MSI Unveils the Claw, World's First Gaming Handheld with Core Ultra

[btarunr]

With the zeitgeist of AI technology taking the world by storm, MSI, a world-leading premium laptop brand, has taken it in stride through its professionalism over luxurious aesthetics, extreme performance and innovative technology. Announcing the world's first gaming handheld powered by Intel Core Ultra Processor - the Claw. Equipped with ARC graphics featuring up to 8 Xe cores and advanced XeSS technology, the Claw ensures smooth gameplay across various AAA titles. Its robust HyperFlow cooling system and a large 53Wh battery, coupled with Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, make it an exceptional handheld gaming device for gamers.

"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," said Eric Kuo, the Executive Vice President& NB BU GM of MSI. "We have fine-tuned specific designs tailored exclusively for gamers, debuting our very first handheld, Claw, which redefines the standards in the handheld market."



"We're proud to partner with MSI to deliver unparalleled experiences for users around the globe. The new MSI Claw is an exciting new gaming handheld powered by an Intel Core Ultra processor that provides an unparalleled gaming experience to be enjoyed anywhere, anytime." - Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Executive Vice President and GM, Client Computing Group, Intel

Intel Core Ultra with ARC: Revolutionizing Integrated Graphics
The Core Ultra stands out with its new silicon architecture, AI capabilities, and the pioneering ARC integrated graphics, boasting up to 8 Xe cores. This configuration delivers twice the graphical performance of previous generations. Enhanced by XeSS super-sampling technology, the ARC offers smooth gameplay at 1080p resolution and medium settings. Its SOC tile includes a media engine supporting advanced video codecs like AV1, H.265, and VP9, ensuring high-quality streaming with reduced performance demands.World's first Gaming Handheld with Core Ultra: Claw

World's First Gaming Handheld with Core Ultra: The Claw
MSI's Claw represents a breakthrough in handheld gaming. Equipped with Intel Core Ultra processors and Intel XeSS technology, it elevates FPS for smooth, immersive gameplay, even in demanding AAA titles. The device incorporates MSI Cooler Boost Hyperflow technology, featuring dual fans and heat pipes that efficiently dissipate heat. The intraflow thermal design optimizes airflow to cool internal components, ensuring top gaming performance. The Claw boasts a class-leading 53Whr battery, offering an impressive 2-hour battery life under full workload, allowing gamers to enjoy prolonged sessions. It features the MSI Center M UI, providing easy access to key features and settings, including a quick game launcher and instant platform access. The Claw also supports the MSI APP Player, expanding gaming options to include both Windows and Android mobile games.

Ergonomically designed, the Claw fits comfortably in various hand sizes, enhancing the gaming experience. It features a 7-inch Full HD touchscreen display with a 120 Hz refresh rate, ensuring a visually stunning and responsive gaming environment.

In summary, MSI's Claw is a groundbreaking addition to the gaming world, offering unparalleled portable gaming with its advanced technology, ergonomic design, and powerful performance features.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[kapone32]

Did I read a 2 hour battery life? What were they thinking?

 

[enb141]

Did I read a 2 hour battery life? What were they thinking?

Yes 2 hours at 100% throtle.

 

[Chaitanya]

Did I read a 2 hour battery life? What were they thinking?

Hopefully thats the worst case scenario and not the best case scenario.

 

[watzupken]

I feel this 2 hours is the best case scenario and less likely to be met under graphic heavy games. Unless of course they heavily throttle the processor.

 

[Cheeseball]

Did I read a 2 hour battery life? What were they thinking?

Actually, if this MSI press release is ever accurate, getting two hours out of an 65W/115W APU running at max would be pretty good.

Z1 Extreme running at 25W (Unplugged Turbo) on the Ally and Go only nets just over an hour of gameplay at 60 Hz, native resolution, 50% brightness with modern 3D games.

I feel this 2 hours is the best case scenario and less likely to be met under graphic heavy games. Unless of course they heavily throttle the processor.

Most likely they will hard limit PL2 to around 30W or 45W, with PL1 being 15W.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

28W APU, small 7" 16:9 panel with no VRR, same shape as the ROG Ally (almost a carbon copy down to the shape and placement of the custim buttons!).

Unless Intel is really putting their weight behind this on optimizing the SoC for low power gaming, there's little reason to buy this over the reasonably mature ROG Ally.

 

[PLAfiller]

Did I read a 2 hour battery life? What were they thinking?

