Right this moment’s launch of the M3 MacBook Air got here with a pleasing shock. For the primary time since switching to Apple Silicon 4 years in the past, Apple’s most reasonably priced MacBook will be capable of drive two exterior shows reasonably than only one.
Though prior M-series MacBook Air fashions allowed customers to work on two shows, a type of needed to be the MacBook’s built-in display screen. In different phrases, you could possibly join an exterior monitor and mirror or span your desktop onto it from the built-in display screen, however those that most popular to work with their MacBook’s lid closed had been caught with a single display screen.
This was one of many few downgrades from the Intel period. As a lot because the M1 chip supplied implausible efficiency and battery life for the brand new MacBook Air, it dropped the expansive show assist of its Intel predecessors.
In actual fact, within the Intel days, a MacBook Air may deal with two exterior 4K shows plus the built-in panel, permitting for a triple-screen configuration. That solely dropped to a single exterior show for those who had been utilizing 5K and 6K resolutions.
Sadly, even in the present day’s M3 MacBook Air doesn’t return us to that degree of exterior show assist. You’ll now be capable of join two screens concurrently, however solely when the lid is closed, so that you’re not utilizing the built-in show.
Nonetheless, that’s an affordable compromise for a machine within the class of the MacBook Air. The largest demand for a dual-display configuration comes from those that wish to work in a standard desktop setup with an exterior keyboard and mouse or trackpad, leaving the MacBook docked in a nook. Those that want greater than that may nonetheless go for a MacBook Professional Apple’s higher-end silicon, which might drive two or extra exterior shows, relying on the chip — as much as two 6K shows on the M3 Professional and as much as three 6K shows and one 4K show on the M3 Max.
The M3 MacBook Professional
Sadly, regardless that Apple unified the MacBook Professional household final fall by transferring the odd duck 13-inch MacBook Professional to an analogous 14-inch design, the bottom M3 chip meant it nonetheless had the identical limitations because the non-Professional/Max Apple silicon that got here earlier than: assist for just one exterior show, interval.
Nonetheless, in the present day’s M3 MacBook Air lineup, with its assist for 2 exterior shows in lid-closed mode, nearly instantly begged the query of why the MacBook Professional with the identical chip was being overlooked. The excellent news? It isn’t.
The parents at 9to5Mac confirmed with Apple that an upcoming software program replace for final fall’s 14-inch M3 MacBook Professional will give it the identical capacity to drive two exterior shows with the lid closed. This can reportedly be equivalent to the way it works with the brand new MacBook Air.
There aren’t any particulars on when that software program replace will seem, though, with macOS Sonoma 14.4 within the final phases of its beta cycle, that’s doubtless what shall be put in on the brand new MacBook Air and will, subsequently, additionally present the identical options to the M3 MacBook Professional when it lands.
It’s price noting that the multi-display assist nonetheless comes with a small catch. Along with needing to go away the lid closed, the M3 MacBooks will nonetheless solely be capable of drive one 6K exterior show; the second show that may be added when the lid is closed shall be capped at 5K decision. Nonetheless, that’s in all probability not a dealbreaker since a very good 6K show will value you about the identical as a totally tricked-out MacBook Air.