CompetitorsĪ quick look around any large tech retailer will reveal several very similar-looking devices that appear to offer the same functionality.įor those in Europe, Startech has the TB32DP2T. The new Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max machines support two and three external displays according to Apple marketing, but we can’t guarantee that this device will work with that hardware at this time.

Sonnet has a list of laptops that won’t work with the adapter on its site, and it might be worth checking this before spending on one. Therefore, if you have an M1 MacBook or MacBook Air, this adapter is of no use to you, sadly.Īnd, according to the Sonnet FAQ for this product, it also won’t support 5k on the MacBook Air (2017), and not all Thunderbolt 3 Windows PCs support two 4K monitors (or one 5k monitor) or 60Hz refresh rates. The only exception to this generalisation is the M1 Mac Mini that supports one display over HDMI and another via USB-C. From what we understand, and we’re certainly not experts in anything Apple makes, the M1 architecture doesn’t support more than one external display. Some integrated GPUs aren’t capable of driving one display at this resolution, never mind two.īut this isn’t an issue that Apple M1 Mac owners will encounter as this adapter won’t work this that hardware.

We should also mention that depending on the laptop hardware, how practical attaching dual or quad 4K external screens to an integrated GPU is very hardware dependent. In theory, those with two available Thunderbolt ports should be able to use two of these adapters, though Sonnet only mentions quad-screen functionality for Intel Macs. It is possible to mirror the onboard display, disable the onboard or extend the virtual desktop to include both the onboard and the additional monitor(s). Thunderbolt 3 has sufficient bandwidth to support two 4K monitors or a single 5K monitor up to a resolution of 5120 x 2830. Or so it would seem until a few caveats appear to make using it marginally more complicated. Ostensibly this is the most basic of plug-and-play devices. Having a detachable Thunderbolt cable might have been nice, but a permanent connection avoids that tumbleweed moment when you get to a client ready to do a presentation, only to realise that you have the adapter but misplaced the cable.Īt just 95g, it’s highly portable, and the 99 mm long tube would hardly be noticed alongside the power supply and other paraphernalia that most laptop owners avail themselves of.

To boil it down, this is a rolled aluminium tube with a 30cm Thunderbolt 3 cable extending from one end and two female DisplayPort ports mounted on the other.Įlectronics inside the tube breaks out the Thunderbolt pathways to connect an external monitor using DisplayPort, and the device is powered by its connection to the computer, requiring no external PSU. As an external peripheral, devices like this don’t get much simpler.

Dual thunderbolt to hdmi adapter