This is probably the most exciting MacBook Pro accessory right now, but it’s missing a crucial feature
Guess how many times Apple mentions the term 8K when launching the most powerful cellular workstation, MacBook Pro, on October 2021? Not three, five or even ten, but eleven times in all.
The 4K post-production era seems to be a stepping stone for something bigger in Apple’s eyes. And therefore disappointing that one of the most interesting MacBook Pro accessories around does not have the ability to run at 8K resolution via HDMI.
Targus’ Hyper Triple Dock Dock for MacBook Pro was launched just a few days ago, but it has destroyed its aim at the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform. More than 2,100 supporters have poured around $ 360,000 into the project so far.
Two Versions Available: Model 13-to-14 inch (HD134) for $ 124 and a 13-to-16 inch model (HD136) for $ 149, both with a discount of a 50% initial bird which is likely to end within 24 hours.
Missed opportunity?
What makes this USB-C adapter special is its ability to grow by taking a magnetic hub for a compatible MacBook Pro device. Fully loaded, can push three 4K monitors (have three HDMI connectors and three DP, but you can only use half of them). There are also three USB type-C connectors (one with 100W power shipping), three types of USB-A-ports, gigabit ethernet ports and two card readers. Unfortunately, there is no Thunderbolt port, from anywhere.
Although it does not require a driver, you still need to attach not one but three USB type cables for it. We have not tested the MacBook Pro with an 8K monitor or 8K television, but the slowest reality of 2021 MacBook Pro can encourage two professional XDR Pro monitors (each with more than 20.3 million pixels) placing the scenario in “very possible” category .
The problem is not the dock does not support 8K, it happens. But it doesn’t support 8K on the right port (i.e. hdmi). At present, there is only one decent 8K monitor on the market, Dell Ultrasharp up3218K, which is only compatible with DisplayPort.
On the other hand, there are at least 8K television dozens, with some of them is good enough to use as a secondary productivity display. The problem is that they have an HDMI 2.1 port, not DisplayPort, and the new HDMI port is reintroduced on the new MacBook Pro only supports HDMI 2.0.
One way to avoid problems is to use a bundled converter (but not built-in) which changes the video signal from DisplayPort to HDMI. But it might prove difficult.
Instead, we only hope there will be more 8K monitors with HDMI and DisplayPort launched in 2022. And given that the XDR Display Pro is spinning three years next, we will not be surprised if Apple provides a refresh with the 8k model for. 2022 iteration.