Lenovo · 2019 · end of life
Lenovo ThinkPad T490 (Whiskey Lake)
A 2019 business workhorse that refuses to die: clean Intel Linux support, real S3 sleep, the old ThinkPad keyboard, around 230 dollars refurbished. The 8th-gen CPU is slow by 2026 and the FHD panel is dim, so buy it for typing and terminals, not video work.
Compiled from public sources and community data, not hands-on tested. What that means.
Best on ubuntu LTS. Confidence: high
Scores
Specs
| CPU | Intel Core i5-8265U / i7-8565U |
|---|---|
| GPU | Intel UHD Graphics 620 (integrated) |
| RAM | 16 GB (mixed) |
| Storage | 512 GB |
| Screen | 14" 1920x1080 @ 60Hz |
| Weight | 1.55 kg |
| Battery (real) | ~6 h |
Linux compatibility
- ubuntu-lts Out of the box
- Wi-Fi
- works
- Bluetooth
- works
- Fingerprint
- needs tweak
- Webcam
- works
- Audio
- works
- Suspend
- works
- fedora Out of the box
- Wi-Fi
- works
- Bluetooth
- works
- Fingerprint
- needs tweak
- Webcam
- works
- Audio
- works
- Suspend
- works
ubuntu-lts: Whiskey Lake on Intel UHD 620 is about as boring as Linux gets, in the good way. Webcam is a plain UVC unit, no IPU mess. The Synaptics Prometheus fingerprint reader needs a fwupd firmware push and recent libfprint before it pairs with fprintd. 8 GB is soldered, one SO-DIMM slot for the rest, so plan around that.
fedora: Same story on Fedora. S3 deep sleep still works on this generation if BIOS is set to Linux/Legacy sleep, which is a real reason people still hunt these down used. ArchWiki: ThinkPad T490 →