Apple’s M3 MacBook Pro is, belatedly, fixing its one-external-display limitation

One long-standing limitation of Apple’s most elementary Mac chips—the no-adjective M1, M2, and M3—has been their incapability to work with greater than a single exterior monitor at a time. This was one of many solely methods through which the Apple Silicon period has been a step again from the Intel period, the place most Macs supported not less than two exterior shows, plus the display screen constructed into the MacE-book Air or Pro you had been utilizing. (Would an built-in Intel GPU truly work properly with that many screens linked? Usually not. But not less than you could possibly strive.)

When Apple launched the M3 model of the MacE-book Pro final fall, the one-external-display limitation was nonetheless in place. But immediately’s announcement of the M3 MacE-book Air got here with a small however nice shock for anybody who desires their Mac to do double-duty as a laptop computer and a desktop—if the laptop computer’s lid is closed, the M3 can now run a pair of exterior shows over its Thunderbolt ports. And Apple confirmed to 9to5Mac that the 14-inch M3 MacE-book Pro would have the identical performance enabled through a future macOS replace (we have requested Apple to confirm whether or not it is coming within the imminent macOS 14.4 replace or at some future date).

Apple’s spec sheets say that the M3 can drive one 6K show at 60 Hz and one further 5K show at 60 Hz when your laptop computer’s lid is closed. The M3 MacE-book Pro’s spec sheet nonetheless hasn’t been up to date as of this writing, however we’d count on it to be in some unspecified time in the future after the related software program replace is launched.

This is a welcome change from the M1 and M2, which might nonetheless solely work with one exterior show whether or not the lid is closed or not. Each of these chips can drive a complete of two screens at a time, the identical because the M3, however the inside show all the time counts towards the overall whether or not it is truly in use or not.

This change makes the M3 MacE-book Airs and Pros a bit extra just like the Mac mini, which has all the time supported a pair of exterior shows by advantage of getting no built-in display screen. The M1 Mac mini helps a single USB-C/Thunderbolt show plus one HDMI show, and the M2 model additionally provides the flexibility to make use of a pair of USB-C/Thunderbolt shows. It’s unlikely {that a} software program replace will add help for a number of exterior shows to the M1 or M2 MacE-book Airs, however we have requested Apple if it has any information to share in some way.