Dell Vostro 5490 review

Score: 76/100

Date tested: July 2020

Key specifications

• Screen size: 14in
• Processor: 10th Generation Intel Core i7-10510U
• Storage size: 512GB
• RAM: 16GB
• Weight: 1.49kg

£769.00

Available from: dell.com

What is it?

The Dell Vostro 5490 is a 14-inch Windows laptop designed for those who want a computer for work and leisure. It has 512GB of storage, an SD card slot, four USB slots, an ethernet port and an HDMI input. There’s also a sensor that detects when you’ve opened the lid, which switches the laptop on and speeds up login.

GHI expert verdict

If you need a laptop for doing lots of work or watching TV and movies on, the Dell Vosto 5490 is a good choice. It’s simple to use, has plenty of storage and is speedy.

The good

It copes well with photo editing and word-processing and the battery lasted over six hours in our video playback tests, recharging in just over an hour and a half. The display is clear and bright and the speakers are loud and don’t suffer much from distortion. It’s also good for working on the go, as it’s slim and only weighs 1.5kg.

Take note

It’s not good for gaming and lacks a few features that others at this price have, like a fingerprint sensor or facial recognition.

Ratings

• Ease of use: 4/5
• Design: 4/5
• Instructions: 3/5
• Performance: 3.8/5

How we test

For laptops, we test the boot-up time and processing speed, and find out how quickly the most power-hungry tasks are completed. We evaluate the sound quality of the speakers and asses the battery life by seeing how long it can play videos for. We also try out the pre-installed software and consider the reliability of the keyboard, trackpad and webcam.

All product information provided by the manufacturer is correct at time of publication.