The MSI Claw is a Steam Deck competitor with Intel inside

MSI Claw: A Handheld Games-based PC Form Factor for Long-Term Memory and Performance, and What Is It Worth?

For software, the Claw is running Windows 11 with MSI’s own MSI Center M software on top to offer shortcuts to your games and game libraries. People have gotten similar emulators for Windows-based handhelds that run on the same software as the Claw, and nowMSI advertises that it can also run Android games via its App Player.

Although Valve didn’t invent the handheld gaming PC form factor, its release of the Steam Deck in early 2022 has been followed by a wave of releases from major manufacturers. We have seen the ROG Ally, Legion Go, and G Cloud come out.

The name of the device makes me think of a lot of uncomfortable hand positions, butMSI says the Claw has been tailored for comfort over long gaming sessions. At 675g, it’s a tad heavier than the original Steam Deck and measures 294mm wide by 117mm tall and 21.2mm thick. MSI says it’s equipped with tactile buttons and Hall effect triggers, which, with any luck, should prove durable in the long run. It has Hall Effect joysticks, so they can avoid future drift.

The $799 model includes up to 1TB of storage and 16 gigabytes of memory. On the top of the device, there’s a microSD slot for adding more storage capacity, a Thunderbolt 4 port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a power button equipped with a fingerprint sensor. There are macro buttons that you can use to record different functions, and there’s illumination around each thumbstick.

The handheld gaming PC form factor is filled with many tradeoffs between power, battery life, portability, and price, according to the recent influx of gaming handhelds. We will have to wait and see ifMSI found the right balance.

I just got hands-on at CES 2024, and I can confidently tell you that as of right now, it’s impossible to say whether it’s any good — that depends on performance and battery life, which are not final. MSI is showing engineering samples at the expo that feel like they need a little bit of tuning before their first-half launch.

The Battery Life of the ROG Ally: Revival of a Renowned Robotic Gaming System at CES 2015, and What PC/Windows have in Common?

The user interface is cut from the same cloth and also needs some creature comforts that haven’t yet come to the Ally such as the ability to map an Xbox button and anti-deadzone in some games.

The ROG Ally has a 40Wh battery, which is smaller than the 53Wh battery that comes with it. And it’s got Hall effect joysticks like the Legion Go.

MSI says it will even include the Ally’s best feature over the Deck and Legion Go: variable refresh rate, which can make the entire Asus experience smoother.

But smooth is not what I’m seeing from the Intel Core Ultra chip, at least not yet. The Intel Core Ultra-powered engineering samples MSI brought to CES are a bit stuttery in gameplay, with loads of frame spikes. The chip currently defaults to a 24W-27W TDP, which is more than I expected from what’s supposedly a more efficient chip than AMD’s. Engineering samples again! Likely months before launch!) It is not easy to tell the fans are quiet in a crowded room.

It is not competing with the steam deck at lower wattage yet. When I set it to the “Super Battery Saver” 15W mode, like for like with the Deck, it struggled in an Assassin’s Creed Mirage benchmark even at 720p and lowest settings. The average was 24 frames per second despite huge frame drops.

Oh, almost forgot, this handheld has artificial intelligence: you can turn on AI noise canceling, and there’s an allegedly AI-powered performance mode that uses the Intel chip’s NPU to dynamically adjust the screen backlight and chip power, says a rep. I saw chip wattage range between 24W and 27W in Mirage when I turned it on, so it did seem to be doing something.

The battery should last for two hours from demanding games, four hours from lighter fare, and five or more hours of video playing. I expect more from the Deck OLED, but it hasn’t been a guarantee for Windows handhelds. One rep says they’re already getting two hours of Forza 5, where they’d see an hour from the Asus ROG Ally.

While I can’t verify that yet, I did see the battery dip 25 percent over 30 minutes of testing. The math suggests I might have managed two hours if I kept going.