It ’s not enough to call the MSI Claw a disappointment . In a prison term when ranking among thebest hand-held gaming PCsrequires little more than a becoming interface and competitory public presentation , the Claw stands out not to due to where it stand out compare to the competition , but where it falls behind .

Even two years after theSteam Deckoriginally launch , there ’s some understanding that a mature period follow the launching of any unexampled handheld . Companies like Asus , Lenovo , and now MSI have to navigate this Modern , unmapped territory , and there are tie down to be some gibbousness along the way . Even with that understanding , however , the Claw falls brusque of expectations .

It ’s more expensive than the competitor while offer worsened performance and inferior battery life , and that ’s the most important thing you require to have a go at it . You should n’t buy the MSI Claw now based on that alone . And given what I ’ve ascertain , it ’s hard to imagine MSI can patch the Claw into a competitive spot without releasing an entirely new gadget .

About this review

Digital Trends originally review the MSI Claw on May 29 , 2024 , and awarded it 2 out of 5 stars . The twist has picture several updates since spillage , some of which improve operation . In light of the carrying into action improvements , we ’ve increased the mark of the MSI Claw up to 2.5 out of 5 stars .

The brushup that follows remains unaltered from the original reassessment that was published . We ’ve added a subdivision to the performance section that goes into item about the performance improvements we saw with the belated BIOS and drivers .

Under the hood of the MSI Claw

The title to celebrity ofthe Claw is itsCore Ultra CPU . It ’s the only mainstream equipment with an Intel check , and MSI provides two options . you’re able to take the Core Ultra 5 135H or the Core Ultra 7 155H. I reviewed the Core Ultra 7 155H reading , and if you must pick up the MSI Claw , that ’s the one you should go with .

Otherwise , the specs are fairly familiar . You have 16 GB of RAM regardless of the model you choose , as well as 512 GB of storage . you’re able to expend an additional $ 50 on the Core Ultra 7 155H example to jump up to 1 TB of reposition , but you ’re free to switch out the M.2 2230 SSD yourself as well .

Pricing is important here . The alkali model , with the Core Ultra 5 135H , will run you $ 700 . That ’s the same price as both theROG Allyand theLenovo Legion Go , both of which have the Z1 Extreme buffalo chip . You ’ll expend $ 750 for the Core Ultra 7 155H , and $ 800 if you want that crisp with a 1 TB SSD .

The Claw is more expensive than the competition . That ’s before you bring in the Steam Deck andSteam Deck OLED ,   both of which are C of dollars trashy than the Claw .

MSI does n’t do much to justify the price outdoors of having an Intel crisp — which , as I ’ll dig into later , does n’t justify much . You ’re get a 7 - inch informatics display that ’s capable of 1080p resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate , similar to the ROG Ally . It ’s a overnice screen , and games likeTetris Effectlook fantastical on it , but the Lenovo Legion Go sports a higher declaration while the Steam Deck organic light-emitting diode vaunt , well , OLED .

There ’s frankly no self-justification for the Claw to be as expensive as it is compared to the mainstream handheld market . It has slenderly higher - quality button and sticks compared to the ROG Ally , and MSI has made a braggart deal about the 53 watt - hour battery , but they are n’t enough to warrant such a premium . There ’s nothing that stands out here , which is particularly troublesome considering the high price that MSI is asking and the humiliated performance the Claw go .

Design

MSI has meet some literary criticism for the derivative intention of the Claw compared to the ROG Ally , but there are enough change here for the Claw to stand on its own . The flavor in the hands is very similar , but MSI stands out with button and sticks that finger much more bounty .

You get Hall Effect ( magnetic ) triggers and marijuana cigarette , which feel very placid . It ’s a massive upgrade over the ROG Ally , which has rather cheap - feel button , sticks , and initiation . The D - pad is also excellent , devoid of the clicky feel you get on the Ally .

out of doors of the release , you get a Micro SD card time slot , 3.5 mm headphone jack , a USB - atomic number 6 interface with Thunderbolt 4 that you ’ll use for charge , and a power release that supports Windows Hello with your fingerprint . The USB - speed of light port is a big plus over the ROG Ally , as it supportsexternal GPU enclosures — you necessitate one ofAsus ’ XG Mobile nontextual matter cardsfor the Ally .

round out the build are dual 2 - James Watt speaker unit that fathom shockingly full . This is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the MSI Claw that I can say is genuinely estimable without reservation .

Externally , the Claw does n’t attract any lick , but it also does n’t shine flat on its face . The handheld feels expectant in your hands , with high - calibre controls , utilitarian ports , and astonishingly good speakers . MSI nail this aspect of the Claw . And good affair , because the other scene of the Claw fall far short of expectations .

