Toshiba Announces First Glasses-Free 3D Laptop

In the rush to move everything into the third dimension, Toshiba has announced their latest glasses-free 3D notebook, the Qosmio F755 3D. The laptop is even capable of displaying 2D and 3D content at the same time. So how does it all work?

Toshiba achieves the 3D glasses-free viewing by using the latest in auto-stereoscopic display technology. The 15.6" LCD is a full HD TruBrite panel with Active Lens technology, with double parallax technology that allows it to project two sets of images at the same time, splitting them between the left and right eyes to create the 3D effect. Toshiba’s Face Tracking technology then uses the laptop’s webcam to optimize the projection of the image by reacting to the motion and position of the viewer, delivering a broad viewing zone from which to view 3D content. The end result is the ability to view and enjoy real 3D sans no glasses.

What about simultaneous 2D and 3D content? There's nothing particularly revolutionary here; as one of the first implementations of windowed 3D content (courtesy of NVIDIA's latest drivers), users can watch 3D content in a full-screen or condense it to a smaller window, leaving the rest of the content in standard 2D mode. Like other 3D laptops, Toshiba also includes the ability to convert 2D movies into a faux-3D mode, though I've never felt that looked particularly good.

The Qosmio F755 3D comes with all the other accoutrements you'd expect from a modern high-end notebook, though the GPU is lacking if you're hoping to play games with 3D Vision enabled. The CPU is a Core i7, while graphics come in the form of the GeForce GT 540M. Storage consists of a 750GB hard drive and a Blu-ray/DVDR combo drive, and as usual Toshiba uses harman/kardon speakers to deliver improved sound quality.

The Qosmio F755 3D will be available in mid-August with a $1700 MSRP at select e-tailers and ToshibaDirect.com. Pre-rendered images of the laptop are below, showing Toshiba hasn't lost their verve for glossy red exteriors.