Customer Ratings & Reviews

Great ergonomics for a handheld, can hold and play this all day. When I'm on the go, the only thing preventing from longer sessions is the battery life. Then again, 4 hours of modern AAA games is more than enough for anybody to be honest. Especially awesome now that I have a newborn, plays everything I want smoothly. Great speakers, hall effect joysticks, literally does everything I want, no hiccups. No game limitations like the steam deck. No hardware issues like the Ally (wifi dropping) or Legion Go (crackling speakers).

TLDR - Very solid first handheld from MSI. Solid performance, but due to the inefficiency of current gen intel chips, it gets hot and the battery doesn’t last very long. If you’re able to deal with the quirks of Arc graphics, and a few small issues with the MSI Center, you can have a great gaming experience! (each driver update seems to increase performance on some games substantially, so some may still have unusually low performance) You could easily use the MSI Claw as your only/main PC if the GPU is enough for you!! (with a thunderbolt or USB-C PD dock) Screen - looks great and sharp being that it is a 7” screen at 1080p. Doesn’t get bright enough to play outside in direct sun, but max brightness is OK in the shade. VRR seems to work well as I haven’t noticed any tearing, and Arc control center shows it as enabled. (Due to the performance of the integrated Arc GPU, I wouldn’t expect needing a higher resolution screen in handheld gaming PC’s until the GPU performance at least doubles if not triples.) CPU - The Intel Ultra 7 155H is a substantial performer in CPU intensive tasks, especially for a handheld gaming PC. It does overheat/thermal throttle under gaming loads or rendering loads/benchmarks, but it’s not noticeable in any degraded performance. With 6P cores, 8E cores and 2LP cores, its quite speedy in normal tasks. (for those who are just gaming, it would be nice to be able to turn off the E+LP cores if possible, but I could not find an option in the BIOS) It scored a 2348 single thread and 11138 multi thread in Geekbench 6, and a 13537 on Cinebench R23 (10min loop). (I have seen the CPU hit 101c after a longer gaming session, and it touched 103c during cinebench, doesn’t stay there though, as it will throttle back) GPU - I was pleasantly surprised at the Arc iGPUs performance, since I wasn’t expecting much. (It does come in well behind its main competition) On balanced mode, I can average low 70s/high 60s on Forza Horizon 5 (the built in benchmark got 69fps) at all low/very low with XeSS set to “performance”. BF2042 was playable at ultra low/lowest settings, but was sitting around 40-50fps. I even ran starfield on it, which wasn’t exactly a great experience, but I’m able to pull around 40-60fps at the lowest settings 50% scale and FSR3 on with frame gen. (Arc GPUs are able to look better than expected with synthetic benchmarks, as they paint an absolute best case scenario, which doesn’t come up as much in actual titles) Feel/build - I have another handheld to compare this to, (the one by the gaming software company that pretty much every PC gamer has installed) and I would say that device is more suited to my medium-sized hands with longer fingers. The MSI claw does feel more solid and premium. The fans are surprisingly quiet, just and intense whooshing once they’re at full tilt. Battery - The battery will last around 1:30-2 hours at max brightness playing something like FH5. Rocket league at medium/low settings locked to 120fps will net you more like 2:30+, and I’m estimating at lower brightness and playing a very light game you could pull well over 3 hours. Charges decently quickly using the included charger, unless you’re playing while you charge, it was noticeably slower for me. Overall, I like the Claw more than I thought I would, but it is a bit behind in performance, which makes it even more behind in value. If you’re an Intel fan and really want an Intel handheld, you don’t have a ton of options right now, but you could do worse than the Claw. With all that being said however, I can only recommend it to Intel enthusiasts that have another PC or even another handheld.