Performance

The performance of the MSI Claw is not good . It ’s not that the screen closure is too high like we see with the Lenovo Legion Go , and it ’s not that it accrue light in terms of the ironware inside like theAyaneo 2S. It ’s just below the competition , no question . It does n’t matter what office modality you front at , either . The MSI Claw offers less performance than the competition while consuming more power .

commence with the default Balanced mode , you may see how the Claw falls short of the ROG Ally with the Z1 Extreme overall . The Claw earns a slight lead inDying Light 2andReturnal , but its exit inHorizon Zero DawnandCyberpunk 2077stand out more .

There ’s more to the story than the raw routine here . InDying Light 2,the Claw post higher overall operation , but it was also a stuttering slew . you may see how discrepant it was in the screenshot above . To put some numbers to it , the ROG Ally had a minimum of 18 framing per 2d ( fps ) . The Claw had a minimum of 5 Federal Protective Service .

Performance was n’t consistent , either . InCyberpunk 2077,I test the Balanced and Battery Saver modal value of the Claw and escort higher performance than the ROG Ally initially . The 2nd time I ran the tests , however , public presentation fell off a drop and continue there . I ’m not sure if this is an way out with thermal or something else , but it ’s a problem .

look at the Claw alone , you have five unlike power modes : functioning , Balanced ( nonpayment ) , Battery Saver , Manual , and AI Engine . The AI Engine tweaks aspects of the gadget mechanically , but it does n’t declare oneself any higher functioning . you may see how the various might modes play out above .

If you ’ve pay attention to the world of handheld gambling devices , you ’ll acknowledge that something is off here . The Core Ultra 7 155H inside the MSI Claw consumesa lotof tycoon . That provide significant linguistic context . If you scroll up and look at my results in Balanced mode compare to the ROG Ally , you need to remember that the MSI Claw is consume twice as much power while offering lower carrying into action !

Even when configure to the highest world power available — up to 40W — and plug away in with MSI ’s optional Overboost feature , the Claw ca n’t manage to best the ROG Ally with the Z1 Extreme suction down 35W. It ca n’t even beat the ROG Ally running on bombardment power at 25W in its Turbo manner .

It set about big , too . I limited the resolution to 720p to get a fair fight between the ROG Ally , MSI Claw , and Steam Deck OLED . And the Claw looks awful . It ’s slower than even the Steam Deck OLED in all butReturnal . And keep in mind that the Steam Deck OLED is based on a chip that has a computer graphic architecture that total out four years ago .

Throughout all of these charts , you ’ll notice I do n’t have any result forStrange Brigadeon the MSI Claw — a game I normally use for hand-held benchmarks . It just would n’t run . I seek more than a dozen times , both in DirectX 12 and Vulkan modes , and it just refused to load up . I ’ve never had that issue with other Windows handhelds .

The Claw ’s execution is inexcusably risky , and this is all reinvigorated data . I test on BIOS 109 , which supposedly offered a 30 % performance booston topof another monumental jumping with a former BIOS update , and the latest Intel 5522 graphics driver . The BIOS update was turn just a day before I started testing . If this is the execution I ’m seeing after supposedly massive jumps in performance , I feel bad for anyone who picked up the Claw on release day .

Retesting the MSI Claw

MSI expel a new BIOS and equipment driver for the Claw in late June , and I adopt the equipment out for another twisting to see if there were any performance improvement . And much to my surprise , there were . The MSI Claw is quite a bit faster now than it was when I originally retrospect it , and much faster than when it originally establish . Even with the operation improvement , however , it only manages to match equipment like the ROG Ally .

you’re able to see the improvements in the nonremittal Balanced mode above . There are some stark differences compared to my original examination , with game likeCyberpunk 2077getting much closer to the 30 fps mark .

Bumping up to Performance mode , the remainder are less stark , which is something I noticed throughout retesting the MSI Claw . The large melioration are focus on lower - powered modes . When I manually set the machine to 40W — its maximum superpower — I did n’t see any difference in carrying into action with the previous updates .

Although it ’s great to see MSI continue work on the Claw , the performance betterment here simply bring the handheld in pipeline with the respite of the market . MSI is still saddle a premium for its machine compare to the competition , and the barrage fire life is still behind . These areas are all the more crucial view theAsus ROG Ally Xis now out on the market , which dead shoot a line away the Claw for around the same terms .

Software

One of the areas I ’m most optimistic for the Claw is Center M. This is the usefulness that MSI includes that allows you to found game and get at your setting , and it was one of the highlight when I first go using the Claw . As I continued to use the twist , though , Center M started to debunk its unworthy side . It needs some body of work .

