    0.00
    Intel Core i5-8265U
    Acer Swift 3 (SF314-56G)
    0.00
    Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)
    Intel Core i7-10510U
    Dell Vostro 5490
    price
    7.88
    performance
    Intel Core i5-8265U
    Lenovo IdeaPad S540 15
    8.68+10.2%
    Intel Core i5-8265U
    ASUS VivoBook S15 S532
    $969.00
    8.98+14%
    Intel Core i5-8265U
    Acer Swift 3 (SF314-56G)
    9.03+14.6%

    GPU options

    Apart from the integrated Intel UHD Graphics, you can pick an option with the GeForce MX230 or the MX250, which is the “flagship” option for this model.

    • 3DMark Fire Strike (G)
    • Unigine Heaven 3.0
    • Unigine Heaven 4.0
    • Unigine Superposition
    Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    Dell Vostro 5490
    price
    3553.00
    performance
    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    Lenovo IdeaPad S540 15
    3967.00
    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    ASUS VivoBook S15 S532
    $969.00
    3663.00
    NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (2GB GDDR5)
    Acer Swift 3 (SF314-56G)
    3658.00+3%
    Results are from the Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    Dell Vostro 5490
    price
    1104.00
    performance
    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    Lenovo IdeaPad S540 15
    1198.00
    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    ASUS VivoBook S15 S532
    $969.00
    1096.00
    NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (2GB GDDR5)
    Acer Swift 3 (SF314-56G)
    1085.00-1.7%
    Results are from the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    Dell Vostro 5490
    price
    802.00
    performance
    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    Lenovo IdeaPad S540 15
    867.00
    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    ASUS VivoBook S15 S532
    $969.00
    778.00
    NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (2GB GDDR5)
    Acer Swift 3 (SF314-56G)
    786.00-2%
    Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    Dell Vostro 5490
    price
    491.00
    performance
    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    Lenovo IdeaPad S540 15
    512.00
    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    ASUS VivoBook S15 S532
    $969.00
    490.00
    NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (2GB GDDR5)
    Acer Swift 3 (SF314-56G)
    482.00-1.8%

    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 Vostro 5490 3.57 GHz (B+98%) @ 90°C 2.51 GHz (B+39%) @ 87°C 2.10 GHz (B+17%) @ 66°C

    If we look at the CPU only, this laptop’s cooling seems perfectly fine with it. It begins really strong with almost 3.60 GHz and at the end it still keeps the clock speeds above 2.00 GHz, while the temperature drops to the cool 66C. By the way, in this segment of the test, the fan was fairly inaudible.

    Real-life gaming

    NVIDIA GeForce MX250 GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min) GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
    Dell Vostro 5490 1548 MHz @ 67°C 1457 MHz @ 67°C
    Lenovo Ideapad S540 (15) 1608 MHz @ 69°C 1404 MHz @ 59°C
    ASUS VivoBook S15 S532 1708 MHz @ 77°C 1480 MHz @ 67°C

    Here, however, the plane did indeed take off. Nevertheless, this seemed to have worked, and the temperatures of the 25W version of MX250 never exceeded 67C.

    Comfort during full load

    In addition to the high noise, the top middle part of the keyboard heats up significantly – it reaches up to 51C.

    Verdict

    Ladies and gentlemen, if you are familiar with the Vostro 5590, this laptop is obviously not that different from the other. However, the performance figures of the new Core i7-10510U inside this machine are pretty darn good. Sadly, there had to be a catch. Here, the toll is in the form of noise. The fan of this notebook sounds more like one of a gaming laptop, rather than a business ultrabook. Perhaps, this is what you get when you want a powerful laptop that is small in size too.

    Let’s not take performance as the key factor here, though. The machine we tested today proved to have a great battery life. Despite the 42Wh unit, we got 11 hours of Web browsing and 10 hours and a half of video playback. From the top-tier level. As it comes nowadays, efficiency goes hand by hand with performance.

    Next – the display. Apparently, there are corners to cut, when you don’t want to skyrocket the price tag of your notebook. This is the reason why Dell has chosen a budget IPS panel. While it has comfortable viewing angles, good contrast ratio and doesn’t use aggressive PWM for brightness adjustment, the display covers only 54% of sRGB.

    Now, brace yourselves, as we are going to throw some more features in favor of the Vostro 5490. The first will be its I/O, which is really rich for a 14-inch notebook. Although we would be completely happy if it had a Thunderbolt connection, we can give it the green light this time. Then, there is the upgradability – one M.2 PCIe x4 slot and one 2.5″ SATA slot for storage expansion plus a maximum of 24 GB of memory – 16GB via a RAM DIMM and 4GB to 8GB soldered to the motherboard.

    So for business purposes, the laptop should do the job great, just keep in mind that if you push it, it is going to roar back.

    Pros

    • Minimal stylish looks
    • Nice performance/efficiency ratio + 25W GeForce MX250
    • Good battery life
    • Supports PCIe x4 SSDs
    • Good contrast ratio and comfortable viewing angles
    • Doesn’t use aggressive PWM to adjust its brightness
    • Wide upgradability options

    Cons

    • We got some driver issues with the touchpad
    • Lacks Thunderbolt connection
    • Covers only 54% of sRGB
    • Gets warm on the outside while under pressure

    You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-vostro-14-5490/

    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 256GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    $899.00
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 512GB SSD
    • 16GB RAM
    $1179.99
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    Dell Vostro 5490
    • Intel Core i7-10510U
    • NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)
    • 512GB SSD
    • 8GB RAM
    $1180.00
    More Info Buy from Amazon
    #CommissionsEarned
    View more laptops...
    Subscribe
    Notify of
    guest
    The comment form collects your name, email, and content to allow us keep track of the comments placed on the website. Please read and accept our website Terms and Privacy Policy to post a comment.
    guest
    The comment form collects your name, email, and content to allow us keep track of the comments placed on the website. Please read and accept our website Terms and Privacy Policy to post a comment.
    10 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    John
    John
    1 year ago

    Is the base cover aluminum?

