Newsletter
Earlier this week MSI’s Claw handheld was leaked, showcasing the device’s design and essentially confirming its existence, but today MSI has officially unveiled it, calling it the Claw A1M. “Grip and Game,” MSI says, and that’s about as fitting a tagline as you can have for something like this. The Claw A1M will be competing directly with Valve’s Steam Deck, ASUS’s ROG Ally, and Lenovo’s Legion Go. Not to mention a handful of options from lesser-known brands like AYANEO and GPD.
MSI teased the Claw A1M prior to its announcement at CES today. However, the teaser didn’t show much of the device other than some subtle outlines of the joysticks with RGB. As well as some up-close shots of the back vents. Now MSI is sharing the full scope of the handheld complete with specs and a smattering of features. In terms of design, it doesn’t look much different from the ROG Ally. Slightly flared-out sides act as a sort of ergonomic resting place for your palms while you hold it. And it features similarly angled, or almost polygonal-shaped back buttons. These were surprisingly comfortable to tap on the Ally during gameplay. So we expect as much here too.
MSI has also implemented more space on the back side of the unit where the hand grips are. This additional depth seems like it would make it more comfortable to hold. The grips are also nice and contoured, which should allow your fingers to rest nicely in those curves. “Using meticulously polished design details, from the curvature that fits the palm to finger grip positions and trigger force, results in Claw being ergonomically tailored for comfort and precision,” MSI says.
The MSI Claw A1M is the first handheld powered by Intel’s Meteor Lake chip
So now for the big difference between most of these handhelds already on the market. It’s not design. Despite having subtle changes, many of these look close enough that you might not know which is which if you weren’t intimately familiar with each brand. Where things diversify is with the inside chipset powering the unit. On the ROG Ally and Legion Go, and quite a few from AYANEO, the handhelds are all powered by AMD APUs. In the case of the ROG Ally and Legion Go it’s specifically the Z1 Extreme.
MSI has gone a different route. It worked closely with Intel to make the Claw A1M the world’s first handheld gaming PC running on Intel’s Meteor Lake processors. MSI suggests other variants will be available at some point, noting that some “product specification, functions, and appearance may vary by model and differ from country to country.” For the time being, however, only the A1M model has been announced. This model comes with up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU (it can also come with an Intel Core Ultra 5 chip), and it uses Intel’s Arc graphics. It also has 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM (not the rumored 32GB that was floating around in benchmarks from the leak), and up to 1TB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage.
Additionally, it has two 2W speakers and it’s got an audio jack for headphones too. Just in case you want to play games without interrupting those around you. You could also wireless headphones, but that would just deplete the 53Whr battery more, which MSI says only lasts about 2 hours while running under a full performance workload. That being said, the Claw does have the largest battery of its competitors. So with some software magic and a little tuning, you can probably get the battery to last longer. At the expense of game performance.
However, you might not have to deal with too much performance dip. MSI was quick to point out the processor’s use of Intel XeSS technology, which is supposed to help the Claw get boosted frame rates for smoother performance thanks to some help from AI upscaling algorithms. MSI says this “significantly boosts frames per second.” But we’ll have to wait and see what real-world testing is like. Either way, games should still look pretty good. Especially with the Claw’s large 7-inch 120Hz display.
Pricing and availability
MSI hasn’t confirmed any exact release dates but it does note the device is launching soon. The Claw A1M will hit shelves in February. So the release is just around the corner. It’ll also come in at a price point of $699. That being said, that’s the baseline price tag. If MSI decides to release any more powerful models, that price is only going to go up. Still, it’s right in line with what Valve, ASUS, and Lenovo are charging. And it’s significantly less expensive than the options from AYANEO.