I have a Macbook Air 11-inch, Early 2015, 2,2 GHz Intel Core i7, 8GB, connected to a 27" Apple Thunderbolt display. This is a setup that works great for me.
However, with the increase of online activity in the past year, I’ve been longing for more real estate. I’m strongly considering buying a second 27" Thunderbolt, since I know it and like it and I don’t want the extra struggle with adaptors and settings. However, I can’t find any reliable info that it would indeed work. I know the 2011 MBA 11" can’t run two screens, but can the 2015? (I know the pro can, but I would like to stay with the small, very portable 11"). Has anybody have any direct experience with this same setup? I’m running 10.13.6 and I know that this is a version where the video drivers (I think that’s what they are called) were broken, so for example software solutions to use spare laptops are not an option. I don’t know if this has any influence on a second display connected physically and not wireless via software.
Thanks, I had seen that it said so in the tech specs, but people here and there on forums seem to suggest that it would work, I just can’t find anybody who has tried it personally and gotten it work. Still hopeful, it would be my favourite solution!
By way of additional info: a second external screen works wirelessly via Apple TV. I’ve tried this with an Sharp Aquos, but it only supports 1920x1080 and is in the wrong room anyway. So if everything else fails I might go for a monitor connected with Apple TV, although I suspect there would be quite some lag if I start moving windows around or writing on the wirelessly-connected screen.
For anybody following this and being interested in these ancient products: two different Apple resellers told me my MBA supports daisy-chaining two Thunderbolt Displays, so I went ahead and purchased a second-hand one. I will report back.
So, I have unboxed my second screen (in perfect, as-good-as-new state) and, lo and behold, it does work! I have to say it’s pretty impressive! It’s my first dual screen set-up and I’m already in love!
NOW I can embrace productivity!
If anybody has one of these older machines lying around and is looking for extra screen space I can only recommend this set-up. Even though the Thunderbolt Displays are 10 years old now and (my MAB is 6), they are still beautiful and clear and everything seems to work like a charm, I don’t even hear the fans spinning, which I was afraid of. Surely, it’s no retina, but I have to say I would need to enlarge anything beyond this definition to be able to read text, so for my purposes this is a perfect solution.