    6
    Reply
    Not John
    Not John
    1 year ago
    Reply to  John

    no, plastic

    0
    Reply
    ms over
    ms over
    1 year ago

    Vostro 5490 with 10th gen have wva panel not ips.. maybe there is a diffrent model with ips sold too but i never seen one. My question is which is better wva or ips?

    8
    Reply
    Ekow
    Ekow
    8 months ago
    Reply to  ms over

    Doesn’t WVA stand for Wide Viewing Angles (not that type of panel)

    1
    Reply
    Simeon Nikolov
    Admin
    Simeon Nikolov
    8 months ago
    Reply to  Ekow

    Yes, Ekow is right, It’s an IPS.

    1
    Reply
    Joseph Carelli
    Joseph Carelli
    11 months ago

    The Vostro 5490 is a substandard Dell. Poor monitor quality is just the start. When running any heavy graphics program, the fan screams so bad I have to shut it down. Stay away from this one. It’s very bad.

    -2
    Reply
    02nz
    02nz
    9 months ago

    I had issues with the touchpad driver in the Vostro 5391 until I installed (or updated) the Intel Serial IO driver, then it was fine. I bet it’s the same issue here.

    0
    Reply
    Joseph Carelli
    Joseph Carelli
    7 months ago

    I’ve had many Dell products over the past 20 years and they have all been great. That’s why I was so surprised that the Vostro is such a bad product. When running any graphical software like SketchUp, the unit heats up and the fan emits a high pitch scream that’s unbearable. To remain in the same room with the unit, it’s necessary to reduce the performance settings so it doesn’t heat up. So, I paid for an I7 with 16MB of RAM and an Nvidea board, but it runs like a Kindle. And then there’s the monitor. It had such… Read more »

    1
    Reply
    Felipe Cardoso
    Felipe Cardoso
    4 months ago

    The Vostro 14 5490 notebook which has a 1st generation USB 3.1 Type C ™ port (DP / PowerDelivery) and dedicated NVIDIA® GeForce® MX230 video card with 2GB of GDDR5, can connect to a 4k monitor via USB-C cable in 4k resolution 60 hz? And via HDMI port on a 4k monitor, what is the maximum supported resolution?
    Can the USB-C port connected to a 4K USB-C monitor (Example: Dell Monitor U2720Q) also be used to charge the notebook’s battery?
    Model: https://www.dell.com/pt-br/work/shop/notebooks-dell/vostro-14-5000/spd/vostro-14-5490-laptop/cv5490w4109brw1

    0
    Reply
    Felipe
    Felipe
    4 months ago

    The notebook Vostro 5490 that have a 1st generation USB 3.1 Type C ™ port (DP / PowerDelivery) and dedicated NVIDIA® GeForce® MX230 / MX250 video card with 2 GB of GDDR5, can connect to a monitor 4k (Example: Dell U2720Q Monitor) via USB-C cable in 4k 60 Hz resolution? And connected to a 4k monitor (Example: Dell Monitor U2720Q) via HDMI cable, What is the maximum supported resolution for HDMI? Can the USB-C port of these notebooks connected to a 4K USB-C monitor (example: Dell Monitor U2720Q) also be used to charge the notebook’s battery and at the same… Read more »

    0
    Reply

    Top 100 Laptops



    Top Laptop Ratings

    • Top Laptop CPU Ranking
    • Top Laptop Graphics Ranking
    • Laptop M.2 SSD Compatibility List
    • Top Laptop PWM Ranking
    • LaptopMedia Profiles Supported Laptops List
    • Top Laptopsby Battery Life
    • Top M.2 SSDs Performance Rankings

    Reviews View more

    ASUS ROG Strix G17 G713 review – monstrous hardware and a 300Hz display 27 January 2021
    ASUS TUF A17 (FA706) 2021 review – RTX 3000 graphics and Ryzen 5000 CPUs inside a budget-conscious gaming machine 26 January 2021
    ASUS TUF Dash F15 (FX516) review – the new RTX graphics cards look promising 25 January 2021
    Dell Latitude 14 5411 review – a reasonably well-performing business notebook 22 January 2021
    Lenovo Yoga 7 (14) review – a cheaper and arguably better option than the Yoga 9i 20 January 2021

    Highlights View more

    [Specs and Info] Chromebooks are taking over with ASUS at the helm of it with its newest Chromebook Flip CX5 26 January 2021
    [Specs and Info] Meet the ASUS Chromebook Flip CM5 – Chromebooks have never looked as good 26 January 2021
    [Specs, Info and Prices] List of all laptops with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 / 3060 Max-Q 25 January 2021
    [Specs and Info] ASUS’ creator-centric ZenBook Duo 14 gets an update and brings Tiger Lake into the fold 22 January 2021
    [Specs and Info] ASUS doubles down on the productivity and creative devices with its ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED 22 January 2021

    Follow us

    2007 - 2021 Some rights reserved - LaptopMedia.com
    Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
    As an Amazon Associate LaptopMedia earns from qualifying purchases.

    wpDiscuz