Dell Latitude 7400 vs 7490: Why Should You Pay More?

• Share on Facebook
• Tweet it
• Share on Reddit
• Pin it

Dell Latitude 14 7400	Dell Latitude 14 7490
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Long battery life. Fast system performance. Comfortable keyboard.	Vivid screen colors. All-day battery life. Reliable WiFi strength.
CONS	CONS
Bland design. Whistling fan.	Gets hot underneath the keyboard.
Dell Latitude 14 7400 Review	Dell Latitude 14 7490 Review

Specifications

Design & Build

Dell Latitude 7400

The build quality of this laptop is really great. It is so tough and durable. It actually looks nice, it’s got a carbon-fiber that is soft to touch. It is a bit thicker than a normal thin and light ultrabook but it is a 14-inch and when you consider that, it’s 16.8 millimeters or 0.7 of an inch and it’s only 1.36 kilos and 2.99 pounds. This is around 3 pounds that’s about right for a business 14-inch laptop.

When it comes to the keyboard and trackpad, I do love the keyboard. The keyboard is excellent; I don’t think anyone’s gonna complains about the keyboard. with the trackpad, you have the two buttons set up and the tracking is fine.

Dell Latitude 7490

It looks fairly modern and nice. The bezels on it aren’t huge, it’s fairly thin at 17.9 millimeters and fairly light at 3.1 pounds or 1.3 kilograms. It’s got that old fashioned laptop feel in a good way.

It has a nice deep travel for the keyboard relative to today’s standards. It’s got a very good trackpad with actual dedicated buttons and an eraser stick pointer like Lenovo ThinkPad style.

This thing is built like a tank. The XPS consumer line is also very sturdy. It’s got a magnesium alloy casing and there’s an optional carbon fiber lid that one is hinged to a 1080p display option that has a touch screen. So, you’re gonna have to get and get the other with that.

There is a shock vibration and heat up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit more than you can probably ever tolerate. So, it’s certainly appealing to businesses who want to send their force out into the field and not worry about the laptops that are the point behind it.

In terms of the look and feel, it’s not bad looking. It’s sort of a soft-touch black finish on our regular magnesium alloy or carbon fiber. The bezels on are fairly small, they’re certainly not huge but they’re not the XPS level. It’s a 14-inch laptop with a relatively compact footprint closer to a 13.3-inch size.

Display Quality

Dell Latitude 7400

Now, you do actually have a few display options, they’re all full HD in touch. You also get different camera configurations, you can have the IR cam or without the IR cam. The one we have for review is a touch display, and it is really good.

This is one of the best Full HD displays I’ve seen, it’s near enough 100% sRGB and around 314 nits that’s the brightness I measured. It’s a beautiful display, it has a touch, Matt display as well so no reflections.

Some HD displays look like garbage but this one looks really good.

Dell Latitude 7490

What’s really charming about this isn’t the fact that the two display options are 720p that’s 1366 by 768 and in full HD 1920 by 1080 but the fact that they are matte displays, so no glare which is lovely. Three of the four display options are non-touch, they are all matte.

So, the lower resolution is non-touch. For the 1080p, you have your choice between touch or non-touch and it will be matte. What is good about it is that it has surprise level contrast and actual color gamut. 78% of Adobe RGB for a business-oriented laptop in this price range is a good one.

Battery Life

Dell Latitude 7400

There is a full HD screen display, so you get great battery life. The battery capacity is 60 watt-hour in which you’re gonna get over 10 hours of video playback and web surfing.

You get all-day battery life. You’re gonna get over 8 hours of battery life with just general use, productivity, and stuff like that.

Dell Latitude 7490

It comes with a 65-watt charger. Most configurations have a 60-watt hour of battery except for that base core i3 which has a 42-watt hour battery. Typically given the fact that this is an ultrabook with a full HD, battery life is pretty good on this.

We’ve managed to average about 7 to 8 hours without really trying to micromanage power at all and that’s a mix of productivity, a little bit of Photoshop, and some streaming video.

So, that’s pretty solid battery life if you really wanted to micromanage the battery life and drop it down to a more aggressive power-saving, you probably could hit 8.5 hours with this without much difficulty.

Which is Better?

The Latitude 7400 is not the thinnest and lightest laptop but it has the vPro. Performance-wise, the 8th gen and 10th gen are not that different, especially for a business laptop.

The Latitude 7490 is not like a sleek XPS laptop but you got a lot of creature comforts. You have a full complement of ports, a traditional keyboard, a trackpad with Microsoft precision, and also a couple of extra features.

Also, a surprisingly good display with that 1080p panel. So, the Dell Latitude 7490 is really worth it.

Both the laptops have the same 8th gen processor but the speed and performance differ. The price range of both the laptops is so close. So, I think the Latitude 7400 will be better to buy as it is the latest one. 

Jaskaran Singh

Jaskaran, a tech enthusiast from childhood, inspired by his father, began his tech journey by rooting Android phones. He now writes on various tech topics, aiming to simplify complex ideas for a broad audience. His writing is direct, concise, and flows effortlessly, making tech topics accessible and engaging.