Hi! I'm Bernie Thompson.
I'm the Founder of Plugable Technologies.
So, today we got our MacBook Pro 13 inch, the late 2016 model.
That's the new one that has two Thunderbolt 3 ports on one side of the laptop, and a single
3.5 millimeter audio jack on the other.
They kept it on the MacBook Pro.
So, this is interesting, because there are no USB-A ports here, the USB port that we've
been used to for so many years.
There's no additional graphics ports on the outside of the MacBook Pro.
So, how do we connect anything up?
How do we even connect a mouse?
Not even talking about extra displays.
Well, USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 are both peripheral ecosystems, that have been evolving quickly
here over the last year or two.
They both use the same USB-C cable.
Thunderbolt 3 uses USB-C is the way to think of it.
And you could really connect anything up through it.
And you have your old devices.
There's backward compatibility.
However, there really are a lot of trouble spots and blind spots still with USB-C.
We want to go through them real quickly: what works and what doesn't.
So the main features that USB-C adds over the older USB-A connections, that you're used
to, is that there's an ability to have graphics output running natively over USB-C. Just with
normal USB-C, the standard that's present here in the MacBook is called DisplayPort
over USB-C. And you can have a single DisplayPort over USB-C connection over a single port.
Then there's also Thunderbolt 3, which is its own different sort of connection over
that same USB-C cable.
Then Thunderbolt 3 has more advanced capabilities.
It's able to do two simultaneous video streams over that one USB-C cable and is generally
capable of higher throughput.
USB-C, the straight up version, is 10 Gigabits per second maximum.
Thunderbolt 3 is 40 Gigabits per second maximum, four times as much over the same cable.
How's that possible?
Well, Thunderbolt 3 is using an Intel chip on both sides.
It's running at a much higher frequency.
It's driving a lot more data over that same cable, which is very cool and also may have
some quirks in terms of having all devices work together.
It's certainly cutting edge.
OK, so what do we have setup here?
Let's take a look at this.
So, this monitor right here is being driven off a Plugable UD-CA1 Docking Station.
It's connecting through this USB-C cable to one of the two ports on the side of the MacBook.
Now, off of that, I'm able to connect a whole bunch of stuff, including the mouse that I'm
using here and the display right here.
I have a free network port, so I can connect wired network, connect audio, and I can have
a bunch of free USB-A ports, the type of USB port we're used to.
So I can connect all of my old USB devices.
That all comes through this docking station.
Plus, and this is really important, USB-C provides this new functionality called power delivery.
And, in fact, you'll notice there's only a single USB-C cable coming to the MacBook here,
but the MacBook is charging at its full rate.
That's because the power supply coming to the docking station is then allowing the docking
station to offer power delivery to the MacBook, and is charging it just like its own power supply.
So with a single cable, we're getting all of this connectivity: the one extra monitor,
and we're charging our MacBook, which is pretty darn awesome.
So, this is great; I've got one display.
Can I get two?
The UD-CA1, by the way, has an HDMI output on it.
So it's intended for HDMI monitors.
But what if I have a DVI monitor?
So this is a DVI connector over to this monitor here.
Well, the MacBook has two USB-C ports.
And the way they have that wired, you can actually connect in a second display on the
second USB-C port.
And so a display will pop up over here on my left hand side or on this side.
So that's really interesting, because it hasn't been so easy before to get extra displays
onto your laptop through a standard USB connector.
There's no drivers required here.
It's actually using the main GPU of the MacBook to drive both of these monitors.
It's just a USB-C cable on both of them.
Likewise, this same monitor also has VGA output.
So I'm going to unplug the DVI cable, and plug in a VGA cable.
And then we'll have the same monitor pop up again, this time connected with VGA.
For example, this VGA adapter is the Plugable USBC-VGA.
If you wanted to connect up to a projector or something in a conference room, very easy
to do with your MacBook Pro 2016 (latest technology) connect up very easily with a projector that
might be ten or fifteen years old in your conference room.
The original MacBook, that had a USB-C port just had a single USB-C port, which was a
real problem, because if I wanted to swap in an adapter like this, then I had to unplug
my power unless I had certain types of other complicated dongles and adapters.
So there you go: very exciting MacBook Pro 2016.
This is the one without the touch bar, that's available now.
It has two Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, and you've got lots of options for connectivity,
and lots of exciting new possibilities for connecting extra displays and for charging
your laptop through a single cable.
If you have any questions at all, we'll be happy to help.
We'll try to help the best we can.
Just comment below on this video or email support@plugable.com.
Thanks for watching!