I have first hand experience with this. It may look like a politically motivated move, but in the RF industry when you need something to pass, China is known to be much friendlier/lax than other labs.

For those who don't know, the point of these labs is to generate certified test results. The lab's job is to certify that the test was done correctly with calibrated test equipment. They then give you the results which you then give to the regulating body.

However, you are the one who knows your product and how it operates. You are present in the lab, in the room, doing the testing with them. This introduces a lot of grey area where a lab may or may not go along with what you say. Chinese labs are known for just going along with it. After all, you are the one paying them tens of thousands, and they know you probably have many other products that need certifying. It's mutually beneficial for them to be lax.

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jitler 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> Chinese labs are known for just going along with it. After all, you are the one paying them tens of thousands,

Are the engineering forms going to Chinese labs because of their rubber stamp approval or because the process is “tens of thousands” as opposed to “hundreds of thousands”?

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WarmWash 2 hours ago | parent [-]

It's cheaper and they are friendlier. They don't rubber stamp, the tests are still done, but if you are struggling to get over a .5dB hurdle they will "work with you" to snuff it out.

The tests can be 100+ parameters and every single one is a hard binary pass/fail. So a mouse fart over the line on one test and you are not compliant. Go home, re-engineer, hope you fixed the issue (it's basically impossible to test for without a full dedicated RF testing chamber), and pay for a whole new testing run.

This is where the Chinese labs come in to play, as upon seeing your .5dB issue, they may feel that maybe their antenna placement was slightly off, or maybe you say that actually the "center of noise" (a bs thing) on your product is 5cm away from the testing center point, and move it back from the antenna with a wink and a nod.

In western labs the people are just as friendly, but that antenna is definitely in the right spot, and your product goes in the same spot as everyone elses.

However you need to go to China to do all this. If you are big megacorp with huge resources, western labs are fine. If you are smaller and possibly will become insolvent if you cannot pass testing, China is the play.

	▲	chambertime an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Thank you for these amazing insights.