Today’s M2 MacBook Pro user sports a great-looking setup and poses a question. They prefer to use their laptop in clamshell mode, or closed, so what do they do to ensure decent sound and video for work calls?
Who says an 8-year-old MacBook Pro is too old? Today’s featured setup relies on a new M2 MacBook Pro for most of the real work, but a 2015 Retina model still contributes regularly.
“Used it for school but recently graduated in May, only use for it now is YouTube/visuals until it dies,” graphic designer and Redditor izzyontheweb said. “Could you believe it’s a 2015 model and still works amazing?”
A problem users face with home computer setups is how to separate work from personal use. Today’s setup brings work and personal laptops to the mix — both M1 Max MacBook Pros, coincidentally — along with three displays, including a massive OLED smart TV.
And as is often the case on social media, solid advice sounded loud and clear above the noise.
Today’s featured computer setup isn’t turning heads for its Apple gear — just a 2019 MacBook Pro — but its displays deserve a good look. The Mac goes through a Razer Thunderbolt 3 dock as it drives an “odd couple” of displays — a huge, curved LG 5K2K monitor and a tiny LG portable display.
And don’t miss the audio gear in the gear list below, either. It’s good stuff.
These days, MacBook laptops are more than powerful enough to handle most users’ computing needs. So if you don’t need an even brawnier desktop Mac, why not build your laptop into a full workstation with a few peripherals and accessories?
Today’s setup gets by with a 3-year-old MacBook Pro hooked up to a CalDigit Thunderbolt 3 dock and a nice LG 4K display, plus Logitech input devices and a few other items. It’s a complete workstation whether or not the user ever takes the MacBook Pro to go.
Maybe you’ve got back pain, or maybe your rear end falls asleep too much when you sit for long periods. Whatever the case, you, like many Apple fans, can benefit from a standing desk in your computer setup.
Today’s featured MacBook Pro setup features an affordable sit-stand desk, but there are many options. We’ll go over some of them below.
It’s not every day you see a teeny, tiny little display under an ultra-wide one. But today’s M2 MacBook Air setup sports its dual screens that way by putting an iPad mini at the center under the big external monitor, flanked by paired HomePod minis.
The setup’s interesting highlights include a gaming handheld and a full-sized mechanical keyboard we rarely see.
While many folks like to have miles of screen real estate with multiple external monitors, some enjoy simply having their iPad’s screen in tandem with their main screen, especially for use with Sidecar or Universal Control.
Today’s clean and well-lighted MacBook Pro setup mounts an iPad with the main monitor in a neat way while hiding away the laptop.
While Apple is finally putting out an M2 Mac Pro even as its powerful Mac Studio machines conquer most hardcore computing tasks, the truth is most users can more than get by with an M1 or M2 Mac mini. That goes for Bill Penhale, who sent us his setup from Shorewood, Illinois, near Chicago.
“I am pretty techy for 70, ha!,” the retired sales director told Cult of Mac. And judging by his M1 Mac mini-powered setup, with a fine 4K external display, solid audio and loads of external storage, that’s certainly true.
Monitor mounts and the like may not be terribly glamorous or exciting, but they can do an awful lot for a computer setup.
Today’s featured MacBook Pro workstation uses them to make the laptop and two other crucial pieces of hardware easy to move around. And they keep the hardware off the desk, creating space for other items.
Adding a second or third external display in portrait mode can really enhance a computer setup and its workflow. The owner of today’s featured MacBook Pro setup lucked into a second monitor and set it up vertically. Many people find the orientation suits certain tasks, like coding or reading email.
And who doesn’t love a classic Apple poster? Don’t miss the nice framed PowerBook G4 poster on the wall above the desk in the photograph above.
Getting a complex computer setup just-so can be a daunting experience for even seasoned users. Maybe somebody should create a diagram or something? Well, someone did, making a highly capable MacBook Pro-and-PC setup with external display, storage, audio and more look even more complicated than it really is.
The sleekly executed diagram delighted viewers on social media. Check it out below.
In the battle over who offers the best 5K display, Apple doesn’t always win, even with Mac users. And it’s usually because of price.
Today’s featured Mac Studio setup relies on a 40-inch LG 5K2K curved ultra-wide monitor — picked over a pair of Studio Displays that would cost twice as much — and the user more-or-less said they they couldn’t be happier.
