Apple’s New Sidecar Feature Will Only Work On Newer Macs

One of the features of macOS Catalina is called Sidecar. For those who are unfamiliar, this basically allows macOS users to take an iPad and turn that iPad into a secondary display for their MacBook laptops. It sounds pretty useful and a much welcome feature, especially for users who have long had to rely on third-party alternatives.

However, before you get too excited, it seems that there will be some limitations. According to The Verge, they have come across an Apple white paper that reveals that Sidecar won’t work on all MacBook laptops. It seems that only the newer MacBook models will only be compatible. How new, you ask?

If you own a MacBook from 2016 or later, a MacBook Air from 2018 or later, or a MacBook Pro from 2016 or later. As to the reason why older MacBooks do not support Sidecar, it has been suggested that this could be due to a hardware limitation were it will require Intel’s Skylake CPUs or newer in order for it to function properly. It cannot be confirmed if that is truly the case, but it does sound plausible.

Note that Sidecar will also work on non-MacBook computers as well, as long as they are iMac Pros, the 2019 Mac Pro, iMacs from 2015 or later, or Mac minis from 2018 or later, all of which coincidentally enough are powered by Skylake chipsets.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Computers, Tablets
Tags: iPad, Laptops, Macbook, macOS