UltraBooks/MacAir ... can they drive two monitors?

[knowley]

Hi all

Looking for a new laptop, fed up of lugging around a work Dell E6400 but the main requirement is that I need to drive two 21" HD monitors when at work. My 3-4 year old Dell E6400 manages it from the docking station so surely this new thin, light machines can???

I can't really pick between them at the moment; quite like the idea of trying out MacOSX for the first time since I have iPAD and iPhone but then I run a windows home server at home as well, and all the work stuff is Microsoft...

I quite like the look of the Dell XPS 13 and HP Envy Spectre, but these seem to be quite chunky compared to the Asus Zenbook...

Its a minefield out there... anyone got any pointers?

Many thanks

K

[streetster]

... if they only have one (vga?) output, you can always pickup a USB dongle to drive the extra monitor...

[knowley]

... if they only have one (vga?) output, you can always pickup a USB dongle to drive the extra monitor...

So in general when a laptop has two ports, one VGA and one HDMI/Display port, it will be able to drive two monitors?

[BerZerk]

For the Mac air, there is an app called the Air Display...

h**p://avatron.com/apps/air-display#start

[streetster]

So in general when a laptop has two ports, one VGA and one HDMI/Display port, it will be able to drive two monitors?

I guess it depends on the laptop / graphics adaptor of the laptop itself... I'd not rely on that fact though...

[TheAnimus]

it really depends on what you mean by drive.

Also what is a 21" HD monitor! How many pixels are you wanting the laptop to drive, how usable do you want it to be?

IIRC Ultrabooks have to use a specific intel chipset to be able to call itself the trademark, this graphics chip is not exactly powerful.

A USB3 or Thunderbolt if you go apple, adapter might be the best option. What kind of thing is it you need to be able to do on the laptop?

[knowley]

it really depends on what you mean by drive.

Also what is a 21" HD monitor! How many pixels are you wanting the laptop to drive, how usable do you want it to be?

IIRC Ultrabooks have to use a specific intel chipset to be able to call itself the trademark, this graphics chip is not exactly powerful.

A USB3 or Thunderbolt if you go apple, adapter might be the best option. What kind of thing is it you need to be able to do on the laptop?

A 21" HD monitor is a LCD screen of the 21 inch variety, running at 1080p or 1920x1080.

I have two of them on my desk plugged ino a Dell e6400 laptop (via docking station Display Port and DVI socket); the laptop has a Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset display adapter, the machine is powered by a Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.40GHz.

I just want it to work at least, if not better, than the current setup - its a work thing so I dont have time for games or movies.

[TheAnimus]

A 21" HD monitor is a LCD screen of the 21 inch variety, running at 1080p or 1920x1080.

Ah thats a fairly easy ask then.

Samsung series 9 has a mini-HDMI port on one side, and you can buy an adaptor, which in a horrifically apple manner isn't bundled for free, that will allow you to drive your second.

The reason I questioned is 'HD' just means High Def, how high is high, if its just 1080p, its simple enough then, and the Series 9 should let you do that just fine.