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Watching movies on your laptop is a great pass time. Especially when you are traveling or on long commutes. At UniTech Reviews we know how essential it is to watch your favourite shows and movies on the best screens possible. Therefore, we have compiled a list of our 5 best laptops for watching movies!
What are the best laptops for watching movies?
Before we get into our top 5 picks, what makes a laptop good for watching movies? Well without stating the obvious, it's the type of screen, its quality, and the battery life.
Table Of Contents:
- 5 Best Laptops for watching movies
ASUS Zenbook Flip 14 OLED - (Editors Choice)
ASUS Vivobook Pro 16X - (Premium Best Buy)
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 - (Best Budget Option)
Acer Swift 1 - (Budget Option)
Apple Macbook Air (2020) - (Apple Lovers)
Laptop | Image | Where to buy | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 | £899.99 | ||
ASUS Vivobook Pro 16X |  | £1398.98 | |
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 |  | £494.99 | |
Acer Swift 1 |  | £419.00 | |
Apple Macbook Air (2020) |  | £877.99 |
Specs to Consider When Choosing a Laptop for Watching Movies.
Before we move on, we will show a general specification list for the entire laptop and not just for the dedicated movies.
The two main features of finding the best laptops for watching movies are their display and battery life. Most modern laptops can run streaming apps such as Netflix, Prime Video, and Now TV. Therefore, whether it's watching Football, Movies, or TV shows these are the main two areas you should look at.
Display
The most important feature for streaming movies is the laptop's display! Therefore, all the picks in our list have full HD displays as a minimum., this is because watching HD videos is a must nowadays especially when you can stream high-definition videos at no extra cost. A high-end laptop will utilise an OLED or Retina display which makes colours more vivid.
Screen brightness is also an important feature, especially when it comes to watching movies outdoors. This matched with an anti-glare screen could be a major selling point if you like video streaming outdoors.
Screen resolution
This is the most essential part of this buying guide. Screen resolutions are crucial for a reliable laptop to watch Netflix. In fact, screen resolution makes it more suitable to watch movies. With an inferior screen, you won’t enjoy films as they should. We suggest using the correct resolution to provide an optimum streaming experience. We recommend a minimum of 1080p which is known as HD.
The right screen brightness
If you watch movies outside, the screen brightness is the most important part. The screen brightness is useful when you are in an outdoor environment and cannot control the light intensity. Ultimately, when you use your laptop in the sun the sun distorts your view. Therefore, choosing a device that offers a bright display will improve your outdoor viewing experience. This unit is measured in nits and we usually recommend a value of over 400 nits to watch movies outdoors.
Battery Life
The better the battery life, the longer you can enjoy streaming movies! The battery life of a laptop can depend on many things, such as the size of the battery, the brightness of your display when you are streaming movies and what you are running in the background.
A good battery life in the best laptops for streaming movies is typically anything above 12+ hours. This usually gives you enough charge to watch movies without having to plug in your adapter straight away.
Long battery life can be from 9.5+ hours but this will require you to use your device efficiently.
Storage capacity
Will not be a problem if you want to view your movies directly on the internet. If this is the case your WiFi speeds should be good to ensure a smooth streaming experience. However, if you are travelling with limited access to WiFI, you will require good storage space to store your favourite movies, games, and documents.
A larger storage space will be required if want to watch HD movies on the go, as these take up more storage space.
The Technical Stuff
However, if you want a more all-around experience, laptops have other key features which affect their performance. This article will reference the following components that make an excellent overall laptop so you can make an informed decision on the best laptop for you!
Processor
A laptop's processor is also known as the CPU and it determines how fast applications can operate. Anything above a 4-core processor is ideal for just watching movies.
Your processor is the brain of your computer and you do not require a CPU for movie-watching computers. If you want one that can perform tasks other than watching videos, you need to get the best processors in the market. Assuming you're using four to eight processors for efficient use. Many notebooks are also good for AMD fans based on their processor. The Intel core processor is a fully-integrated chip with a high-performance CPU compared to the core processor.
GPU & RAM
GPU, which stands for (Graphics Processing Unit), is a form of storage that alters memory to produce images. Laptops with GPUs do not have to rely on the CPU to do this task, which means much faster loading speeds.
RAM, which stands for (Random Access Memory) is vital for the performance of a laptop. However, for watching films anything above 4GB will do.
Lightweight/ Portability
The best laptop for watching movies on needs to be lightweight and portable, because the chances are you will be carrying it. A lightweight laptop that fits in your standard bag and is a suitable size to whip out on the go is perfect for your streaming needs. All the laptops on our list are portable and lightweight so you don't have to worry about moving your device about.
Let's get into our top picks!
This Asus Zenbook 14 laptop, has a crisp and bright OLED display that is perfect for watching films and Tv shows.
The laptop has a touchscreen display and can rotate so you can hide the keyboard, to keep you immersed.
Its display goes up to 550 nits, allowing you to easily watch movies out of the home.
Key Features for watching Movies
Display:
This premium laptop is the best laptop for watching movies in our opinion! It comes with a screen size of 14' inches with a screen resolution of 2.8k.
