One of the most exciting announcements to come out of Apple’s recent reveal of the new M3-powered MacBook Air is the fact that it will natively support dual monitors. This might seem like a small thing, but it’s actually a feature that has been missing from the MacBook Air lineup thus far, and even from some lower-end MacBook Pro models.
The gap between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro is closing
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If you purchased a MacBook Air in the past several years, you may have been disappointed to learn you can’t just plug in two external monitors and get right to work. As someone who uses their MacBook Air every day of the week, being able to plug it into external monitors can be really great for extending your workspace.
Unfortunately, Apple hasn’t allowed lower-end MacBook Pros or the MacBook Air lineup to use dual monitors natively since it introduced its M-branded silicon chips. Instead, you had to buy additional adapters and jump through various hoops to make it happen. If you didn’t want to use adapters, you had to purchase one of the more expensive MacBook Pro variants, essentially cutting this feature off from users who wanted a more affordable laptop.
As such, it is really great to see Apple adding this feature to the M3-powered MacBook Air because it further narrows the gap between Apple’s more expensive laptop offerings and its more affordable MacBook Air options, giving you yet another reason to upgrade if you haven’t already.
The company says that M3-powered MacBook Airs will now support running one external monitor at up to 6K resolution and 60Hz, while the second will top out at 5K and 60Hz. That’s more than enough screen real estate for MacBook Air users to take advantage of, and now you won’t have to spend $3,000 or more to take advantage of it. Further, Apple says it will bring dual monitor support to MacBook Pros running the M3 chip with a software update. This means that anyone who didn’t splurge for the M3 Pro chips will still get to take advantage of this great feature, giving you even more options when you go to choose your next MacBook.
In the meantime, users running a MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro or M3 Pro chip can handle up to two external displays already, and users with a MacBook Pro running the M2 Max or M3 Max can take advantage of up to four external displays at once, so there’s still plenty of reasons to go with those higher-end models if you need those extra features and the performance that those chips offer.
For more info on how many displays your Mac supports, check out this helpful Apple support document.