Thunderbolt Monitor = paper weight in a few years?

[JavaMomma]

I've been thinking of ordering a Thunderbolt Monitor to go with my MBPr. However, after this Thunderbolt-less Macbook came out I realized that maybe Thunderbolt isn't Apple's future and it would suck to have them drop support for Thunderbolt in 2-3 years. Would make the monitor worthless.

Problem is I guess nobody else here really knows what Apple is going to do either :/
I can't be the only one thinking this though.

 

[JAG87]

I sold mine in January before it devalued any further. It's a dead device with no improvement in sight, buying one today from Apple, new or refurb, would be absolute insanity.

 

[renatoaraujoc]

I sold mine in January before it devalued any further. It's a dead device with no improvement in sight, buying one today from Apple, new or refurb, would be absolute insanity.

What is the kind of monitor (brand, model) people should go for then? I'm talking about the best stuff. I'm curious cuz I'll buy a high-end monitor to use with my future rMBPro.

 

[Childs]

I doubt thunderbolt is going away anytime soon on anything other than future airs and this new macbook. The only reason I wouldn't buy one today is because they are too damn expensive. Its hard to beat the aesthetic when connected to your Mac stuff.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Isn't it able to run off of Displayport?

 

[postmortemIA]

$1K for a monitor that has only proprietary connector... this rivals new macbooks coming with a single USB connector and that's it.

 

[CA19100]

$1K for a monitor that has only proprietary connector...

Thunderbolt is not a proprietary connector.

 

[ViRGE]

Isn't it able to run off of Displayport?

Nope.

It only accepts DP encapsulated in TB. So it can't accept a native DP signal. It's the same reason the more recent iMacs can't do Target Display Mode with non-TB devices.

 

[Printer Bandit]

Thunderbolt
Lightning
USB-C

one of the above needs help with branding

 

[Rakehellion]

I've been thinking of ordering a Thunderbolt Monitor to go with my MBPr. However, after this Thunderbolt-less Macbook came out I realized that maybe Thunderbolt isn't Apple's future and it would suck to have them drop support for Thunderbolt in 2-3 years. Would make the monitor worthless.

Problem is I guess nobody else here really knows what Apple is going to do either :/
I can't be the only one thinking this though.

Thunderbolt is definitely in Apple's future, but if you make a laptop with only one port, it'll need to be USB.

 

[Rakehellion]

Thunderbolt
Lightning
USB-C

one of the above needs help with branding

The latter sounds like a birth control pill.

 

[postmortemIA]

Thunderbolt is not a proprietary connector.

For all intents and purposes it is. Got non apple card that support it? You think apple didn't realize that nobody else is gong to follow this with dvi hdmi and display port available?

 

[Essence_of_War]

Isn't it able to run off of Displayport?

The Apple Cinema Display can connect to a thunderbolt or MDP and work fine. The Thunderbolt Display can only connect to a thunderbolt port. It's kind of lame . And I don't even think it daisy chains out thunderbolt 2, since the only revision it has had since 2011 was to add magsafe 2.

 

[el-Capitan]

At least with VGA we had one to connect them all. Now we're facing

VGA
DVI
mini DVI
HDMI (with two separate revisions)
mini HDMI
Displayport
mini DP
Thunderbolt
Miracast and others

!!!

 

[JAG87]

What is the kind of monitor (brand, model) people should go for then? I'm talking about the best stuff. I'm curious cuz I'll buy a high-end monitor to use with my future rMBPro.

I personally would not buy a monitor right now, even if I was in the market for one. See if you can find a used thunderbolt or a cinema display, and hold out until something worth paying sticker price comes out, like a 4K USB-C display that charges your laptop and includes a USB hub.

I'm sorry to say but don't hold your breath for a 5K display like the iMac, because none of the Macbooks currently available have DP 1.3 output. We're probably looking at 2016 before that becomes feasible.

If you must buy brand new today, then any of the 4K displays available in the 24-30" category should be okay. I like Dell because they have pretty fantastic customer service (in my experience at least), but I'm not sure how they fare where you live.

 

[Essence_of_War]

I've been thinking of ordering a Thunderbolt Monitor to go with my MBPr. However, after this Thunderbolt-less Macbook came out I realized that maybe Thunderbolt isn't Apple's future and it would suck to have them drop support for Thunderbolt in 2-3 years. Would make the monitor worthless.

The real question, I think, is do you need a TBD, or do you just want a nice monitor? The value of a TBD is that it combines a TB dock/hub with a high-end monitor, it does it at a pretty steep cost, though. You can get a high-end dell monitor that uses the same panel, has HDMI, DP, MDP inputs (and DP out, so it can be daisy chained just like a TBD!) for ~$600 USD. No matter what the future of thunderbolt will be, the future of displayport looks pretty good.

 

[Blackjack200]

What is the kind of monitor (brand, model) people should go for then? I'm talking about the best stuff. I'm curious cuz I'll buy a high-end monitor to use with my future rMBPro.

I agree with the advice against buying a new Thunderbolt display, but I'd check the Craigsbay market and see what the prices are there.

