Tuesday, January 9th 2024
MSI Claw Handheld Game Console Hands On: Smooth Operator
MSI made a really bold move building a handheld game console around an Intel Core Ultra processor, when traditional logic would've pushed them to the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme. The Claw is powered by a Core Ultra 7 155H processor with some tight power management by MSI. The 155H comes with a maxed out Arc Xe-LPG integrated graphics, with 8 Xe cores, worth 128 EU (1,024 unified shaders). In comparison, the Ryzen Z1 Extreme has a maxed out Radeon 780M with 12 CU worth 768 stream processors. Specs are just half the story, the design win the Arc Graphics gets from MSI as the primary GPU, over the Radeon 780M that comes from company that's been designing GPUs for close to 3 decades, is the main story here.
The MSI Claw is about the same size as an ASUS ROG Ally (powered by the Ryzen Z1), with a 16:9 1080p, 120 Hz touchscreen in the middle, flanked by two halves of the main controller. The MSI Center M is the main user interface, which runs on top of Windows 11. This has a game launcher, a platform aggregator (though not with a storefront), and will probably get some gamer social media features down the line. There are two variants of the Claw, the $749 main variant powered by the Core Ultra 7 155U, and a cheaper $699 variant that rocks a Core Ultra 5 135H (with 4P+8E CPU). Both come with a 53 Wh battery that's larger than the 40 Wh on the ROG Ally. The demo piece is the $749 model powered by the 155H, and was shown running "Assassin's Creed: Mirage" with XeSS enabled. Gameplay was butter smooth, and with reasonably good settings. The Claw is a much needed vote of confidence for the Arc Graphics team, more than anything.
The MSI Claw is about the same size as an ASUS ROG Ally (powered by the Ryzen Z1), with a 16:9 1080p, 120 Hz touchscreen in the middle, flanked by two halves of the main controller. The MSI Center M is the main user interface, which runs on top of Windows 11. This has a game launcher, a platform aggregator (though not with a storefront), and will probably get some gamer social media features down the line. There are two variants of the Claw, the $749 main variant powered by the Core Ultra 7 155U, and a cheaper $699 variant that rocks a Core Ultra 5 135H (with 4P+8E CPU). Both come with a 53 Wh battery that's larger than the 40 Wh on the ROG Ally. The demo piece is the $749 model powered by the 155H, and was shown running "Assassin's Creed: Mirage" with XeSS enabled. Gameplay was butter smooth, and with reasonably good settings. The Claw is a much needed vote of confidence for the Arc Graphics team, more than anything.
14 Comments on MSI Claw Handheld Game Console Hands On: Smooth Operator
Also, agreed. A Major Partner like MSI, investing in an integrated design for gaming, shows high-confidence in performance and support.
Considering the large battery size on the Claw, I honestly think it might be a better option than the Ally (higher peak performance, but similar battery life), although it might not be so clear cut with other Z1E devices with larger batteries.
The bezels with that screen scream to me a 16:10 unit should be used instead, with the extra vertical helping with emulation aspect ratios.
Also, any talk of the Claw supporting VRR? That really is a killer feature with the Ally that helps with low fps gaming.
Not a fan of MSI but very thankful of them releasing a handheld that’s NOT an AMD APU. Just like GPUs, APUs needs competition more than ever and AMD is getting complacent over the years.
The ones that are 4:3 or 3:2, or 8:9, i want to get a foldable phone sooooo bad. Foldable phones are the closest to playing at that native resolution ratio and just makes more sense.Exactly! Foldable phones has a much closer ratio to 4:3 than 16:10(by a long shot and same goes for 16:9)