We already knew the guts in a Thunderbolt cable were pretty impressive, but iFixit’s teardown of Apple’s 27-inch Thunderbolt display shows just how much circuitry goes into making Intel’s new transfer technology work, even in a monitor.
The display’s also got a built-in Thunderbolt cable attached to a Universal MagSafe cable, so you can charge your laptop while it’s plugged into the display, which is pretty awesome. Unless you’ve got a 2011 MacBook Air, which has its charging port and Thunderbolt port on opposite sides; then it’s just frustrating. It’s also got larger speakers and a 1-inch subwoofer, so sound should be better than previous versions of the display.
Thunderbolt is awesome, and still improving, but iFixit does note that Dell’s similarly-priced display does sort of kicks this one’s butt: 1.07 billion colors to 16.7 million; a wealth of ports to just 3 USB 2.0s, a FireWire800, a Thunderbolt, and 1Gbit ethernet; and half the 6ms response to Apple’s 12ms. Still, if you’re getting this, it’s for the Thunderbolt connection, and it’s a pretty solid display besides. [iFixit]
https://gizmodo.com/thunderbolt-will-become-even-faster-just-with-new-cable-5844210
