[ArchOversight]

What makes you say that the MacBook Air with M1 can't play HDR content on external displays?

The MacBook Air with M1 has two USB 4 ports. USB 4 is Thunderbolt 3 + some extra bits.

See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201736 for information.

[zimpenfish]

The "Mac models that support HDR" table on https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210980 says that MacBook Airs introduced after 2018 can only do SDR on external displays - if it doesn't include the 2020 Air, they'd surely have called that out?

[ArchOversight]

You are right. I totally missed the SDR/HDR distinction because it is a single character difference.

My apologies!

[qubitcoder]

It could be a function of their integrated graphics approach with the M1 (SoC), as opposed to simply having the right ports. That's just a guess, however.