The MSI Claw gaming handheld is ready to battle the Steam Deck

[Shawn Knight]

In a nutshell: MSI's handheld gaming PC has landed and is ready to go toe to toe with Valve's venerable Steam Deck. Unveiled at CES earlier this year, the MSI Claw is powered by a Core Ultra processor of your choosing. The handheld ships with a 7-inch FHD 1080p touchscreen with a 120 Hz refresh rate that covers 100 percent of the sRGB color space, and utilizes Hall Effect triggers and joysticks which should eliminate drift concerns.

Under the hood is a six-cell 53 Wh battery that's reportedly good for up to two hours of full-bore use.

The entry level Claw, which is available to order now over on MSI's website, includes a Core Ultra 5-135H alongside 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory and a 512 GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD, and is priced at $699.

Two higher-spec'd variants are also in the pipeline, including a model with a Core Ultra 7-155H CPU, 16 GB of RAM, and a 512 GB SSD for $749, and another that bumps storage up to 1 TB for $799. Both can be pre-ordered over on Newegg, and show a release date of March 15.

Those who order through Newegg will also receive a free copy of Ubisoft's Skull & Bones and a free month of Xbox Game Pass.

MSI's Claw is the latest in a growing list of handheld gaming systems, bumping shoulders with the Asus ROG Ally, the Lenovo Legion Go, the Steam Deck, and others. These machines owe their existence to the Nintendo Switch, the handheld that Nintendo gambled (and won big) with in 2017.

Nintendo is expected to ship a follow-up to the original Switch in early 2025. The Switch 2 hardware, which has reportedly been ready to go since late 2022, is expected to use a cost-optimized version of Nvidia's Orin built on an 8nm process with some efficiency tweaks from Lovelace. It'll also likely include a larger 8-inch display and as much as 16 GB of RAM (although 12 GB seems far more likely).

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/102194-msi-claw-handheld-gaming-pc-ready-battle-steam.html

 

[GodisanAtheist]

This is gonna sell like 15 units.

Just don't see the point of one of these systems without SteamOS/Proton, windows is just not a user friendly interface and adds a ton of unnecessary overhead on an already tight performance budget.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Interested to see how it stacks up against the Ally.

Rumors suggest it doesn’t do too well, which is supported by the lack of bragging over comparisons so far.

 

[amghwk]

This is gonna sell like 15 units.

Just don't see the point of one of these systems without SteamOS/Proton, windows is just not a user friendly interface and adds a ton of unnecessary overhead on an already tight performance budget.

SteamOS is not limited to the Deck. MSI may very well install the free SteamOS Linux distro in its Claw. Or can go the another customized Debian route with Steam installed.

 

[Burty117]

SteamOS is not limited to the Deck. MSI may very well install the free SteamOS Linux distro in its Claw. Or can go the another customized Debian route with Steam installed.

No but SteamOS is heavily optimised for the SteamDeck, other handhelds simply do not get that level of optimisation.

I would place money this thing does not perform any better yet will cost more money.

 

[amghwk]

No but SteamOS is heavily optimised for the SteamDeck, other handhelds simply do not get that level of optimisation.

I would place money this thing does not perform any better yet will cost more money.

Not really. The best thing is the Linux OS can be customized for any given hardware. MSI can equally customize SteamOS or any equivalent to match its own Claw's hardware.

(Disclaimer : I'm a Linux user)

 

[Superconductor]

Wouldn't touch MSI with a ten foot pole...

 

[VariableSpike]

I think this might be dead in the water already considering the all intel tech (and considering the chip specs, wouldn't expect amazing battery life), the intel gpu being another point of question vs amd's apu's and obviously the price, which is very high compared to the Lenovo, Asus or Steam Deck

 

[Watzupken]

Besides the fact that it’s proven that Meteor Lake don’t scale well at lower power limits, the other thing to consider is that the handheld PC console market is actually very saturated now. The performance from the ARC iGPU hardly outperforms the 780M, so there is hardly any compelling reason for people in this target market to switch over.

 

[amghwk]

The worst part of all these "PC handhelds" is, they are almost impractical to be used on-the-go, unlike older gen handhelds like Gameboy Advance or DS. The juice runs out too soon.

You still need to tether yourself to the wall, if you want to continue using it.

 

[webzies]

This is gonna sell like 15 units.

Just don't see the point of one of these systems without SteamOS/Proton, windows is just not a user friendly interface and adds a ton of unnecessary overhead on an already tight performance budget.

Because the Steamdeck is heavily flawed. I have a Steamdeck and a Rog Ally Z1. Since getting the ROG, I've not touched my Steamdeck. It's a headache and hassle to add games from other storefronts. You gotta jump through hoops to add Ubisoft or Epic store games. Also, 20% of games flat don't work on Steam. It doesn't recognize any game using anti-cheats or 3rd party DRMs. Windows works just fine. I've not had a single issue with my Rog, but have had 2 complete system crashes on the Steamdeck requiring re-installs.... soooo.... like to try again with blanket generalizations?

 

[webzies]

Interested to see how it stacks up against the Ally.

Rumors suggest it doesn’t do too well, which is supported by the lack of bragging over comparisons so far.

Ally has had 10 months of optimization post release. When the ROG Ally came out, it was junk too. Same with Steamdeck. They needed dozens of daily and weekly updates and in some cases per-game tweaks to become playable at more than 20 fps. Being a Fanboy for AMD is ridiculous. We should be CELEBRATING Intel trying to push into the market. Hopefully they spur growth in the new niche.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

Ally has had 10 months of optimization post release. When the ROG Ally came out, it was junk too. Same with Steamdeck. They needed dozens of daily and weekly updates and in some cases per-game tweaks to become playable at more than 20 fps. Being a Fanboy for AMD is ridiculous. We should be CELEBRATING Intel trying to push into the market. Hopefully they spur growth in the new niche.

Software updates won't fix a hardware that is inefficient in its design (modular/Multi-chip) and manufacturing process. Don't be silly.

 

[Eldrach]

Nvidia is moving into the market - I’ll hold out for that version. Nvidia will also most likely use their shield interface with GeforceNow as a prime component.

 

[Burty117]

Not really. The best thing is the Linux OS can be customized for any given hardware. MSI can equally customize SteamOS or any equivalent to match its own Claw's hardware.

(Disclaimer : I'm a Linux user)

I know, let me make my point clearer, MSI are not spending the time to optimise SteamOS for their handheld. Unless they have said somewhere I can't find, sticking SteamOS on it will probably be an even worse experience than Windows (Which they are "optimising" for).

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Because the Steamdeck is heavily flawed. I have a Steamdeck and a Rog Ally Z1. Since getting the ROG, I've not touched my Steamdeck. It's a headache and hassle to add games from other storefronts. You gotta jump through hoops to add Ubisoft or Epic store games. Also, 20% of games flat don't work on Steam. It doesn't recognize any game using anti-cheats or 3rd party DRMs. Windows works just fine. I've not had a single issue with my Rog, but have had 2 complete system crashes on the Steamdeck requiring re-installs.... soooo.... like to try again with blanket generalizations?

-Can always just put Windows on the Steam deck? Can't say the same for SteamOS and the ROG.

Maybe you'll be one of the 15?

End of the day you lose a big feature with all of these other handhelds. It's a niche within a niche market, it will shake out to the Deck and one or two also rans. The MSI Claw will not be one of them.

 

[Furriest]

Wouldn't touch MSI with a ten foot pole...

Why not, don't you feel the red sun in the sky already?

 

[dangh]

Apart of OS, the placement of the face buttons and sticks is really bad.
Sd with heroic is just much better.