OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock, Air Battery Life, & 2 Monitor Situation

Homescreens & Office Setups
1

So, I’ve been holding off on an Air for over a year anticipating first the keyboard fix and then the big refresh. In the meantime, I acquired what I thought would be the components of a great setup: two 27" Dell U2717D IPS monitors, swiveling monitor arms that mount to the desk, and an OWC Thunderbolt doc.

I thought I was being smart by preparing, but now I realize I might’ve gone off completely half cocked. I won’t really need to move the computer since I work from home now, and I hate working on just a laptop anyway–I feel like Shrek working on such a little machine and keyboard.

Does anyone have any idea how I can run the two monitors & speakers without keeping the Air plugged into power and ostensibly taxing the battery 24/7? Is taxing the battery in this manner just the price of doing business?

Background: I’m upgrading from a late 2012 27" iMac–first ten fusion drive and running just one external monitor at present.

2

Given that the M1 MacBook Air can only drive one external display and it sounds like you’ll be using this deskbound, you may want to consider the M1 Mac mini.

4 Likes
3

Ooof. My preparations really aged poorly. I didn’t even think to check this. Thanks. :grimacing:

4

Looks like there’s at least some sort of hack around this. I have no idea about the different dock capabilities but this seems promising.