msi lcd panel testing factory

2023-01-03 12:32:11

I just received my new Monitor today and upon plugging it in, the Monitor seems to be cycling through Black, White, Red, Green, Blue as if it is testing the screen or something. I have updated my drivers (144.41 game ready Nvidea driver) have attempted to restart and updated windows. Upon attempting to press the menu button on the Monitor, nothing comes up on screen and it resumes cycling colours. My computer recognizes that the Monitor is plugged in. I have tried both the HDMI and DP ports, and have used both cables on other Monitors and the cables work fine on the other Monitor, but neither seem to change anything on my new MSI one.

msi lcd panel testing factory

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.

That’s step one. The next phase involves repeating the tests with those determined parameters to see if it passes their profiling. If it doesn’t, they’ll tweak those parameters and back to the testing marathon we go. Only when it succeeds will it be set as the default overclock setting, allowing end-users to have a souped-up system that’s also safe and stable. Yang stresses that last point, as any improper trial-and-error fiddling may wind up damaging the chips instead.

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.

In all, every system must pass more than 1,900 carefully planned and conducted tests before, during, and after assembly. Depending on the model, some systems may even wind up going through seven days’ worth of testing. And if all this is starting to seem mind-boggling, consider the fact that they load these packed notebooks into a truck bound for a 800km round-trip journey and, 24 hours later, test them again. It’s the only way to be sure, Yang says, as transportation is the most unpredictable aspect in production.

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.

Once the boards are through they’ll undergo various testing, such as at this automated optical inspection machine which checks for missing components or defects.

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.

Eventually, notebooks are loaded onto the carousel racks for a series of tests. These include testing wake times from various states of hibernation (session saved to RAM versus saved to disk), checking thermal performance and overclocking under heavy load, as well as running third-party software such as 3Dmark and Furmark

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.

And to make the best out of the situation, this is where they take their latest systems for some real-world testing – be it Dota 2, Overwatch, or some new AAA titles. They’ll check for glitches or performance slumps, find out what the optimal in-game settings are, and basically try out anything a hardcore PC gamer might want to do with their system. The feedback received from the Club is considered critical within the company and must be addressed before the product launches.

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.

msi lcd panel testing factory

As the name suggests, the MSI Prestige 14 Evo features a 14-inch display, and MSI has gone with the more standard 1920x1080 IPS panel, meaning a 16:9 aspect ratio. That is somewhat disappointing, as competing laptops have started to transition to taller displays in the 16:10 and 3:2 range.

The 1920x1080 resolution in this screen size means the laptop offers 157 pixels-per-inch in terms of display density. There is always a tradeoff for density versus battery life, and although 157 is pretty far from what you would consider a high DPI panel, it still works well in this form factor. Out of the box, Windows sets this to 150% scaling, although you can of course adjust if you want more real estate. 125% seems to work pretty well. There is no UHD display option, but as we have seen in other devices which offer UHD, the hit to battery life is significant, so sticking with a more traditional 1920x1080 resolution still makes sense.

The display targets sRGB, and although some competing devices may offer P3 or Adobe RGB gamut support, the lack of a system-wide color management system in Windows still unfortunately means sRGB is better for most people. If you use professional applications that can correctly manage color, the MSI Prestige is likely not for you, but for the average consumer using content that is likely over 99% of the time targeting sRGB, MSI has made the right choice here.

To see how the MSI Prestige 14 Evo fares in terms of color accuracy and contrast, we have run it through a custom workflow in Portrait Display’s Calman suite, using the X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter for brightness and contrast measurements, and the X-Rite i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer for color accuracy readings.

The Prestige 14 gets off to a good start in terms of display contrast, almost hitting 1800:1. The panel offers excellent black levels which help it achieve this result. It does not get overly bright though, not even hitting 300 nits at 100% brightness, and would likely struggle outdoors because of that. It does get very dim though for use in a dark room with the display going all the way down to 5 nits.

MSI has done a very good job on the default color profile for this laptop, with the grayscale averaging under the 3.0 level that we’d consider to be a good display. There are a couple of peaks slightly over, but nothing too dramatic. The color balance across the gray range is very consistent, with blue dropping slightly compared to red and green, but overall still doing very well.