That's a built-in feature to stop you from gaming too much In China they have the "3-hour-rule" where kids can play 90 minutes a day and three hours on public holidays....so yeah that's a China-friendly feature right there and I actually think it might be a good idea Who needs a handheld that can survive for hours on a battery destroying your life goals???

 

[Vayra86]

Bwahaahahaha NO

You don't need this. The Zen APU is much better, Intel has no place here whatsoever with their ancient tech, and whats around this CPU can't even be saved to begin with

 

[Denver]

Did I read a 2 hour battery life? What were they thinking?

This implies a total system power consumption of approximately 25W, which could adversely affect the SOC's performance within this TDP range and pose challenges in terms of marketability.

I doubt it will be able to maintain two hours...

 

[Nathaaab]

Interested in how it performs against the competition, the APU should be quite decent and the first few performance numbers seem to put the Claw (set at 30W) around the Ally (set at 25W) (granted those TDP numbers don't really mean anything). Can't wait for more detailed tests.

 

[GreiverBlade]

Bwahaahahaha NO

You don't need this. The Zen APU is much better, Intel has no place here whatsoever with their ancient tech, and whats around this CPU can't even be saved to begin with

feels like the only windows handeld "console" that compete with the Ally is the Legion Go ... MSI clearly F'ed up this time ...

i am glad i did not wait on that one...

i love my ally, on the go (no not the Legion "go" ) i play offlines retro titles at 15w, which is more than enough, at home i wire it for 30W Turbo for some heavier games (including CP2077) when i turn into a couch potato and don't want to turn on the main PC ... at home again, docked with mouse keyboard and plugged on my TV, i feel like it could replace my secondary PC (well not a hard feat given my secondary PC is a i7-3770+8gb DDR3+GT730 2gb ) i could almost replace my main PC too and keep the ally for everything (well, not doing it, anyway, i've been long enough with just a laptop from ~2003 to 2010, i cherish my main rig )

Legion Go well ... that one i regret just a tiiiiny bit not waiting until it was in stock (but then again, i got my Ally at bargain price second hand ... )

Interested in how it performs against the competition, the APU should be quite decent and the first few performance numbers seem to put the Claw (set at 30W) around the Ally (set at 25W) (granted those TDP numbers don't really mean anything). Can't wait for more detailed tests.

if, from what i see, they are betting all on XeSS ... it will be ... amusing

"smooth gameplay across various AAA title" yeah right ...
unless Intel pulled a rabbit out of their hat ... i hardly see that being the case ... maybe at 480p low graphic settings and XeSS on performance setting?


Price will be interesting also the Legion Go is 99chf more than the Ally for me (799chf vs 700chf ) and given it will have an Intel SOC it will be anything north of 800 then

and unlike the Legion Go .... MSI did not innovate and just blatantly copy pasted the Ally design, ah, wait, no, they changed the speaker grid placement in a position that can be half obstructed by the hands ... wow, i am impressed now, ah well the back shape and M1, M2 back buttons are better on the Claw (subjective tho)

 

[kapone32]

I watched a Promo video from MSI and they claimed a 53W and claimed it was best in class in terms of battery power. This needs to be reviewed asap.

 

[GreiverBlade]

I watched a Promo video from MSI and they claimed a 53W and claimed it was best in class in terms of battery power. This needs to be reviewed asap.

53wh yeah, it's also written in the article here ...

basically 13wh more than the Ally ... or the OG Steamdeck and 3wh more than the Deck Oled ... but that's battery ...

so 2hrs at 53wh, as some mentioned, mean a 26.5w total power draw, my ally at 40wh last a bit more when i use it on 15w eco for what i mentioned above and at, 25w almost 1,5hr, so the Claw has roughly half an hour more, that's something but it's not a decisive factor, the decisive factor will be the SOC, because the Ryzen Z1 Extreme is excellent for that usage scenario

yep need a review indeed ... interested of what "optimization" MSI and Intel did put in place (and if it will turn out to be vulnerabilities that need to be patched later if it's like Intel's previous "optimizations")

 

[ToTTenTranz]

I watched a Promo video from MSI and they claimed a 53W and claimed it was best in class in terms of battery power. This needs to be reviewed asap.

Dave2D's video shows their "balanced" profile to be set at 30W and the "performance" one at 53W indeed.