Barring that, I'd go for a 4k display with the best connectors (Thunderbolt 2 if possible) available.

At least with VGA we had one to connect them all. Now we're facing

VGA
DVI
mini DVI
HDMI (with two separate revisions)
mini HDMI
Displayport
mini DP
Thunderbolt
Miracast and others

!!!

I agree, video connectors are horribly fragmented right now. I guess the one good thing is that it's usually pretty trivial to convert between them.

I wish everyone had jumped on Thuderbolt, it seems pretty awesome. Is the cost of implementation really high or something?

 

[Essence_of_War]

What is the kind of monitor (brand, model) people should go for then? I'm talking about the best stuff. I'm curious cuz I'll buy a high-end monitor to use with my future rMBPro.

For general brands Dell, HP, LG, Samsung all have monitor lines that use the same quality panels that Apple typically uses, they're all buying from the same handfull of panel manufacturers. Specific models/lines depend on what features you want, but just about everything in Dell's ultrasharp line is excellent, for examble, and Asus' PA/PB lines are typically quite good, HP's ZR monitors, and Samsung's PLS monitors, are all typically very high quality as well. Many of them have the added advantage that they come with a 3-year warranty and/or 0-dead-pixel guarantees by default. I think you can only get 3-year warranty on the TBD if you purchase it with a Mac, and pick-up apple-care for the extra $250 or so.

For specific models, TFTCentral is a good source for first-class monitor reviews.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I wish everyone had jumped on Thuderbolt, it seems pretty awesome. Is the cost of implementation really high or something?

On the CPU side, yeah. It's not trivial.

On the display side, you have two options. 1) ignore the thunderbolt-ey (PCI-E) part and just use the displayport signal (I can drive any DP monitor off of my Mac's thunderbolt ports) 2) use the PCI-E part to drive USB controllers, etc. (This is what Apple does and why their monitors are so expensive.)

 

[Eug]

At least with VGA we had one to connect them all. Now we're facing

VGA
DVI
mini DVI
HDMI (with two separate revisions)
mini HDMI
Displayport
mini DP
Thunderbolt
Miracast and others

!!!

And then there was the now-defunct ADC. I'm afraid Thunderbolt will go the way of ADC. Thunderbolt isn't proprietary, but it's close enough.

 

[Ichinisan]

For all intents and purposes it is. Got non apple card that support it? You think apple didn't realize that nobody else is gong to follow this with dvi hdmi and display port available?

Apple was one of the earliest adopters for many technologies that became common or ubiquitous some time after. Sometimes the first mainstream adopter. Just a few:

• USB
• WiFi ("Airport")
• 1394 ("Firewire")

Will USB-C be next?

Some of it doesn't stick (Firewire 800), but you never know when it's this early. When Apple adopts something new, that might give a new technology its best chance to catch on.

 

[Ichinisan]

I personally would not buy a monitor right now, even if I was in the market for one. See if you can find a used thunderbolt or a cinema display, and hold out until something worth paying sticker price comes out, like a 4K USB-C display that charges your laptop and includes a USB hub.

I'm sorry to say but don't hold your breath for a 5K display like the iMac, because none of the Macbooks currently available have DP 1.3 output. We're probably looking at 2016 before that becomes feasible.

If you must buy brand new today, then any of the 4K displays available in the 24-30" category should be okay. I like Dell because they have pretty fantastic customer service (in my experience at least), but I'm not sure how they fare where you live.

Sorry. The current USB-C 3.1 standard can't come close to 4K resolution.

[edit]
I was wrong. I was referring to the limitations of the Intel chipset used in the new 12" Macbook 2015.

 

[JAG87]

Sorry. The current USB-C 3.1 standard can't come close to 4K resolution.

Wut?

Don't mix up the limitations of current USB-C controllers (i.e. Core-M) or the DisplayPort/HDMI version supported by your output device, with the capabilities of the actual medium. USB-C can carry today whatever DP 1.3 can carry today, which is 5K60 with room for simultaneous USB 2 still. Or 4K60 with simultaneous USB 3 at 10Gbps. The bottleneck today is on the transmitting end, not the cable or the receiving end. But they can make a monitor today that is ready for this kind of set up, even though the new Macbook is not ready for it.

 

[weevilone]

For all intents and purposes it is. Got non apple card that support it? You think apple didn't realize that nobody else is gong to follow this with dvi hdmi and display port available?

Actually, yes I do. My PC is connected to my LG display via DP through Thunderbolt. It is fantastic.

It is not proprietary.

 

[Ichinisan]

Wut?

Don't mix up the limitations of current USB-C controllers (i.e. Core-M) or the DisplayPort/HDMI version supported by your output device, with the capabilities of the actual medium. USB-C can carry today whatever DP 1.3 can carry today, which is 5K60 with room for simultaneous USB 2 still. Or 4K60 with simultaneous USB 3 at 10Gbps. The bottleneck today is on the transmitting end, not the cable or the receiving end. But they can make a monitor today that is ready for this kind of set up, even though the new Macbook is not ready for it.

I didn't realize that. Thanks.