Hands-on: Toshiba Qosmio F750 Glasses-free 3D laptop Preview

3D has definitely hit the mainstream this year, and it’s no longer limited to the cinema; we’ve seen the price of 3DTVs plummet and a whole lot more 3D laptops have gone on sale. Practically all these devices rely on a pair of glasses to produce a three dimensional picture. Toshiba is determined to change this trend with its new Qosmio F750 multimedia laptop, which is the world’s first to offer a glasses-free solution. We were able to get a first look at the laptop in London yesterday.

Toshiba’s 3D system uses an integrated webcam to track the position of your face, in conjunction with a special lenticular screen which can display two images simultaneously. It automatically adjusts which layers of the screen are active based on which part of the screen you’re looking at, so the 3D effect is always visible regardless of viewing angle. Even when we sat at extreme angles, the webcam could still pick us out and adjust the 3D layers accordingly.

We were fairly impressed with the webcam’s ability to track our eyes when watching a 3D Blu-ray on the 15.6in Full HD display, considering the amount of movement going on behind us. The effect worked best when you stay stationary, as moving to either side causes the image to shift noticeably, and there was a significant amount of cross-talk in certain scenes, although this could have just been the film played during the demonstration.

There are a few downsides to this type of 3D display; an ideal viewing distance of 60cm may be a little too close for some people and the obvious disadvantage is that 3D viewing becomes a one-person experience, rather than simply being limited to the number of pairs of 3D glasses you currently own. Although this really isn’t an issue here, on a 15.6in laptop display.