First off, the MSI Claw A1M is my first and only Windows based handheld game console so this review is based on my experiences with the unit itself and not on how it compares to its competitors. Secondly, I’ve also been a big fan of Intel Arc graphics cards as I feel they offer great value and features at the lower and mid range graphics card tier which were ignored for too long by both AMD and nVidia. I actually have bought several Arc graphics cards (A310, A380, A770) for some of my computers. Thirdly, I have always rooted for the underdog and having another player in the graphics card market only makes things better for the consumer. As a result, I was extremely intrigued that MSI decided to use an Intel Core Ultra processor and Intel Arc graphics in their first handheld and I was very interested in seeing how it would perform. –Quick Specifications– Windows 11 Home with MSI Center M front-end Intel Core Ultra 7-155H Intel Arc Graphics with 8 Xe cores 16 GB LPDDR5-4800 Mhz memory KIOXIA 512 GB Gen4x4 2230 SSD 7-Inch Full HD 120Hz IPS touch screen display Micro SD slot USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 port Killer WiFi 7 BE1750 wireless adapter and Bluetooth 5.4 Hall Effect Joysticks and Triggers After playing around with the MSI Claw for a few days, I realize it’s basically a Windows gaming laptop in a handheld formfactor and I really like it! –Packaging, Build Quality and Ergonomics– The MSI Claw comes in a plain and colorful eco-friendly box. Inside the box is the console wrapped in a clear plastic bag, a 65W USB-C power adapter, and a quick start pamphlet. The MSI Claw feels really nice in my hands. I think it has very good ergonomics. I like the feel of all the buttons and triggers. Some people have complained about the bumper and triggers but I have no problems with them. I’m not really picky about that kind of stuff. My only complaint might be about the 4 small buttons in front. They are very small and dark so it’s hard to read the icons on the buttons to identify what they do. After doing some quick research, I discovered that the top left button is the View Button which is context dependent on the app or game currently running. The lower left button is the MSI Button which allows you to switch between Desktop Mode and the MSI Center M app. The top right button is called the Menu Button and it allows you to access the settings or Help of the currently running app or game. Finally, the bottom right button is the Quick Settings Button and this allows you to access quick settings of the handheld (such as power profiles, powering off, wifi, bluetooth etc.) There are two additional buttons on the back labeled M1 and M2 which I seem to accidentally press a little too frequently. The MSI Claw comes with a great screen that displays vivid colors and sharp clear text. Even though it has a small 7-inch screen (compared to a 27-inch monitor), I found the text to be quite readable. Games look great on it and the touch screen has worked well for me. –Setup– Setting up the handheld was somewhat complicated and a little time consuming. After charging and powering up the MSI Claw, the process is very similar to setting up a typical Windows machine. In my case I had to Update Windows 11 Update the MSI Center M application Update Bios and Intel MVA driver (from within the MSI Center M app) Then I had to set up my Steam and Xbox accounts and download and install some games. Since there is only a 512 GB internal SSD, I decided to install a Lexar 1TB micro SD card into the SD card slot for installing my games. The Lexar 1TB micro SD card came pre-formatted in exFAT but after some research I read that it was better to format SD cards using NTFS so that’s what I did. I downloaded and installed Fallout 76, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Forza: Horizon 3, Gotham Knights and StarField onto the SD card. The MSI Claw has very good wireless as I was achieving an average of 48 MB/s when downloading and installing the games. For comparison purposes, I also installed Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Resident Evil 2 onto the internal SSD. Downloading and installation onto the internal SSD was much faster as expected. The MSI Claw places the SD card slot in a similar position as the Asus ROG Ally which has had reported problems with heat destroying the SD card so I was a little worried that the MSI Claw would have the same problem but so far I haven’t experienced any problems with my SD card. In addition, during my use of the MSI Claw, it never got really hot or uncomfortable to touch. I can feel warm air from the top vent during intense operations (like installing a game onto the internal SSD) but it never felt uncomfortable to touch. –Game Play Experience– As expected, starting up and quitting games was a little slow from the micro SD card to the point where you sometimes wonder if the game was starting up. But once running most of my games seemed to run well enough to be playable and enjoyable for me. I did encounter some stutters now and then when entering a new area or level but nothing that would ruin a game for me. I got around 14 to 40 fps in StarField and I got around 30 to 60 fps in Gotham Knights running at 1920 x 1080. Both StarField and Gotham Knights support Intel’s XeSS upscaling technology which I used to help improve performance. Both games were playable for me. Fallout 76 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon were also very playable for me. I didn’t get a chance to record their fps but they both felt very smooth to me. However, Forza: Horizon 3 would not run. It said that it detected an unsupported graphics card. Then I tried running Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and it also did not run. It said that no suitable D3D12 adapter was found. However, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy runs great on my desktop computer using an Intel Core i3-12100 and Arc A380 graphics card so the problem must be a driver issue. This same computer also could not run Forza: Horizon 3 so this game might not like Arc graphic cards.. Resident Evil 2 ran okay but I noticed some stuttering even though the FPS was fairly high (in the 70s to 120s) and running with a lower resolution. Overall, I felt that most games were playable and I had fun playing them on the MSI Claw. Out of all the games I’ve tried, I would say Gotham Knights, Fallout 76, and Yakuza: Like a Dragon ran the best. Based on my experiences with the desktop Intel Arc graphics cards, I expect that most issues will be addressed with newer drivers and firmware. Intel has been very good with driver and firmware updates on the desktop so I would expect the same with their handheld. The speakers are fantastic. They produced very clear sound with an excellent wide soundstage that seemed to produce surround effects very well. The speakers also seem to add a little rumble effect to the handheld which I found very pleasing when playing a game. I was extremely impressed with how quiet the fan was. I hardly notice the fan at all. And the MSI Claw seemed to produce very little heat while playing. I think MSI did a fantastic job with the thermals. –Battery Life– Battery life was okay. In my limited time with the MSI Claw, it seemed to drain about 20% every ½ hour while playing a game so that would seem to translate to about 2 to 3 hours per charge depending on the game. During my gameplay, I used the AI Engine profile and lowered the screen brightness and set the display refresh rate to 60 Hz to improve battery life. –Summary– Overall, I think the MSI Claw is a fun handheld game console with a lot of promise and some rough edges. There are some confusing aspects when switching between desktop mode and gamepad mode. Sometimes, when I try to use the gamepad controls to navigate or interact with the game UI, it doesn’t work and I have to resort to using the touchscreen. But after I switch back and forth between desktop and gamepad mode, using the gamepad controls will start working again. I’m still trying to figure out how things work. Also, for some reason, the fingerprint sensor hasn’t really worked for me. Every time I have turned it on, I have always had to enter my PIN to unlock the device even though I’ve set up my fingerprint on the system. I think most people would expect and prefer a more console-like experience with handhelds and might find having a Windows desktop experience confusing. Hopefully, as the software, firmware and drivers mature, a more console-like experience will be more smoothly integrated with the desktop mode. I do like having a Windows desktop mode because I think it's cool to be able to use your handheld gaming device in a pinch as a desktop computer to do work. With the MSI Claw’s Thunderbolt 4 port, all you need to do is to hook it up to a USB/Thunderbolt dock and you would have a pretty nifty desktop computer. I think the MSI Claw is a fun device but right now, it’s probably a little expensive compared to some of its competitors and there are still some rough edges to it. But I think every handheld game console out there started out the same way – they all had rough edges in the beginning and got better as time went on. The MSI Claw probably isn’t the best handheld (although there are some aspects of the MSI Claw that I think might be the best – namely ergonomics, sound, thermal design, fan noise, WIFI 7, and Thunderbolt 4) but for me it’s plenty good enough. Based on Intel’s history with their Arc desktop graphics solutions, the MSI Claw should get better with new software and drivers. I can recommend the MSI Claw with some caveats. I can recommend the MSI Claw to anyone who is interested in and likes playing around with neat gadgets and likes to try out new and different technologies.

