The Dell OptiPlex 5490 All-in-One (starts at $1,239; $1,399 as tested) features midrange computing components inside a space-saving, 24-inch all-in-one (AIO) chassis. What separates it from a consumer-grade all-in-one isn’t a high-end processor or super-charged workstation-class graphics, but a three-year warranty and a highly adjustable design that lets you position the display just right—ergonomics are an important factor for long workdays. The OptiPlex 5490 also uses a more powerful desktop-class CPU instead of the mobile processors usually found on all-in-one PCs where airflow and thermal concerns are paramount. Many businesses will be better off with a small-form-factor PC and a separate display, but if you must have an AIO, the OptiPlex 5490 is a solid option.
Highly Adjustable, But No Discrete GPU Option
The OptiPlex 5490 series features 10th and 11th Generation six-core Intel Core i5 desktop CPUs, as well as a 10th Generation Core i7 CPU if you want to upgrade to an eight-core chip. You also have limited options for RAM (either 8GB or 16GB) and storage drive (either a 128GB or 256GB SSD). There is no option for upgrading the graphics—you’re stuck with integrated Intel graphics.
Other than the CPU being a generation behind Intel’s latest, our test configuration is the most advanced in the lineup, with the Core i7-10700T CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. All models feature a 23.8-inch, non-touch display with a full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) resolution.
The OptiPlex 5490’s design prioritizes function over form. This is an entry-level, all-in-one business PC meant for the daily office grind, not a splashy all-in-one meant to turn heads in a reception area or boardroom. The plastic enclosure is as plain as the plastic base upon which it rests. Thin bezels that border three sides of the display lend a modern look, and the thick bezel below the display can be forgiven because it houses a speaker bar.
The display measures 21.3 inches wide by 13.5 inches tall, and the rectangular base measures 9.9 inches wide by 10.1 inches deep. The neck of the stand sits toward the back of the base, giving you room to stash the keyboard on the base under the display when you don’t need it. It should be noted that neither a keyboard nor a mouse is included with our test system, but Dell offers wired and wireless peripherals for an added cost.
Back to the base: What it lacks in elegance it makes up for in flexibility. It provides height, swivel, and tilt adjustment. You can position the display so its bottom edge is only 3.5 inches above your desk and raise it so that it’s nearly 7.5 inches high. Together with the tilt and swivel adjustments, the base allows you to position the display to your ergonomic specifications for a comfortable work setup that should help you avoid repetitive strain injuries.
Disappointing Screen Quality
The Dell OptiPlex 5490 All-in-One features a 23.8-inch, non-touch, full HD display. During testing, photos and HD video looked sharp, but text looked blurry unless I pushed back from my desk a bit. When I was within two feet of the screen, the edges of letters looked fuzzy. From a foot to 1.5 feet away, I could make out individual pixels. If you read documents or stare at spreadsheets all day, you will probably want a higher-resolution display than what the OptiPlex 5490 offers.
The display is also a poor choice for brightly lit environments. We tested it with a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and found it produced a modest 267 nits at its maximum brightness setting. It suffices for most office settings under artificial light, but a 300-nit or higher display is a better fit for sunnier environs.
We also used the sensor to measure the display’s color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes it can show. It was a tick away from full coverage of sRGB at 97%, along with creditable coverage of Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 at 75% and 77%, respectively.
A 2-megapixel infrared (IR) webcam hides above the display in a pop-up module. It provides a full HD picture that is both crisp and well-balanced. With its IR tech, you can use the camera to log into Windows simply by placing your face in front of the machine. And when not in use, the camera can be hidden away to ensure your privacy in the office.
The system’s integrated speakers produce enough sound for clear Zoom calls and video playback, but they sound flat when listening to music. Like the audio output of most laptops and other all-in-ones, the OptiPlex 5490 lacks the bass response to act as a music sound system. If you like to work with music playing, you’ll need an external speaker or headphones.
For connecting to a speaker or headphones, you’ll find an audio jack conveniently located on the left side of the display next to a USB-C port, a USB 3.2 Type-A port, and an SD card slot. I very much appreciated being able to access this quartet of connections without needing to reach around the back of the display.
The rest of the ports are located in the center of the back panel and are a bit difficult to access because they are below where the stand connects to the display. You get two more USB 3.2 ports on the back along with a pair of USB 2.0 ports. There’s also a DisplayPort connection but nothing in the way of an HDMI port. Completing the port offerings on the back are an Ethernet port and a line-out audio jack.
Entry-level business machines often come backed by a consumer-grade one-year warranty, but that’s thankfully not the case with the OptiPlex 5490. Dell backs the system with a standard three-year parts-and-labor warranty, a time period that enterprise customers have come to expect for fleet machines.
OptiPlex 5490 Performance: It’s a True Desktop CPU
An all-in-one business fleet machine is a specialized product and makes finding systems for direct comparison a challenge. To put Dell OptiPlex 5490 All-in-One’s performance in perspective, we found two consumer all-in-ones in the Acer Aspire C27 AIO and the Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 3, as well as an entry-level midtower workstation in the Dell OptiPlex 5090. We also included Apple’s 24-inch iMac, but it’s incompatible with many of the Windows benchmarks. Their core components are outlined below.
Productivity Tests
The main benchmark of UL’s PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10’s Full System Drive test to assess the load time and throughput of a desktop’s storage.
Three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 uses that company’s Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs’ Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).
Our last productivity test is Puget Systems’ PugetBench for Photoshop, which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe’s famous image editor to rate a PC’s performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It’s an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.
The OptiPlex 5490 turned in a middling result on PCMark 10, finishing behind the Core i5-based Dell OptiPlex 5090 and just ahead of the AMD Ryzen 3-based Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO 3. However, any score above 4,000 on this test generally indicates excellent performance, which means the OptiPlex 5490 should power through most business productivity tasks.
On our HandBrake, Cinebench, and Geekbench tests, the OptiPlex 5490 finished in the middle of the pack. It trailed the OptiPlex 5090 and M1-based Apple iMac, but proved faster than the pair of consumer all-in-ones, the Acer Aspire C27 AIO and the Lenovo IdeaCentre C27 AIO.
Graphics Tests
We test Windows PCs’ graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for desktops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs).
We also run two tests from the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which stresses both low-level routines like texturing and high-level, game-like image rendering. The 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Car Chase tests, rendered offscreen to accommodate different display resolutions, exercise graphics and compute shaders using the OpenGL programming interface and hardware tessellation respectively. The more frames per second (fps), the better.
On both the 3DMark tests and GFXBench tests, the results of the OptiPlex 5490 All-in-One clearly indicate that this entry-level workstation is the opposite of a gaming system. That’s to be expected for a business-class AIO.
All-in-One or Small Form Factor: Which Do You Need?
The all-in-one business desktop is a one-of-a-kind system. Most businesses in need of entry-level PCs will opt for something like the Dell OptiPlex 3090 Small Form Factor, because keeping the PC and display separate lets you hold on to your investment in the display when the time comes to upgrade the PC. The all-in-one design does allow for a more streamlined setup for IT departments, but even then your company must be very tight on space or have very specific needs for an all-in-one workstation.
If you require such a setup, Dell is one of the only games in town. The OptiPlex 5490 All-in-One boasts a desktop CPU inside a winning albeit staid design, and it’s backed by a generous warranty. Still, we’ll continue to steer most business buyers toward a small-form-factor workstation and a separate display.
