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MSI Claw, the new MSI Steam Deck Competitor, has been released

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
via TheVerge

The MSI Claw has officially arrived, as the base model of MSI’s Core Ultra-powered handheld gaming machine is now available from MSI’s website for $699.

The highest chip MSI will offer in the Claw is the Core Ultra 7 155H, but a cheaper version with the Core Ultra 5 135H is also available. The Core Ultra 5 135H is weaker than the Core Ultra 7 155H on paper, but I’m unsure how that will play out in real-world performance. As I saw with the Asus ROG Ally with the base Ryzen Z1, two variants of similar chips can have vastly different performance.

There are two other higher-specced models, too, but they’re listed as coming on March 12th. Here’s how the three models stack up:

  • $699: Core Ultra 5 / 512GB SSD
  • $749: Core Ultra 7 / 512GB SSD
  • $799: Core Ultra 7 / 1TB SSD


You can also preorder all three MSI Claw models from Newegg, with availability starting March 15th. Preorders on Newegg come with a couple of freebies, including a Skull and Bones standard edition game code and Xbox Game Pass free for one month.

msi_claw_specs.jpg


​
 
Topher

Topher

Identifies as young
Someone said leaked benchmarks of this thing weren't very good. Not seeing anything on youtube yet. Maybe someone will get one in a few days.

Frankly, it already looks DOA on pricing when Rog Ally can be often be found on sale for $599 and Legion Go 1 TB is $749 with a larger screen.

But glad to see more mainstream competition either way
 
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Phase

Phase

Member
Too expensive for me. The specs don't look that great. We'll see if the benchmarks confirm that.
 
phant0m

phant0m

Member
Topher said:
Someone said leaked benchmarks of this thing weren't very good. Not seeing anything on youtube yet. Maybe someone will get one in a few days.

Frankly, it already looks DOA on pricing when Rog Ally can be often be found on sale for $599 and Legion Go 1 TB is $749 with a larger screen.

But glad to see more mainstream competition either way
Click to expand...

And I got an open box Legion at BB for $500 last month. Smokin’ handheld.
 
jshackles

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Intel Arc graphics
$700

DOA
 
JohnnyFootball

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
This thing is a few years too soon. Bad idea to do this with Intel GPUs. The drivers are still not up to snuff.
 
JCK75

JCK75

Member
Topher said:
Someone said leaked benchmarks of this thing weren't very good. Not seeing anything on youtube yet. Maybe someone will get one in a few days.

Frankly, it already looks DOA on pricing when Rog Ally can be often be found on sale for $599 and Legion Go 1 TB is $749 with a larger screen.

But glad to see more mainstream competition either way
Click to expand...


Yea Intel GPU means it's DOA
 
Topher

Topher

Identifies as young
Some early performance reviews are out. Not sure where the original video is from, but this guy is summarizing it. As expected, this thing ain't worth it.

timestampped
 
StereoVsn

StereoVsn

Member
Topher said:
Some early performance reviews are out. Not sure where the original video is from, but this guy is summarizing it. As expected, this thing ain't worth it.

timestampped
Click to expand...

Yeah, as expected, there is no point of getting this over AMD based device. What I don’t understand is that MSI knew this, why in the world did they decide to go with Intel?

Wonder if they got some separate deals for Intel’s mobile laptop chips or something if they pushed handheld line?
 
Topher

Topher

Identifies as young
StereoVsn said:
Yeah, as expected, there is no point of getting this over AMD based device. What I don’t understand is that MSI knew this, why in the world did they decide to go with Intel?

Wonder if they got some separate deals for Intel’s mobile laptop chips or something if they pushed handheld line?
Click to expand...

If I had to guess, I think Intel probably paid MSI a good chunk of money to make this thing. Probably corporate logic that having a subpar product in the handheld market is better than letting AMD dominate all by itself.

Could be wrong, but that's the only thing that makes sense in my mind as to why MSI would even bother with this thing.
 
