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Can you link me to something at under $50 dollars that can allow me to use dual displays with my M1 Macbook air please.
No.

M1 MacBook Air supports one display from Thunderbolt. Additional displays will need to be powered using a DisplayLink adapter connected to USB.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JC3CT2S
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072FHTZ8V
You can get DisplayLink adapters that support 1 display for $40 and adapters that support two displays for $70.
Or try looking on ebay.
 
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No.

M1 MacBook Air supports one display from Thunderbolt. Additional displays will need to be powered using a DisplayLink adapter connected to USB.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JC3CT2S
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072FHTZ8V
You can get DisplayLink adapters that support 1 display for $40 and adapters that support two displays for $70.
Or try looking on ebay.
Thanks. I was replying to Macintosh TV, who in the very first comment said this was possible. Can’t that comment be removed if it is not true or misleading, unless Macintosh TV can provide a link?
 
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Caldigit docks are rubbish, don’t waste your money on them, I have had a few, the power supplies fail and Ethernet ports don’t work even with separate drivers installed, every other brand of dock I have since purchased worked without having to install a bunch of useless software packages that don’t do anything useful. Come on MacRumors give us honest unbiased reviews, not paid for adverts.
 
Caldigit docks are rubbish, don’t waste your money on them, I have had a few, the power supplies fail and Ethernet ports don’t work even with separate drivers installed, every other brand of dock I have since purchased worked without having to install a bunch of useless software packages that don’t do anything useful. Come on MacRumors give us honest unbiased reviews, not paid for adverts.
Not my experience whatsoever. I've been using my TS3+ for years across multiple Windows and Mac computers, including right now on a brand new 14" MBP driving a 5k monitor, on Ethernet. I've had zero issues and they've been the most reliable docks we've deployed. Plenty of issues from most others we've tried.
 
I am not sure it’s going to be a big seller. Feels like a solution looking for a problem rushed to market.

I feel like the bosses said I need you to get something out the door fast for sales and this is what he received and he went with it not knowing any better
Particularly the absurd absence of an Ethernet port - makes it an immediate fail for me.
 
Amazingly, this article fails to mention there currently are no Macs offering Thunderbolt 4.
 
Caldigit docks are rubbish, don’t waste your money on them, I have had a few, the power supplies fail and Ethernet ports don’t work even with separate drivers installed, every other brand of dock I have since purchased worked without having to install a bunch of useless software packages that don’t do anything useful. Come on MacRumors give us honest unbiased reviews, not paid for adverts.
This unit does not even have an Ethernet port - which is worse than having an Ethernet port that does not work.
 
Amazingly, this article fails to mention there currently are no Macs offering Thunderbolt 4.

Really?

Screenshot 2022-01-14 at 17.28.17.png
 
Exactly what I’m doing, can’t find much for under $50.
Not surprised. It’s probably not simple to combine the displays like that and because it is a small market, you don’t get economies of scale.

Higher end laptops like the MBP have enough ports for multiple external displays. I suspect that customers of the low end laptops like MBA are satisfied with a single external display and less likely to need 2 displays, so the lack of ports is less inconvenient and there just isn’t a large demand for DisplayLink.
 
I think this design is refreshing. It's not overloaded with a ton of ports I don't need, and has just what I do, namely USB-C/Thunderbolt and USB-A ports. I've tried a number of hubs, and really especially dislike designs that add 3.5mm audio jacks, Ethernet ports and SD card readers, but have no real Thunderbolt fan-out. I don't run multiple displays. I have a lot of USB-A and USB-C attached devices, and external drives. This is a nice design for my needs.
 
