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Anyone attaches a monitor to your Air?

J

jinxednuance

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 6, 2011
146
0
I've been thinking of buying a monitor to get a bigger screen now that most of my work is done from home.

Any experience? I am interested in a 21 inch screen but I am not sure how easy it is or comfortable to manage.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I ran my Air on my 42 inch TV for a few months but that thing is just way too big that's why I am going for a smaller option!
 
I use mine with a 24 inch ACD I bought refurbished. It's very nice, and quite easy to manage. The ACDs are made for Mac laptops, of course, but I can't imagine that it would be that much more difficult to attach another brand of monitor. You just need the right cables.
 
I couldn't use the glossy ACD, so I chose to go with the 24" HP ZR24w. It's 1920x1200, so it has the extra vertical pixels over 1080p, it's IPS and it's a wonderful matte.

I tried connecting it with a mini Displayport to Displayport cable, but those are spliced by a third party company and caused random flashing every 30 seconds. I ended up going with the regular Apple DVI to miniDP adapter and it's worked great. Love my 11" MBA for the portability, then I'm able to go home and have a nice big screen to work on.
 
Don't you have to keep your Mac's lid open all the time otherwise the computer would go into sleep mode?
 
Yeah, all I have to do is connect the closed computer to the monitor and then hit a button on my external keyboard; it wakes right up no problem. On the rare occasion I'm doing some work that makes the fans spin up, I do open the case because I read somewhere that helps with ventilation. But otherwise I keep it closed and it's fine.
 
Anyone who can share their experiences with using the MBA's own keyboard? Don't want too much clutter on my desk and also wants to use in-buildt webcam. I consider buying Dells Ultrasharp U2311h; is there a problem buying a 3.party Mini-DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort cable?
 
Christina1971 said:
Yeah, all I have to do is connect the closed computer to the monitor and then hit a button on my external keyboard; it wakes right up no problem. On the rare occasion I'm doing some work that makes the fans spin up, I do open the case because I read somewhere that helps with ventilation. But otherwise I keep it closed and it's fine.
Click to expand...

I'd advise a stand like the TwelveSouth BookArc. Helps ventilation when you have your MBA in clamshell, and also keeps it out of the way, freeing up desk space.
 
I connect to a 24" Samsung SyncMaster with 1920x1200 resolution... It works like a charm, and it's anti-glare!!! :cool:

I agree with OP that 42" is too big if you're closer than 10 feet from it. TV-screens aren't made for being viewed the way you look at computer screens.
 
I frequently use my 11.6-inch with the 27-inch ACD. Usually it's in clamshell. No problems whatsoever. In fact, the graphics are stunning.
 
I have my MBA 11 plugged into a 22-inch Viewsonic monitor at work. I always have the MBA in sleep mode. I plug the mini-DisplayPort, wired keyboard, hit a key on that keyboard, and the MBA wakes up.
 
Dell U2311H

I use my Air (Rev. C) every day at the office hooked up to a Dell U2311H. It's a IPS panel, matte, cheap, with adjustable neck (which is actually quite useful).

Since the Dell came with a DVI cable, and display port / mini display port cables or adapters are hard to find here, I just use the DVI-MiniDP adapter. Everything works fine.
 
torbjoern said:
I connect to a 24" Samsung SyncMaster with 1920x1200 resolution... It works like a charm, and it's anti-glare!!! :cool:
Click to expand...

I use that same monitor and it indeeds runs smooth. And like striker said i put mine on that stand and very slightly open the lid to help it ventilate if the fans crank up.
 
peterfc said:
Anyone who can share their experiences with using the MBA's own keyboard? Don't want too much clutter on my desk and also wants to use in-buildt webcam. I consider buying Dells Ultrasharp U2311h; is there a problem buying a 3.party Mini-DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort cable?
Click to expand...

The Macbook Air's keyboard still functions when it is attached to a monitor. The vast majority of the time I leave mine in clamshell, but sometimes I open it up to use the trackpad (usually when I need to use some specific gestures.) It works fine.
 
Can someone please tell me if the following scenario exists or is possible?

Many external monitors have at least 2 usb ports in them. To use them you need to connect a usb cable from the monitor to a usb port on your computer. Is it possible to have a mini display port or thunderbolt cable that branches out at the end to be say, DVI and that USB plug for the monitor? That way you plug in a single cable and get access to any usb device plugged into the monitor! I'd be almost like a docking station if you had a hard drive, speakers, or mouse and keyboard plugged into the monitor.

I reckon a display port monitor in the future might have this. I'd be curious if it'd be possible though with a DVI monitor and a fancy cable that branched out to usb. Does anyone know? Thanks
 
I just picked up a glossy "Super LED" LG 23" monitor for my 11" MBA and couldn't be happier. It's basically turned my Air into a low-powered iMac when I'm home, and now that I have a decent display for it the only time I turn on my Windows i7 notebook is for some heavier gaming, which I don't really do that often. As my needs aren't that demanding, with this new screen real estate the MBA could easily become my primary machine. :D
 
Ok, I'm alone here. I don't reall use the MBA connected to an external monitor.

Mainly two reason: my ACD is connected to my iMac 27" giving me a nice big screen.
Second: thats for me against the mobility of the MBA. Just ot it because of highly portability with the exception of power cable.
I do it only in very very rear cases though.
 
ChristianJapan said:
Ok, I'm alone here. I don't reall use the MBA connected to an external monitor.

Mainly two reason: my ACD is connected to my iMac 27" giving me a nice big screen.
Second: thats for me against the mobility of the MBA. Just ot it because of highly portability with the exception of power cable.
I do it only in very very rear cases though.
Click to expand...

It hardly works against the mobility of it, just gives you another option when you're not on the go.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

I mean also the mobility inside my room ... When connected to screen it's harder to just quick pick it up and move to living room. just personell preference to keep MBA "free".
 
ChristianJapan said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

I mean also the mobility inside my room ... When connected to screen it's harder to just quick pick it up and move to living room. just personell preference to keep MBA "free".
Click to expand...

Your way works when you have an 27" iMac in the house too, which you do.

I, and many others, only have the MBA to use. Also only takes me about 5 seconds to unplug everything: USB cable, miniDP cable, speakers and the Magsafe. So honestly, it's not too big of a deal if I needed to move around the house.

Obviously it'd be nice if I could have another iMac or even Mac mini in the house and keep the MBA free, but that isn't cost effective for those of us who only really need one computer.
 
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