msi lcd panel made in china

Recently, a video that appeared to show smoke pouring out of a facility associated with the OEM MSI has been circulating online. It led to reports that the facility in question was located in Bao"an, China, and is engaged in the manufacture of printed circuit boards (PCBs) for the company.

Furthermore, firefighters were also summoned to deal with the blaze. MSI also noted that it would "continue to strengthen the education and training of personnel" in the wake of the conflagration. It also denied that any injury to humans (or damage to technology) occurred as a result of the "accident", or that the normal operations of the factory had been impaired afterward.

But what separates each manufacturer from the other? To cut their way through the fog, MSI sent out invitations to one of their mainland Chinese factories, in the hopes of showing just why they call themselves a “true gaming” company.

The factory in question is situated in Kunshan, a Jiangsu province city home to a modern industrial zone, multiple cultural sites, and a footnote for hosting the 2013 World Cyber Games. It’s one of three factories that MSI operates — the others are in Shenzhen, China and Jung He, Taiwan — and its duties include marketing, research and development, and production for the wide range of products the company carries. The 272,000-square meter facility also houses worker dormitories and recreational sites, though the focus of our visit was solely gaming notebooks.

Before plodding around the assembly lines in disposable shoe covers and hair nets, Yang walked us through a brief presentation on what made MSI’s notebooks special.

How, then, does MSI effectively translate a bespoke process to fit mass-production? The answer lies in preparation. Every new model introduced requires detailed research and data collection to find its overclocking limit. They’ll record configuration information, temperature performance, clock speeds, and work load every five seconds, in a test that’s repeated simultaneously by hundreds of other notebooks. With access to more than a million logs, MSI can then data mine to determine the best parameters to use for that model.

In a similar vein, every single display panel will have been individually calibrated by the time it leaves the factory. Advanced recognition technology and testing allows MSI to spot imperfections of less than 0.5 millimeters, and each panel that passes will be tagged with a unique binary file derived via a color parameter identification tool. Once assembled, this matching binary file will then be installed onto the system.

Yang says that the displays are all calibrated to be “dead center” according to three key areas: color temperature, color gamut, and grayscale gamma; the display tools MSI provides are only there so a user may tweak things according to their personal preferences and lighting conditions. He quotes an actual scenario where a SEA-based user complained about the screen’s color, only for the on-site tech to discover that the user’s definition of “perfect” ended up having a color temperature of over 7,000 Kelvins – higher than the 6,500K standard used for calibration.

MSI are just as thorough when it comes to their other tests, all of which are conducted over an extended period of time. This not only simulates whether the notebook can sustain its load but also serves to check display burn-in and, most crucial of all, thermal performance.

In addition to the regular performance checks and screenings are the reliability ones, to see that every notebook can stand the rigors of daily use. We didn’t get to see these first-hand although MSI did provide the video embedded below, covering everything from parts durability to withstanding extreme conditions. For instance, it needs to survive storage in temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius, or to not crumble when exposed to a g-force of 40 – for comparison, Yang says a human experiences about 9 g in a rocket launch.

It’s worth mentioning that MSI designs and builds these rigs themselves, to accommodate for the many different shapes, sizes, and functions of their products. Complementing these automated tests are the user-experience ones, encompassing a wide variety of approaches. One involves a worker physically testing the mechanical keyboards for their tactile response, while on the other end there’s the Out-of-Box simulation to mimic a user’s first experience with their brand-new system.

The latter not only includes basic tasks such as running system updates, anti-virus scans, or video streaming but also compatibility checks with various VR systems. Also of interest is how MSI monitors and reacts to Windows 10’s surprise automatic updates, which Yang says has proven to be a problem for both the company and its customers. Now, they’re able to identify problems early, broadcasting the notice and solution through their various user support and outreach channels.

Primed from our briefing at the R&D Center, we made the short trek over to building A for an actual peek into production. While MSIK was, in Yang’s words, smaller than most factories, having design, manufacturing, sales, and the supply chain all operating from within the same compound, under the same management, allowed the team to be both lean and quick to react. That combination is also a strength of MSI’s, granting them the leeway to do “unusual” things such as the individual display panel calibration for their True Color branding. Vendors that rely on OEM factories, on the other hand, would no doubt have to fork out extra for implementing such a service. The other plus for MSI here is that they’ll need less time to get a new product designed and ready for the market.

Our first order of business was the printed circuit board line, which Yang explains is quite different from others. As PCBAs for notebooks aren’t conventional due to their small form factor, MSI has had to develop their own set of processes to suit what they were trying to do with advanced components.

Immediately after placement, the boards begin the reflow stage starting with this reversed insertion machine, which replaces manual soldering for improved quality and efficiency. Yang highlights this as one of the special processes MSI employs in their PCBA production, with the other called Print-In-Place. Both work together to help accommodate any special components they might use.