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Exactly what I’m doing, can’t find much for under $50.
I picked up a CableMatters one for my M1 MacBook Air - rather than new, you can get 'like new' / refurbished by the manufacturer for around $45 (does mean you need to have a USBC-USBA conversion somewhere in the chain - ironically I'm using the USB hub ports on my Dell USB-C connected monitor)
 
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Caldigit docks are rubbish, don’t waste your money on them, I have had a few, the power supplies fail and Ethernet ports don’t work even with separate drivers installed, every other brand of dock I have since purchased worked without having to install a bunch of useless software packages that don’t do anything useful. Come on MacRumors give us honest unbiased reviews, not paid for adverts.
I've owned several caldigit docks and never had an issue with them other than my cdrom accessing every minute. So I just keep it unplugged till I need it which is rare. Seems you don't have much experience with them, and just speaking from one bad apple.
 
Wrong again.
That says Thunderbolt 3. The original remark was regarding Thunderbolt 4 but your reply is technically correct for the second remark which specified only USB4.

The M1 Pros from 2020 were only USB 4.
The only reason Apple couldn't call the USB4/Thunderbolt 3 ports of the original M1 Macs "Thunderbolt 4" is because Thunderbolt 4 requires that two 4K displays can be connected to a single Thunderbolt port, but the original M1 Macs can only connect one display to Thunderbolt (but a Thunderbolt port of an original M1 Mac has a second DisplayPort connection to drive tiled displays like the LG UltraFine 5K at full resolution/refresh rate so it's almost Thunderbolt 4).

Thunderbolt 4 doesn't actually add anything to Thunderbolt 3 for Macs except for USB tunnelling which doesn't mean anything to the user and just gives inferior USB performance. Macs with Thunderbolt 3 are able to use the extra Thunderbolt ports of Thunderbolt 4 docks and hubs so that's not an issue. I suppose Thunderbolt 4 adds support for USB4 devices that don't support Thunderbolt but I don't know of any such USB4 devices.

Thunderbolt 4 is basically Thunderbolt 3 with no compromises. The only Macs that had limited Thunderbolt 3 were the MacBook Pro 13 inch models with four ports from 2016 and 2017 where the right hand ports had reduced PCIe bandwidth (1500 MB/s instead of 2800 MB/s) but still had full DisplayPort bandwidth and could therefore still use all the 40 Gbps in some situations. Oh wait - Macs with Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt 3 controllers are limited to DisplayPort 1.2 output but that's not a big limit since it still allows connecting two 4K displays and can still use up all the 40 Gbps.
 
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That says Thunderbolt 3. The original remark was regarding Thunderbolt 4 but your reply is technically correct for the second remark which specified only USB4.


The only reason Apple couldn't call the USB4/Thunderbolt 3 ports of the original M1 Macs "Thunderbolt 4" is because Thunderbolt 4 requires that two 4K displays can be connected to a single Thunderbolt port, but the original M1 Macs can only connect one display to Thunderbolt (but a Thunderbolt port of an original M1 Mac has a second DisplayPort connection to drive tiled displays like the LG UltraFine 5K at full resolution/refresh rate so it's almost Thunderbolt 4).

Thunderbolt 4 doesn't actually add anything to Thunderbolt 3 for Macs except for USB tunnelling which doesn't mean anything to the user and just gives inferior USB performance. Macs with Thunderbolt 3 are able to use the extra Thunderbolt ports of Thunderbolt 4 docks and hubs so that's not an issue. I suppose Thunderbolt 4 adds support for USB4 devices that don't support Thunderbolt but I don't know of any such USB4 devices.

Thunderbolt 4 is basically Thunderbolt 3 with no compromises. The only Macs that had limited Thunderbolt 3 were the MacBook Pro 13 inch models with four ports from 2016 and 2017 where the right hand ports had reduced PCIe bandwidth (1500 MB/s instead of 2800 MB/s) but still had full DisplayPort bandwidth and could therefore still use all the 40 Gbps in some situations. Oh wait - Macs with Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt 3 controllers are limited to DisplayPort 1.2 output but that's not a big limit since it still allows connecting two 4K displays and can still use up all the 40 Gbps.
The DP 1.2 limitation is a big deal. Most devices use DP 1.4 now. DP 1.4 offers double the total bandwidth (32Gbps+) over DP 1.2. DP 1.4 also supports higher resolutions for monitors and higher refresh rates at the same resolution.

