Apple’s early M1 Macs (MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro)Officially only one external display can be connected.. However, Anker, who is familiar in this field, has released a USB-C docking station in the United States that avoids that limitation and connects to three external displays.
The new Anker 563 USB-C Docking Station features two HDMI ports and one DisplayPort port, and a multi-stream transport allows you to input multiple video signals over a single cable. In other words, the video input received from the M1 Mac side can be output to up to three displays.
However, because it is “connected to a Mac with a single USB-C cable”, the bandwidth of the video signal is limited, and the quality of the display that can be installed is limited. First, plug a 4K display into one of the HDMI ports and it will work at 30Hz. In addition, the second HDMI display and DisplayPort display are limited to 2K resolution, 50Hz or 60Hz respectively, so don’t expect high resolution or high refresh rate.
Previously, YouTuber Ruslan Tulupov successfully used DisplayLink software and a DisplayLink certified display adapter (via an external dock) to display up to five external screens on the M1 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. There, too, we have devised a way to mix each resolution from 4K to 1080p.
In addition, the Anker 563 dock has abundant ports such as a USB-C PD port that can supply up to 100 W to the Mac itself, a USB-C up to 30 W and a USB-A 3.1 5 Gbps downstream USB port up to 7.5 W. It is installed. In addition, it has two USB-A 2.0 ports that make it easy to connect a mouse or keyboard, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and an AUX input / output port.
The size of the main body is regarding 17 cm x 8 cm x thickness of regarding 2.5 cm, which is a standard size for a docking station. However, the price is 249.99 dollars (regarding 32,150 yen *), which is a little expensive.
* Converted at 1 dollar = approximately 128.6 yen (as of May 19, 2022)
However, considering that you can easily display it on three external displays even with an M1 Mac just by “connecting”, you may consider purchasing it.
