Which docking station for Macbook Air M2 for 2 HDMI 1920x1080 monitors?

Check this doc on ebay. It claims to run 2) HDMI monitors from an M1/M2 MacBook Air and I am considering one for myself.

electricd7 wrote:

Thanks. So even if the dock supports Display-Link technology, is it even possible to use both monitors attached to the dock given that the Macbook only supports 1 external monitor? What about if the lid is closed (ie both external monitors, no integrated display?)

The M2 MacBook Air only supports a single external monitor – where there is dedicated hardware to drive the display at whatever refresh rate the GPU and monitor settle upon.

DisplayLink is a workaround that creates virtual screens (in software) on the host computer, and then transmits compressed updates to an external DisplayLink-equipped device that decodes those updates, with the help of DisplayLink chip sets and hub/dock/adapter software. (The sale of the chip sets and software is how Synaptics makes their money.)

I've seen articles where people took M1-based Macs that only supported a single external display – and, using DisplayLink technology, attached 5 or 6 displays to them (total). Not that this configuration is recommended. I think the person who did it had to settle for low resolution on some of the displays (to get it to work at all), and with that many displays, there may well have been lags in updates / slow refresh rates on some of them.

So attaching a couple of 1920x1080 monitors to a M2 MacBook Air, with the help of DisplayLink, seems like it is within the realm of possibility, as long as you're not expecting to do extreme high-end 3D gaming on them – or stuff like that.

But as far as I know, Apple doesn't officially support using DisplayLink on Macs. Even Dell appears to be saying that they'll take your money for the dock hardware, but if you have any software issues afterwards, getting it to work with a Mac, you'll have to go to Synaptics for support.

electricd7 wrote:

What about if the lid is closed (ie both external monitors, no integrated display?)

If you close the lid of the laptop, you close the lid of the laptop. That doesn't change the specifications of the machine to allow for two external displays.

The M2 MacBook Air only supports a single external monitor.

MacBook Air (M2, 2022) - Technical Specifications

MacBook Air (15-inch, M2, 2023) - Technical Specifications

There are workarounds, using things like DisplayLink-equipped docking stations and a third-party DisplayLink driver installed on the computer – but they won't necessarily have the same performance as a hardware video output.

I don't know if the Dell WD19s supports DisplayLink. This Dell article says that "Dell Universal or USB-C docks such as … WD19 … and others use DisplayLink technology." (The WD19 is a fancier version of the WD19s.)

https://www.dell.com/support/contents/en-us/article/product-support/self-support-knowledgebase/docking-stations/dell-universal

I don't see any mention of DisplayLink on the WD19s product page. If that dock supports DisplayLink, you would need to install Mac software to take advantage of it. Dell provides a link to the Synaptics site with the disclaimer "Dell is providing this information but does not provide software support for Apple products."

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000125234/dell-displaylink-docking-stations-and-macos-support

electricd7 wrote:

I am just doing some reading and it seems that the macbook air m2 only works via thunderbolt

The M2 MacBook Air supports both USB-C (DisplayPort) monitors and Thunderbolt monitors.

You would attach most external monitors using one of the following:

• A USB-C to USB-C connection (which can potentially transmit video, charging power, and USB data)
• A USB-C to (Mini) DisplayPort adapter (or adapter cable)
• A USB-C to HDMI adapter (or adapter cable)

Thunderbolt usually doesn't enter into it for monitors with a resolution of UHD 4K (3840x2160) or less. (All TB3 and TB4 ports, by definition, use USB-C connectors. All TB3 and TB4 host ports on Macs, to date, also support other protocols like DisplayPort. So vendors sometimes play a little fast and loose with the "Thunderbolt" term, when what they really mean is that their product works with "plain" USB-C.)

Some monitors do require a Thunderbolt connection. Usually these are ones with 5K or 6K resolution, but there are some exceptions to this rule.

A question for Dell might be whether the WD15 includes DisplayLink technology.

If it does, then the drivers at the Synaptics site might let you take advantage of that with your Mac, although it sounds like Dell won't provide much official support for using the DisplayLink feature with a Mac.