With people being confined to at-home entertainment during the COVID-19 lockdown, demand is rising for notebooks that can deliver an immersive and visually stunning movie experience. These are some of the best laptop offerings on the market for watching movies.
Lenovo Yoga C740 (Pricing starts at $3,989.30)
The Lenovo Yoga C740 offers a captivating cinema experience, with vibrant colours and a stunning high-resolution display via the Full HD touchscreen and Intel Ultra HD Graphics. It is equipped with a top-of-the-line, user-facing Dolby Atmos speaker system that provides a premium audio experience.
For seamless streaming, it is decked out with Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, enabling speeds of up to 9.6Gbps, some 2.7 times faster than Wi-Fi 5 technology. The Lenovo Yoga C740 integrates with Alexa and Cortana, allowing users to control their home entertainment and other laptop functions from up to 0.9 metres away.
Specs:
- Processor: 10th Gen Intel Core i5/i7
- Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics
- Memory: Up to 16GB
- Operating system: Windows 10 Home 64 and Windows 10 Pro 64
- Display: 14-inch Full HD, IPS 300 nits, Anti-glare 72% NTSC Dolby Vision
- Audio: Dolby Atmos Speaker System, 2W x 2
- Ports: 2 x USB 3.1 Type-C Gen 1; 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 1; 1 x audio jack
- Battery: Up to 13 hours
- Weight: Starting at 1.4kg
Acer Swift 5 (Price: $1,999.00)
With a screen-to-body ratio of 86.4%, the slim Acer Swift 5 offers a beautiful, Full HD IPS 14-inch touchscreen that is ideal for watching movies. It is powered by the latest 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and the NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics processing unit, allowing for integrated graphics that perform 3.5 times faster. It is also equipped with Wi-Fi 6 technology that facilitates 1.7Gbps download speeds and 75% lower latency – making it marginally slower than the Lenovo Yoga C740 but at a much lower price point.
Watching films aside, the Swift 5 offers a number of enticing features. For example, it is highly portable, having an ultra-light magnesium-lithium and magnesium-aluminium chassis, the Swift 5 weighs less than a kilo and is just 14.95mm thick. It also features an embedded fingerprint reader and Wake On Voice, allowing users to activate and query Windows 10 while the screen is off, or interact with Microsoft’s Cortana assistant when in Modern Standby Mode.
Specs:
- Processor: 10th Gen Intel Core i7
- Graphics: Iris Plus Graphics G7
- Memory: 16GB
- Operating system: Windows 10 Home
- Display: 14-inch Full HD, IPS 300 nits
- Audio: Stereo
- Ports: 1 x HDMI port; 1 x USB 2.0; 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A; USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C
- Battery: Up to 12.5 hours
- Weight: 990g
MSI GP75 Leopard (Price: $3,797.00)
While the MSI GP75 Leopard is marketed as a gaming laptop, many of its features make it a premium device for streaming and viewing content as well. For example, it is equipped with 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processors and the latest GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics, optimal for gamers and movie-watchers alike. The screen also spans 17.3 inches, which is a huge plus if you’re regularly watching content on your laptop rather than a TV screen. It offers Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 technology.
The GP75 Leopard has built-in Cooler Boost 5 technology, including seven different heat pipes, to ensure maximum performance while streaming and playing back videos without being noisy. On the sound front, MSI has decked out this laptop with upgraded speakers that claim to be five times bigger than others, producing louder, higher-quality sound.
Specs:
- Processor: 10th Gen Intel Core i7
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
- Memory: 16GB
- Operating system: Windows 10 Home
- Display: 17.3 inches
- Audio: 2 x 3W speakers
- Ports: 1 x HDMI; 3 x USB 3.2; 1 x USB-C
- Weight: 2.6kg
Gigabyte AERO 17 (Price starting at $3,199.00)
This high-performing laptop from Gigabyte maximises screen space, with a screen-to-body ratio of 89% and a 17.3-inch, bright 4K Ultra HD IPS display. Its vibrant brightness matches the VESA Display HDR 400 standard and supports 100% Adobe RGB colour gamut, providing a wider range of colours, and great colour accuracy too. It is equipped with the most powerful NVIDIA RTX graphics processing unit, enabling viewers to watch 8K video, with real-time ray tracing and AI-assisted features.
In addition, the AERO 17 is built with the Killer E2600 internet chip and Killer AX1650 Wi-Fi card, supporting Wi-Fi 6 connectivity and download speeds of up to 2.4Gbps. Gigabyte’s own Windforce Infinity cooling technology has 71 blade fans and five heat pipes to ensure that the notebook stays cool, while also being quiet, during your gameplay, video playback and multi-tasking.
Specs:
- Processor: 10th Gen Intel Core i9 or i7 processors
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 or 2070 Super with Max-Q Design
- Memory: 8-32GB
- Operating system: Windows 10 Home
- Display: 17.3 inches
- Audio: 2 x 2W speakers
- Ports: 1 x HDMI 2.0; 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A; 1 x Thunderbolt 3 Type-C; 1 x Mini DP 1.4; 1 x headphone output; 1 x microphone input; 1 x UHS-II SD card reader; 1 x DC-in jack; 1 x RJ-45
- Battery: 8 hours
- Weight: 2.5kg
