Dell Latitude Dell Latitude 7490 Laptop FHD Touchscreen Notebook Review

So you're looking at a refurbished Dell Latitude 7490. It's a 14-inch business laptop from a few years back, and for around $400, it's trying to be a solid workhorse for basic tasks. You're getting a 14-inch Full HD touchscreen, a quad-core Intel i7-8650U processor, a healthy 32GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. That's a lot of memory for the price, which is its main selling point. If you're a student on a tight budget, a remote worker who just needs a machine for emails and spreadsheets, or someone who wants a secondary laptop, this might catch your eye. It's not flashy, and it's definitely not new, but the specs on paper promise decent multitasking for everyday stuff.

Let's be real about what this laptop can do. That Intel i7-8650U CPU lands in the 13th percentile, which means it's pretty slow compared to modern chips, even basic ones. For web browsing, office apps, and video calls, it's fine. You won't be editing 4K video on it. The Intel UHD integrated graphics are in the 42nd percentile, so don't even think about gaming beyond very old titles or simple browser games. The 32GB of RAM is the star here, sitting in the 70th percentile. That means you can have a ton of Chrome tabs and a few applications open without the system choking. It's a classic case of the RAM being way more capable than the CPU it's paired with.

At $399, the value proposition is simple: you're trading modern performance for a high RAM configuration. You cannot buy a new laptop with 32GB of RAM for anywhere near this price. The catch is that everything else is from a bygone era. It's a niche pick. If your workflow absolutely needs 32GB of RAM for light duty (like running a local database server or a massive number of browser tabs for research), and you can accept slow single-core speed, it's a unique deal. Otherwise, you can find newer used laptops with better overall performance for similar money, just with less RAM.

This puts you in a weird spot versus competitors. A used Apple MacBook Pro from a similar era would have a better screen and build but less RAM and a higher price. A modern budget laptop like an ASUS Zenbook Duo or a Lenovo IdeaPad would destroy it in CPU performance and have a much nicer screen, but they'd only have 8GB or 16GB of RAM. Compared to gaming laptops like the MSI Vector or Gigabyte AORUS, there's no comparison; those are in a different universe for power. The Latitude 7490's real competition is other refurbished business laptops. Think Lenovo ThinkPad T-series or HP EliteBooks from the same generation. Shop around, because you might find one with a slightly better CPU for the same price.

Should you buy the Dell Latitude 7490? Only in a very specific scenario. If you need a ton of RAM for under $400 and your tasks are not CPU-intensive, this could work. It's a decent machine for basic office work, web browsing, and as a secondary computer. But for almost everyone else, the answer is no. The outdated, slow processor and poor-quality screen are major drawbacks that you'll notice every day. Students or business users would be better served by a newer model with a better balance of specs, even if it means settling for 16GB of RAM. This laptop is a tool for a specific job, not a good all-arounder.