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jbverschoor

How many external screens?

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> Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at 1 billion colors and:

> One external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz

https://www.apple.com/macbook-air-m2/specs/

Thanks for that link.

For my next work laptop, I've been waiting to see if (sometime soon) there would be a MBP that supported external refresh rates > 60 Hz.

Given that the M2 MBA still has that limitation, I suspect not.

Main reason I went from the 16" Intel to the M1 Pro, dual displays is a must for me when I'm docked at home.

I can run my Samsung CRG9 (a 49” UW monitor) with one of my M1 machines (an original 13” Pro w/ M1) at 120hz with no issues, FWIW.

I suspect it would probably have issues running 4K @120hz however.

Thanks, that's an interesting data point.

Back when I had my M1 MBP, I never managed to get above 60Hz, and I found some articles suggesting that nobody could. I'm curious why you had more success.

In my case, I had to get a new DisplayPort cable (not all cables will support 120hz). Things were rocky at the start but I believe Apple also released an update to improve compatibility.

Regular 4k@120hz is totally doable on M1 Max MBP, can confirm that myself.

Hard to answer the question regarding 4k+ ultrawides @120hz though, primarily because i dont think there is a display like that in existence yet (googling didn't net much success there for me). The only ultrawide 4k+ display i found that is above 60hz is the LG 5k ultrawide with thunderbolt 4 support, and it maxes out at 70hz (and M1 Max MBP supports it at that refresh rate just fine, that's my current setup).

IIRC M1 don't support DisplayPort DSC that is needed to handle 4K+ AND 120HZ+. I wish M2 supports DSC to handle this.

Looks like just one. This is the wording on the marketing page:

> "You can also connect up to a 6K display."

Literally my only question. If they don't understand that then this is a massive market-research fail. I went Windows before the M1 Pro Macs just because I could not run two displays well on the Air (Displaylink sucks so so much).

On the contrary, I suspect they have market research to the effect that only a small proportion of users have or want multiple screens, and of those who do, they're likely to buy a more expensive model in the first place. Basically everyone I know has gone the route of a single large display, Mac user or not.

> Basically everyone I know has gone the route of a single large display, Mac user or not.

I've noticed that, too, which I don't quite understand. Dual displays were touted as a productivity multiplier back in the day. Is that not the case anymore?

Still the case..

People aren't productive.. haven't you noticed?

It's not just notifications of the phone. Having to switch between the huge amount of apps and windows is bad even on more screens, let alone on a single screen.

Meh. I'm more productive when one thing has focus, so I prefer not having multiple applications open at once vying for my attention. One display works great for me ... I'd even shut my laptop screen if I could, but I use touch ID for authentication.

Maybe it's a failure of imagination on my part, but I've never been in a position where I thought that having more screen real estate than a large 4k display would be helpful. When I need to have more than one application visible I can do that; when I want to focus on one thing at a time I can do that too.

Seeing as there are single large monitors with more pixels than those multiple back in the day monitors, it makes sense. People ran multiple screens to get the real estate. There was always a fight on how to arrange them to minimize the gaps from the bezels. Now, it's one screen, no interrupting bezels and more pixels.

I prefer my dual displays--I think. But there are definitely a ton of "power users" of various kinds these days who prefer a single large (often curved) display. I really thought about it a bit back and decided to stick with dual displays but I see the arguments for not having to deal with moving windows between monitors, etc.

I'd buy an MBP if it didn't have fans, and if it weren't such a 2013-style lunchbox.

I genuinely don't know what "2013-style lunchbox" means here. Lunchbox to me means a small metal box with a handle that has a picture of an 80s cartoon on it.

My anecdata seems to confirm this as well. We ordered ~30 Macbook Airs at work over the last 18 months or so (startup, so no actual IT department), and I didn't even know they only supported one monitor until a month ago when a new employee asked why their second screen didn't work.

This was the 27th MBA we deployed, so 26 people only used one external monitor (and I went back and asked if anyone needed an upgrade for dual-monitor use in case they just ignored it). All non engineering roles though.

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