The MSI Claw is a very interesting piece of tech. Using Intel’s new Core Ultra processors and running Windows gives it a wide range of compatibility. However, since Intel’s processors are on the newer side, there seems to be a few little wrinkles on the software side. Intel does seem to be moving rapidly to improve its drivers and, in turn, performance. - Hardware – The physical feel and appearance of the Claw are excellent. Its weight feels very balanced, and it is extremely comfortable to hold, even for extended periods. I am one of those that like to rest my hands on a surface while I’m using a handheld, and I’ve found that the Claw is very comfortable for this. The grips feel great, and button placement feels natural as well. It’s also nice that where your hands are resting while using the Claw that they don’t block the speakers. The hall effect thumbsticks feel great too. Control feels precise and there are options to tweak them to suit your needs as well. Face buttons feel good too. Triggers are also a high point for me. The bumpers are not quite as satisfying feeling as the triggers, but they still feel good. The screen is excellent, 1080p resolution, high refresh rates, with good colors and the added benefit of VRR. Touch also works very well in my time using it. - Software – On the software side, there are a few things to be aware of. Like I mentioned before, some of the software is in its early stages, so, like other handhelds, it has a few issues but is rapidly improving. MSI’s control center has had a few updates already in the short time I’ve had the Claw, improving with each release. Graphics drivers and BIOS updates have also been rapidly improving. Each offering more performance and options. In fact, I was going to post a review earlier, but read about an upcoming BIOS release (109) that offered significant improvements, so I waited to get it installed and test some more. To MSI’s credit, the new update did bring significant improvements. They included a new “Overboost” mode along with other improvements that added performance in every game I tested. I imagine that each release of new Intel graphics drivers will offer further improvements as well. But the rapid pace that MSI is releasing BIOS and other updates shows they’re committed to the Claw. The other side of the coin is Windows. I really wanted a handheld that ran Windows natively. Not only are you able to run Steam on it, you get the added benefit of running any other launcher on there as well. For me, the big one being Xbox Game Pass. Having a subscription (which the Claw comes with a trial for), is an excellent way to play and try out games. Being able to play games from any launcher without jumping through a bunch of hoops is a huge plus to me. The downside of that being that some things aren’t quite optimized for the smaller screen, or without an actual mouse. Though the Claw’s thumbsticks do work to move the mouse cursor, and the Claw’s overlay will allow you to initiate the on-screen keyboard at any time. One issue I did have, was during the initial setup of Windows. The keyboard to enter information never showed. This seems to be a known issue, as MSI suggest you just restart the Claw using the power button, and this did allow me to continue setup. The overlay was very useful to me in general though. It includes options for screenshots/recording, switching performance profiles, getting frame information and more. Another benefit of running on Windows though, you also get the opportunity to use MSI’s Android emulator. Making it possible to play Android games on the Claw as well. Many of which support controllers, so it just adds another platform of games that are playable. - Perfomance – Performance can vary greatly between games on the Claw. I believe this is largely due to the lack of maturity of Intel’s Arc graphics. Some games, like the Forza games (Forza Motorsport 2023 and Forza Horizon 5) perform very well on the Claw. In the previous BIOS (106), there was some stuttering present in these games, but the latest BIOS (109) seems to have largely eliminated these issues. I don’t think the stuttering was a lack of performance, it seems related to something else, as it would be fairly consistent, then stutter for a moment. Going from framerates in the mid-30s to the mid-40s with the 109 update. Cyberpunk 2077 is another example of the performance gains. I was also about to get into the 40s with it as well. There’s plenty of room for tweaking to get added performance as well. I’m sure there will be even further gains as Intel and MSI make continued updates as well. I would say this is in line, performance-wise as other handhelds. Though it will vary between games. - Audio – I wanted to take a moment to point out how excellent the speakers are on the Claw. It has the best sounding speakers of any of the handhelds I’ve used. Far surpassing several of them. There is software that enhances the audio as well, imitating surround sound, that is very believable. This is also made even better by the speaker placement, making sure your hands don’t block the speakers as you’re holding the Claw. Pros: Great physical design and comfort, nice buttons and thumbsticks, good screen, excellent audio, rapid improvements to software Cons: Software inconsistency, some performance issues (though seemingly greatly improving), user experience isn’t super friendly just yet (also improving)

The Claw is a great device. While there are some issues I will mention, my high review is solely based off the main reasons I would want it. I game on all platforms, but my main OS is Windows. It is my preferred system due to the ability to openly customize to my needs without the need to hack or jailbreak anything. The Claw fills the gap between becoming a great segue way device between all my gaming devices. For reference, I primarily stream from my desktop and consoles, use front end emulation and client gaming (Steam, Epic, Prime, etc.) PROS- -Bright, crisp, detailed screen with excellent touch responsiveness. -Responsive, customizable controls that feel just as good as any console joysticks I own. -Controller feels comfortable for extended periods of time. Hours in with no complaints. -Superb battery life in both streaming and device installed titles. Quick charge feature gets me back in-game much faster. -Device stays cool. Lives up to the hype. Have had no issues with comfort thus far. -Peripheral friendly! Headsets, hubs, mice, Woojer vest, etc. I can install/use just about anything just as if it was my desktop. -Runs all my software without a hitch. Chiaki, Launchbox, Steam, Epic, whatever. Whatever I could/can do on Windows, it all works here. -Easy to switch between Desktop and Handheld mode to match my needs. -Great sound software built-in if you're not running Dolby -Not tied into the MSI frontend software. It's there if you want to use it, but not necessary. -Multi-use USB-C including DisplayPort-Expandable via microSD card slot CONS- -Force feedback is substandard and is audible. If you're using headphones, it isn't too noticeable, but it feels like second rate compared to all the other features. -Joysticks have a rigid "finish" on the edges. Designed to help with tactile grip, they were uncomfortable for the first couple of sessions. Had to get used to them. -Android functionality needs lots of work. Can't see my Play Store library, games mapping to physical controls are hit/or miss. I would use this feature if fully functional, so I'm hopeful for software fixes in the near future. I'm extremely satisfied with the design, feel, and performance of the Claw. It exceeds my expectations and gives me the option to explore other functions I didn't know I wanted to try. When using, it provides a first-rate experience when my desktop/ laptop may not be available.

