Can laptops drive external monitors at higher resolution than laptop monitor?

Question

I'm shopping for a new laptop and struggling BIG TIME with the lack of 1920x1200 resolution. I can accept the lame 1920x1080 resolution a little easier if I knew that when docked it could still drive my 2 24" monitors at 1920x1200 but I can't find in the specifications where they would cover this.

So my question: Typically speaking, when a laptop states a max resolution of 1920x1080 is that a limitation of the graphics card/chip or the LCD screen? If the latter, is it reasonable to think that when docked the external monitors could enjoy a higher resolution?

Bonus: I'm a programmer. I know there are lots of us out there. Are you all as annoyed with the lack of 1920x1200 resolution options as I am?? Those 120 pixels make a big difference!

Solution

The resolution of laptop output through HDMI/Thunderbolt/Mini DisplayPort port it doesn't depends on the laptops main monitor resolution.

It mainly depends on the laptops capability of the GPU (remember the integrated GPU that will work most of the time). If you want also know the specs of the processor you are buying you can always go to ark.intel.com website and look at the processors iGPU capabilites:

For example, the i7-7700HQ can output up to 3 monitors:

http://ark.intel.com/products/97185/Intel-Core-i7-7700HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz

I could show you a thousand of examples out there but here one that shows best how a FullHD monitor can output different 4K outputs.

From https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GS63VR-7RF-Stealth-Pro.html:

3 external displays through 1x HDMI (4K @ 60Hz), 1x Mini DisplayPort 1.2 and 1x Thunderbolt 3

Obviously, if 4K resolution is handled, 1920x1200 resolution would be also supported.

Comments

[Alex]

Most nowadays laptops has HDMI port, so you even don't need a dock station. Most laptops support different modes for external monitor 1:1 (the same resolution as on primary laptop display) or extended. When you use it in extended mode then laptop video card will use maximum resolution that external monitor can handle.