Apple unveils the new 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with the powerful M3 chip

Re:Apple unveils the new 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with th... by nerdjon on Monday March 04, 2024 @01:01PM (#39593657)

It sucks since the M series laptops have been amazing, with this one glaring problem.

I have a great M2 pro machine, but officially it can only support 2 external monitors. I should be able to close my screen and power 3. I can do this with a dock so it's not a resources problem.

I am curious what is different between the Air and the Pro that the Air can power 2 external monitors (it does say when the lid is closed) and the Pro can only power 1 regardless. Or is this a software update and the Pro page just has not been updated.

I keep hoping that this is a problem that is only temporary and eventually it will be removed or as time goes on each series can run 1 more monitor or something.

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Re:Apple unveils the new 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with th... by sciencesama on Monday March 04, 2024 @01:28PM (#39594011)

I fixed this by using this dock Lenovo ThinkPad Thunderbolt 4 Workstation Dock - DK2131

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Re:Apple unveils the new 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with th... by nerdjon on Monday March 04, 2024 @01:33PM (#39594095)

I fixed my issue as well with a dock from UGreen and the DisplayLink software. Just unfortunate I had to do it.

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Re:Apple unveils the new 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with th... by dodslaser on Monday March 04, 2024 @03:19PM (#39595489)

I tried a DisplayLink dock once with my M1 Max MBP. It was incredibly laggy, pegged my cpu at 40%, and didn't let me set the correct resolution/scaling level for either of my monitors (horizontal 4k 32" and a vertical 4k 27", nothing exotic).

A TB4 dock fixes most problems, but I have to hack the EDID to disable YCbCr and force RGB, or the colors look like absolute shit. The external monitors still look significantly worse under macOS than either Windows or Linux, and I have no idea why.

External display handling is easily the worst part of using a Mac for me.

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Re:Apple unveils the new 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with th... by askonomm on Monday March 04, 2024 @04:11PM (#39596165)

> External display handling is easily the worst part of using a Mac for me.

Using more than is explicitly mentioned that is supported, you mean? I mean yeah, duh.

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Re:Apple unveils the new 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with th... by ambichook on Monday March 04, 2024 @06:32PM (#39597558)

i think the fact that so few are supported is part of the issue (not parent commenter, also not a user of apple products so i admittedly do lack experience in this area)

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Re:Apple unveils the new 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with th... by dodslaser on Sunday March 10, 2024 @11:32PM (#39664684)

An M1 Max MBP should, according to Apple, support up to 4 external displays.

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Re:Apple unveils the new 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with th... by harkinian on Monday March 04, 2024 @05:31PM (#39597037)

Relying on DisplayLink too. It's neat, but it's a hack. Uses a fair bit of CPU constantly and makes my Mac say "your screen is being observed." Was disappointing coming from my 2009 Mac Pro which could run 5 displays no questions asked.

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Re:Apple unveils the new 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with th... by hinkley on Monday March 04, 2024 @04:58PM (#39596692)

Wait, the M2 MBP is listed as 2 external monitors?

I've been running three for a while. 2 Thunderbolt 3 + 1 Thunderbolt 2 daisy chained. They work. There are a couple glitches, but they work.

I'm on my work machine now but I believe it also works with the laptop open.

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