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Expand Your Apple Mac Experience With the LG Thunderbolt Monitor 34UM95

Apple was the first to introduce what you could do with Thunderbolt embedded in monitor with the Apple Thunderbolt Display.  The Apple Thunderbolt Display supported three powered USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and one Thunderbolt port while providing a MagSafe power adapter for the Mac.  Its 27 inch cinematic 16:9 IPS screen supports 2560X1440 resolution.

Since then, LG has progressed the Thunderbolt monitor concept with the LG 34 inch Class UltraWide IPS WQHD 34UM95-P Thunderbolt Monitor.  The LG Thunderbolt Monitor 34UM95 has a larger 34 inch 21:9 IPS screen that supports 3440X1440 resolution.  Unlike the Apple Thunderbolt Display, it doesn't have FireWire or Ethernet ports.  The LG Thunderbolt Monitor 34UM95 does have one faster USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gb/s) port and two USB 2.0 (480 Mb/s) ports which it allows the user to connect to a Mac's Thunderbolt or USB Type-A connector.  

To use the LG Thunderbolt Monitor 34UM95 with any Mac with a Thunderbolt 1 or Thunderbolt 2 port, plug in the AC power adapter to the monitor and press the mini joystick at the bottom of the monitor to turn it on.  Connect a Thunderbolt cable between the monitor and the Mac.

Once connected, the LG Thunderbolt Monitor 34UM95 will automatically serve as an external display for the Mac, and any USB peripherals attached to the monitor will also enumerate on the Mac.  

For example, in this setup, the LaCie Porsche Design USB-C Mobile Drive and new SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive (2016) are connected to the USB Type A ports of the LG Thunderbolt Monitor 34UM95.  The LaCie Porsche Design USB-C Mobile Drive is useful to connect the Apple MacBook (Early 2015) and Apple MacBook (Early 2016) while the SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive (2016) is great for transferring files from iPhone and iPad devices.

One of the nice things about the LG Thunderbolt Monitor 34UM95 is the availability of a second Thunderbolt 2 port after you connect the first one to the Mac.  That allows you to connect another Thunderbolt device like the Seagate LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 2 Desktop Hard Drive.  In fact, since the Seagate LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 2 Desktop Hard Drive has two Thunderbolt 2 ports, you can continue to daisy chain additional Thunderbolt peripherals and even add additional displays.

While Apple has focused more on non-display products lately, LG has picked up the ball to become the main provider of displays that complement Apple's Mac products.  As of June 2016, all Mac products sold by Apple work great with the LG Thunderbolt Monitor 34UM95 except for the MacBook which pairs better with the LG 27 inch Class Ultra HD IPS 4K 27UD88-W Monitor using the new USB Type-C interface.  Of course, the LG Thunderbolt Monitor 34UM95 also has DisplayPort and HDMI inputs which will work with most other devices as well.