Dell Latitude 5490 vs. Dell Latitude 5420

Dell has released the Latitude 5490, a 14-inch machine, in early-2018. It is powered by up to a quad-core Intel Core i7-8650U with a boost clock speed up to 4.20 GHz. The laptop has a dedicated GPU option up to Nvidia GeForce MX130 with 2GB GDDR5.

On the other hand, we have the 14-inch Latitude 5420 was introduced by Dell about three years later in early-2021. It comes with up to a quad-core Intel Core i7-1185G7 with a boost clock speed up to 4.80 GHz. It has an integrated graphics option up to Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics (96 Execution Units, 400 → 1350 MHz).

Both Dell Latitude 5490 and Dell Latitude 5420 have the same 14-inch display size. In addition, the Dell Latitude 5490 weighs 3.52 lbs. about 13% heavier than the 3.09 lbs. Dell Latitude 5420. Moreover, measured at 13.1” x 9.0” x 0.8”, the Dell Latitude 5490 is considerably bulkier than the Dell Latitude 5420 at 12.65” x 8.35” x 0.76”.

There are a toal number of 13 ports and slots available on Dell Latitude 5490. That includes a USB-C port, three USB-A ports, a full-size SD card slot, a Smart Card Reader, a VGA port, a headphone jack, a lock slot, an HDMI port, an RJ-45 port, a microSIM card slot, and a power port. With that said, it has three ports and slots more than the Dell Latitude 5420 that has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a Smart Card Reader, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, an RJ-45 port, a microSD card slot, a headphone jack, and a lock slot.

Moving over to upgradability, Dell claims that the Dell Latitude 5490 supports up to 32GB 2400 MHz DDR4 memory that you can upgrade with two memory module slots on the motherboard. It also comes with a single removable M.2 SSD slot that users can replace and upgrade in the future. On top of that, it also has a single SATA slot that users can use to install a 2.5-inch SATA SSD, SSHD, or a hard disk drive to add even more storage.

For Dell Latitude 5420, it supports up to 64GB 3200 MHz DDR4 memory that you can upgrade with two memory module slots on the motherboard. It also has a single removable M.2 SSD slot that users can replace or upgrade when needed.