Mobile Computing News

Photo: Apple

Just a short three years ago, having full HD on an LCD screen, let alone a laptop, was a luxury. How things change when you consider a 1920×1080p resolution monitor is found on a myriad devices now, ranging from TVs to PC monitors to laptop displays. Below are two notable power entries of the many awesome full HD laptops on the market today.

Sony’s big boy

Considering their pedigree in high definition LCD televisions, it’s no surprise Sony was one of the first to the market with full HD laptops. The Intel Core i7 740QM powered Sony Vaio VPCF112M0E/B 1080p laptop is a new favourite. Be warned, you’ll pay north of £1,000 for this laptop, but that money buys you a clock speed of 2,930MHz, 500GB hard drive, 4GB RAM, and a prettier exterior to match.

The Apple Macbook Pro

Photo: Sony

Apple’s current Macbook Pro range of laptops is dazzling. They truly are a marvel to work with and look at. Where they’re not so great is in their prize tag. The 17-inch Macbook Pro, which is the only configuration you can get the full HD display in, costs at least £1,650. Obscene. But that buys you the unibody aluminium clad Intel Core i5 with clock speed of 2,530MHz, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. The uber-bright, gorgeous display actually has an aspect ratio of 16:10 (in lieu of the usual 16:9) with a resolution of 1920×1200 (in lieu of the usual full HD resolution of 1920×1080), meaning when watching films on the machine, you get very narrow cropping bars along the top and bottom of the display. Oh, and you’re also paying for the Apple name, remember, which always comes with a premium, justifiable or not.

What are you using it for?

What’s important to remember when looking for the best full HD laptop is what you’ll be using it for. If content and film watching is the reason you want one, then these two laptops may be overkill. If designing or editing with gorgeous screen real estate is your motive, then these two laptops should certainly be among your considerations. What matters is you spend your money wisely, remembering that searching for the best full HD laptop may not be what you want, when in fact a full HD TV is better for your viewing habits.

If you were to add another remarkable laptop to the two mentioned above, what would it be?