The saturation sweep does the same color targets as the gamut test, but across the entire range from 0% to 100% brightness on each primary and secondary color, tested at 4-bit intervals. None of the colors show any real error rates above the 3.0 mark, with most well under across the entire range. Clearly, MSI has done their homework and calibrated the display at the factor to achieve these levels of accuracy. There is no ICC profile included as the error correction is being done in hardware.

While the previous tests focus on primary and secondary colors, the Gretag Macbeth tests a much wider range of colors, including the important skin tones. Once again, the MSI Prestige 14 performs very well here, with only a couple of individual colors above the 3.0 error level, and only just. MSI has done a great job calibrating this display.

Although the MSI Prestige 14 Evo is a mostly standard 1920x1080 16:9 display, and it just targets sRGB, MSI has done the added work to calibrate the display at the factory, which vastly improves its accuracy. Some devices use an ICC profile to fix the calibration through software, but ICC profiles can be a challenge especially if the application ignores them, so doing this through hardware is a better solution. The combination of high contrast and high accuracy make this one of the better displays available in this category.

msi lcd panel testing factory

One of the best characteristics of most gaming laptops is their ease of serviceability. Adding RAM or storage to a Dell Alienware 15, MSI GT63, or Razer Blade Pro is generally a straightforward process. These OEMs have designed many of their gaming laptops with easily removable bottom plates so end-users can upgrade on their own if desired.

Out of the hundreds of gaming laptops we"ve reviewed, however, one particular OEM has had a habit of discouraging end-user tinkering. Almost every MSI laptop comes with a "Factory Seal" sticker on the bottom plate covering one of the Philips screws. If all you want to do is add a stick of RAM or storage drive, then you will have to break this sticker which could potentially impact your manufacturer warranty.

We understand the reasoning for including the anti-tamper sticker as it deters nefarious users from swapping out certain parts. But when you"re one of the only OEMs to have this particular sticker, then it might also deter legitimate users who simply want to upgrade their RAM or storage. If a buyer is on the fence between an MSI GE63 or Asus Zephyrus M, for example, then he or she may choose the latter because Asus laptops are far less likely to have any anti-tamper stickers. It"s a double-edged sword for MSI in this respect.

The sticker on the bottom plate leaves a sour taste in the user"s mouth especially for gamers who are more likely to upgrade their gaming laptops down the line. However, we think there is a solution to this; MSI could instead put the anti-tamper sticker directly on the heat sink to deter tampering of the processors. Owners would then be free to upgrade their storage or memory without fear of voiding the included warranty because no stickers would be in the way.

For what it"s worth, MSI has told us that owners can break the sticker seal to upgrade RAM or storage without impacting warranty, but let us know in the comments below if you"ve had a different experience.

msi lcd panel testing factory

The MSI Optix G27CQ4 is a very good budget-friendly gaming monitor with a 27 inch screen and 1440p resolution. It has all the features most gamers are looking for, like FreeSync variable refresh rate (VRR) support and a native 165Hz refresh rate. Its input lag is really low, but even though it has a quick response time, you may notice some motion blur in fast-moving scenes. Its VA panel has a high native contrast ratio, but it lacks a local dimming feature to improve it. The viewing angles are narrow, and the stand doesn"t offer many adjustments, so it"s hard to place it in an ideal viewing position if you need to share it with someone else. Lastly, it doesn"t support HDR, which is somewhat expected for a model in this price range.

The MSI Optix G27CQ4 is decent for mixed usage. It"s very good for gaming because it has a high refresh rate with VRR support. Its low input and quick response time deliver a responsive gaming experience, but some motion blur is visible with fast-moving objects. It"s decent for office use thanks to its high peak brightness and good reflection handling, but it has terrible ergonomics and narrow viewing angles, making it harder to share the screen with someone else.

The MSI Optix G27CQ4 is decent for office use. The high-resolution, 27 inch screen provides clear text and crisp images. It has good reflection handling and gets bright enough to combat glare in well-lit rooms. Sadly, it has narrow viewing angles and terrible ergonomics, so it"s not the best choice if you need to share your screen with others.

The MSI Optix G27CQ4 is very good for gaming. It has a high 165Hz refresh rate with native FreeSync support to reduce screen tearing. It has low input lag and a quick response time, but some people may still notice motion blur. It"s also great for dark room gaming thanks to its high native contrast ratio, but it lacks a local dimming feature.

