M1 MacBook Air: Use 49-inch ultrawide as dual monitors

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M1 MacBook Air: Use 49-inch ultrawide as dual monitors

I am not really a tech expert anymore. I have a 2020 M1 Macbook Air. Currently I have been using two 22" Samsung monitors with a Tobenone docking station with DisplayLink. I recently upgraded to a 49" Samsung ViewFinity. Basically I would like this ultrawide screen to act as a dual monitor. Not going to be used for gaming or any high resolution work, just basically spreadsheets, web browsing, and a couple accounting software programs. I have two HDMI cables ready to go, but also have a couple DisplayPort cords and DisplayPort to HDMI adapters being delivered today. I am looking for tips/tricks to make this new ultrawide screen act like it was two separate monitors.

Posted on Jul 1, 2026 5:52 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 1, 2026 4:03 PM in response to jkmdg84

The M1 MacBook Air only supports one external monitor. As you may have already learned, workarounds such as DisplayLink cannot add more first-class hardware-accelerated video outputs, and may come with compromises.

Whether you can force the Samsung monitor to appear as two monitors will depend on the monitor's capabilities. Does the monitor's manual say anything about a "Side by Side" mode which would let you display video from two independent sources side by side on the screen?

It's also not clear why you would need to treat the Samsung monitor as two separate monitors, rather than using it as a single monitor and simply resizing individual application windows to take up less than the full screen.

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