ThinkPad T490 Review – Can a 2019 Laptop Still Run Linux Well?

The ThinkPad T490, powered by 8th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, still delivers solid performance for Linux users handling everyday computing and multitasking. Despite launching back in 2019, it remains an excellent choice for engineers and developers. The unit I’m reviewing here is equipped with an Intel Core i5 and 16GB of RAM. The T490 comes with either 8GB or 16GB of soldered DDR4 memory, plus an additional SO-DIMM slot, allowing upgrades up to 40–48GB. This provides plenty of headroom for productivity, development work, and even light virtualization. Running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, the laptop benefits from strong hardware compatibility and long-term support, making it a dependable option for Linux users. The combination of ThinkPad’s durable build quality and a stable open-source OS makes the T490 a compelling choice for professionals and developers even today. If your budget stretches a bit further, you may also want to consider the ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 with 10th Gen Intel or AMD Ryzen CPUs, which I reviewed in a previous video. 🔗 Useful Links === Lenovo ThinkPad T490 Product Specifications Reference https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/... 🎥 Related Videos === 📚 Chapters ==== 0:00 Intro 0:37 Tech Specs 4:55 Firmware 6:41 Software 8:59 Repairability 11:51 Advantages 12:16 Disadvantages 13:17 Summary 14:18 Conclusions