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Multiple displays

tomtendo

tomtendo

Suspended
Original poster
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.
 
super tomtendo said:
Any 2012+ laptop? And what about non-apple displays?! Why does apple struggle when it comes to this...??
Click to expand...

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.
 
jdechko said:
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.
Click to expand...

Stetrain said:
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.
Click to expand...

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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