Apple Has Finally Solved One of the MacBook Air's Biggest Limitations

[MacRumors]

The new MacBook Air has a useful upgrade: it natively supports up to two external displays, in addition to the laptop's built-in display.

In other words, the latest MacBook Air can be used with a pair of external displays without needing to keep the laptop's lid closed.

Apple's tech specs for the new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air:

Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at 1 billion colors and: Up to two external displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz

This is a significant quality-of-life improvement for the MacBook Air in the Apple silicon era. MacBook Air models with the M1 chip and M2 chip officially support only one external display, while MacBook Air models with the M3 chip gained support for two external displays, but only with the lid closed. With the new model, users can have a total of three screens, with the MacBook Air open next to two external displays.

Apple silicon MacBook Air models already worked with multiple external displays with the use of DisplayLink adapters, but many casual customers in the MacBook Air's target market might not have known about that option, so official plug-and-play support for two external displays with the lid open is a welcomed improvement.

The latest 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M4 chip, released last year, also natively supports two external displays while the lid is open.

The new MacBook Air can be pre-ordered now, and it launches Wednesday, March 12.

Article Link: Apple Has Finally Solved One of the MacBook Air's Biggest Limitations

 

[mrhansolo]

Can it run a 5K2K monitor at 3840x1620 HiDPI?

 

[F23]

thanks Tim you finally did something right.

Apple never disappoints with the Mac updates.

 

[TechTexan]

Finally, most requested feature from my workplace

 

[jent]

I am rocking a 2020 Intel MacBook Pro that is slowly losing its oomph. It's been frustrating to see the awesome creation and evolution of Apple Silicon but the strange external display limitations up until now. I guess it's fair to say that with this model or the M4 in general, we are basically "back to normal." Nicely done!

 

[Rychiar]

innovative

 

[sakamura]

I’m glad this is finally fixed. My work provided me with what we coined a « craptop » due to its horrible quality, its whirring fan noise that explodes once in a while instead of slowly ramping up (silent, WHIRRR, silent, WHIRR), its required 45W power supply (or USB-C), 1hr battery span doing nothing, USB-C 3.0 that can clog the computer if you put something too bandwidth-intensive (yay crappy southbridge). But still, that cheap plastic piece of superior hardware does support two external screens, including one at 4k, on top of the 1366x768 internal screen.

Not supporting two screens was a shame.

 

[1984 Mac Guru]

#humblebrag

I’m trading in my M1 MBP 16/512 for $445 credit!

They used my registered device to auto-enter the trade-in info, however, they mislabeled the machine as 1TB even though they have correct S/N, so I’m getting $100 more.

Just to check, I manually entered the info, answering questions like year, storage, and condition, and it calculated only $345 for my model.

Reminds me of getting the Community Chest card “Bank Error in Your Favor. Collect $100.”

 

[brofkand]

In the M2 era, I purchased M2 Pro MacBook Pro's for users who had zero need for the Pro's multicore power, just for the ability to drive multiple displays. I am so glad that is no longer an issue and Apple Silicon is finally equal to Intel integrated graphics (lol).

 

[tyrnnsrs]

I would argue that the target market for the Macbook Air does not likely need to be using three displays at a time. If they need that kind of screen real estate, they likely would be using a Macbook Pro anyways.

 

[JPack]

Still remember the ridiculous excuses some people here made on behalf of Apple.

“Nobody uses dual external monitors these days.”

“It’s professional feature, you should pay an extra $1,000 for MacBook Pro.”

“Even though Intel Celeron and Chromebooks have supported dual monitors for a decade, Apple knows their customers better!”

 

[JosephAW]

With no fans?

 

[roland.g]

PSA. While it can support 2 displays with the lid open, if you want to connect those displays to a dock for a one cable solution, the MBA can likely only support one display per Thunderbolt bus. So you may either still need DisplayLink OR might need to connect the second monitor directly to the MBA. That said DisplayLink is quite fine for 90% of use cases, video and gaming being the exceptions.

 

[mansplains]

Nice for those who need it. I used to prefer two displays, but I've gotten used to one monitor with my computer in clamshell. I'll use two displays on occasion, for some programs that could use the space. I can only focus on a couple things at a time, and splitting between screens doesn't seem to improve productivity for me. On PC, however, I routinely have two screens, since I can't scale below 100%.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

meanwhile, the biggest issue with MBA is the port situation. give it a better port selection. needs one USB-C on each side and HDMI and SD Card

 

[kiranmk2]

PSA. While it can support 2 displays with the lid open, if you want to connect those displays to a dock for a one cable solution, the MBA can likely only support one display per Thunderbolt bus. So you may either still need DisplayLink OR might need to connect the second monitor directly to the MBA. That said DisplayLink is quite fine for 90% of use cases, video and gaming being the exceptions.

Why doesn't Apple support DisplayPort MST in MacOS?!

 

[brofkand]

I would argue that the target market for the Macbook Air does not likely need to be using three displays at a time. If they need that kind of screen real estate, they likely would be using a Macbook Pro anyways.

Considering the power of Apple Silicon there are very few people who need a MacBook Pro.

 

[brofkand]

Why doesn't Apple support DisplayPort MST in MacOS?!

They want you to use Thunderbolt.

 

[andiwm2003]

That's good news although I will rarely use that. Is there a powerbrick/dock combination available that has a HDMI included? There is the new Belkin 150W GaN dock that has everything. But it's 200 dollar and for a MBA you don't need 150W and it's a bit too big. A compact version of this dock with most of the ports and 70W would be nice to carry around instead of that big 150W dock.

 

[ATmahe]

Solved? They unlocked it …

 

[Crickster]

#humblebrag

I’m trading in my M1 MBP 16/512 for $445 credit!

They used my registered device to auto-enter the trade-in info, however, they mislabeled the machine as 1TB even though they have correct S/N, so I’m getting $100 more.

Just to check, I manually entered the info, answering questions like year, storage, and condition, and it calculated only $345 for my model.

Reminds me of getting the Community Chest card “Bank Error in Your Favor. Collect $100.”

I was quoted $310 for 2017 15 inch MBP 16/512. I would try to sell your M1 privately.

 

[cwwilson]

Let the griping commence!

 

[Sippincider]

Can it run a 5K2K monitor at 3840x1620 HiDPI?

With 16GB total system RAM?

 

[WarmWinterHat]

#humblebrag

I’m trading in my M1 MBP 16/512 for $445 credit!

They used my registered device to auto-enter the trade-in info, however, they mislabeled the machine as 1TB even though they have correct S/N, so I’m getting $100 more.

Just to check, I manually entered the info, answering questions like year, storage, and condition, and it calculated only $345 for my model.

Reminds me of getting the Community Chest card “Bank Error in Your Favor. Collect $100.”

I sold my m1 air 512/16 in early December for $480 privately via marketplace. Apple's trade-in values always kinda suck.

 

[JPack]

I would argue that the target market for the Macbook Air does not likely need to be using three displays at a time. If they need that kind of screen real estate, they likely would be using a Macbook Pro anyways.

Target market for MacBook Air is everyone from students to corporate users. MBA competes with everything from ThinkPad X1 to XPS 14.

Tim Cook boasted a few years ago that $100B pharma companies are deploying MacBook Air across their organization.

Not sure why there’s this myth on this forum that only guys wearing a suit use dual monitors. And they demand using a chunky MacBook Pro because they are “pros.” Meanwhile, dual packs of 24” and 27” monitors are sold at Costco and Amazon globally. It’s almost like the pandemic taught us nothing about remote work and having a decent setup.