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tomtendo

Suspended
Original poster
Aug 29, 2009
813
933
Florida
Are MacBook Airs capable of multi displays? If so which year? And if not, what apple laptops are?

Thanks
 
USB display

I have used a 22" and 16" (not at same time) AOC display with the MBA that connects via the USB port. About $130 and no adapters needed. Will also work from USB hub. Nice solution for me.
 
I bought a thunderbolt to HDMI/DVI dongle from Amazon and run a DVI screen perfectly from this. If you need a further monitor, you'll have to resort to a USB to DVI/HDMI adapter. Obviously a USB3 adapter will work better than a USB2, however both will have noticeable lag over using the thunderbolt port.
 
Any 2012+ laptop? And what about non-apple displays?! Why does apple struggle when it comes to this...??

The retina MacBook Pros can do up to 3 external monitors. They have 2 thunderbolt ports (each capable of running a DisplayPort, DVI or TB monitor) and an HDMI port.

The Airs can do 2 TB monitors, daisy chained. You can also do a TB monitor and a DVI/Display Port monitor in a daisy chain, provided there is another thunderbolt device in between (this is due to the TB/Display Port implementation).

You can, as has been previously mentioned, also use a USB video adapter. As of 10.9, you can also use an AppleTV to AirPlay wirelessly to a monitor/TV.
 
The Macbook Airs have the power to drive multiple displays but they only have the one Thunderbolt/Mini-Displayport connection.

If you want to drive multiple non-Apple displays, one of the Retina Macbook Pros might be a better choice. Both the 13" and 15" models come with two Thunderbolt ports and one HDMI port so you can easily drive three non-Apple displays.
 
The retina MacBook Pros can do up to 3 external monitors. They have 2 thunderbolt ports (each capable of running a DisplayPort, DVI or TB monitor) and an HDMI port.

The Airs can do 2 TB monitors, daisy chained. You can also do a TB monitor and a DVI/Display Port monitor in a daisy chain, provided there is another thunderbolt device in between (this is due to the TB/Display Port implementation).

You can, as has been previously mentioned, also use a USB video adapter. As of 10.9, you can also use an AppleTV to AirPlay wirelessly to a monitor/TV.

The Macbook Airs have the power to drive multiple displays but they only have the one Thunderbolt/Mini-Displayport connection.

If you want to drive multiple non-Apple displays, one of the Retina Macbook Pros might be a better choice. Both the 13" and 15" models come with two Thunderbolt ports and one HDMI port so you can easily drive three non-Apple displays.

Any good MacBook docks that can help achieve this? I don't understand why we are limited to basically Apple screens with it comes to multi-display. Windows have been able to do this for a long time. I don't want to drop 1K on a thunderbolt display... esp right now since they're Out Of Date(Maybe Tuesday they will announce new ones). I want to buy cheaper ones like ACER and get 2, maybe 3 of them so I can do work more smoothly and efficiently.
 
The Caldigit Thunderbolt station looks to be a reasonably priced dock with a good feature set (including 2 displays), but no word on a release date.

The combination of number of ports & technology is the limiting factor when it comes to multiple (external) displays on the Air.

If you want easy connectivity of multiple displays on a Mac Laptop, the best option is the retina line.

Regarding technology, I'm referring to the way thunderbolt passes through video.
 
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