Worse Apple isn’t even implementing all of the features of DP 1.2. DP 1.2 added support for MST to allow daisy chaining monitors. Apple has no support for MST.

But it’s no big deal right? I mean, who wants to use better screens and less cable clutter anyways, right?
 
The DP 1.2 limitation is a big deal. Most devices use DP 1.4 now. DP 1.4 offers double the total bandwidth (32Gbps+) over DP 1.2. DP 1.4 also supports higher resolutions for monitors and higher refresh rates at the same resolution.

Worse Apple isn’t even implementing all of the features of DP 1.2. DP 1.2 added support for MST to allow daisy chaining monitors. Apple has no support for MST.

But it’s no big deal right? I mean, who wants to use better screens and less cable clutter anyways, right?
Minor correction: DP 1.4 has only 150% the bandwidth of DP 1.2 but it does add DSC and 4:2:0 support which can allow 300% of the pixels of DP 1.2 (or 450% or 562% depending on the compression).

Well, Apple doesn't make Macs that are limited to DP 1.2 anymore so that's not an issue.

I agree that lack of MST support in macOS is disappointing but that has nothing to do with this review about The CalDigit Element Hub. Thunderbolt docks/hubs can pass a DisplayPort MST signal just fine even for macOS. macOS doesn't support MST for multiple displays but it does support MST for old 4K displays that used different DisplayPort streams for the left and right half of the display (except on M1 Macs?). macOS also supports other functions of MST such as DisplayPort conversion (for example, converting 2 lanes of HBR3 with DSC to 4 lanes of HBR2 without DSC).
 
Dual 6Ks should be possible since 6K60 uses DSC@12bpp so each connection only requires HBR2 link rate just like 4K60 displays that don't use DSC (30 bpp). The Mac's GPU just needs to support DSC and have enough performance for two 6K displays (I think Mac's with Intel Ice Lake CPU do support DSC for one 6K60 display but not for two but it can connect two 4K displays?).

Actually, the Apple Pro Display XDR cannot do 6K60 from a Thunderbolt hub/dock unless it is using DSC because Apple doesn't attempt the tiled mode for GPUs that don't support DSC when there's a Thunderbolt hub/dock/optical cable between the XDR and the Mac.

There are bandwidth and refresh rate calculators.
https://linustechtips.com/topic/729232-guide-to-display-cables-adapters-v2/

Thunderbolt 4 supports DisplayPort 1.4. That means 4 lanes of HBR3 link rate. Using CVT-RB2 and DSC@12bpp we get these numbers: 1080p684, 1440p450, 4K228, 5K135, 6K99, 8K62
The numbers can be higher using DSC@8bpp. Anything less is a limitation of the OS or drivers or display - not a limitation of the Thunderbolt hub.

Why don’t they quote those numbers then, at least the common ones.

Surely I’m not the only one who bought an M1 Mac to eventually replace their gaming rig.

Edit: Actually I know I’m not. Two of my guildies just bought a 14” and a 16”.
 
Genuine question here as I don’t much about docks. Can you link me to something at under $50 dollars that can allow me to use dual displays with my M1 Macbook air please.
Others have pointed out the Air doesn't support dual displays. Now powerful enough. Limited to 1 external display.
 

This one has 90W PD and supposedly can handle 2x 5K @ 60Hz external monitors (which is really just the LG Ultrafine 5K and maybe 1 dell)

I want this, but will wait until I can get it for less than $200
I don’t recommend it. I have it and find that peripherals that are rock solid when plugged directly into my Mac fail to be recognized when plugged in through the Echo 11. I’m currently in the process of returning the Echo 11 and replacing it with the CalDigit Element hub.
 
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