Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Vs T480s: Which One is Winner?

This is the comparison between the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Vs T490: Comparison 

LENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARBONLENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
BUY NOWBUY NOW
PROSPROS
Thin and light.
Good WQHD panel with a matte surface.
Decent performance.
Good battery life.
Three-year warranty.
Great looks and premium build quality.
Thoughtful features like ThinkShutter.
Minimal bloatware.
Thin, light but sturdy design.
Supports Thunderbolt.
Charges with USB Type-C.
Excellent keyboard.
Strong battery life.
Lots of ports.
Excellent display.
Rapid charging.
3-year warranty.
CONSCONS
High surface temperatures under load.
Very limited maintainability.
LAN only via (included) adapter.
Mediocre webcam with IR camera.
Gets pretty hot under heavy load
High price.
No discrete GPU option.
Only microSD reader with an awkward position.

SPECIFICATIONS

MODELLENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
BrandLenovoLenovo
SeriesX1 CarbonThinkPad
ModelThinkPadT490
QUICK INFOLENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
ColorBlackBlack
Operating SystemIntel Core i7Windows 10 Pro (English) Windows 10 Pro
CPU
Screen
Memory16 GB 16 GB
Storage1TB PCIe SSD
Graphics CardUHD Graphics 620
Video Memory
Dimensions (W x D x H)
Weight
CPULENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
CPU TypeIntel Core i7 8th Gen Intel Core i5
CPU Speed8650U (1.90 GHz)1.60 GHz
Number of CoresQuad-core (4 Core)
Core Namei5-8365U
Turbo Frequency4.20 GHz
CPU L3 Cache
CHIPSETLENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
ChipsetIntel
DISPLAYLENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
Screen Size14.0″14.0″
TouchscreenNoNo
Wide Screen Support
Display TypeIn-plane Switching (IPS) Technology
Resolution2560 x 14401920 x 1080
Panel
Refresh Rate
LCD FeaturesIn-plane Switching (IPS) Technology
OPERATING SYSTEMLENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
Operating SystemWindows 10 ProWindows 10 Pro
GRAPHICSLENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
GPU/VPUIntel UHD Graphics 620 UHD Graphics 620
Video Memory
Graphic TypeIntegrated Card UHD Graphics 620
STORAGELENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
SSD2 TB512 GB
MEMORYLENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
Memory16 GB16 GB
Memory SpeedDDR4 DDR4 SDRAM
Memory Spec16 GB
Memory Slot (Total)
Memory Slot (Available)
Max Memory Supported16 GB
OPTICAL DRIVELENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
Optical Drive TypeNo Optical Drive
COMMUNICATIONSLENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
LANNo Ethernet
WLAN802.11ac Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11a
BluetoothBluetooth 4.1Yes
PORTSLENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
USB41 x USB-C (TBT3, USB 3.1 Gen2, DP, Power-in);1x USB-C (DP, USB 3.1 Gen
Video Port
HDMI1 x HDMI Yes
Audio Ports
AUDIOLENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
Audio
Speaker
OUTPUT DEVICELENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
Virtual Reality Ready
INPUT DEVICELENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
TouchpadThinkPad UltraNav
KeyboardStandard English (US)
Backlit Keyboard
WebcamYesEthernet
Card ReaderNo
GENERALLENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
StyleSlim/Small Form Factor Notebook
TypeNotebook
Usage
POWERLENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
AC Adapter
Battery3-cell
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHTLENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARON LENOVO 14″ THINKPAD T490
Dimensions (W x D x H)(12.7 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches) 32.9 x 22.7 x 1.8 cm
Weight2 – 2.9 lbs.3.24 lb

Expert Reviews for Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon:

By NotebookCheck
Privacy Guard ThinkPad with room for improvementsYou have to pay $197 extra for the ePrivacy display compared to the regular 1080p screen (400 nits). The picture quality as well as the brightness are pretty similar between these two models and the…

By techaeris.com 
The Gen 7 14” ThinkPad X1 Carbon is yet another amazing laptop in the ThinkPad series of laptops. It delivers in pretty much every area of importance for laptop users on the go. It’s slim, lightweight, and easy to carry as well as powerful, easy to use…