Let ’s start with the positive — Center M is fast . Really tight . You have a consecrated button to bring up the usefulness , as well as a clitoris to bring up a sidebar of quick configurations . They come up instantly and immediately respond to your inputs , which is a mess more than I can say for the Lenovo Legion Go and Ayaneo 2S. This is the stuffy I ’ve seen to what Value has accomplished with the Steam Deck when it issue forth to speed .

The port for Center M is n’t capital , and you ’ll require to poke around a lot to find options that should be in obvious spot . But I ’m uncoerced to overlook that considering how quickly Center M answer ( and because the Claw has so many other issue ) .

I ’m optimistic about Center M and hopeful that it can be a great utility one sidereal day . but that 24-hour interval is not today .

Some issue presented themselves at once . The public presentation overlay that ’s suppose to display your frame rate just , well , does n’t , and MSI would kick me back and forth between a desktop and secret plan mode release assignment randomly . The big upshot I had by far was changing the resolving , however .

You ’re given the choice to switch over between 1080p and 720p through the immediate options menu . pass from 1080p to 720p works fine . The other fashion around ? Not so much . You have to go into the Windows stage setting to set your resolve back to 1080p . Your windows also get thrown off while try out to match to a 1080p CRT screen . And do n’t even try out to switch the resolution while in a plot .

A fortune of these problems are government issue with Windows , not the MSI Claw . It ’s not free of unfavorable judgment , though . Switching to 720p , Center M would just decline to pick up the controller . I could n’t pull up the quick configurations menu , and I could n’t navigate through the software . go back to 1080p does n’t pay back the issue , either — you have to fully reboot the equipment .

Battery life

MSI has made a big deal about the 53 James Watt - minute barrage inside the Claw , but from my examination , the increased mental ability is n’t enough to offset the eminent power exercise of the Meteor Lake CPU . InCyberpunk 2077,I watched the Claw die in just an hour and 15 minutes . That was n’t using some extreme magnate way , either . It was in the Balanced mode , which is the nonpayment out of the boxwood .

It does n’t fathom terrible , but I necessitate to put in context how rapidly the battery drainage here . I was n’t able to complete my trial of benchmarks on a single commission in the Balanced mode , and I watch the battery capacity drop by 5 % in a 60 - second foot race of aCyberpunk 2077benchmark . Even on the Windows desktop with nothing run , MSI ’s overlay reported between 8W and 10W of force using up . The Steam Deck OLED only consumes 15W under full load .

The overlay that reports battery capacity is buggyas well . In one run ofCyberpunk 2077,the Claw last just 32 minutes . That was n’t because the battery drained quickly . It was that the bombardment was never fully charge , despite the fact that the Claw itself thought the stamp battery was . This may just seem like a small issue , but inaccurate stamp battery capacitance reporting can have serious import .

Despite sport a larger battery , the MSI Claw manages bad bombardment animation due to its office - hungry chip .

On early versions of the Steam Deck , for example , a similar hemipterous insect could basically fork out your equipment unuseable . The battery will account less and less capacity over time , and eventually , the equipment will only last a few minute despite report a full rush . The Claw has n’t gotten to that detail , but I would n’t be surprised if it finally does if there are continued bugs with capacity reporting .

I tried to maximize battery life as well . I turned the screen down to 720p with a 60Hz refresh rate and went down to the low-toned power fashion that ’s purportedly tune up for battery life . Even in this situation , the Claw died in under two hours inCyberpunk 2077.I was n’t doing anything in the biz either . I was stand completely still .

Despite sporting a bigger battery than both the Steam Deck OLED and ROG Ally , the MSI Claw manages worse bombardment life due to its big businessman - hungry chip . It ’s not unuseable , but MSI ’s call of 50 % better bombardment living just do n’t hold up in pattern .

Not ready at all

Alarm bells went off whenMSI decided to found the Clawwithout any review sample distribution sent out to agitate . It was a red flag of a production that was n’t finished , but that MSI wanted to sell anyway . And now , two month later , after I ’ve had a chance to put the Claw through its paces , it ’s clear that the warning was justified .

Despite a flurry of driver and BIOS updatespromising higher execution , the Claw falls short of the competition while consuming more major power , and as a event , it pass away just as fast despite its larger shelling capacity . The software , despite running bland than the option from Asus and Lenovo , also falls on its face with special option and an interface that chop-chop deteriorates if you engage with feature like adjusting your screen door resolution .

It ’s not even all MSI ’s fault . The troupe will in all probability get the Claw into a beneficial spot in terms of software and bugs . It needs to if it wants to continue releasing gadget in this category , and I ’ll be happy to revisit it if a significant update comes out . But the chip inside is where many of the big problem reside , and it like it has an event on pricing too .

You should stay far aside from this gadget . The last thing you want to be is a beta tester as MSI works on fixes on a machine that ’s already overpriced .