Apple unveiled the M3 Ultra chip as an option in the new MacStudio desktop Wednesday. As the company’s most powerful silicon chip to date, it brings unprecedented performance to pro users with demanding workflows. The other option in the new desktop machine is the M4 Max chip, which is actually less powerful than the M3 Ultra.
“M3 Ultra is the pinnacle of our scalable system-on-a-chip architecture, aimed specifically at users who run the most heavily threaded and bandwidth-intensive applications,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies.
M4 MacBook Air lets users view 3 displays at once
MacBook Air is a consumer-oriented product. It’s designed to let users shop or scroll social media or maybe work on their homework. In Apple’s opinion, more than one external screen wasn’t a priority for this group. Those who want to set up some kind of “command center” with multiple external monitors could opt instead for a MacBook Pro — with Pro standing for “professional.”
But that policy seems to have changed. Apple’s announcement on Wednesday of the M4 MacBook Air says, “It also offers support for up to two external displays in addition to the built-in display.”
The tech specs for the new computer go into more detail. They state that it “simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at 1 billion colors and up to two external displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz.”
The M4 MacBook Air sports a pair of USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4. Two external monitors would occupy both of these (of course), but the notebook also has a MagSafe port for charging, as necessary.
A years-long limitation
Back in the days of the 2019 MacBook Air, it was possible to connect two external displays while also using the laptop’s built-in one. But that computer ran on an Intel processor, and the debut of the Apple M1 chip the next year brought support for multiple external monitors in the MacBook Air to an end.
And as years went by and the M2 and M3 chips appeared in successive MacBook Air models, only two screens in total were ever supported in the consumer-oriented laptop. That said, the M3-based model does offer a trick: closing the laptop’s clamshell to shut off the internal display allows two external ones to be used. But still, only two screens.
Just so there’s no confusion, Apple notebooks running more powerful Pro and Max chips can handle more screens. Up to four. But that didn’t help the Air.
Which means, at this point, out of the recent MacBook Air lineup, only the M4 model can handle two external screens while the built-in display stays active.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
