Both Canon 400D and Canon A490 have 10.0 MP resolution sensors but Canon 400D's sensor is APS-C (22.2 x 14.8 mm ) and Canon A490's sensor is 1/2.3-inch (6.17 x 4.55 mm ).
Since Canon 400D's has a larger sensor area with the same resolution, this means that it also has a larger pixel area hence better light collecting capacity for a given aperture compared to Canon A490.
Below you can see the 400D and A490 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Canon 400D has a 11.7x Larger sensor area than Canon A490. Larger sensors give photographer more control on the depth of field and blurry background compared to smaller sensor when shot in same focal length and aperture.