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 one-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 to 16.7 million; a wealth of ports to just three USB 2.0s, a FireWire800, a Thunderbolt and 1Gb 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]