By Stuff 
Surprise, surprise: the X1 Carbon is a super-capable business machine. There’s all kinds of built-in software security, hardware helping hands and the kind of performance that’ll feel right at home in the office. What’s more impressive is how Lenovo…

By Tom’s Hardware
Lenovo’s 7th Gen X1 Carbon is the productivity laptop to beat, if you can afford its high…

By SlashGear 
Lenovo’s X1 Carbon remains a solid business ultrabook for users who need a mixture of portability, security, durability, and performance, all of it paired with a mature, modest design. Buyers will enjoy the model’s excellent display and keyboard…

Expert Reviews for Lenovo 14″ ThinkPad T490:

By Expert Reviews
So should you rush out and buy the T490s? If svelteness is your biggest consideration, take a little time to consider the X1 Carbon, which is 2mm thinner, offers even better battery life and weighs 1.1kg. But it’s substantially more expensive; if you…

By Trusted Reviews
The Lenovo ThinkPad T490s means business. Look beyond the defiantly anachronistic stylings and you’ll find a solid, reliable machine that offers a level of security beyond what most other consumer-grade devices can offer.A capable, powerful, and smart.

By zdnet.com
Lenovo doesn’t tinker with the basic design and usability of its ThinkPad laptops very much. So the keyboard here is as good as ever, being responsive and effortless to work with. Build quality and portability are attractions too, while long battery…

By Tom’s Hardware
The ThinkPad T490s is a perfect laptop for businesses or anyone who wants a bright screen while working exclusively on spreadsheets or other office software. It ultimately lacks the power, performance or audio for much…

By Neowin 
The Lenovo ThinkPad T490s is a pretty great laptop, and particularly so because I can’t think of any real drawbacks to buying one. Perhaps the biggest con is the display, which is somewhat mediocre. Also, if the Dolby Vision option is like the T490 that…

DESIGN

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon:

There it chassis but it doesn’t look so different inside we have intel late 8th generation whiskey lake cpus no less than 5 different design options you look at it now so yes it’s a new chassis but it looks pretty,similar so what’s different for one thing we now have four speakers stereo speaker system there’s two firing up top.

Lenovo 14″ ThinkPad T490:

I actually like it as a more affordable alternative to the x1 carbon it’s not as soon that’s not quite as light but it’s still pretty thin it’s still pretty light as usual durable ThinkPad design, the same processors you know inside you performance is the same even your display options are the same so something that starts at under $1,000 nominally and priced more like $1,200 when you start to get into the options you might want to want it’s pretty darn good even if we don’t have the bridge.

WEIGHT & DIMENSIONS

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon:

For the milspec rated for 12 tests you can see some of those on screen right now, so it may be very thin and very light and we’re talking 2.4 pounds which is 1.09 kilograms and just under 15 millimeters thick but it’s pretty darn durable and rigid.

Lenovo 14″ ThinkPad T490:

The weight of the Thinkpad T490 is almost nearly 1.55 kg where the the dimension for these model is nearly 32.9 x 22.7 x 1.8 cm, but in carrying it in hand it’s one of light laptop.

KEYBOARD AND TOUCHPAD

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon:

For the keyboard travel on this is 1.5 millimeters which for a think pad which traditionally a pretty deep key travel isn’t super deep but it’s not horrendous the keyboard does still still feel good but if you’re used to think pads from eight years ago you all notice that it’s shorter travel it still feels good while Shakey’s nice return on the keys and we have a Microsoft precision trackpad now the NAB point the red or a stir stick pointer embedded in the keyboard area is a flat top little piece of rubber.

Lenovo 14″ ThinkPad T490:

For the little bit more as ever wonderful thing pad keyboard smile shape keys nice convex very ergonomic good key travel very good keyboard is little stiffness so there’s no trampolining going on white backlighting it is excellent and we have a great trackpad on board. I like it quite well and also the usual nap point a race mystic pointer for those of you who are longtime thing to add users.