Introduction This is my review of the MSI Claw. As this is my first foray into portable PC gaming, it will be interesting to see how it handles certain games, the design choices, the engineering choices, and what MSI did to make it stand out. Going in Going in I kind of knew what to expect. This isn’t the first modern handheld gaming pc. It’s the first for MSI, and I believe that it’s the first to use Intel as it’s main graphics processor. What comes in the box? Out of the box you get the Claw, a bulky power brick/charging cable, and some inserts. That’s pretty barebones for 1st gen entry device. I’ll talk about that more in the “minor issues” category. Minor wins I do like the four quick touch buttons on either side of the screen. They serve multiple purposes depending on if you’re on the Windows desktop, or one of the game launchers. They also play the role of the “start” button on certain games. (I do wish you could map the front buttons like you can with the two on the back. Major wins The screen is pretty nice. The 120hz is a nice touch, and the 8 inch screen is enough real estate to enjoy your games without squinting. The sound is actually really nice and robust. I tested games that I have played a lot, so I could tell when something was different. Usage After charging it for it’s maiden launch, I need to install a lot of things. After all of the installs, I had about 60% battery left. That’s not awesome. The joysticks and face buttons have RGB lighting, so a nice touch there. The shoulder buttons feel okay. It seems like the LB/RB buttons were designed too long as the edges seem to sink into the top of the Claw when pressed. So after unpacking everything, a little guide suggested that I charge the unit first, and then go through all of the necessary updates. Firstly, I think it’s weird that they chose Windows 11 as their main OS. I would have liked to see their own proprietary OS that gets you straight to a launcher upon startup rather than the Windows desktop. You can have the MSI Center M launch upon start up, but it still goes through Windows 11. The Windows desktop looks so tiny on an 8 inch screen. The left joystick plays the role of the mouse cursor, and using the touch screen to hit boxes to type in user names and passwords, more of a hassle. Once you get through all of that up front nonsense, you can just use MSI’s Center M to play all of your games in a centralized hub. The battery life is almost laughable. Ater downloading and installing all of the updates, I was able to launch and play a game for maybe about 45 minutes before it went to battery saver mode. I lowered the brightness setting, and that saved some of the battery life. I tested the game first with a game that was released back in 2016. (Yes, an 8 year old game). I was able to max out the graphical settings, and it ran well for the most part. I saw a few stutters, but few and very far apart). The music and sound effects sounded great on the speakers, and the colors were vibrant. Again, I’m impressed by the screen. Next I decided to test out a game that came out two years ago. It was a very different experience. I first launched it, and I realized that when you launch a game through steam, the settings are just the way you left it in your gaming laptop, so my presets were ultra, and as soon as the game launched, it crashed. I relaunched it, and went to the settings and lowered EVERYTHING except for the framerate. The game ran well. I didn’t have any crashes. The game did not look as good as it normally would, but it’s serviceable. Finally, I tried out a game that came out last year. This is a pretty graphically intense game. The Claw had difficulty maintaining a 20 FPS on the lowest graphical presets. As long as you’re okay with some of the more modern games not being able to run at ultra or even mid level settings, then it’s not a bad handheld by any means. Minor issues I really wish this came with a carrying case. For the people that like to take their portable gaming PCs on the go, sure you do have the conventional bookbag to take it in, but for something this pricey, you want a carrying case that does a better job securing it. For its price point, it’s a shame that MSI didn’t include a carrying case. Major issues I mentioned earlier that the power brick/charging cable was bulky. It’s quite large for something that’s supposed to compliment a portable gaming device. Yes you can always not take the charging brick/cable with you, but nobody wants to be stuck somewhere without a means to recharge it. I haven’t tested any of my power banks with the claw because fear or breaking the unit prevented me. So if MSI confirms that you can use any 3rd party power bank to recharge the unit, then that’s a little better. However, consumers shouldn’t even have to think of alternate ways to recharge their newly purchased devices. I think that was an engineering misstep there. The updates… my goodness the updates. Since the OS is Windows, you go through the Windows update upon initial set up. Then once you’re in, it’s recommended that you check the Windows update just in case, and yep, it had 23 updates; of which 12 of them were Intel. I mean, it’s good that they’re supporting their products, but at the same time, this tells me that either this thing was rushed out the door, or the truly do care. I’m going with the former. I think it took a total time of about 45 minutes to install everything from initial installation to completing MSI’s updates. That doesn’t include the time needed to install Steam/Epic/whatever that will take you about another 20 minutes. So to just simply enjoy a game, it will take roughly 1 hour of installs to get going. The Claw struggled to maintain a steady framerate on anything but the lowest setting. It played some of my older games well, but we’re talking games from about 10 years ago. It lagged/stuttered at many points on three major AAA games that were released in the last two years on the lowest settings. It’s kind of hit or miss. I’m not really impressed by Intel’s GPU at this point. I wish they had done more in house testing on games to see what would be needed to at lest get games to run smoothly on mid settings. Primarily for People looking to play games from their library, and don’t mind having their games playing at mostly the lowest settings possible. I have a lot of older games in my library that I like to play every once in a while, and the Claw satisfies that itch. Probably not for Anybody that already has a gaming desktops/laptops with a high end graphics card that expects the MSI claw to match the framerate and graphics fidelity of modern gaming desktops/laptops. All in all The MSI Claw didn’t come out swinging with a lot of its capabilities. There were some drawbacks with the Intel Arc chip. I found that about 90% of the games I played on low settings were stable and very playable. The 120hz refresh is great. I hope there are more updates forthcoming. I hope Intel really pushes the envelope with what the Arc can do. I would really like to see a 2023-2024 modern AAA game running at a stable 45-60 FPS on at least mid settings. I have enjoyed my experience with the Claw so far. I would recommend the Claw.

