I've put together this guide to the best laptops for watching and streaming movies by sorting through our top-reviewed machines with a number of specific criteria in mind. A good movie laptop needs a great-looking screen, that much is a given, but there are other criteria to think about, too.
For instance, good speakers are a definite plus for a movie-watching laptop. While many people will use headphones, it's good to know that you'll at least have the option of decent speakers. And that screen needs to be nice and big, with vivid colours and enough resolution to display movies as they were meant to be seen (at least FHD is essential).
The quick list
We'll start with a quick overview of our top picks as the best laptops for watching movies overall. You can jump down our full evaluations of each laptop for streaming at the bottom of the guide.
As well as offering brilliant value for money, this laptop is also constructed from eco-friendly materials. Its display is a bright, poppy IPS with pleasing colour response.
If you want to stream movies for a long stretch without needing a charge, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition and its 18-hour battery life should be your first port of call.
For those whose interest in movies overlaps with an interest in gaming, the HP Omen Max 16 is the laptop that can do both, with plenty of horsepower in the graphical department.
The 3.2K OLED display on this Windows laptop is a thing of beauty, and you get plenty of computing power for your buck, too. Battery power does leave a little to be desired, so it's not one for travel.
The 15-inch MacBook Air M4 is a sublime laptop for movie-watching. It's got a gorgeous screen, its battery lasts for ages, and it's feather-light. You can get cheaper by going Windows, but this well-priced MacBook is in a class of its own.
We've already recommended 16-inch laptops, but if you want an even larger screen for a more immersive experience, the Dell XPS 17 is gorgeous. The picture is outstanding thanks to 4K resolution, HDR support and 500 nits brightness.
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A 2-in-1 laptop consists of a tablet and detachable keyboard, and this is our favourite. It comes with an 14.4-inch PixelSense touchscreen with a high refresh rate of up to 120Hz and a QHD resolution.
The best laptops for streaming and watching movies in full
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The best value laptop for watching movies
Constructed using a large proportion of recycled plastic and other responsibly sourced materials, the Acer Aspire Vero 16 2025 is a fine choice for anyone who wants a movie-watching laptop with a minimal sustainability footprint. The materials may feel a little strange at first if you're not used to it, but there's nothing wrong with the way the Aspie Vero 16 is constructed, and we may well expect many more laptops like it in the future.
In all other respects, this is a solid budget laptop that's never going to trouble the big leagues, but when you're just looking for something to watch movies on, you don't need it to. The display is a bright and perky IPS with a good colour response, and you get a full-sized HDMI if you want to run out to an external monitor or projector.
In terms of our testing, both real-world and benchmark, the Acer Aspire Vero 16 2025 falls in the lower third of the pack, but it's got more than enough horsepower to make it through a stream without difficulty. It's also worth noting that we've seen significant reductions on the price of the lower-spec model with 8GB RAM and a 512GB SSD, with the UK version sitting as low as £499 and the US one at $519. That's not bad!
Battery life does pretty well, coming in at just under 12 hours in our tests, meaning you could do a Lord of the Rings marathon if you didn't mind going with theatrical cuts rather than extended editions. For more detail, see our Acer Aspire Vero 16 2025 review.
The best battery-life laptop for watching movies and streaming
If you're going to be watching movies on long journeys, or in similar situations where you won't have easy access to a power supply, long battery life is a must. I think one of your best options in this regard would be the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition, a mid-range laptop that delivers good enough specs across the board for a smooth movie-watching experience, but also lasts and lasts before it needs a charge.
Part of our testing procedure for all laptops is rating the battery life. We do this by locking them in a cupboard with a full charge, setting a video to play on loop, and timing how long it takes before the laptop dies. Under these conditions, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition kept on going for a remarkable 18 and a half hours. By the same 'Lord of the Rings marathon' metric we used for the previous entry, you'd be able to not only get through all three extended editions, but also make a start on the Hobbit films (not that you'd want to).
You'd also have a pleasant movie-watching experience. The IPS display managed a respectable brightness of 550 nits in our testing, and it produces lovely colours. The compute power on show here is plenty for streaming movies. The 2W speakers, meanwhile, are... fine. They're nobody's idea of a brilliant time, but they're acceptable, and if you're using the laptop on the go, you'll be using headphones in any case.
