In this post we will compare Lenovo ThinkPad P53s and Lenovo ThinkPad T490
Key Features
| Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| Powerful Intel® processing and NVIDIA® Quadro® graphics | Does everything but make the coffee |
| 15.6″ mobile workstation | Starting weight of just 3.23 lbs / 1.46 kg, perfect for portability |
| Weighing just 3.87lb / 1.75kg, provides on the go power | New narrow bezel design |
| Epic battery life | Enhanced security and privacy features |
| Optional 4K UHD display with Dolby Vision™ HDR | Up to 16.11 hrs of battery life |
| Great for students, engineers, finance professionals, and designers | Preferred laptop for serious business professionals. |
Technical Specification
| Model | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| Processor | ||
| Up to 8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8665U with vPro™ (1.90GHz, up to 4.80GHz with Turbo Boost, 4 Cores, 8MB Cache) | Up to 8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8665U with vPro™ (1.90 GHz, up to 4.80 GHz with Turbo Boost, 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 8 MB Cache) | |
| Up to 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-10510U (1.80 GHz, up to 4.90 GHz with Turbo Boost, 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 8 MB Cache) | ||
| Operating System | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| Windows 10 Home | Windows 10 Home | |
| Windows 10 Pro | Windows 10 Pro | |
| Graphics | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| NVIDIA® Quadro® P520 2GB | Integrated Intel® UHD Graphics | |
| NVIDIA® GeForce® MX250 2GB | ||
| Display | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| 15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-glare, 250 nits, 45% NTSC color gamut | 14″ HD (1366 x 768) anti-glare, 220 nits | |
| 15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-glare, touchscreen, 250 nits, 45% NTSC color gamut | 14″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-glare, 250 nits | |
| 15.6″ UHD (3840 x 2160) IPS, anti-glare with Dolby Vision™ HDR, 500 nits, 100% Adobe color gamut | 14″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-glare, touchscreen, 300 nits | |
| 14″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, low power, anti-glare, 400 nits | ||
| 14″ WQHD (2560 x 1440) IPS, glossy, 500 nits | ||
| Memory | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| Up to 48GB DDR4 2400MHz | Up to 48GB DDR4 2400MHz | |
| Battery | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| Up to 15 hours* on 57Wh, includes Rapid Charge technology** | Up to 16.11 hours* 50Whr | |
| Up to 11 hours on a single one-hour charge | Rapid Charge available with 65W AC adapter | |
| Storage | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| Up to 2TB SSD PCIe-NVMe | Up to 1TB PCIe SSD | |
| 256GB SSD SATA | ||
| Security | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| Discrete Trusted Platform Module (dTPM) 2.0 | Fast Online Identity (FIDO) authentication capabilities | |
| Fast Identity Online (FIDO) authentication capabilities | dTPM 2.0 | |
| Optional IR camera (for login with Windows Hello) | Optional: Match-on-Chip touch fingerprint reader | |
| Optional Match-on-chip fingerprint reader | ThinkShutter, webcam privacy cover | |
| ThinkShutter | Optional: PrivacyGuard | |
| Kensington lock slot | Optional: Privacy Alert | |
| Optional Smart card reader | Kensington lock slot | |
| For T490 Healthcare Edition | ||
| FIPS-201 Fingerprint Reader | ||
| RFID Reader | ||
| IR camera with Windows Hello | ||
| dTPM 2.0 | ||
| ThinkShutter camera cover | ||
| Optional: PrivacyGuard | ||
| Optional: PrivacyAlert | ||
| Kensington lock slot | ||
| Audio | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| Stereo speakers with Dolby Audio® | Dolby Audio™ Premium | |
| Dual Array far-field microphones | ||
| Camera | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| 720p HD camera with ThinkShutter privacy cover | HD 720p with ThinkShutter privacy cover | |
| Optional: Hybrid Infrared (IR) with ThinkShutter | Optional: Hybrid Infrared (IR) + HD with ThinkShutter | |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| 14.4” x 9.76” x 0.75” / 365.8 x 248 x 19.1 (mm) | 329mm x 227mm x 17.9mm / 12.95″ x 8.94″ x 0.70″ | |