I was excited about a mobile platform for my PC games, but the Claw fell well short of my hopes and expectations for such a device. I'll start with what I did like about it: It's great for streaming your PC games from an existing desktop/laptop to the Claw and using the claw as a controller with a screen. It was during this function that the Claw really began to shine with its 1080p 60fps visuals and clear screen. I experienced no latency and was able to play Baldur's Gate 3 with no issues (other than a lack of keyboard). It's also a standout option for low-intensity indie games. Hades, Mail Time, Witchy Life Story etc, anything that doesn't demand much of the console or require sharp visuals and fast responses runs like a dream and looks beautiful. I love the ability to have a "quick resume" feature for PC gaming. It worked well to easily pause the game and hit the sleep button, picking it back up when convenient right where I left off. Now for the ugly: I tried running Baldur's Gate 3 natively on the Claw and it was unplayable. Nearly a full second of input lag, 20fps, and frame and audio stuttering. I turned the graphics all the way down to potato settings at 720p and was greeted with a fuzzy mess that chugged along at 45fps. Hogwarts Legacy? Same issue. For reference, my gaming setup is a 6900XT and a 4K monitor so my standards are higher. It's also heavy as heck with no kickstand or any way of mounting it upright. There's an $80 docking station available separately that I think plugs the claw into a monitor, but I can't see that being worth it. After an hour of gaming, my arms ache from holding it up. It defeats the portability factor of a handheld if you need to be propped up on a table or pillows for any serious comfort. I also found the grips to lack ergonomics and the angles to rest uncomfortably in my hands. Start/Select Menu style buttons are a long reach for my thumbs and the shoulder buttons require uncomfortable contorting of my wrist to reach. I'm pinching the weight of the Claw between my pinky, ring, and thumb whilst adjusting to hit the bumper button. Speaking of the buttons, they're loud! Any game requiring rapid button pressing or movement is distracting. The Claw has an interesting virtual surround sound feature that is rendered completely useless by its own noisy buttons necessitating the use of headphones. Setup and installation was additionally a bear. The Claw runs a basic operating system of Windows 11. It doesn't even feel modified for handheld use. They just slapped a full OS into it and added a few handheld features. This means the Claw functions as a small touch-screen laptop with no keyboard. You either have to put it down on the desk and then punch in letters on the too-small onscreen keyboard or hold the whole (heavy) machine in one hand whilst punching commands in with the other. They didn't even try to modify the OS. It has a "Choose what closing the lid does" feature in the power settings. The battery life is low, but that was expected. The included Power Supply is a 65W USB-C brick, so you should be good for longer plane rides. Final thoughts: If you mainly play slower, turn-based games that don't demand high graphics then this will be an okay system for you, but there are cheaper alternatives on the market that are better.

Quick Glance Pros: Hall effect joysticks Fantastic Nahimic audio Comfortable yet light for man hands Nice quick screen It's Windows for more than games RGB lights Fingerprint unlock for security 11+ foot 65w USB-C power cord Cons: No case Pricer than competition Not fully baked for all games SSD upgrade requires more effort I am liking the Claw so far and its potential to be very good is high. Nahimic audio is a clear winner and it feels great in hand for me, a grown man. It is definitely a work in progress and maybe not quite ready or easy for all game playing device. This machine like most tech items lately, was launched before the whole product is ready for every possible level of customer interaction is finished. No different than it's competitors. Yet, reviewers often fail to mention this when they tell you to buy their favorite handheld that has almost 2 years of updates under the belt. I do own a few of the other mobile gaming devices and they are further along. But don't count the Claw out quite yet. Updates are rolling in, things are improving and the community is helping others get this playing your favorite games. So, out of the box, there is no case included. It took 4+ hours of updates to clear out the list before I even tried to play a game as many say is a must before attempting to play a game (this is good advice). The typical Windows updates and personalization are easy and the MSI M Center live updates are also easy to do and follow. There is even a nice forum link for Claw user base to use in the M Center to help know the latest software to look for. Next you will be downloading your gaming platforms for the games you own or subscribe to, Steam, Ubisoft, Xbox, Epic, EA are already linked. I also needed GOG, but its an easy add. Most buyers of the Claw can get to this point and have the device running at its current level of completion (mid May '24). Now you are ready to game. This will be a hit or possibly miss issue for many. Surprise, not everything works well on the Claw. I still can't see FPS numbers for some reason. With M Center set to Ai Power, I jumped in. Troubleshooting hardware and software settings between device and the platform your game is on might be too much for basic users. I have games from almost every game platform because of sales and freebies. So I installed a favorite game or two from each to test the Claws ability. Most games are playable with default settings like Forza 5 and Bioshock that just played great for me. Yet, Minecraft plays, but stutters and has a sluggish right stick and likely needs more tweaks to play better. Other games I tried like Far Cry 4 start, but I can not map the controls at all (tried in game and M center). So, after the initial story cut scene finishes, I can't use any onboard controls to move anything other than look. Maybe an expert knows what I am missing over my mid-level knowledge, sure it's a simple toggle. But, I think if most of your games are Steam or Microsoft (XBOX) you will have better success than if your games plays off some of the other gaming platforms that might need more tweaks or support to run better. YMMV Overall, when compared to my other mobile device that mostly works after years of updates. The Claw is gonna take a bit more love to compete. I am seeing daily updates and I think MSI and Intel are trying to fix the hiccups and both seem invested in being in the mobile space. The Claw has superior audio with Nahimic. Screen quality and brightness is on par. Love having RGB available for late night games. There is even security with fingerprint unlocking. While MSI skipped the case, they were generous to include a massive 11+ foot long USB-C 65 watt power cord. Which will be required for the average battery life. I feel Windows is so much faster booting and could be more convenient to use. Plus its a fast system and Windows runs my other programs if I need to do a few quick non-gaming tasks. I would say it is still early for the Claw and it does need some tinkering. I will ride with MSI and see this journey out. Games are playable, but sort of selectively at the moment.

