Help me dock my older MacBook Air (2015)
February 23, 2019 12:02 PM Subscribe
My work gave me a somewhat older MacBook Air - 13 inch "early 2015." I'd like to plug it into a home setup with an external monitor (ideally two screens). Have you done this? What's the best way?
I don't have any existing external monitors at home, so I will need to buy screens and some way to connect them. There are a bunch of third-party "dock" products that supposedly let you do this (like this one), but there are all kinds of conflicting reviews about whether the docks work with two screens. Also a lot of the docks for this model seem to be sold out/gone because of the passage of time since the model was released. Maybe I should just give up the idea of two screens and get one screen - do you have a recommendation for a good work screen (just word-processing and email, but ideally nice to look at.) If I get one screen, I'd like to get something that will work with a future upgrade/replacement for the 2015 Air.
The 2015 Air has "Thunderbolt 2" and USB-C ports.
I don't have any existing external monitors at home, so I will need to buy screens and some way to connect them. There are a bunch of third-party "dock" products that supposedly let you do this (like this one), but there are all kinds of conflicting reviews about whether the docks work with two screens. Also a lot of the docks for this model seem to be sold out/gone because of the passage of time since the model was released. Maybe I should just give up the idea of two screens and get one screen - do you have a recommendation for a good work screen (just word-processing and email, but ideally nice to look at.) If I get one screen, I'd like to get something that will work with a future upgrade/replacement for the 2015 Air.
The 2015 Air has "Thunderbolt 2" and USB-C ports.
I can't quite tell from your question if you want two screens including the laptop's built-in display, or if you're wondering if your Air can drive two external displays in addition to the internal display.
ouke is exactly right about the first case: unless you need the two external displays, Mini DisplayPort -> HDMI is the easiest way to do what you want. If that's the right setup for you, I'd suggest a laptop stand to put the Air and its display at a better height relative to your other monitor. I use a very similar setup at work, and am very happy with it.
A quick glance at the spec sheet for your Air suggests it can run one external display, but probably not two.
In terms of display recommendations, the wirecutter has good recommendations for 27" LCDs; you probably want the 27n G2, which they describe as "If you don't want (or can't use) 4K" given the Air's graphics processor. I have a previous version of this Dell monitor and really like it.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 1:44 PM on February 23, 2019
ouke is exactly right about the first case: unless you need the two external displays, Mini DisplayPort -> HDMI is the easiest way to do what you want. If that's the right setup for you, I'd suggest a laptop stand to put the Air and its display at a better height relative to your other monitor. I use a very similar setup at work, and am very happy with it.
A quick glance at the spec sheet for your Air suggests it can run one external display, but probably not two.
In terms of display recommendations, the wirecutter has good recommendations for 27" LCDs; you probably want the 27n G2, which they describe as "If you don't want (or can't use) 4K" given the Air's graphics processor. I have a previous version of this Dell monitor and really like it.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 1:44 PM on February 23, 2019
Response by poster: Thanks - I meant 2 externals ideally, but it looks pretty kludgey to do that through a $300 dock.
posted by Mid at 2:24 PM on February 23, 2019
posted by Mid at 2:24 PM on February 23, 2019
Thunderbolt 2 and mini DisplayPort share the same physical connector and the port on your MacBook Air can speak both.
The most straightforward thing to do is to use the port as mini DisplayPort and hook up a single monitor using an inexpensive and easily obtainable cable like one of these. This is easily the most future-proof of your options, as the popular input connectors (mDP, DP, and HDMI) on new monitors these days are actively maintained standards and don't seem to be going away any time soon. The specs for your MBA state that it supports 4k resolutions on external displays, so you could get a 4k or ultra-wide display for extra screen real estate, though your GPU may struggle to drive more complicated apps at those resolutions.
Using Thunderbolt 2, it's possible with some computers (but I'm not sure about yours, the specs aren't clear) to drive two displays using one port. I don't think I'd recommend going down this route; as far as I can tell, it involves daisy-chaining two Thunderbolt devices together (some mix/match between Thunderbolt displays and docking stations). It would leave you with a couple pricey/obsoleted Thunderbolt 1/2 devices in a Thunderbolt 3/USB-C world.
posted by strangecargo at 5:38 PM on February 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
The most straightforward thing to do is to use the port as mini DisplayPort and hook up a single monitor using an inexpensive and easily obtainable cable like one of these. This is easily the most future-proof of your options, as the popular input connectors (mDP, DP, and HDMI) on new monitors these days are actively maintained standards and don't seem to be going away any time soon. The specs for your MBA state that it supports 4k resolutions on external displays, so you could get a 4k or ultra-wide display for extra screen real estate, though your GPU may struggle to drive more complicated apps at those resolutions.
Using Thunderbolt 2, it's possible with some computers (but I'm not sure about yours, the specs aren't clear) to drive two displays using one port. I don't think I'd recommend going down this route; as far as I can tell, it involves daisy-chaining two Thunderbolt devices together (some mix/match between Thunderbolt displays and docking stations). It would leave you with a couple pricey/obsoleted Thunderbolt 1/2 devices in a Thunderbolt 3/USB-C world.
posted by strangecargo at 5:38 PM on February 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
Your laptop has USB3, per this page so it should be able to drive one external monitor via the mini-displayport/thunderbolt 2 port easily, then you could get a USB3 dock with displaylink to drive a second display.
Unfortunately, support for these sorts of docks on OS X hasn't been the most stable, though the latest drivers/os should work.
I have been using this dock for office apps on my windows PC and it works fine for that.
posted by arrjay at 7:25 PM on February 23, 2019
Unfortunately, support for these sorts of docks on OS X hasn't been the most stable, though the latest drivers/os should work.
I have been using this dock for office apps on my windows PC and it works fine for that.
posted by arrjay at 7:25 PM on February 23, 2019
Using a Belkin Thunderbolt 2 dock, you can have 2 displays if one is a Thunderbolt display and one is HDMI.
posted by RandyWalker at 1:30 PM on February 25, 2019
posted by RandyWalker at 1:30 PM on February 25, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by ouke at 12:49 PM on February 23, 2019