| Weight | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| Starting at 3.87 lbs (1.75 kg) | HD: 3.37 lbs (1.53 kg) | |
| FHD IPS / touchscreen & non-touch: 3.41 lbs (1.55 kg) | ||
| FHD low power: 3.23 lbs (1.46 kg) | ||
| FHD with PrivacyGuard: 3.56 lbs (1.61 kg) | ||
| WQHD: 3.23 lbs (1.46 kg) | ||
| Connectivity | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| WLAN: Intel® 9560 802.11 AC (2 x 2) & Bluetooth® 5.0 | WWAN: Fibocom L850-GL 4G LTE-A Cat9 (Optional) | |
| WLAN: Intel® 9560 vPro™ 802.11 AC (2 x 2) & Bluetooth® 5.0 | WLAN: Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 802.11 AX (2 x 2) | |
| NFC (Optional) | WLAN: Intel® 9560 802.11AC (2 x 2) | |
| WWAN: Fibocom L850-GL LTE-A CAT9 (Optional) | Bluetooth® 5.0 | |
| Optional: NFC† | ||
| Ports | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| 2 x USB-A 3.1 Gen 1** (1 always on) | 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1** (one Always On) | |
| 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C / Intel Thunderbolt™ 3 (DisplayPort, Data transfer) | 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C (Power Delivery, DisplayPort, Data transfer) | |
| 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C (DisplayPort, Data transfer) | 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C / Intel Thunderbolt 3 (Power Delivery, DisplayPort, Data transfer) | |
| HDMI 1.4b | MicroSD card reader | |
| MicroSD card reader (SD, SDHC, SDXC) | Smart card reader (Optional) | |
| Headphone / mic combo | Headphone / mic combo | |
| Optional Smart card reader | Micro-SIM slot* | |
| RJ45 Ethernet | HDMI 1.4 | |
| Docking connector | RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet | |
| Keyboard | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| Spill resistant | Spill resistant | |
| Precision Keyboard with numeric pad | Bottom-load backlight with white LED lighting (Optional) | |
| Backlit with white LED lighting | Lenovo Quick Clean* (App that disengages keyboard / touchpad for up to 90 seconds) | |
| Green Certification | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| Energy Star®7.1 | ||
| EPEAT® | ||
| Greenguard® | ||
| RoHS compliant | ||
| Preloaded Software | Lenovo ThinkPad P53s | Lenovo ThinkPad T490 |
| Lenovo Vantage | ||
| Office 365 30-Day Trial (requires internet access to install and activate) | ||
Design
Lenovo ThinkPad P53s:
This is the new model of a mobile workstation with the ThinkPad logo on it. It is very thin and light in weight so you can carry this anywhere very easily. There is the name of this model featured on the bottom of the right side of the display.
Lenovo ThinkPad T490:
This is matt black finish Lenovo ThinkPad T490 with ThinkPad logo on it. It passes the military standard grade testing. It will be very durable and rock solid. It has an aluminum-magnesium alloy exterior.
Display
Lenovo ThinkPad P53s:
This is a very beautiful 15-inch anti-glare Ultra HD Dolby Vision IPS display. With a resolution of 3840 x 2160. It is a very glossy display with 500 nits of brightness.
This covers 100% of Adobe color gamut. There are several options available with this display so you can choose which one you want.
On top of the display, you can get a 720p HD Hybrid webcam. You can also have an option for a Hybrid infrared camera which allows you to use Windows Hello to log in with face recognization. Next to webcam, you can get one sensor too. Lenovo cares for your privacy and security so it provides you a shutter for your camera so when you don’t need a camera you can turn it off.
Lenovo ThinkPad T490:
It has a beautiful 14-inch WQHD HDR Dolby vision glossy display. It’s simply stunning gorgeous, There are few options available on display which you can choose. It is a very bright display coming at 475 nits making an excellent choice for indoor and outdoor use. It covers the color gamut extremely well 100% sRGB and 100% of Adobe RGB, making this an excellent choice for those creative professionals that do lightroom, photoshop, and video editing.
It has a front-facing camera. It is an infrared camera that allows you to use Windows Hello for login. It also has a think shutter switch which allows you to turn off your webcam, which gives you more security and more privacy although it doesn’t turn off the microphone.
WEIGHT & DIMENSIONS
Lenovo ThinkPad P53s:
The weight of this laptop is 1.75 kg with 14.4 x 9.76 x 0.75(inches) dimensions.
