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What distinguishes XMG from other suppliers using similar barebones?

Introduction

As a Local OEM (LOEM) working closely with our ODM partners, XMG is directly involved in the conception and development of new laptop designs. Our on-site presence with manufacturing partners in Taiwan, combined with additional product evaluation in our test laboratory in Leipzig, allows us to continuously monitor and optimise the development and production of our devices. This allows us to specifically influence build quality, component selection, and firmware programming and optimisation. In addition, direct dialogue with our community plays a key role in the continuous development of our products.

Our own significant contribution to laptop development covers the following aspects in detail:

1. Close cooperation with ODM partners in Taiwan

  • XMG has a permanent presence in Taiwan to cooperate directly with our ODM partners.
  • Through close and long-standing partnerships with our ODM partners, we have a significant influence on quality guidelines and the respective products, from the design phase to series production.
  • Our local presence enables us to react particularly quickly to any quality or debugging problems, provide samples, avoid communication deficits and bridge time zones.

2. Quality assurance, product development and service in Leipzig

  • Production, RMA, development and marketing work under one roof in Leipzig. This close integration facilitates fast communication channels, efficient quality controls and the direct transfer of customer feedback to product development.
  • By dispensing with support outsourcing, customers receive expert advice directly from trained technicians who have direct access to internal resources - instead of being referred to call centres with standardised scripted answers.
  • Repairs and special cases are processed directly in Leipzig, without detours via external service providers. This ensures shorter processing times and greater flexibility in customised customer support. Our support and warranty processing have received several positive reviews from Notebookcheck.
  • The close cooperation between marketing and product development ensures that technical content is based on sound knowledge and that community feedback flows directly into the product strategy.

3. Detailed FAQ, community and support culture

  • Our FAQ posts in the categories General, Portfolio & Specifications, Tips and Tricks, Troubleshooting and Maintainence & Upgrades are exemplary in their breadth and depth and go far beyond typical tips or basic guides. Instead, there are practical guides and technical deep dives with background knowledge that we have compiled ourselves.
  • In addition to the general guides and deep dives in the FAQ, there are also deep dive articles for the respective products in our news section.
  • We engage in public debate in several forums, including Computerbase, Reddit and on our own Discord server.
  • The FAQ and the tips, tricks and solutions from our community forums are a useful resource for customers of all providers. Our Discord server is also open to customers of other vendors, with XMG customers highlighted in colour as ‘Certified Owners’.

4. Selection of high-quality components

  • Thermal conductors: We always use thermal conductors from high-quality brand manufacturers. We provide detailed information on which products are used in a public table.
  • Fans: We apply stricter quality tolerances when selecting fans. Fans exhibiting unusual noise are rejected, and we file a complaint with the supplier.
  • Keyboards: Whenever possible, we offer the best possible keyboard from our ODM partners. In the past, these were mechanical keyboards, for example, but we currently also use keyboards with per-key RGB and N-key rollover for models that would only have been available with a single-zone RGB keyboard without N-key rollover as standard.
  • Mainboard features: We enforce the technical basis for being able to implement keyboards with N-Key rollover in the first place, for example (internal I/O ports for USB daughter boards on the mainboard), during product conception.
  • RAM and storage: We validate a larger selection of RAM and SSD components and sometimes use customised cooling solutions to ensure optimal performance even in long-term stress tests.
  • NVIDIA premium features: Whenever possible, we equip our XMG laptops with NVIDIA Advanced Optimus and NVIDIA G-SYNC, even if NVIDIA charges a not insignificant premium for this.
  • Larger batteries: Whenever there are several battery sizes to choose from, we deliver the largest possible battery or, thanks to our cooperation with ODM partners, make larger batteries possible in the first place by customising the casing.
  • Optimised water cooling: The XMG NEO supports XMG OASIS water cooling. We deliberately postponed the release of the Mk2 generation by several months to install a quieter pump. We also took on the initial risk of ordering a four-digit minimum quantity to make this improvement possible. In addition, we supply accessories with each cooling unit that are not included in the standard scope of delivery of the ODM partner.

5. Firmware optimisations

  • Together with our ODM partners, we develop special firmware features to optimise performance, efficiency and safety. In certain model series, this includes features such as undervolting and DDR5 memory tuning. Other standard features include the ability to switch the display mode between MSHybrid and Discrete GPU, options for permanently deactivating the webcam, microphone and TPM module, as well as the provision of virtualisation functions such as Intel VT-x, VT-d, AMD-V and AMD-Vi.
  • Our tuning features are not reverse-engineered mods, but the result of official cooperation backed by extensive development and testing, ensuring smooth and timely codebase updates.
  • We deliver firmware security updates for security vulnerabilities that often affect the entire PC industry (Intel, AMD and UEFI), often faster than other manufacturers and provide the greatest possible transparency via the firmware changelogs in our download portal.
  • Our partner company TUXEDO offers comprehensive Linux support for TUXEDO branded devices based on our barebones. Linux-specific bug fixes that TUXEDO develops for these models are also incorporated upstream into our firmware. However, official Linux support is only available for TUXEDO customers, see article.

6. Focus on quality instead of price fighting

  • Instead of pressuring our ODM partners into a race to the bottom, we prioritise quality, performance, reliability, service and sustainable business relationships.
  • In this way, we avoid the hidden introduction of inferior components into our products, right down to the microcontrollers, capacitors and voltage regulators on the mainboards.

Conclusion

This list does not claim to be exhaustive, but it shows how much more XMG offers than the mere assembly of barebones. The name XMG stands for a promise to which we are committed every day - be it through actively driven quality assurance, continuous product improvements or our direct community support, which takes up your wishes and, last but not least, feeds them into the design process of new laptops through numerous surveys.