What an interesting idea the MSI Claw A1M looks like on paper! A handheld gaming system that plays your PC game libraries (Steam, Epic, Xbox Gamepass, etc) without the need to upgrade your video card, RAM, or other components, how could you go wrong? The answer is the MSI Claw A1M. Looking at the specs on the box the Claw seems impressive: 120hz display, Intel Core Ultra 7, 16gb DDR5 RAM, 5123 SSD, Wi-Fi 7 ready and able to utilize my 6G band. There’s a Micro SD card slot, fingerprint reader power button, and the whole package features RGB lighting on the face buttons and around the thumbsticks. There’s an app to personalize the color(s) and lighting effects like color chase, pulsing, or solid. The system looks awesome, very reminiscent of the Nintendo Switch, lots of exhaust ports to avoid overheating, good sized 7” touch screen, and it charges out the top from a Thunderbolt 45W PD charge cable (and the brick is super tiny and compact to boot). Upon putting my hands on it the first thought was “Hmm, these thumbsticks feel really loose” then I felt the buttons on the back near my middle fingers…a place where NOT pushing the button while holding will be less than convenient (two programmable macros). Weight wasn’t bad though, less than 2lbs according to the website, it was very portable and I was excited to take it on my upcoming work trip. I charged it up then booted for the first time to be met with the usual Windows PC launch process (what country are you in, what keyboard layout, setup your wifi before you can move further to actually use the device. This is where I encountered my first “glitch” with the Claw. At the setup screen for my wifi I found my network and tapped it, the box to type the password came up and I began to type the password but no characters (hidden or visible) showed up in the box. I wondered if this was like some of the systems where it won’t show you anything to avoid someone seeing how many characters it was…but then on the 7th keystroke an asterisk finally showed up on the password box. I finished my password and it said I had typed it wrong so I tried again and again there were no asterisks visible until nearly the end of my input. I typed random letters and each time there was no indication it was recording my keystrokes until more than a half dozen inputs. I had to power off and back on before it behaved correctly. Once I had it setup and I was in, the Claw looks just like your laptop desktop so I proceeded to download a web browser (I hate Edge) and install Epic and Steam. It took much longer than any download I’ve ever done in recent years, all my other devices didn’t seem to have any network slow down, and finally after an hour plus I had my apps. I selected a couple games to download for testing purposes: Portal since its old and a good baseline, Shadow of the Tomb Raider since it pushes graphics a bit, and Bioshock Infinite since it’s just so pretty. Four hours later the battery was about to die and Portal finally finished downloading. I plugged in and continued until bedtime. The next day after work it took a further three hours to get Bioshock, and the day after it took just over four hours to get Tomb Raider. I don’t know why this device is so slow to download but it’s really bad, I hate to say. All three games run, Tomb Raider was a little choppy and it detected the settings at Medium but still played when set to High just with a lower frame rate. With Portal the aiming reticle was so small it was impossible to see on the screen but it’s not a super big deal just a reminder this is a laptop screen shrunk down. I was curious how far the Claw could go with gaming and I went to a site to see “Can I Run It” with some newer, more taxing games. The website claimed that not only could I not run games like Cyberpunk, Baldur’s Gate 3, or Red Dead Redemption 2 but that I was unable to play Shadow of the Tomb Raider or Bioshock Infinite either. Obviously I had played these, so this test is unreliable. I would wager to guess that since the Claw has something going on inside that scales the performance to work with the games that some games may work but at lower settings but sadly without buying a new game I can’t say for certain. So overall this is a really mixed bag as the scaling of newer games means you don’t have to worry about your specs too much. However the wi-fi issues are a big problem for me and the initial out of the box glitch with the touchscreen keyboard left a bad taste in my mouth. I think it comes down to your personal tolerance for jank if you can stomach getting up and running. However, if you want a PC gaming setup that’s portable this is going to play more games for less money and has the built in game buttons and thumbsticks. Theoretically you can get Bluetooth accessories to make this a compact laptop for productive tasks too, which would mitigate any keyboard glitching with the touchscreen. I would say buy it but don’t be surprised if the features advertised don’t quite match up with what you’re getting hands-on.

The MSI Claw A1M for 2024 is the next generation of portable gaming sporting the all-new Intel Ultra 7 155H CPU with an AI NPU. Inside you will find the Intel Ultra 7 CPU with Intel ARC Graphics paired with 16 GB of fast LPDDR5 6400MHZ Ram, 512GB SSD for storage and a gorgeous 7" IPS LCD Display that can reach up to 500nits of brightness. Audio is provided by a pair of 2-watt speakers on either side of the handheld that produce some great sound and even have a hint of bass. Opening the box, you are greeted with the MSI Claw Handheld front and center. Underneath the handheld you will find the 65W PD Charging Adapter, cord, and documentation. Holding the handheld for the first time you will notice just how solid and comfortable the MSI Claw is. The button placement is right where you expect them to be, and they feel great. The D Pad is a little mushy however it gets the job done. The trigger buttons have just the right amount of resistance and feel great to use. For ports, the MSI Claw has 1 Thunderbolt 4 port for all your high-speed data transfers and display out needs. Next to the Thunderbolt port, you will find the microSD card slot for expanding storage. Rounding it all out is the 3.5 mm headphone jack for the times you want to game and or listen to music with your favorite ear buds. Overall, the gaming experience with the MSI Claw has been a mixed bag. Some games will play well when you dial down the settings a bit and experiment with the resolution settings. Other games will simply crash due to low VRAM. The experience so far has been surprisingly good and expected for the first Intel based Gaming Handheld. What holds the MSI Claw back is its mediocre control software and no ability to dedicate VRAM to the graphics. If MSI would have implemented a setting to dedicate more VRAM, the gaming experience would be so much better. Outside of this oversight, the MSI Claw A1M is a fantastic alternative to the AMD Powered Gaming Handhelds on the market today.

The device was just average and the battery life was awful, Also unlike other devices the SSD was not upgradable without voiding the warranty.