PORT SELECTION

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon:

Thunderbolt three ports also supporting USB see the included charger also plugs into one of those USB seeing slash,Thunderbolt 3 ports and you have a side docking solution that you can use that uses both the dongle Ethernet adapter connector and the second, Thunderbolt 3 port in HDMI 1.4 onboard legacy USB a and your headphone jack 2 in terms of performance is a very capable ultrabook it’s a little bit faster than the last generation 6 gen carbon you know speaking about 6th gen carbon it’s still a pretty good buy if you find one at a really good discount it’s a tough choice between the 7th and the 6th gen.

Lenovo 14″ ThinkPad T490:

Thunderbolt 3 / USB see by those USB C port support power delivery out so you can charge other devices you have USB a you have actually an Ethernet jack now if you go with the ThinkPad x1 carbon, if you’re trying to fair which of these to buy that one is thinner it’s lighter it doesn’t have room for an Ethernet port for example and the same thing is true for the ThinkPad t4 90s the S is still around it’s thinner and lighter than the T 490 not enough room from Ethernet port those two have slightly more assumption.

DISPLAY

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon:

For the 4k display which is a two hundred and $69 upsell from the base full HD model display so it has a carbon fiber weave it’s really subtle it feels very flat and smooth to the service much more subtle, than say the carbon fiber weave that you see in the inside of it XPS 13 or XPS 15 but if you look close so you can see it looks nice beyond that you can still get the traditional and black carbon fiber lid.

Lenovo 14″ ThinkPad T490:

For the same display options, on you’ve got more ports on it so if you need those quote-unquote legacy points there’s still something to be said for this and it’s obviously several hundred dollars less than, an x1 carbon is taking off the bottom cover involves just unscrewing.

The visible Phillips head screws they’re captive screws and then prying it off with a guitar pick and boy for a ThinkPad, actually it was really hard to pry this off underside here with our copper shielding and there’s our internals our battery right there.

BATTERY

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon:

For the 51 watt hour battery, now last generation actually had a 57 watt hour battery so surprising the seat get a little bit smaller your battery life is gonna be super dependent on which display option you pick much as I like that 4k wide gamut.I wanted to yoga and I want a pen well that’s what the x1 yoga is for like.

I told we’re going to be reviewing the fourth edition of that one shortly too so they got you covered there and clearly another competitor is always the Dell XPS 13 which is a premium clamshell laptop – not yoga style that was also very nice a little bit smaller screen on there

Lenovo 14″ ThinkPad T490:

For the larger batteries 57 watt hour we have a 50 watt hour battery, in the t4 90 which is kind of average for ultrabook battery life.

PERFORMANCE

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon:

For the performance it is good this is an ultrabook it can handle everyday, business tasks and can handle a little, Photoshop your occasional video editing some coding you get the idea. I think coders often like ThinkPads because they do have quite good.

Lenovo 14″ ThinkPad T490:

At the time of, performance on this I wish we had the Nvidia it makes 250 graphics which we don’t see very often in laptops these days but we don’t we just have the Intel UHD version.

The  performance on this is where you would expect for an ultrabook in this class really there’s not a lot of variation if you’re looking at the same generation quad core 15 watt CPU in one altra book versus another ultra book we see when we look at PC mark 10 that the graph has the clock speed going up and down as it’s running the benchmark for a while lenovo is really holding those CPU, speeds pretty high in turbo boost but with the whiskey like processors.

CONCLUSION

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon:

So to conclude that the it isn’t in chassis, but it doesn’t look so different inside, we have intel late 8th generation whiskey lake cpus no less than 5 different display options you look at it now so yes it’s a new, chassis but it looks pretty similar so what’s different for one thing we now have four speakers stereo speaker system there’s two firing up top.

Lenovo 14″ ThinkPad T490:

Overall, for these seven-hour laptop you need more you’re gonna be looking at things, like power banks or be happy the fact that it has lenovo’s usual fast charging, and a 65 watt fast charger so it can top up very quickly now for those who are still trying to decide do.

I want the x1 carbon do I want this – I want a t4 90s the t4 90s would be the closest to an x1 carbon because it’s even thinner and lighter the benefit with this one is it’s not quite as super thin is it but you got this is the single RAM slot mylar cover over it there’s the RAM module m2 SSD slot, right here with our drive in place if you went with the W and 4G LTE that would plug in right over there.