You may already have a mouse pad in your computer setup, but what about a desk mat? Similar concepts in some ways, those two. But many folks may not even think of a desk mat as a necessary item in a computer setup. Or they may consider it an afterthought rather than any sort of priority.
But the humble desk mat, reminiscent of grandpa’s desk blotter, has its benefits. And that came up with today’s featured, desk-mat-free M1 MacBook Air setup.
Part of the fun of covering computer setups for Cult of Mac is seeing how a setup is never “done.” Blood, sweat, tears and time may go into it, but it will always need something — whether that’s missing functionality, better decoration or the next generation of a key device.
Today’s featured M2 MacBook Air setup is a good example. Since we featured an earlier version of it just weeks ago, the user made important changes. He added two components to maximize crucial iPad functionality and pump up audio.
There’s nothing like a straightforward, reasonably up-to-date computer setup that is simply good enough for solid productivity. Today’s featured rig sports newer and older MacBook Pro laptops, an affordable 4K display, a pretty slick mechanical keyboard and homemade laptop stands.
The coder who uses it keeps the older Intel-powered MacBook Pro around despite having an M1 machine for a pretty typical reason, too.
Oh, what a joy to go computer-setup shopping — when your employer readily agrees to pay for everything. Today’s featured M2 Max MacBook Pro setup, which features a gorgeous 42-inch OLED smart TV as a display, came into being that very way.
Check out the setup’s gear, below, and see if that’s what you’d buy if your boss handed you a blank check.
Many computer setups check all the functionality boxes at a cost of thousands of dollars. But who doesn’t love a complete setup that comes in at bargain-basement cost? Today’s featured MacBook Air workstation seems to cover all the bases without breaking the bank for the user, a nursing student.
How is the setup so affordable? In large part, because it relies on lesser-known brands and, in some cases, older equipment.
Any conversation about “perfect” displays might just start and end with Apple’s Pro Display XDR. But not everyone is rich enough to buy one of those 6K monitors, which cost $5,000 or more. So the popular 5K Studio Display might have to do, along with something complementary.
One option graces today’s featured MacBook Pro setup. It recently swapped out ultra-wide and 4K monitors for a Studio Display and and the eccentric LG DualUp. They seem especially well-suited to certain types of workers.
What’s better than having two MacBook Pro laptops in your computer setup? Having the two powerful machines wrapped in cool-looking skins that confound and excite onlookers, of course.
Such is the case with today’s dual-MacBook Pro, dual LG-display workstation that the user depends on for coding and videoconferencing.
A humble light strip can have a huge impact on a computer setup and even the room it’s in, providing functional lighting as well as setting a mood with white or colored lights at different temperatures (cool, warm, etc.). Today’s featured MacBook Pro setup uses nothing but a Nanoleaf Essentials light strip behind the desk and a Xiaomi monitor lamp to light its way. And they do so to great effect.
Read more about the lighting below, plus the setup’s use of a Sonos Bluetooth speaker for audio and an iPhone with Continuity Camera for effective videoconferencing.
New computer displays tend to get not just better over time, but bigger — within reason. Unlike TVs, they’re designed to be viewed from just a few feet away at most. But increasingly, we see people using smart TVs as external monitors to get that extra size into their desktop setups.
Today’s featured setup sports an M2 MacBook Pro driving a 42-inch LG OLED smart TV that the user describes as “perfect.”
In our never-ending search for interesting computer setups, we love stumbling upon good do-it-yourself (“DIY”) hacks. Today’s featured setup mounts an M1 MacBook Air on the wall in a most-unusual way. It involves a pegboard, a strap and a tablet stand designed for use in the kitchen.
In addition, the setup features a rarely seen mechanical keyboard worth checking out.
Do you dream of ditching your mouse? Maybe you have the wrong one. Or maybe you’re onto something, like the software developer who works sans rodent with today’s featured M2 MacBook Pro setup featuring dual external displays in different orientations.
Instead of a mouse for input, she relies on a radically split keyboard with a trackball, plus a macropad. See those and all of the other gear in the cool setup below.
At Cult of Mac, we’re no strangers to looking at computer setups loaded with displays — even as many as six. But we’re less used to seeing certain orientations, like in today’s featured M1 MacBook Pro and custom PC setup.
The workstation seems to reach for the ceiling with four 5K displays. Two stack horizontally in landscape mode and two stand tall, shoulder-to-shoulder in portrait mode.