Hold off for a newer MSI Claw, Rog Ally, or Steam Deck. For travelling I have tried all three major PC handhelds and they all have their trade off, but this MSI Claw is absolutely the worst. It has the worst battery, UI, functionality, and while the performance is better than the Deck, it embarrasses itself when up against the Ally X. Save your money and wait for Lunar Lake or Strix Point handhelds. Or better yet, just wait for the Switch 2 lol.

The only major issue with this device is BIOS update system has HUGE issues. In BIOS update mode input lags out and if you hit the wrong thing it can put BIOS in borderline bricked mode. Outside that Windows sucks and I would just use ChimeraOS when ready. Otherwise its fast and works well otherwise.

This thing is cool and all but it doesnt work very well. Controller buttons randomly stopped working along with the rgb lighting. Using the system is pretty bad. Its glitchy and horrible to use. Im going to return my claw because its just so bad. Its a cool idea but ill just stick to my hp omen for gaming.

Does its job if you want a handheld pc. If you’re looking for a device with back buttons that aren’t macros I would look for another device. Much better devices for the price range.

First unit had a hardware failure. When it was working out was awesome. Depending on the game it did better than the rog Ally. However there are games that do not run better than the Ally. I will update based off the replacement unit

MSI has entered into the handled PC gaming market with a new and rather unique entry into the field – a handheld PC running on an Intel platform instead of the AMD platform used in most of its rivals. How does this one compare? Lets take a look. Inside the box you’ll find the Claw, a 65W USB-C power supply with a long but captive USB-C cable, an almost comically bulky power cord to plug into the power supply (it is a grounded 3 prong UL listed cable and about as bulky as the rest of the power supply), and some quick start documentation. No frills, highly recyclable packaging. Hardware wise, this is a very interesting platform. It features one of the first uses of the Intel Ultra 7 155H processor/GPU combination, 16GB of fast LPDDR5 memory, and a 512GB PCIe 4 +NVMe SSD. Other variants have a 1TB storage option or a lower spec CPU. This system is more like a mid-range laptop in a handheld form factor than a dedicated gaming focused device, with the CPU able to execute 22 threads with a wide range of cores, from performance to efficiency to low power efficiency cores. It also has a an NPU for AI acceleration and extensive graphics encoders, including AV1. The GPU is part of Intel’s new ARC line, and supports XeSS upscaling and even hardware ray tracing, although that is a stretch for this iGPU. A microSD card allows for some expandability, although at lower speeds (excellent for loading older games). If you want to swap out the 512gb SSD on this version, sadly it involves pretty major surgery as the SSD is situated under the cooling system, meaning it has to be removed and the thermal paste reapplied. For an experienced PC builder this isn’t a big deal, but for the casual user it’s a pretty daunting task. It also is the only handheld to support full Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, unlocking the ability to actually attach this to an eGPU enclosure and run a full GPU when docked. With a quality docking station, an external display, and peripherals, this system could be a decent primary computing device for many users. It does make some compromises for the form factor in terms of thermals and peak power load, but it’s still a pretty capable PC. The screen is nice, with a vibrant display. It can run up to 120hz and supports VRR. The touch response is good and accurate, which is essential when trying to manage the windows UI on a 7” screen. It does attract fingerprints and you might want to put a screen protector on it. The controls are..a mixed bag. The sticks and analog triggers feature Hall effect sensors, which is awesome for avoiding stick drift. Both the sticks and triggers have a great feel. The deadzone is a bit high on the sticks for gaming out of the box, but that can be tuned in MSI Center M, I set it to 2%. I don’t care much for the bumpers or the D pad though. The bumpers are kind of mushy, lacking enough force to help reset your finger when pressed. The D pad just feels chonky, especially in the downward direction, taking a lot of force to activate and feeling slow to reset. Fine for navigating game menus but not suitable at all for fighting games. The buttons including the back paddle buttons are all fine. Ergonomically, the Claw feels great in the hand. It has a larger grip design and is easy to hold like a large controller. Despite its larger size, it’s more comfortable to hold over time than a stock Nintendo Switch with just the Joy Cons as you can properly seat it in your palms. It’s also not heavy and can be held easily with one hand, which is essential for when you need to use the touch screen to navigate Windows, which still struggles a bit in this form-factor. MSI Center M tries to help with this by making many of the settings and launching games more accessible, along with the quick menu, but sometimes you still need to use Windows as Windows, and it’s tricky here. Ironically, the much hated at the time large tile design of Windows 8 might have actually been years ahead of its time and is (almost) missed here. Plugging it in is the best way to get going, firing it up leads to the typical Windows 11 sign in experience. One little note, pressing the RT and LT triggers will zoom in and out, and you can zoom out on the startup menus until they are unusable and not be sure how to get back if you accidentally hit them. Once updated and signed in, you are ready to go! The first thing to do is to run Windows update and the MSI Center M updates, which will include BIOS and important driver updates. The Claw shipped in a pretty raw state, almost rushed to market, so these updates are essential to getting better performance and power balancing out of it. The power button doubles as a fingerprint sensor, which is awesome for using Windows Hello to quickly log in and power up or when waking from sleep. Finally, on to gaming! With some tweaking, many modern games can get around 50-60 fps, although with some sacrifices in visual quality. Many modern games running on the “Extreme Performance” profile will absolutely obliterate the battery, with only about 80 to 90 minutes of play time before it’s dead. This pretty much means you need to have a large 65W or better output battery bank or be able to plug it in to a wall adapter for extended gaming sessions. With older games, the power requirements are much lower, with some games like Fallout: New Vegas able to get 3 hours or so of play time. If you are in range of solid Wi-Fi (which this system features Wi-Fi 7, also the only handheld to do so), this handheld is a great cloud gaming platform, with Xbox cloud gaming working extremely well. It is also incredibly battery efficient doing cloud gaming. While the Claw can play modern games, the real sweet spot for this thing seems to be slightly older titles and cloud gaming that can run well with the limitations of the form factor. Overall, this is a really interesting entry into the new realm of handheld gaming platforms. It is unique in that it offers many features of full size laptops, with a capable CPU and GPU combined with Wi-Fi 7 and Thunderbolt 4. For gaming, it is able to play many games, and when on the go really shines with older titles that won’t drain the battery rapidly. MSI continues to improve the BIOS firmware and the software and seems committed to making the Claw as capable as it can be. Two things that can’t be changed are the disappointing bumper and D-pad, although the Hall effect triggers and primary sticks are excellent. If you want something that is, at the moment, a unique entry in the handheld gaming market and can even reasonably function as a primary compute device with a dock and some peripherals, you should consider giving the Claw a try.