Read our full Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition review for more detail.
Best gaming laptop for watching movies
If you're looking to do some gaming as well as movie-watching on your new laptop, you'll need a bit more graphical and computing power. The HP Omen Max 16 is our favourite gaming laptop for movie watching currently, as its bright 16-inch IPS display is a great platform for an enjoyable watching experience.
This is a pretty chunky beast, at almost twice the weight of a MacBook Air, and when you combine this with its fairly paltry battery life (four hours in our looping video test), it's clear that this isn't really a laptop for use on the go, but rather is made for setting up in a gaming cave. Still, with the pixel-pushing power of a desktop PC crammed into its shell, you get absolutely blistering performance from this machine, as borne out in our testing.
There are plenty of USB ports for expanding the 1TB storage if so desired, and you can also use the HDMI 2.1 out to hook up an external screen or monitor. It's an expensive machine, so is only worth even considering if you are genuinely going to use all of that power for gaming. Read our HP Omen Max 16 review for more detail.
The best Windows laptop for streaming
You can't argue with an OLED display for movie watching, and this Windows-running laptop features a doozy. The 3.2K specimen on the ASUS Vivobook Pro 16 is bright and vivid, with a three-sided NanoEdge 87% screen-to-body ratio that maximises display real estate without boosting the size of the laptop too much. It's colour-calibrated to industry standard levels, so you can be sure you're seeing movies as the creators intended, and it also manages up to 600 nits of peak brightness, which is ideal for most environments.
This is a budget to mid-priced laptop for creatives, which does mean that for movie watching it is on the expensive end. With that said, you do get a lot of horsepower for your money thanks to the 13th Gen Intel CPU and dedicated NVIDIA graphics card, meaning it's a great option if you're also going to be doing creative work on the laptop. If you're not (i.e. if you want to watch movies and nothing else) then you might find this a little overpowered.
It's also worth noting that the battery performance of this laptop left something to be desired in our testing. It only managed two to three hours of life when engaged in photo and video editing, and while movie watching is a less intensive activity, it still pales in comparison to the likes of the Lenovo Yoga Slim.
For more, see our full ASUS Vivobook Pro 16 review.
The best Apple MacBook for watching movies
Apple knows its audience, and MacBooks are generally great for watching movies. A MacBook Air is the best choice in our view, as you get a nice big display, but in a much lighter body than a MacBook Pro (which also carries a lot of computing power that you simply don't need). With a gorgeous 15-inch Liquid Retina screen, the MacBook Air 15-inch (M4, 2025) makes movies look good.
It ticks pretty much every other box we're looking for in our movie-watching quest. The battery life is exceedingly generous, and charging is very smooth and fast via MagSafe or USB-C. Highly portable, the Air is easy to slip into a bag and take on journeys or just to a coffee shop (and if you think movie-watching in a coffee shop is weird, I can assure you that the people in my local coffee shop do not).
The Air has power for days, and if you're balancing your movie-watching with getting some serious creative work done, you'll have a fantastic platform on which to do it; the laptop scored brilliantly on all of our benchmark tests. Price-wise, it starts at $1,199 / £1,199 (and you can stick with the starting version for movie watching). While you can get a Windows machine for cheaper, if you prefer the look and feel of Apple products, the Air represents excellent value for money.
Find out more in our MacBook Air 15-inch (M4, 2025) review.
The best laptop for streaming on a big screen
Sixteen inches is fine for most people, but if you want an even larger screen, the 17-inch display of the Dell XPS 17 is a great laptop for watching movies. It scores highly on picture quality, thanks to an InfinityEdge touch display that supports HDR, and Dolby Vision and at the highest configuration, 4K+ resolution of 3,840 x 2,400. The 0.65% anti-reflective coating and 500 nits brightness helps to minimise reflections in bright environments. And overall, this display offers excellent picture quality, sharp details and vibrant colours.
The two 2.5W stereo speakers deliver decent quality sound too, which is certainly loud enough to watch films. On the downside, battery life is decidedly average: our reviewer managed five hours and 45 minutes of mixed use on a single charge. However, given the 4K screen and RTX 3060 graphics, it’s not so bad and allows for a fair amount of streaming time before it needs to be re-charged.
