Buzz
The Dell Latitude 3490 Laptop targets office business professionals. This line competes with industry giants like HP's Elitebook or Lenovo's Thinkpad. So, what special features does this laptop have? Is it worth buying this Dell 3490 laptop for office work or not?
Simple, Unpretentious Design
The Latitude 3490 laptop features an exterior made of plastic. This has left users somewhat disappointed as they expect a business laptop to exude elegance and sophistication. Perhaps a metal or carbon-fiber casing would be much better. Also, due to the use of cheaper materials, the laptop's shell is thicker compared to the 7000 series within the same Dell lineup. The dimensions of the machine are 21 x 339 x 242mm (thickness x width x length). The weight of the machine is 1.824kg.
The machine's shell can withstand strong impacts such as accidental drops or collisions. The machine's screen can be opened up to 180 degrees, although you cannot open this device with one hand. Another downside is that the laptop's surface is very prone to leaving fingerprint marks during use.
Ports on the machine include VGA, HDMI, and USB Type-C with DisplayPort. However, the card reader has slow transfer speeds and there's an SD card slot protruding from the side of the device. The USB port on the right-hand side is too close to the user's palm. Furthermore, the machine only supports USB 2.0, which is limited due to having only one other USB Type-A port.
Keyboard Suitable for Office Workers
The keyboard of the computer provides a fairly comfortable typing experience. In my opinion, it's only second to the ThinkPad keyboard. The keys require just the right amount of pressure, have good responsiveness, and are spaced reasonably apart. Typing rarely results in hitting the wrong keys and there's no feeling of fatigue over extended periods.
Windows Precision Trackpad is integrated into the mouse pad to accurately recognize user actions. Its surface is slightly angular due to being made of plastic, so the movement doesn't feel smooth on the surface. Perhaps a glass surface would provide a smoother swiping experience.
Basic Display
The laptop screen measures 14 inches with a resolution of 1920×1080 px. The maximum brightness is 266 cd/m², averaging at 241.1 cd/m². Brightness distribution ratio: 81%. Contrast ratio: 1000:1. Black color value: 0.25 cd/m². Color difference: 5.5. The screen's coverage is relatively low at 59.4% sRGB.
When attempting to use the computer outdoors, some difficulties arise. Despite having an anti-glare screen to reduce glare, the maximum brightness of the screen is low, so it's best to use the machine in the shade. The IPS panel provides fairly good viewing angles but suffers slight brightness reduction at steep angles. Colors remain virtually unchanged at very oblique angles.
Performance in Use
Dell equips this laptop with dual-core Kaby Lake CPUs like the Intel Core i3-7130U and Intel Core i5-7200U or quad-core Kaby Lake Refresh CPUs like the Intel Core i5-8250U. There are two storage options: a 256GB SSD or a 1TB hard drive. All configurations come with 8GB of DDR4 2400 RAM. Response speed, application launching, and web browsing are very fast. Dell's quality has surpassed all competitors in the PCMark 8 benchmark.
If you buy this Dell Latitude laptop, it means you shouldn't use it for gaming. You can only play some lightweight games. If you want to play heavy graphic-intensive games, you should skip this one.
Another drawback of the machine is that the noise can be annoying to noise-sensitive individuals. When the machine operates with heavy tasks, you shouldn't place it on your lap as the temperature can reach up to 48.8 degrees Celsius.
The Dell Latitude 3490 is equipped with a 56 Wh lithium-polymer battery, easily lasting around 4 to 5 hours. For simple web browsing, users can use the machine for up to 11.5 hours.
The current price of the Dell 3490 laptop is 15,990,000 VND. This is quite a high price considering its offerings. You can use it for office tasks, but it's not suitable for gaming entertainment. At this price range, you have other options such as the Asus VivoBook A515EA or the HP Pavilion X360 14 dy0161TU laptop.