Our next scheduled stop was building C, where the main assembly line featuring the GE63 and GE73 notebooks were. Interestingly, we came across a separate building where MSI produces touch displays for cars. The company also produces touchscreens for mobile devices, which is why they have a Class 1000 clean room for their assembly.

MSI are now designing their internals with easy accessibility in mind, so that future upgrades or a thorough cleaning wouldn’t be excessively complicated.

While the rest of the notebook is carefully put together with WiFi antennas, memory sticks, and other components, workers further down the line begin assembling the lid and display panel.

To combat the tedium of repeating the same task for weeks, Yang reminds us about the license incentive program they run at MSI. The more licenses a worker owns, the higher their pay, and thus the more varied their duties become. And since other factories do not have a similar program, the workers aren’t interested in leaving either.

At the end of the day, Yang says that what makes MSI truly special is how they’re all gamers themselves. It may sound cliché but the ultimate test of a product lies in the hands of their users, and what better way to understand their target market than to be a part of it themselves?

We aren’t talking about corporate-enforced directives, either. Engineers, operators, line leaders, and various other employees all hold a passion for games in one form or the other, so much so that in 2014 the factory formed the MSIK Gaming Club, an official title for what had already been in existence for some time.

We left the tour with a newfound appreciation for the philosophy and methodology behind MSI’s approach to gaming notebooks. They’ve certainly invested heavily in all aspects of production, from attaining the best tools and technology money can buy to developing the best workers they have under their employ. And that’s not to speak of the clear talent and passion of the one man driving it all.

So the next time you run into a MSI notebook at a roadshow, think of the gaming enthusiasts that excitedly huddled around a computer to design it, the massive testing gauntlet it had to endure to get there, or that one worker who made sure the backspace key works and feels just right. It may sound trivial but this obsessiveness over quality definitely grants some degree of comfort when spending all that hard-earned money.

Micro-Star International Co., Ltd (MSI; Chinese: 微星科技股份有限公司) is a Taiwanese multinational information technology corporation headquartered in New Taipei City, Taiwan. It designs, develops and provides computer hardware, related products and services, including laptops, desktops, motherboards, graphics cards, All-in-One PCs, servers, industrial computers, PC peripherals, car infotainment products, etc.

The company has a primary listing on the Taiwan Stock ExchangeNew Taipei City, Taiwan, MSI later expanded into China, setting up its Bao"an Plant in Shenzhen in 2000 and establishing research and development facilities in Kunshan in 2001. It also provides global warranty service in North America, Central/South America, Asia, Australia and Europe.

MSI"s offices in Zhonghe District, New Taipei City, Taiwan serve as the company"s headquarters, and house a number of different divisions and services.

When established in 1986, MSI focused on the design and manufacturing of motherboards and add-on cards. Later that year, it introduced the first over clockable 286 motherboard.

In 1989, MSI introduced its first 486 motherboard; in 1990 it introduced its first Socket 7 based motherboard, and in 1993, its first 586 motherboard; in 1995, its Dual Pentium Pro-based motherboard. In 1997 it introduced its Intel Pentium II-based motherboard with Intel MMX Technology, along with its first graphics card product, and its first barebone product; in 2002, its first PC2PC Bluetooth & WLAN motherboard.

In 2008, MSI sponsored Fnatic and dived into the PC gaming market. Its GAMING series features laptops, desktops, motherboards, graphic cards, All-in-One PCs and gaming peripherals designed for gamers and power users.

MSI"s five founders Joseph Hsu, Jeans Huang, Frank Lin, Kenny Yu and Henry Lu all worked for Sony electronics company before establishing MSI. Sony"s corporate downsizing in 1985 brought them together. With the engineering background working for Sony, they established Micro Star International together in August 1986.

In 2003, MSi released the "Mega PC", a shelf stereo computer hybrid with a front panel resembling the former and desktop computer connectors on the rear.

MSI launched "Join the Dragon" team sponsorship program in April 2017 to discover talented eSports teams.Corsair, SteelSeries, G.Skill, Cooler Master, InWin, Phanteks, and others.

In August 2018, MSI was rated the Best Gaming Laptop Brand of 2018 by Laptop Mag. New designs of its GS65 Stealth Thin and GE63 Raider RGB laptops earned the company a stellar 84 out of 100 and put it on the top spot.

In September 2020, MSI unveiled a new line of business-oriented laptops under the "Modern", "Prestige", and "Summit" lines, and a new logo specific to these models.

On 7 October 2020 MSI released a public statement about their subsidiary Starlit scalping MSI made Nvidia RTX 3080 and 3090 GPUs, and selling them for higher than MSRP on eBay.

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, MSI refused to join the international community and withdraw from the Russian market. Research from Yale University updated on September 14, 2022, identifying how companies were reacting to Russia"s invasion identified MSI in the worst category of "Digging In", meaning Defying Demands for Exit: companies defying demands for exit/reduction of activities. MSI remains the only major Taiwanese company to have defied demands for exit or reduction of activities in Russia.