 

[kapone32]

53wh yeah, it's also written in the article here ...

basically 13wh more than the Ally ... or the OG Steamdeck and 3wh more than the Deck Oled ... but that's battery ...

so 2hrs at 53wh, as some mentioned, mean a 26.5w total power draw, my ally at 40wh last a bit more when i use it on 15w eco for what i mentioned above and at, 25w almost 1,5hr, so the Claw has roughly half an hour more, that's something but it's not a decisive factor, the decisive factor will be the SOC, because the Ryzen Z1 Extreme is excellent for that usage scenario

yep need a review indeed ... interested of what "optimization" MSI and Intel did put in place (and if it will turn out to be vulnerabilities that need to be patched later if it's like Intel's previous "optimizations")

I really don't understand why MSI bucked the trend and went with Intel. I mean they did not even release any 77-7800 AMD cards and now this has an Intel chip while AMD are releasing updated chips to the current.

I cannot see this making a dent to the Deck either as the deck is cheaper and does not need to be a Windows handheld.

The Ally and the Legion are it's current competition but what is going to happen when the next gen of AM5 Mobile actually start coming into the new handhelds in the coming months?

I guess MSI is hoping that there are enough people that are Intel Fanboys that they will be able to sell this. It's not like Intel have any influence on the Gaming scene but they are getting better with drivers.

 

[GreiverBlade]

Dave2D's video shows their "balanced" profile to be set at 30W and the "performance" one at 53W indeed.

oh, well the Core Ultra 7 155h is roughly comparable to a Ryzen Z1 Extreme (since it's comparable to a R7 Pro 7840U )
but it has a mode that eat 53w? that's weird for a 28w SOC, but i doubt the Claw will use it to 53w,
also in the video he said 45w not 53 and he also said the Ally lowest setting is 9w (it's 10w, ok, I'm nitpicking )

in term of performance from what i gathered it's about the same a R7 Pro 7840U in term of computational power, and slighly below in term of graphic (above in some case, but not by much)
so the Claw will have a battery incentive at 15w and not full power, imho

so, basically, same SOC performances but a year later

I cannot see this making a dent to the Deck either as the deck is cheaper and does not need to be a Windows handheld.

well for me the Deck 512gb is priced higher than a BNIB Ally

the fact that's a Win handeld out of the box made it more interesting than the deck, cheaper than a gaming laptop while being able to (again imediate out of box, no tinkering) take advantage of, not only, STEAM but also EGS (where i have hundreds of title i got for free, aside one title ) and with the dock i can use it like a full blown PC when i am on holiday, only requiring a TV or a monitor. (which is also why i have a 65% keyboard and a trackball )

 

[kapone32]

oh, well the Core Ultra 7 155h is roughly comparable to a Ryzen Z1 Extreme (since it's comparable to a R7 7840U )
but it has a mode that eat 53w? that's weird for a 28w SOC, but i doubt the Claw will use it to 53w,
also in the video he said 45w not 53 and he also said the Ally lowest setting is 9w (it's 15w like the Claw ... )

in term of performance from what i gathered it's about the same a R7 7840U in term of computational power, and slighly below in term of graphic (above in some case, but not by much)
so the Claw will have a battery incentive at 15w and not full power, imho

so, basically, same SOC performances but a year later


well for me the Deck 512gb is priced higher than a BNIB Ally

the fact that's a Win handeld out of the box made it more interesting than the deck, cheaper than a gaming laptop while being able to (again imediate out of box, no tinkering) take advantage of, not only, STEAM but also EGS (where i have hundreds of title i got for free, aside one title ) and with the dock i can use it like a full blown PC when i am on holiday, only requiring a TV or a monitor. (which is also why i have a 65% keyboard and a trackball )

It depends on where you live. Where I live the 512 Gb Steam Deck is $300 less than the Ally.

 

[GreiverBlade]

It depends on where you live. Where I live the 512 Gb Steam Deck is $300 less than the Ally.

oh, yeah, it's situational ahah ... i don't deny it if so, 300$ less is almost half the price, half the price and half the performance? make sense, but same price or higher price ... nope (well Switzerland, what else )

although as i mentioned once i got my Ally at a real bargain price, to the point that even adding a 2tb SN770M, a 1tb uSD and various accessories (dock/carry case/protective shell/body wrap) did not make it more expensive than taking a full price Deck 512gb or a Legion Go where i live (bascially got it at the price of a Deck 512gb where you live then )