The MSI Optix G27CQ4 is okay for watching multimedia content. It has a high resolution to deliver crisp images. It performs well both in bright and dark rooms thanks to its high peak brightness and great contrast ratio. However, it has narrow viewing angles, so those viewing from the side see an inaccurate image.

The MSI Optix G27CQ4 is alright for content creators. It has a large screen and high resolution, so there"s enough space to work on your video"s timeline. It gets bright enough to combat glare and has good reflection handling if you work in a well-lit room. However, its terrible ergonomics and narrow viewing angles make it hard to share the screen with a coworker or client around you.

We tested the MSI Optix G27CQ4 in a 27 inch size, and it"s also available in a 32 inch size, which we expect to perform similarly. There are other monitors in MSI"s G Series lineup, which you can see below.

If someone comes across a different type of panel, or if their MSI Optix G27CQ4 doesn"t correspond to our review, let us know and we"ll update the review. Note that some tests, like the gray uniformity, may vary between individual units.

The MSI Optix G27CQ4 is a very good budget gaming monitor. It has most features gamers are looking for, like VRR support and a high refresh rate. It also has a great native contrast ratio, but other than that, there"s nothing that stands out against its competition. It provides good value for its price, but there are better and cheaper options available, like the Gigabyte G27QC.

The Gigabyte G27QC is much better overall than the MSI Optix G27CQ4, even though they each have a VA panel, 165Hz refresh rate, and 1440p resolution. The Gigabyte has a quicker response time, resulting in smoother motion, and its BFI feature flickers at a wider range. The Gigabyte also supports HDR10 and has a USB hub, which the MSI doesn"t.

The MSI Optix G27CQ4 and the Samsung Odyssey G5 C27G55T are both good gaming monitors. They each have a VA panel with a 1440p resolution, and they offer similar features, but the MSI has a 165Hz refresh rate compared to the Samsung"s 144Hz. The MSI is also flicker-free at all brightness levels, while the Samsung flickers at lower brightness levels. The Samsung supports HDR, which the MSI doesn"t, but it doesn"t add much because it can"t display a wide color gamut.

The Gigabyte M27Q is better overall than the MSI Optix G27CQ4. The Gigabyte has a slightly higher 170Hz refresh rate compared to 165Hz on the MSI, and they each have a 1440p resolution, but they have different panel types. The Gigabyte has an IPS panel with wider viewing angles, which is great for sharing your screen with others, while the MSI has a VA panel with a better contrast ratio. The Gigabyte also has much quicker response times and supports HDR, which the MSI doesn"t. The MSI uses an RGB subpixel layout, which is used in more programs than the BGR subpixel layout on the Gigabyte, so this helps with text clarity.

The Dell S2722DGM is much better than the MSI Optix G27CQ4. The Dell has better ergonomics, a faster response time, better viewing angles, and better black uniformity. The Dell is also significantly brighter and can better overcome glare. On the other hand, the MSI has better gradient handling and can accept a 10-bit signal.

The MSI Optix G27CQ4 and the ASUS TUF Gaming VG27WQ1B are both very good gaming monitors, as they each have a VA panel with a 1440p resolution and 165Hz refresh rate. The ASUS supports HDR10, which the MSI doesn"t, but it doesn"t add much because it doesn"t get bright enough to bring out highlights, and it lacks local dimming. In terms of gaming, they each have VRR support and low input lag. The MSI has a quicker response time at its max refresh rate, while the ASUS is quicker at 60Hz, but most people shouldn"t notice any difference between the two.

The MSI Optix G27CQ4 and the MSI Optix G27C4 are both very good gaming monitors. They"re built nearly the same, and each has a VA panel with a 165Hz refresh rate. The main difference is that the G27CQ4 has a 1440p resolution, while the G27C4 is limited to 1080p. The G27CQ4 is a better choice for well-lit rooms because it gets much brighter. However, the G27C4 delivers much smoother motion thanks to its quick response time.

The BenQ EX2780Q and the MSI Optix G27CQ4 are both very good gaming monitors with different panel types. The BenQ is a 144Hz monitor with an IPS panel with wider viewing angles, and the MSI has a 165Hz refresh rate and a VA panel with higher contrast. The BenQ supports HDR, which the MSI doesn"t, and it has quicker response times, so motion looks better.