It has a beautiful OLED panel and touchscreen display which goes up to 550 nits. The screen size has a 16:10 aspect ratio which gives a larger visual workspace than most laptops, which makes it the best laptop for watching movies.
Battery Life:
This laptop has good battery life and the latest ultrafast thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports to support fast charging.
Technical Information:
Powerful processor - Intel core i5 processor
16 GB RAM
512GB PCle SSD storage capacity
This Laptop features multiple I/O ports, including an HDMI port and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, alongside a micro sd card slot for extra storage space.
The Asus Vivobook Pro is one of the best Laptops for watching movies due to its vivid display however, it comes with a premium price point.
It comes with a bigger screen that comes in at 16'inchs and has a beautiful 4k OLED display. This allows you to watch movies in 4K UHD.
This laptop can allow you to do much more than watch movies. It comes with high-end components and is able to complete most tasks.
Key Features for watching Movies
Display:
The big screen this laptop has is brilliant for 4k movie watching. Also, due to its high-spec components, it is able to perform light gaming well. It has a screen resolution of 3840x2400 Pixels.
Its 16-inch screen can go up to 400nits and it has a dedicated Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Graphics card making it the best streaming laptop and a relatively good gaming laptop.
Battery Life:
Battery life on this laptop is good, however, if you are watching movies in 4k with high brightness or play games that are intensive it can drain the battery quicker.
Technical Information:
Powerful processor - Ryzen 7
16 GB RAM
1TB SSD storage
8 core processor
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card
Backlit keyboard
One HDMI port is included along with two USB ports.
The 1TB storage will allow you to store multiple movie files in whichever quality you desire along with other media files, still leaving you with space left over.
Its NVIDIA graphics card increases the laptop's graphical performance, which allows for great multitasking.
The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 laptop's screen is a 14-inch full HD screen (FHD) and is a 2-in-1 laptop. Making this one of the best laptops for watching movies.
The laptop has a touchscreen display and the keyboard can be rotated so you can only see the great display this choice provides for watching movies.
This laptop features Dolby Audio, which provides crisp, clear-quality speakers.
Key Features for watching Movies
Display:
This great laptop has narrow bezels on all four sides and a full HD display which allows you to enjoy watching movies.
It has a touchscreen display which has a screen resolution of 1920x1080 along with an ultra-thin design. Making this a lightweight laptop that can be used in tablet mode as well.
Battery Life:
Battery life on this laptop comes in at around 10+ hours, however for watching movies it will be slightly less. The laptop features rapid charging technology that can charge from 0 - 2h within 15 mins of charge!
Technical Information:
Powered by Intel core i5 processor
8 GB RAM
256GB SSD storage capacity
Iris Xe Graphics
One HDMI port is included along with two USB ports.
4. Acer Swift 1
The Acer Swift 1 laptop is a great budget laptop. It features a 14'inch full HD screen and a thin design.
It is a brilliant compact laptop for watching movies. It has a decent screen size and a quad-core processor.
It lets you watch movies and other media files back in HD video quality.
Key Features for watching Movies
Display:
This laptop is great travelling as its 14' FHD IPS display and thin design allow you to play movies on the go in great quality.
It has a screen-to-body ratio of 84% to allow you to fully immerse yourself. With a screen resolution of 1920x1080 along with an ultra-thin design.
Battery Life:
Battery life on this laptop comes in at around 16+ hours which makes this one of our best laptop choices for watching movies.
Technical Information:
Pentium Silver processor
4 GB RAM
4 GB SSD storage - (Would need an external storage device if were downloading movies and not streaming them)
It contains a USB C port along with USB 3.2 Gen1 port for fast data transfer.
This 2020 Apple Macbook Air is an excellent choice for Apple Lovers. Its 13'Inch retina display provides a vivid display making this one of the best laptops for watching movies.
It comes with Apple's M1 powerful processor chip and this Apple Macbook Air has a sleek design and up to 18 hours of battery life depending on use.
It features an LED-backlit and IPS display technology at 2560x1600 native screen resolution. So you can watch movies and consume content with a great display.
Key Features for watching Movies
Display:
This laptop is a great all-around performer, especially if you love the Apple eco-system that other laptops don't have. Its 13' Retina & IPS display gives you a crystal clear image to play movies wherever you are.
The text appears sharp and the colours are bright and vibrant, with this screen's P3 wide colour gamut that offers you 25% more colour range. Which makes for a great experience to watch movies.
Battery Life:
Battery life on this laptop comes in at around 18+ hours which gives you more than enough charge to watch multiple movies! Few laptops in this list possess a charge that lasts as long as this choice.
Technical Information:
Apple's M1 processor
16 GB RAM
256GB SSD storage
Touch Bar & Touch ID
LED Backlit & IPS display
Facetime HD Camera
Two Thunderbolt USB 4 ports with support fast Charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40Gb/s), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s).
If you own a variety of Apple products, other laptops will not come close to this one. You can watch movies with a quality display and link up the laptop to all your Apple products, which only enhances the experience.
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