It’s also a nice choice for creatives, with a high level of performance in rendering videos. Our reviewer found that rendering a 10-minute and 32-second 4K video in HEVC (H.265) on Premiere Pro only took around four and a half minutes, reducing to just under two minutes for 1080p.
It’s definitely worth the lofty price tag for the picture and sound quality, a tempting choice for both viewers and creatives. For more details, see our Dell XPS 17 9710 review.
The best 2-in-1 laptop for watching movies
If you spend all day working hard at a laptop, using the same device to stream movies may not feel like the best way to switch off. That's why some people prefer a more neutral screen like a tablet, which is easier to position on a sideboard or bedside table, and won't tempt you to minimise your movie window and start replying to emails during the film.
If that sounds like you, then bear in mind that you don't need to buy a separate tablet. You could just go for a 2-in-1 laptop, which consists of a tablet and detachable keyboard, giving you the best of both worlds. And our favourite right now is the Surface Laptop Studio.
It comes with an 14.4-inch PixelSense touchscreen with a high refresh rate of up to 120Hz and a QHD resolution of 2400 x 1600. Our reviewer was particularly impressed with the in-built speakers (two mini subwoofers and two tweeters) which produce a rich, full-bodied sound. He achieved brightness of 505 nits, and battery life was strong too, consistently providing 12 hours of viewing on a single charge, even with the refresh rate turned up to the max.
Note though, that cinephiles may have an issue with the 3:2 aspect ratio, which is taller than the normal 16:9 ratio, making widescreen movies a little more letterboxed than on standard screens. For more details, see our Surface Laptop Studio review.
How to choose the best laptop for movies
One of the most important things in a laptop for watching films and TV is a premium display. You'll want a minimum of Full HD and, ideally, 4K if your budget allows. You'll also want a high level of screen brightness for when you're watching outside in the sun.
Additionally, you'll want strong audio capabilities, which isn't always a given. (Unfortunately, we've tested laptops with excellent high-res screens that are let down by dismal, tiny speakers, so the two things don't necessarily go together.)
You'll also want a fast processor because you don't want your viewing experience marred by stuttering and crashes, although most decent laptops should be able to handle streaming these days, and download/steaming quality also depends on the speed on your internet connection. Battery life is important too, for when you're watching movies on a long journey, or in a hotel room that's short on power points. A decent-sized internal SSD is also useful to ensure you have space to store large video files.
How we test the best laptops for movies
When we reviewed the laptops above, our tech experts put them through a series of benchmark tests to measure their performance in several areas, including screen brightness and colour accuracy and battery life. We also tested the laptops for a range of tasks including general work and browsing plus more graphically demanding creative work as well as watching movies.
We've aimed to include a range of devices to suit different needs, including more portable devices and laptops that can serve for other purposes as well as streaming. You might also want to see our guides to the best laptops for graphic design and the best laptops for video editing.
FAQs
What is the best laptop for watching movies?
The best laptop for streaming and watching movies for you will depend to some extent on what else you want to use it for. After all, few people use a laptop only for watching films. This is why we've also evaluate the devices above for other day-to-day functions like web surfing, social media, productivity tasks and more intensive design work.
Budget will obviously play a role in your decision, but so will portability. Watching movies can be more enjoyable on a larger screen, and so larger laptops like the MacBook Pro 16 and Dell XPS 17 feature in high positions in our list above. But, while these are great if you're going to be using them at home or in an office most of the time, they may not be the best choice for you if you regularly travel with your laptop or use it in different locations on the go. In that case, you may prefer a small, lighter laptop for streaming, like the 13-inch MacBook Air.
What display resolution should I look for in a laptop for watching? movies?
In general, we'd recommend buying laptops with at least Full HD (1920x1080), for crisp and clear visuals while watching movies. You can go higher, of course, as there are many 2K and 4K laptops on the market.
However, before you commit to that extra spend, make sure you have a service that can stream to that picture quality. (For example, Netflix has a 4K option in most countries, but it demands a higher level of subscription.) Also make sure your internet connection is fast enough to handle high-quality streaming.
