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Thunderbolt Display - New model coming? - Issues with old resolved?

R

Rookhawk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 2, 2012
4
0
I just bought my first Mac, er, actually, my first Mac since '85 to be precise. Avid windows user and won't be going "native" anytime soon. Bought the rMBP with 16gb and 512gb so I can run VMWare Fusion and run my virtualized windows PCs on well designed, powerful hardware. (no idea whether I'll like and/or use Mac OSX in my daily life or if I'll just use the VMs)

To my question preambles:

I understand that the rMBP uses a new power connector that is different than the one used by the big 27" thunderbolt display's provided laptop charging cord.

I read numerous reviews about the Thunderbolt display that reported lots of problems with windows and with OSX regarding waking from sleep and other such nonsense. The most negative reviews are fairly old, at least 1 year.


Now the questions:

1. Is the Thunderbolt display on target for a refresh anytime soon based on predictable launches of products?

2. Is the current Thunderbolt display now stable with bugs worked out, or are the same known issues from older reviews still present? (e.g. firmware updates?)

3. Do you believe the next Thunderbolt display that comes along will have the updated power charging magsafe 2 pinout as the rMBP?

Thanks for your patience answering a lot of questions from someone new to the world of Mac.
 
they do make a converter from to let you plug the new macs into old power supplies. Cost $10 (i'm using one right now)

there is a "buyer's guide" section at the top of this page. the thunderbolt display seems to be included in the cinema display section.
https://buyersguide.macrumors.com//#Apple_Cinema_Display
the first article there, says "Apple Including Free MagSafe 2 Converter with Thunderbolt Display"

until more of the models update to the magsafe 2, or they come out with a magsafe 2->1 convertor, i see them staying with a magsafe 1, probably with included convertor.

also with the new models including USB3, a refresh to include that pretty soon wouldn't be out of the question.
 
how long has this iteration of Thunderbolt Display been on the market?
 
I don't believe a refresh is coming soon. Others expect a refresh with USB3. It's really anyone's guess but it doesn't make sense to me segmenting the TBD for USB3 and a rMBP MagSafe.
 
I would not expect a refresh of the display anytime soon. With only two Apple portable models using MagSafe 2, releasing a new ATD with that connector in the near term seems unlikely. As for USB3, Apple could have released it with the original ATD to bring USB3 capability to their entire TB-equipped line via a third-party controller chip, but they did not.

As such, I don't expect an ATD refresh before the MacBook Pro line all are updated to MagSafe 2 and the iMac and the Mac Pro have USB3 (plus TB, in the case of the Pro). At that point, it would make sense to update the ATD to USB3 and MS2.
 
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The Macbook Air also uses the Magsafe 2.

According to the Buyer's Guide it might come a refresh soon, but the variance of the times between the refreshs were very hight so you never know.
 
I hope (although not likely) that Apple will take make a module to upgrade the current Thunderbolt display to take advantage of USB 3.0. It just a board and would not be a big deal to exchange. Even if it were a few hundred dollars it would be worth it.
 
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