What is the best dock to allow two external displays on MacBook Air?

Question

Level 1

26 points

What is the best dock to allow two external displays on MacBook Air?

I've got a 2013 MacBook Air and am still very happy with it although I've wanted to use it to drive two external monitors for some time now. I'd given up searching and just thought I'd compromise and buy a Pro next time around however I just noticed this Dell USB 3.0 dock (http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Display-UltraHD-Universal-D3100/dp/B00O0M46KO) which has 2 HDMI ports and 1 displaylink - and can drive all 3 simultaneously.

Does anyone use one daily on their MBA or can recommend an alternative? It looks great but I don't want lag in day-to-day tasks etc. The consensus on that seems mixed..

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Jun 12, 2015 4:25 AM

Reply

Answer 1

shad0wca7 Author

Level 1

26 points

Jun 18, 2015 12:26 AM in response to shad0wca7

Just as an update to this. I bought the Dell D3100 to try out and so far it works great. I now have my MacBook Air driving it's own display and 2 24" displays independantly. The large external displays (on USB 3.0) are not as quick as native but it's perfect for office apps. Fullscreen video actually works pretty well also. Some graphical corruption on borders of windows but hopefully that will improve as the drivers are improved...

Reply

Answer 2

Nov 16, 2015 11:02 AM in response to shad0wca7

How did you get the Dell D3100 working on your MBAir with OS X 10.10?

When I plug my D3100 in, I can get USB working but not displays. Was there a driver that you found that worked?

Reply

Answer 3

Nov 20, 2015 12:32 AM in response to HungLikeaFieldMouse

I'm in the same boat - if you find out please let me know!

Reply

Answer 4

shad0wca7 Author

Level 1

26 points

Nov 20, 2015 2:23 AM in response to bigashman

Sure guys, go to www.displaylink.com and download and install the latest OS X drivers. When the d3100 is plugged in, it might be useful to enable reduced transparency in accessibility options. It improves the performance a bIt.

Reply

Answer 5

IanMZA

Level 1

4 points

Sep 2, 2016 4:23 AM in response to shad0wca7

Hi

This really helped, whilst the screen worked I had odd colouration around the edge of system boxes until I switched off that option.

Thanks

Reply