Tell me! Who doesn’t love to watch movies? Of course, it’s always a great way to unwind after a hectic day at work. Plus, there’s an old proverb that says, “all work and no play makes Jackie a super dull guy!”
Yeah right! We should always have a way to balance all the day’s work and catch a break sometimes. Thus, to kill two lions with one spear, you prefer to use your laptop to watch your fave series or movies—thanks to Netflix.
You need to get the ideal laptop that will not only serve as your workstation. It should also be your mini home theater, together with your headphone, when you’re not working—to give you that cinema vibes.
The Good news: There’re quality laptops that can deliver the clear, crisp picture and Dolby digital sound you need to watch your movies at night. And they still double as your workstation in the day.
Not to worry, we got your back! In this article, we’ll be discussing extensively how to buy the best laptop for watching movies. Plus, we’ll be listing the top three choices.
Contents
Quick Summary
For you to enjoy watching movies on a laptop, you must fulfill two things: video resolution and sound. There are other factors like battery life, RAM, hard drive space, and many others to check. We did all our checks, and only three laptops were able to meet our standards.
- The Acer Aspire 5 is the ideal laptop for you if you want to enjoy the widescreen view while you stream your movies.
- If you’re looking for a laptop that’s ideal for your Netflix Streaming as well as gives you a bang for your buck, then you should consider going for the HP Pavilion X360.
- You should have nothing less of the Apple MacBook Pro if you need a laptop that can deliver high-definition and crisp images without flickering.
Who Should Get This
If you engage in a lot of video streaming and Netflixing, you’ll love the laptops listed in this article. One common thing about the laptops listed in this roundup is screen resolution—which is an excellent feature for any laptop that will be doing a lot of streaming. You don’t want to be watching your movies with blurry-looking images.
That said, three of the listed laptops are also great for performing other basic activities, except the Apple MacBook Pro. The engineers designed it to handle heavy-duty tasks, like gaming and editing.
Thus, if you want to enjoy a laptop with a high screen resolution, you can pick any of the three options—and they will serve well. If you’re looking for a basic workstation, you may not need these laptops as they may be too high for the purpose.
Best Laptop for Watching Movies: Our Picks
1. Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop
The Acer Aspire 5 may not be the fastest laptop in the market, but it qualifies as a great bang for your buck anytime. Acer did a great job with this model by sandwiching a robust dual-core Inter CPU and a full-HD display into a slim case—weighing less than four pounds in size.
Moreover, its long battery life and smooth day-to-day performance will keep you happy if you’re a productivity-minded user.
However, if you plan to carry out heavy-duty tasks on this system, like playing “Warcraft,” then you should be prepared to visit a repairer soon—because the manufacturer didn’t build it for that. The Aspire 5 comes with a 128GB drive merged with a mere 4GB. Now, you know what we meant earlier!
If you like your laptop stylishly thin, then you’ll surely get a smile after seeing the Acer Aspire 5, thanks to its 0.7-inch thick width, which makes it lightweight.
What We Like:
- It’s reasonably affordable
- It has an impressive battery life
- Slim and light design
- Robust dual-core performance
What We Don’t Like:
- No integrated memory card reader
- Small RAM size
2. HP Pavilion X360 Touchscreen 2-in-1 Laptop
The HP Pavilion X360 is a budget laptop that gives you value for your money. The laptop comes with unique features that set it aside from other laptops in the market. The Pavillion X360 has a decent performance thanks to its 8th generation Intel corei5 processor that merges a 1TB hard drive with 8GB RAM as well as a 16GB Intel Optane Memory.
That’s not all. The laptop comes with a 15.6” Full HD screen, which gives you the widescreen effect and crisp pictures when you’re watching movies. Plus, HP designed it with IPS technology, which makes screen time more enjoyable—offering sharp and bright colors with wide viewing angles.
The 360 hinge is another great feature of the HP Pavilion X360, which gives a 360 flip effect—as the name implies. Thus, you can use it in tab mode, laptop mode, or even tent mode.
What’s more? The display of the laptop is touch-enabled, and it comes with a free pen—which is an ideal feature for users that do a lot of sketches or writing.
What We Like:
- 360-degree flip design
- IPS display technology
- Touch-enabled Display
- The screen is Full-HD Res
What We Don’t Like:
- Battery life is not long enough
3. Apple MacBook Pro
The Apple MacBook Pro speaks for itself already—thus, we can’t say much! Apple created the laptop to have a Full-HD display as well as a brilliant retina display—which makes it ideal for watching for full HD movies with 720 pixels.
With its 10 hours battery life, you can watch a full season of “Game of Thrones” without worrying about the laptop battery running flat on you.
The laptop comes with a 2.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 Processor merged with a 256GB hard drive and 16GB RAM, which enhances its performance level.
With this laptop you can do more than just watching movies, you can also play high-end PC games or edit a movie. Thus, it’s a complete package in one box.
What We Like:
- Decent RAM size
- Brilliant Retina display
- Full-HD Display
- Long battery life
What We Don’t Like:
- No legacy USB ports
Laptop for Watching Movies: What to Consider
Here are some key things to check out before buying a laptop for watching movies.
Screen Dimension and Resolution
This feature is one of the most vital factors you should consider before buying a laptop for watching movies. It’s typical for many people to prefer watching their movies on a big screen.
A bigger laptop with a widescreen means a bulkier and bigger device—which means a shorter battery life. It’s okay if you’ll be using your 17” laptop at home. But if you’ll be outdoors most of the time, it’s wise to stick with laptops that come in smaller screen sizes.
Another essential feature to check is the screen resolution. These days, most laptops come with full high-definition resolution. Thus, you can even see a budget laptop that comes with 1368X768 displays.
Also, you mustn’t forget to check if the display of the laptop is IPS or not. If you love to enjoy better viewing and color angles while watching movies, it’s best to go for laptops with IPS screen.
Processor and Performance
You may not enjoy your screen time while streaming your Netflix or watching movies if you have an amazingly low system processor—especially if you’ll be running other programs on the laptop.
Speakers and Sound
What’s a good visual without great audio? A ton of laptops come with simple and basic speakers that hardly cover a small room space. Thus, you have to look out for a laptop that has got great Dolby speakers, if you don’t plan to use external speakers or headphones.
Battery Life
It’s a terrible thing to have your laptop battery run low in the middle of a good movie. Thus, you shouldn’t negotiate battery life if you’re mostly outdoors or a frequent traveler.
FAQs
Why should I buy a laptop for watching a movie when I have a BluRay DVD at home?
Most of the best movies are available for purchase online, even classics. With your laptop, you can buy and download any movie you want without hassle. Plus, you can carry a laptop anywhere with you wirelessly.
What should I look out for when I’m buying a laptop suitable for watching movies?
You need to put connectivity speed into consideration if you’re going to be streaming a lot of movies from Netflix. Also, storage is crucial if you’ll be downloading movies or storing them in the cloud
Does screen resolution matter when it comes to watching movies?
Of course, it does! When your laptop has a higher screen resolution, your picture quality and screen display will be sharper and crisp. Thus, we recommend that you go for a laptop with 1920×1080 pixels.
Rounding Up
You don’t need a high-end system to watch movies. All you need is to get a laptop that comes with a Full-HD screen, high pixel resolution, and probably a widescreen if you want it “cinema style.”
A great way to start is to make your choice from the laptops listed in this article as they provide optimal performance and great value for your money.
Tell us which of the laptops you like the most? Are there other favorites you didn’t see in this article? Hit us back with your comments and suggestions—because we’d love to hear from you.
