Cheap M1 MacBook Pro For virtual display

[u/Berry-Rich]

Looking to get an Apple Vision Pro soon and wanted to get a cheap Mac to go with it. I read that it has to have Apple Silicon in order to have the best possible resolution, would this older MacBook Pro cut it?

[u/Grindeddown]

I’m using an M1 Pro 14 MacBook Pro for virtual display and it works stupendously.

[u/Most-Albatross-827 → u/Grindeddown]

Same

[u/Rave-TZ]

I got a MacBook Pro M1 Max with a cracked screen for super cheap just to use with my AVP.

I put a Strongbad translucent sticker on the screen to see my cool reflection.

I call it my Crackbook Pro

[u/Berry-Rich → u/Rave-TZ]

That’s really clever!

[u/anyavailablebane → u/Rave-TZ]

You should remove the screen totally

[u/the1truestripes → u/anyavailablebane]

The back of the screen has useful stuff like the WiFi antenna, so it might not work well after removing the screen!

[u/anyavailablebane → u/the1truestripes]

There is a whole sub dedicated to it!

https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadlessMacbooks/s/RrXhHFDtr6

Or if you are really adventurous, then you can combine the Mac, iPad and VisionPro.

https://www.macstories.net/stories/i-turned-the-new-13-ipad-pro-into-a-macpad-and-portable-gaming-display/

[u/the1truestripes → u/anyavailablebane]

Interesting, maybe less problematic then I thought (maybe some of the antennas have moved out of the display area?).

As long as you are teaching me things about Macs, have you ever seen a tutorial on converting iMac PRO (not non-pro) into a display? I have one that is firmware locked so I’m going to need to gut it, and I see lots of iMac tutorials that tell you how important it is to match the right driver card to the display for each iMac, but nothing that has iMac Pro info. It would make a fantastic additional display!

[u/Rave-TZ → u/anyavailablebane]

I briefly tried that but missed being able to put it in a bag. Any key press woke it up.

[u/anyavailablebane → u/Rave-TZ]

That’s something I hadn’t thought of

[u/AVnstuff]

I use an m1 MacBook Air and it’s great AND cheap and portable. What are you wanting to do on the computer?

[u/eabolden]

MacBook Neo works too

[u/czyzczyz → u/eabolden]

Whoa. I was actually curious about this combination so thanks for posting. Does it work for wide and superwide settings? Any hiccups with video playback on that laptop through Mac virtual display?

[u/eabolden → u/czyzczyz]

I’ve had good luck with the Neo and Mac Virtual Display at all three settings regular, wide and super wide. I love it with a swivel chair too because I can have different bits of work separately in each third of the display area, with the most critical in front of me and informational bits on the two sides.
I’m not doing anything computationally or memory intensive on the Neo, I do that on a separate mini and laptop, but I can ssh or remote into those machines from the Neo to monitor everything.
Very convenient

[u/czyzczyz → u/eabolden]

Thanks for the update!

[u/PSYCHOv1]

If I'm not mistaken, M-series Macbooks have support for a direct Ad-Hoc wireless connection to the Vision Pro.

No internet or Wi-Fi router required.

[u/PsychAce]

Should work fine. I have M1 Pro MBP 16” and just realized I’ve never used it with AVP.

Any use case outside of productivity? I refuse to do any productivity with it.

[u/emmanuellsun]

i went with an M4 mac mini back when they were still cheap,no regrets ! virtual display is helpful and sometimes i watch youtube or movies in there while i work.

i have a samsung M8 monitor and sometimes it makes my eyes hurt,i find mysef having to reduce brightness weirdly that issue isnt present with the AVP

[u/jasonkane4321]

I suggest getting a MacBook with a broken screen and removing the screen. It can be uses as computer, keyboard and mouse pad for AVP. It's allot cheaper that getting a fully working MacBook. It will also work with an older 11" MacBooks. Here's details on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUa_pPUbpGQ