wreighven

Thanks for the review AI!

I have 2016 maxed out 13" MBP and an LG UltraFine 5K monitor.  Adding the BlackMagic inline to the 5K been a game changer for my casual video editing and World of Warcraft sessions (neither is work, but therapy  ).  I do notice even OS animations (screen switching, screensavers, etc.) on the 5K are much more fluid with the BlackMagic hooked inline to it.

Can't speak to the 2018 13" personally (this review does a great job of that), but if you have a 2016 13" or 2017 13" and an LG UltraFine 5K display, I highly recommend it!  It's like having a real workstation at home, and ultra portability on the go...

That is correct, and important.  Have the workload you want accelerated on the “main” external display by moving the white bars to that display.   That way applications will by default open there (games, for instance).

I picked mine up yesterday.  Works great right out of the box!

I plugged in the power cable, the short thunderbolt 3 cable from my 13” 2016 MBP (left port) to the eGPU, and the display’s thunderbolt 3 cable from the eGPU to the LG UltraFine 5K.  Everything just worked.  Video card icon displayed on the monitor.  About this Mac showed the Radeon Pro 580 with 8GB RAM for the video card driving the 5K display.  Everything you’d expect.

I turned the graphics on World of Warcraft from all the way down at 5K (which was still a bit laggy; the 2016 13” MBP just struggles driving that many pixels) to halfway up (there’s a 5 setting out10 that sets a bunch of lighting, details and other levels to “good” as well as some anti-aliasing) and it was buttery smooth at 5K!

Also did some testing with iMovie editing and playing a bunch of 4K 60 FPS video and there was a huge difference in how smooth all of that video played back.  Photos was the same story, scanning through a massive photo library.  Also OS animations such as switching desktops, etc. all showed marked improvement.

Super happy with the purchase!  I highly recommend it especially if you have a 13” 2016 MacBook Pro.  It’ll give that system so much more oomph while docked at a desk.

Accelerating a 5K display really makes the dream of a portable, modular Mac closer to a reality without compromising capabilities.  I just ordered mine and am picking it up from the Apple Store on Thursday.

Haven't been this excited about a piece of kit in a while!  I do a decent amount of 4K video editing, and some light gaming, and this will breathe some SERIOUS life into my maxed out 2016 13" MBP + LG 5K display setup.  I can't wait to see how it accelerates those tasks on such a gorgeous display.  Exciting times!

EDIT: I just noticed this is my 43rd post, and the 43rd reply to this thread.  Perfectly balanced, as all things should be...

eightzero said:

"it isn't perfect" is a bit of an understatement. I'd pronounce it "adequate." Running the workout app eats battery. Perhaps this has been addressed by Apple, but any day I run that app for a 30 minute walk costs me about 3 hours of battery. My wife has the 38mm version. She is quite active, and gets maybe 12 hours out of her original AW. If you want "all day" battery...well...get a fitbit.

The badge things are quite spotty. Sometimes they simply delete themselves. I "earned" on last month (saw it show up as complete) and then it simply disappeared. 

I like my AW, and didn't buy it for the fitness stuff. I like the idea of "closing rings" and it is sort of entertaining on its own. But it isn't really for a serious athlete, or anyone that is using it consistently for fitness. And perhaps the intent - it was intended to get people to stand up once an hour. It does that fairly well.

My opinion, YYMV. 

I agree with all of your points, if they're applied to the original Apple Watch.  I upgraded to the Series 3 (gray ceramic Edition with cellular) last month, and have found it to be a night and day difference in terms of quality of heart beat readings, battery life, etc.  I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is interested in a "fitness tracker", and it can do so much more.  I workout 1.5 hours per day (one hour HIIT and 2ish miles of running), and frequently get two full days of battery life.

I do a lot of camping too, and not having to take my Watch charger on a weekend campout (Friday evening to Sunday morning) is a nice bonus.

If you have the means, I'd highly recommend upgrading.  It's a completely different device!