The Dell S3222DGM is better than the MSI Optix G27CQ4. The Dell has better ergonomics, making it easier to place in an ideal viewing position. The Dell is also much better for gaming, as it has a much faster response time, especially when gaming at 60Hz.

msi lcd panel testing factory

Excellent design, powerful hardware, and solid display make the MSI Creator Z17 a compelling MacBook Pro alternative for creatives who don"t want to jump on the Apple Silicon bandwagon.

Ever since Intel debuted its 12th-Gen Alder Lake CPUs with a hybrid E (Efficiency) core + P (Performance) core architecture, we"ve been itching to get our hands on one. In theory, this new architecture should give 12th-Gen Intel laptops a boost in both performance and battery life, potentially giving Apple"s latest 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros a bit of competition for creators" hard-earned money. Our first chance to test this theory comes in the form of MSI"s Creator Z17: a computer that"s targeted at creative types who want a PC laptop that doesn"t skimp on performance, design, or build quality. In other words: a jack of all trades, master of all... or at least a "master of most."

You may remember the MSI Creator 17 (no Z) from our review earlier this year. That was an impressively powerful laptop, but it was still using last year"s 11th-gen CPUs and there were a few things about its design that left us wanting. The trackpad was small, the keyboard was mushy, the whole laptop was quite thick, and the RAM was basically inaccessible unless you were willing to remove the entire motherboard. The 4K miniLED display made some of that worth it, but from a day-to-day use perspective, it was designed as a desktop replacement that spent most of its time in the studio.

As it turns out, the MSI Creator Z17 ticks mostof those boxes. It"s lighter and thinner than the Creator 17, features a much friendlier and sleeker design and, most importantly, it"s as fast or even faster than the equivalent MacBook Pro in many photo and video editing tasks.

The MSI Creator Z17 comes in three different configurations depending on the CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage you"d like. The base model features a Core i7-12700H and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070Ti, 32GB of DDR5-4800 RAM and 1TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage for $3,250, while the maxed out model upgrades you to a Core i9-12900H, an RTX 3080Ti, 64GB of RAM, and 2TB of PCIe 4.0 storage for a much steeper $4,600.

No matter which configuration you choose, you"ll get a factory-calibrated 17.3-inch QHD+ Touchscreen LCD with a 165Hz refresh rate and approximately 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space:

If MSI offered a 64GB version with a Core i7 and an RTX 3070Ti for $3,500, that would be a very tempting upgrade – some of the most impressive performance gains we"ve seen in this laptop are probably due to the DDR5-4800 RAM – but they do not. As it stands, our recommendation would be to pick up the A12UGST-049 and then upgrade your RAM and/or storage yourself (more on that later).

The one place where MSI fell flat is upgradability and, like virtually all of the high-performance 17-inch PCs on the market, battery life. But otherwise, the Creator Z17 represents a huge design and usability upgrade compared to the Creator 17 and a small-but-substantial step up over the smaller Creator Z16.

True, the comparison to the Creator 17 isn"t entirely fair – they are technically two different series in MSI"s lineup – but as of right now, the Creator 17 and the Creator Z17 are the only two consumer-grade 17-inch "Creator" laptops that MSI sells. And if I had to pick between the two, I"d take the Z17 with its cleaner, sharper, and sleeker design language every day of the week.

It looks more professional, and while the MSI dragon logo is never going to scream "executive suite," the laptop hits a nice balance of cool styling and professionalism.

Notably missing compared to the MSI Creator 17 we reviewed in January or the ASUS Studiobook 16 OLED we reviewed in March is an ethernet port. This is an unfortunate omission since many creatives like to plug in to high-speed networking when they"re at home or at the studio, where they might be working directly off of network attached storage. A 17-inch laptop like this is often used as a desktop replacement, and an RJ45 port would have been a nice addition.

Still, the Z17"s port situation is slightly better than the ports you get on the latest MacBook Pros, and much better than the ports in something like the Dell XPS 17. Neither of these machines have any USB Type-A ports, and the Dell doesn"t have an HDMI port either. That means carrying around a dongle or two depending on the peripherals you intend to use. With MSI"s configuration, I can confidently leave all the dongles at home.