StereoVsn

StereoVsn

Member
Topher said:
If I had to guess, I think Intel probably paid MSI a good chunk of money to make this thing. Probably corporate logic that having a subpar product in the handheld market is better than letting AMD dominate all by itself.

Could be wrong, but that's the only thing that makes sense in my mind as to why MSI would even bother with this thing.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that would make sense. That and/or MSI got discounts for other laptop chips.

Still, this thing will be DOA and will get panned in reviews. I guess bad publicity is better vs no publicity is the thought…
 
Diseased Yak

Diseased Yak

Gold Member
Unfortunate. I'm still loving my Steam Deck (512 GB launch version) but I wanna snag one of the Windows-based ones. This isn't it, sounds like.

Will hold out for a Rog Ally refresh (hopefully with an OLED screen).
 
W

welshrat

Member
What were MSI thinking. what a waste of money and resources building this thing.

lol, glad I have my steamdeck. I don't mind the Ally if you are after a windows environment for more launchers but you cant deny Steam has really figured their device out. If you look at frametimes on gamer nexus between the Ally and the Deck you can see how refined the deck is.



Will be waiting on Deck 2
 
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Heimdall_Xtreme

Heimdall_Xtreme

Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
ResurrectedContrarian said:
Calling it the "claw" brings back bad memories of poor control schemes requiring awkward hand position.

PS4.png


Not a good association for a presumably comfortable handheld.
Click to expand...
I remember that the only game that used the claw technique was the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn game on PS3. It had a strange control xD

91jQPUh9KoL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg
 
C

crackajack

Member
Intel® Arc™ Graphics
Click to expand...
That's still Alchemist, right? Where the A380 performed pretty much worst in relative comparisons from all released variants. And not even a minor refresh that was supposed to happen before proper Battlemage?
Intel isn't giving many roadmap infos out, but I am not paying super much attention either so might just be my fault to not know.
Hall Effect triggers and joysticks built to last with microscopic precision.
Click to expand...
I guess that's something. Bad enough when stick drift happens with controllers, but on a much more expensive handheld it would be much worse.
 
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xrnzaaas

xrnzaaas

Member
Too many companies are trying to join the party without taking enough time to get rid of the major flaws (like the power consumption) and make their device stand out from the rest. My bet would be that only Deck and Ally will survive long term, along with their cheaper chinese alternatives.
 
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IDKFA

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
It could have the performance of a £10k rig and be £250, but I still wouldn't buy it because of the name.

"Babe, have you seen my Claw?"

"I'm going to bed and play on the Claw"

"Do you want to see my Claw"

It sounds awful. Such a fucked up name. The word just reminds me of hand cramps and masturbation.
 
G

Garibaldi

Member
IDKFA said:
It could have the performance of a £10k rig and be £250, but I still wouldn't buy it because of the name.

"Babe, have you seen my Claw?"

"I'm going to bed and play on the Claw"

"Do you want to see my Claw"

It sounds awful. Such a fucked up name. The word just reminds me of hand cramps and masturbation.
Click to expand...
 
W

welshrat

Member
Celine said:
"Wow, have you seen the current handheld PC fad kickstarted by the Steam Deck, which in turn was inspired by the huge Switch success, and by AMD providing SoCs suitable enough for big handhelds? Let's cash in no matter what."
Click to expand...

Oh I agree, but the intel chip means that it will review badly and sits below all the other handhelds. It could have been so much better
 
Minsc

Minsc

Gold Member
Yes - terrible as expected. Intel has not shown themselves to be the chipset you'd pick anymore in laptops/handhelds as far as power efficiency goes.

It's crazy that sitting idle, doing nothing, it gets 3 hours less battery life than the AMD chip in the GPD Win.

So right off the bat, this thing is at a HUGE disadvantage, and unsurprisingly, despite using more power, it can't even come close to AMD's performance.

Maybe it needs a few years in the oven for updated drivers and what not, but I doubt it. I have an Intel laptop now, and it's the last one I'll ever own.
 
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