Lenovo ThinkPad T490:
The weight of this laptop is 1.53 KG laptop with 12.95 x 8.94 x 0.70(inches) of dimensions.
PERFORMANCE
Lenovo ThinkPad P53s:
When it comes to performance this is Intel® Core™ i7-8665U vPro™ Whiskey lake processor. It also provides you NVIDIA® Quadro® P520 2GB Graphics card. It works very smoothly.
This is not a gaming laptop so you can’t play some new title games. But you can play some old titles games if you turn down your laptop settings.
Lenovo ThinkPad T490:
Now when it comes to performance T490 doesn’t disappoint you. It does very well. This is an Intel Core i7 8565U, that’s a whiskey lake processor. It’s a Quad-core processor with 16 GB of ddr4 ram. It’s a great productivity machine that can get work done on Microsoft office, emails and it’s a great multimedia machine to watch Full HD videos.
But if you want games on this laptop. It is not a real gaming laptop although you can get an optional MX 250 GPU which will give you a little bit of horsepower. You can play some older titles games on low settings, but new triple-a titles don’t run very well on this because of lack of GPU unless you go for that MX 250.
When it comes to thermals if you are doing the everyday task it stayed relatively cool but when you put it under heavy load it did start to get warm. you will notice the fan will kick in although it wasn’t overly loud or annoying which is good.
PORT SELECTION
Lenovo ThinkPad P53s:
On the left side you can get USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-c, Thunderbolt 3(20Gb/s), USB0 Type-A, HDMI, and a microSD card reader.
On the right side you can get Smart card reader, USB 3.0 Type-A, RJ45 Ethernet, and a Kensington lock.
Lenovo ThinkPad T490:
On the left side there is a USB Type-C 3.1, a thunderbolt 3 port that supports two lanes, a USB Type-A 3.1, an HDMI 1.4, 3.5 mm headset jack, and a microSD card slot.
On the backside there is an optional LTE SIM tray available.
KEYBOARD & TOUCHPAD
Lenovo ThinkPad P53s:
There are no issues found with this keyboard, and the distance between the two keys is very comfortable so you can type very smoothly and faster. Lenovo also provides backlight on the keyboard so you can also do your work in the dark. You can also turn it off when you don’t need it, so it can save a little bit of battery.
There is a trackpad located below the keyboard. It is very smooth to use and two fingers gestures. You can also have a joystick in the middle of the keyboard as an alternative use.
There is no fingerprint scanner available on this model.
Lenovo ThinkPad T490:
ThinkPad has been known for a legendary keyboard status and there is not any exception. This is excellent for extended periods of good tactile feedback and it has good key travel. It has a multi-stage backlight, this will allows you to get worked on the darkroom or dimly lit environment.
The touchpad works well very responsive. It uses precision drivers. Everything seems to be very smooth, two-finger scrolling is buttery smooth and windows 10 gestures work as advertised.
There is also a joystick located in the middle of the keyboard. It works well and responsive.
There is a fingerprint scanner located below the keyboard on the right side next to the trackpad which allows you to use windows hello for login, which works very well.
SPEAKERS
Lenovo ThinkPad P53s:
There are Stereo speakers located on the top of the keyboard with Dolby Audio.
Lenovo ThinkPad T490:
Speakers are located on the top of the keyboard and they are pretty loud.
BATTERY
Lenovo ThinkPad P53s:
You can get a 57W power adaptor charger with Rapid Charge technology and USB Type-C. This laptop doesn’t have any slot for an external battery, so you can only get an internal battery. Lenovo claims 14 hours of battery life. It can charge your laptop up to 80% in just 1 hour.
Lenovo ThinkPad T490:
You can get a 65-Watt power adapter with a USB Type-C adapter. It supports a 15-Watt-hour battery and Lenovo claims 16 hours of estimated battery out of this. In my continuous web surfing test over Wi-Fi had 115 nits, it did 7.5 hours and considering that high-resolution 2k HDR display. It takes 2 hours for the full charge which is very good.
WHICH TO BUY?
After comparing these laptops, I recommend you to go with T490 because it has a gorgeous WQHD HDR Dolby vision display. It’s got a really good price to performance ratio, dedicated GPU option the MX 250 that’s always good to see. It has a thinner and lighter design. I found Lenovo ThinkPad T490 very useful. It has much better performance and specification than P53s according to this price. So you can invest your money on T490, it well worth it.