It's not bad it's come along with the the new updates pretty quick system now.

I’m just gonna be brief; Don’t do it. Slow, freezes periodically, games stutter most of the time. Upgrading the storage is very time consuming. Just ridiculous. Get the ROG Ally instead. Faster, easier to upgrade the storage and much much cheaper.

I was pretty excited for this gaming device since I was going to be traveling and had a lot of free time on the plane and at airports to use it. It turned out to be ok, but still has some issues to work out. First, starting it up and getting it working went pretty smoothly, but it’s not the most powerful device and Windows 11, while it opens up a lot of possibilities for it, has a good amount of updates needed and it took a while to finish. Because it doesn’t have an Ethernet cable, the downloads of both the updates and the games I wanted to load both took a really long time. Once it was more or less set up, the download speeds didn’t matter as much and the wireless is plenty fast to play my games, so that stopped bothering me as much. One of the first things I did when it arrived was to get a carrying case and a screen protector, just in case. I had a hard time putting the screen protector on for some reason. It is a tempered glass protector and for some reason I couldn’t get the air bubbles out. I really had to push hard and do some working of the protector to get them out. I have put on a lot of protectors in my life, and I’ve never had that problem, it was almost like the screen wasn’t actually flat and so it wouldn’t stay down. I have a bubble even pop up on the right side every now and then. I think if this one gets damaged I may try for a film protector instead and see if that works better. Using the Claw is ok. You can use the controller to bring up a little pointer or you can use the touch screen. The tablet like mode it uses isn’t super great and a bit awkward, but that’s more of a windows 11 issue. The button placement is only ok, but I do feel like the size and shape of it make the trigger buttons a bit harder to use than it should be and the extra buttons on the back just feel like they are always getting in the way. It also has separate buttons next to the screen that bring up various options and shortcuts that took a while for me to remember what they did, but eventually became really pretty helpful. The power button has a fingerprint reader in it, but the placement is actually a bit awkward and you have to hold the whole device in a weird way to use it which often leads my finger to not line up right and not scan properly and it only takes a few wrong attempts before it makes you use your pin instead. Actually gaming performance was decent but not what I was hoping for. I loaded the new Star Wars game Jedi Survivor onto it and thought it would be a fun way to test out the device. I was pretty disappointed. Just loading up the title screen before the game gets going and it is already getting choppy and stuttery. In trying to play the game, I have had to set it to the lowest possible settings I can to take up the least processing power I can manage in order for it to play “smoothly”. Even then it still stutters and lags occasionally. I’ve still been able to play for the most part, but I have it on my first run through on normal difficulty. If I had been trying to play it at a harder difficulty, the lagging would make the combat pretty impossible. I looked up what a lot of other reviewers were saying was a good game for the claw and portal 2 came up pretty consistently. Since I have that on steam from way back on steam, I loaded that too and tried it out. Portal 2 actually worked really well. It played smooth with no issues and it was fun to play again after a few years. I did like that being a full windows device I could really do what I wanted with my Bluetooth connections and headphone choices, which was a pretty big must while on the plane. I also liked that windows meant I could go ahead and stream from pretty much any source without worrying about app availability or compatibility. This really increases the versatility of the device way beyond a switch or other handheld gaming device. If you add a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, it actually lets you do quite a bit more than a phone or tablet would let you do too. Unfortunately, the device is still a bit buggy. It won’t let you fully turn off sleep mode, actually I’m sure I could but am a bit worried to do it and mess something else up with the custom configuration the claw uses. However, if it actually goes into sleep mode, it doesn’t work right when it comes out. The buttons on the controller portion get all messed up, some don’t work at all and it really won’t fix itself until I use the touch screen to restart the device. It has already asked for 2 updates to both the bios and the MSI interface, but for some reason whenever it does, Windows will keep my password saved, but it delates my fingerprints and corrupts my pin code so I have to reset up the user info every time I do a major update. Those aren’t as bad of issues as I’ve read about online as I’ve been troubleshooting for a workaround, but there are still a few left they are working on. Battery life is not great. Playing an actual game drains the battery in less than an hour. Jedi Survivor did it in 40-45 min. and Portal 2 did it in around 45-50. That wasn’t even my full connecting flight which was disappointing. I was able to connect to the in-flight wifi/movie system to watch a show, which is a nice ability, but it only lasted 1hr 15 min doing that which meant I had to finish my show on my phone. So the claw does let me take my games on the go, but don’t really expect to play it too much unconnected or to really last on a plane. I tried to bring a batter pack to extend it, but it won’t register them. I new it wasn’t the same watts as the charger but I hoped it would trickle in and extend the length or let it slowly charge while not using it and then be able to play it again once it was charged, but no luck. I had 2 chargers with my on my trip and tried another once I got home and it doesn’t recognize or charge from any of them. Maybe there is some high end specialty battery pack that will work with it, but plan on only being able to be disconnected from a power outlet for 40 min to an hour. In the end it was just an ok gaming consol. It is nice and small for traveling and being able to take it somewhere you might not otherwise be able to take a consol or monitor. Windows 11 also gives it a lot more functionality than something running android or a custom OS, but you may need to stick to games a year or so old to make sure it will run flawlessly. It also has a built-in controller that is a lot easier to move around with you than a small laptop. However, the power and the battery life make its usefulness pretty limited and make me seriously question if a small entry level gaming laptop with a Bluetooth controller may be the better way to go.