Is the resolution close to 1080p?

On my friends laptop, a Dell it lists max supported resolution is 1280x800. Is this like close to 1080p, and can he watch it on this screen? Whenever I play an Apple HD trailer I think it is encoded at this resolution too.

Well, seeing that 1080p is, as correctly pointed by chef, 1920*1080 pixels (2073600 pixels) and your friend's laptop has 1280*800 pixels (1024000 pixels) your friends laptop has only half the pixels a 1080p screen would have.

However this has no impact whatsoever in whether you can or can't see a video, the video will resize (losing some quality in the process) to fit the screen's resolution.

1280x800, its actually way off, its closer to 720p (1280x720p for tv and such)
this is a shoort generic list of resolutions windows/ most graphics cards support
although your buddies laptop doest go all the way up..

2568x1920
2560x1600
1920x1200
1920x1080 (1080P)
1680x1050
1600x1200
1440x900
1360x768
1280x1024
1280x960
1280x800
1280x768 (essentially 720P)
1152x864
1024x768
800x600