MSI Claw Steam Deck competitor officially announced at CES 2024
The MSI Claw is set to arrive in the first half of 2024 and will feature three models, with the highest offering an Intel Core Ultra 7 I55H.
The handheld PC market has its latest competitor in the form of the MSI Claw. This powerful device was unveiled today at CES 2024, with MSI showing off its 7-inch 120Hz display and the system’s Intel Core Ultra processor.
On January 8, 2024, the MSI Claw was revealed at CES. The manufacturer states that the handheld device will be able to offer smooth gameplay on triple-A titles thanks to its Intel Core Ultra chips. These utilize Intel’s XeSS technology that offers advanced AI upscaling, effectively boosting FPS.
Source: MSI
On the form factor side, the MSI Claw weighs marginally more than the Steam Deck OLED, though MSI states that the Claw has been “ergonomically tailored for comfort”. Users that found the Steam Deck’s thumbstick layout uncomfortable will be pleased to know that the Claw has an asymmetrical thumbstick layout and face buttons that matches Xbox’s own controller.
Additionally, the MSI Claw offers a 53Whr battery capacity that can hit a 2-hour battery life under full workload conditions and supports the MSI APP Player for access to Android mobile games.
“In our commitment to enhancing the gaming experience for our users, we aim to address market pain points and dedicate efforts to the handheld space,” Eric Kuo, the Executive Vice President & NB BU GM of MSI said in a press release. “We have fine-tuned specific designs tailored exclusively for gamers, debuting our very first handheld, Claw, which redefines the standards in the handheld market."
MSI told The Verge that it plans to ship three models, with the entry-level coming in at $699 with a Core Ultra 5 and 512GB of storage. The top model appears to be the Intel Core Ultra 7 I55H.
While no release date has been given, MSI anticipates launching its MSI Claw in the first half of 2024. It will be interesting to see how it compares to the other handheld PCs on the market like the aforementioned Steam Deck, the ASUS ROG, and the Razer Edge. Head over to our CES 2024 page for more exciting tech revealed at the annual event.
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replySam Chandler posted a new article, MSI Claw Steam Deck competitor officially announced at CES 2024
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No, the two big ones (ROG Ally and MSI Claw) do Windows.
My understanding is Valve is working on a version of SteamOS 3.x that others can use but it’s not done yet. There’s a community-based distro called HoloISO but OEMs aren’t going to use that.
So in the future they might be able to but for now they don’t.
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It's literally an Ally knockoff but featuring Intel tech instead of AMD. It *was* rumored it was going to have 32 gigs of RAM by that appears to no longer be the case, which is really the only thing that really had the potential to set it apart from the others.
To add insult to injury, AMD just released a beta driver today that works on Rog Ally and allows for frame generation, which when it works, is amazing. The claw will never have this technology. I'd rank the claw almost dead last in the current lineup of handhelds, stay far away unless something changes.
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