In other words, the Creator Z17 is technically user upgradable, but you"ll have to be comfortable completely disassembling your laptop if you want to do anything more than add storage. Removing the bottom panel and the battery is extremely easy on this model—easier than it was on the Creator 17—but everything else is a huge pain.

One of the most hyped features of the Creator Z17 is the included pen, which boasts over 4,000 levels of pressure sensitivity and can be used for digital art or as a productivity tool that allows you to move the mouse by hovering up to 1 cm above the display. MSI"s marketing materials make a big deal about how this is "the world"s first 17-inch pen-touch laptop," but I"ll be honest: I don"t really have much to say about it.

When the MSI Pen is magnetically attached to the side of the Creator Z17, it covers up both thunderbolt ports, the headphone jack, and the battery indicator light.

But it was the actual act of using the pen that turned me off from the experience entirely. There is simply no good way to draw on this display with the MSI pen, because the chassis isn"t designed to lie flat in any orientation. The screen does open a full 180 degrees, but even in this orientation, it"s not flat and will rock back and forth as soon as you put pen to display. Unless you find a way to "prop" up the screen from behind, there"s no way to set up a usable drawing angle.

The display on our MSI Creator Z17 covers 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with solid color accuracy and a ton of control thanks to MSI"s "True Color" app.

To that end, we wanted to find out if the Z17"s 16:10 QHD+ panel is worthy of daily driver status for photo and video work, or if it"s just a high-refresh-rate gaming panel with good gamut coverage but poor color performance out of the box. What we found was a solid display with acceptable color performance, but with a few notable drawbacks.

Using a more basic SDR display with no local dimming and a peak brightness of just under 400 nits is definitely going to be a disappointment for some, but it"s not all bad news. The QHD panel doesn"t just throw away resolution – it trades that resolution for speed. Where the Creator 17"s miniLED panel maxes out at 60Hz, this one can churn out up to 165Hz, making it a hybrid between a gaming display and a content creation display.

One of the biggest positives about MSI"s "Creator" laptops is that MSI gives you a ton of control out of the box. Using the built-in MSI True Color app, you can select from several pre-defined color space presets like sRGB, AdobeRGB, and Display P3, you can manually adjust your display"s RGB gains and choose the Native panel gamut through the Customize Panel, and you can use one of three supported colorimeters to re-calibrate your display at home.

This is about as close as you can get to the control you"d expect from a dedicated photo-editing monitor, with all of these adjustments applied through MSI"s proprietary "True Pixel" technology before any sort of .icc or .icm profile is applied through Windows Color Management.

MSI"s True Color app allows you to choose between several color space modes, or you can adjust the Native panel gamut manually through the Customize tab.

But the Native panel gamut isn"t the setting you should use out-of-the-box. If you"re unable to calibrate or even profile the display, your best bet is to use one of the three factory-calibrated color space modes: sRGB, Display P3, or AdobeRGB. All of these perform a lot better than the Native profile if you set your display profile to match, and while the factory calibrated white point is still not properly tuned to D65, it"s not as bad as the Native gamut.

In our testing, the sRGB display mode covers 96.3% of sRGB and comes in at an average Delta E of 1.65 with a maximum Delta E of 3.6. The RGB primaries are a little bit off the mark, hence the lower coverage, but both the average and maximum Delta E values are within what we"d call nominal tolerance, with most of the issues arising in the gray balance:

Finally, the AdobeRGB display mode – which is the worst of the bunch – comes it at 87.7% coverage in our testing, with an average Delta E of 2.16 and a maximum Delta E of 4.5.

These higher values are because the panel isn"t actually meant to cover AdobeRGB completely, which is reflected in the verification report below: the largest Delta E values are recorded for colors in the green and cyan regions, where the panel"s green primary can"t get saturated enough to create the colors between the dashed line (Adobe RGB color gamut) and the rainbow colored line (the panel"s actual output) that connects the Red and Blue points of the triangle.

Assuming you have a colorimeter that"s supported by MSI True Color, like the X-Rite i1Display Pro Plus (now sold as the Calibrite ColorChecker Display Plus), you have two options to get better accuracy than the reported values above.

