MSI's new Claw handheld goes head to head with Lenovo and Asus at $700

HardwareHandheld Gaming PCsMSI’s new Claw handheld goes head to head with Lenovo and Asus at $700When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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Using the MSI Claw at CES 2024.

Lenovo andAsusbetter watch their backs as MSI has officially confirmed the pricing for its upcoming handheld gaming PC, theMSI Claw. This Intel-powered handheld PC will start out at a cool $700, though the more powerful chip will set you back more.

There are three Claw models headed our way in the near future:

Though to be fair to the Ultra 5 chip, it does come with the full compliment of 8 Xe-cores within its GPU component—the same amount found in the higher-end chips. That means it’s not at a massive loss for graphical performance, providing the CPU can keep up. We’ve been testing the 135H within a compact gaming handheld/mini laptop from OneXPlayer, and despite early reservations regarding the core count it has performed well in most games. With the same likely to be true of the MSI Claw, I would suspect the 135H is not altogether a bad pick for a 1080p handheld PC.

Though it’s true that MSI is competing with a fantastic chip out of AMD in the handheld market. The Z1 Extreme and Ryzen 7 7840U are effectively one and the same, and both come with eight full-fat CPU cores for roughly the same money as MSI is asking for here.

I’ve used the MSI Claw briefly over at MSI’s CES booth and it was a decent machine in hand, but one I felt lacked the finish of theLenovo Legion Go, which I was using for review at the time. I also walked away feeling little impression was made on me overall.

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With similar price tags the MSI has a tough battle ahead of it to sway gamers away from the somewhat overkill Legion Go. Most of all due to what that $700 gets you: either the budget 512GB MSI Claw or (thanks to anongoing sale) the top-end model of the Go with a 1TB drive and the Z1 Extreme chip.

The Claw does have some benefits worth talking about, at least. The Hall effect thumbsticks are a plus and means you don’t have to mod them onto your device yourself. Wi-Fi 7 support could come in handy one day too, though you’ll need a Wi-Fi 7 compatible network first. The MSI also offers a 53Whr battery, which is higher than both Asus or Lenovo offer in their mainstream handhelds today.

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