Lenovo ThinkPad 14" T490 Black

The T490 is a tough, portable laptop with a fantastic keyboard and a painfully slow CPU. It's a solid buy under $500 for basic work, but avoid it if you need any real processing power. The build quality is top-notch, but the performance is bottom-of-the-barrel.

Let's be real, the i7-8665U is the bottleneck here. It sits in the 5th percentile for CPU performance in our database, which means it's slower than 95% of laptops we've tested. For Office apps, Slack, and a dozen browser tabs, it'll chug along fine. But try anything heavier like photo editing or a large spreadsheet with macros and you'll feel the lag. The 16GB of soldered RAM is a nice bonus for multitasking, though it's stuck at a slow 2400MHz. Integrated UHD Graphics are what they are, fine for video streaming but absolutely not for gaming, where it scored a dismal 13.2 out of 100.

Stacked against a modern Apple MacBook Air M4, the T490 looks like a fossil. The Air is faster, has a vastly better screen, and lasts forever on a charge. But it also costs three to four times as much. The HP OmniBook X Flip and Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro are in a different league entirely for performance and display quality. The T490's only real win here is its keyboard and its price if you buy used. It's competing with other refurbished business laptops like a Dell Latitude 7400, not new ultrabooks. If you need something cheap and rugged for typing, it works. For anything else, save up.

Pricing on this thing is all over the map, from $425 to a frankly absurd $1902. Do not pay anywhere near the high end. For under $500, you're getting a durable, portable laptop with a solid keyboard and enough RAM for everyday tasks. That's a fair trade-off for the sluggish processor. The best deal we spotted is on the used market through Newegg, where you can find it at the lower end of that range. Just make sure you're buying from a seller with a good return policy since these are refurbished units.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T490 is a used business laptop that still makes sense if you need a tough, portable machine for basic work. It's not going to win any speed contests in 2025, but the build quality and keyboard are exactly what ThinkPad fans expect. You're buying this for durability and a great typing experience, not raw power. The 14-inch touchscreen is fine for spreadsheets and email, though it won't wow you with brightness or color.

We pulled the numbers and the story is clear. The 8th-gen Intel Core i7 is showing its age, landing in the bottom 5% of all laptops we track. That's rough. But the chassis is still a standout for portability, and the 512GB SSD is perfectly usable. If you can snag one at the low end of the $425 to $1902 price spread, it's a decent deal for a secondary machine or a student on a tight budget.

If you need to run demanding software, compile code quickly, or edit photos and videos, look elsewhere. The CPU is one of the slowest we've seen in our database, and it will frustrate you daily. Anyone who values a bright, color-accurate screen should also pass, the 300-nit panel is pretty mediocre.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T490 is a keyboard-first workhorse for people who just need to write, email, and browse without fuss. It's perfect for students on a strict budget or anyone who wants a beater laptop that can survive a coffee spill. Just know you're trading speed for toughness.