This is the second caveat if you want to use the Creator Z17 for color critical work: MSI"s built-in calibration tool uses the wrong colorimeter correction, and you should not use it. Based on our testing, the built-in calibration tool uses the "White LED" spectrum to determine how to automatically adjust your display to produce the appropriate white point and accurate sRGB/DisplayP3/AdobeRGB profiles.

We don"t have time to dive into the technical details here, but the short version is that MSI tells your colorimeter that the laptop"s display primaries look like this:

On the one hand, MSI"s True Color app gives you more control over the output of your display than just about any other laptop we"ve tested, and that should be celebrated. Plus, even if you don"t have a colorimeter handy, the built-in color space presets already get you about 98% of the way there, allowing you to use this laptop confidently out of the box.

On the other hand, the factory calibration leaves something to be desired, missing the D65 white point by a lot, and the built-in calibration tool is basically useless for this particular laptop because (and I"m assuming here) MSI decided to use one single colorimeter correction for every laptop that ships with MSI True Color... the wrong one.

The final piece of the creator laptop puzzle is, of course, performance. It"s one of the main reasons we wanted to review the MSI Creator Z17: to see how Intel"s 12th-Gen laptop chips with dedicated "performance" cores compare against the latest from Apple and AMD in a head-to-head showdown.

At import—a CPU-heavy task—the MSI Creator Z17 cleans up. Both the M1 Pro and M1 Max have the same number of CPU cores, so they perform identically, while the ASUS laptop"s Ryzen 9 5900HX is showing its age. This allows the Intel i7-12700H to breeze through and take a big win at every single file size.

Exports are a different story. The latest version of Lightroom Classic (11.4) introduced GPU-accelerated exports, and the MacBook Pro 16 with its 32-core M1 Max GPU and 64GB of shared unified memory runs away with the win. However, the MSI with its combination of DDR5 memory and RTX 3070Ti GPU one-ups the ASUS across the board and beats the MacBook Pro 14 in all but the smallest export.

Exports again go to the MacBook Pro 16 with its high-powered 32-core GPU and copious RAM. However, the MSI Creator Z17 still bests the MacBook Pro 14 overall: beating it when exporting the large Sony and Fujifilm files and matching it when working with the Canon or Nikon files.

The Creator Z17 can"t quite match up to the more powerful (and expensive) MacBook Pro 16 in our comparison, but it far surpasses both the MacBook Pro 14 and the ASUS Studiobook 16. For MSI, this is the biggest win of all, showing that the Creator Z17 punches well above its weight in the most time-consuming video editing tasks.

Performance is one area where the MSI Creator Z17 really shines, showing off what Intel"s latest CPU can do when its paired with DDR5 RAM and a powerful NVIDIA RTX GPU. We were only able to test it against the laptops we had on hand, but put these numbers up against any of our previous PC reviews and you"ll see just how much of a leap this new hardware provides.

Sure, it can"t run at this speed on battery, the way the Apple Silicon Macs can. But if efficiency isn"t your main concern and you"re usually near a power outlet, the MSI Creator Z17 gives you more performance bang for your buck in many applications—especially when video editing.

The MSI Creator Z17 is an excellent laptop that has a good chance of keeping some potential Apple Silicon converts over on the Intel bandwagon. Performance is essentially neck-and-neck with the equivalent MacBook Pro and far exceeds what we"ve seen from the 11th-Gen Intel and AMD Ryzen 5000 laptops we"ve tested.

Thanks to Intel"s 12th-Gen chips and some very smart design decisions on the part of MSI, the Creator Z17 is the MacBook Pro 16 competitor we were hoping for.

It"s not a perfect device. I"ve already griped about the high difficulty level of RAM upgrades, the mediocre battery life, gimmicky pen, and wonky factory calibrated display. Taking into account that MSI is basically charging the same price as Apple for equivalent specs, and it drops the Creator Z17 down to 4 out of 5 stars.

But if you were worried that nobody would seriously challenge Apple Silicon on the creative front for many years – as we were – it seems that those worries were misplaced. Thanks to Intel"s 12th-Gen chips and some very smart design decisions on the part of MSI, the Creator Z17 is the MacBook Pro competitor we were hoping for. For users who value upgradability and gaming performance, it"s almost certainly the better buy.

msi lcd panel testing factory