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Most interesting change: > Support for up to two external displays: MacBook Air with M3 now supports up to two external displays when the laptop lid is closed
by zuhsetaqi 3y ago
Most interesting change:
> Support for up to two external displays: MacBook Air with M3 now supports up to two external displays when the laptop lid is closed …
- input_sh 3y agoSo it's still limited to two monitors, but now one of them doesn't necessarily need to be the internal one?
- zuhsetaqi 3y agoSeems like it. Which is a huge win in my opinion. To bad the base MacBook Pro M3 14" doesn't have that feature
- benfa94 3y agowhich version of the MacBook Pro 14" do i need to buy to have this feature?
- dataworm 3y agoIt doesn't because the M3 has two dedicated DP outputs. O̶n̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶r̶o̶u̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶T̶h̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶b̶o̶l̶t̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶'̶t̶.̶ ̶O̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶M̶3̶ ̶M̶B̶P̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶D̶P̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶H̶D̶M̶I̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶v̶e̶r̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶n̶e̶c̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶m̶e̶r̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶p̶u̶t̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶p̶l̶a̶y̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶a̶t̶t̶e̶r̶.̶ ̶O̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶M̶B̶A̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶p̶l̶a̶y̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶n̶e̶c̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶o̶u̶t̶a̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶p̶u̶t̶.̶ The M2 also has a routable output, you can connect two USB-C displays to an M2 Mac mini if you don't use the HDMI port. It's unclear why Apple didn't enable that feature on the M2 MBA. Edit: I had a brainfart and forgot that both ports are routable. It's market segmentation or stupidity like with the M2 MBA.
- dataworm 3y agoCan't edit anymore: this also applies to the M2 MBP, and both of them could get this feature in a software update like the M3 MBP. But it's unlikely, because of greed.
- BeFlatXIII 3y agoSo I still need to use Instant View with my docking station, got it. Been using that on my M1 air to drive 2x4K displays (the 30Hz display isn't that useful if I'm mousing around, though)
- 93po 3y agoif that only mirrors, can you set the built in display on the laptop to 4k so the external mirror is the full 4k too?
- BeFlatXIII 3y agoIt's set up as 3 separate displays, from left to right: 4K30 (you can also notice compression in color saturation), 4K60 (main monitor), built-in display. Even at 30Hz, the second 4K monitor is good for keeping up documentation.
- elthran 3y agoApple Cynic/Windows user here with a genuine question - why is this interesting? I'm currently looking at my wife's old corporate-issued windows laptop, which is running 2 external monitors as well as it's own display - am I missing something here, or is this just a case of Apple being held to different standards to other manufacturers in terms of feature parity?
- scrlk 3y agoM1/M2 MBAs are limited to one external display. The M3 MacBook Air relaxes this restriction by allowing two external displays.
- Andrew_nenakhov 3y ago... When the clamshell is closed. With an open one it is still just one external display.
- bombcar 3y agoWhich basically means the others could do it (all M1 processors can handle two displays, which is either two for the Mac mini or internal + external for the laptops). The addition is the ability to have two external when closed; likely this could have mainly been done in software if they cared. (You can get more than one external on a laptop with the screen open if you go up to the Max or Pro or whatever.)
- JohnBooty 3y agoWell, it's definitely "interesting" because it was a weird and user-unfriendly restriction on previous M1/M2 Airs and now it's gone. So that is interesting for sure. Perhaps more to the point, you're right -- Apple doesn't deserve to be lauded for removing something that was a dumb restriction in the first place. But it is interesting considering this is the most popular laptop in the world.
- kayodelycaon 3y ago
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]