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I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 with 1280x800 resolution. If I buy a 1080p LCD monitor can the resolution of the monitor be utilized if I connect it to my laptop?

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Yes, and actually both displays can be used at their native resolutions (which will make a ragged desktop, but oh well).

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the ragged desktop may not be too big of a deal depending how the monitors are arranged. – Xantec Dec 1 '10 at 15:18
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+1. And some machines enable you to set which of the 2 displays is the extended display, i.e. you can set the external larger screen to be the "main" display where your taskbar resides and your notebook is secondary. You can change the order of the displays so that the mouse pointer appears on the correct edge of the other display when you move between them. All of this is settable in standard Display Settings in Windows - I did similar with my 1024x600 Toshiba NB100 netbook and a 1080p monitor via a DSUB analogue VGA cable. Some systems also allow the taskbar to be extended across screens. – therobyouknow Dec 1 '10 at 16:50
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up vote 3 down vote

Depending on your laptop, you can hook up the additional monitor to your external vga/dvi/htmi port and output to a 2nd screen (also depending on your operating system).

You should be able to get native Yx1080 resolution on that monitor without any problems.

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+1 straightforward answer. – therobyouknow Dec 2 '10 at 13:28
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it may not be able to run the display at 1080p

if possible try it out first, else go for a 720p display..

Edit: it does come with a HDMI port I think, so you should be OK with a 1080p display, but dont plan on playing any games on it..

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I would be really surprised if it couldn't. My laptop can run a 1680×1050 panel via D-sub. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Dec 1 '10 at 15:47
As it comes with onboard graphics, I would not expect anything beyond Basic performance at 1080p – Akash Dec 1 '10 at 15:50
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This is a terrible answer... you are making rather rash assumptions here, and please don't use 720p, 1080p talk... HD is for the masses that don't know resolution from a hole in the ground. The user will be able to watch / do whatever they want on the new monitor, just as if it was their laptop display. – Jakub Dec 1 '10 at 18:11
The question asks "If I buy a 1080p LCD monitor can the resolution of the monitor be utilized if I connect it to my laptop?" Since the application is not mentioned, I answered appropriately.. Onboard graphics will be able to handle normal tasks at 1080p, but are unlikely to give any ort of playable framerates on any recent games. As he does not mention whether he is using it for gaming or not, I answered acc. to both..(Initially I had posted that it may not handle 1080p, as I was under the impression that it had only a VGA port , and that VGA cannot handle 1080p. Ignacio cleared that up).. – Akash Dec 1 '10 at 18:16
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How does VGA not handle Yx1080 resolution?? higher resolutions have been around before someone coined the phrase "HD" or 1080p, or 720p... do some research. Max for a VGA cable is: 2048x1536px @85 Hz – Jakub Dec 1 '10 at 18:52
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