Customer Ratings & Reviews

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.

I'm not a hard-core gamer, but I enjoy playing titles that are often older than the latest-and-greatest. These older games generally work great on the Intel Core Ultra/ARC graphics the Claw uses, and this includes the better retro gaming platforms as well. Essentially, the MSI Claw A1m is a Windows 11 mini PC with an integrated Xbox controller, using an overlay to allow you to quickly access your games from the various gaming hubs (Steam, EA, Xbox, etc.) I had a few initial hiccups with the device: occasional stuttering, confusing switching between the MSI Center and Windows; but within about a week, I had two firmware updates. Right now the system run great, and I've been able to play (most) of my games without issue. A few things I really like about the Claw: 1) The audio coming from its speakers sound great for a device of its size. 2) The button placement is more comfortable than I expected. My hands are on the bigger side. 3) The screen is crisp and clear 4) The MSI Center app lets you customize the gaming colors and behavior. 5) Thunderbolt 4: I can plug the Claw into a hub and use the device with a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Some small complaints: 1) I still get some occasional stuttering, but it's usually in the menu and seems to go away while usiing. 2) The device is a bit heavy and large to carry around. 3) The battery doesn't last as long as I would like (maybe about 1.5 hours of gameplay). I can get lost in a game and not realize how much I'm draining. This is my first large handheld gaming device. I now the Claw is relatively expensive compared to some of its competitors, but I really find it a comfortable device to use; and generally speaking, it functions as I would expect. I'm actually surprised by how well many of the games in my library play on this device.

The recent bios and graphics driver updates have made this gaming device work great. I would say on par or better performance than the Asus ROG Ally. Runs cool with fans not getting overly loud. Controls are outstanding. The only negative I would say is the battery life but that all depends on the game being played. Highly recommended.

I have a Nintendo Switch and my iPad and iPhone for gaming on the go, but I thought about it and having a PC, an actual PC with Windows 11, and an ability to play PC games on the go, is a different story. And so when the MSI Klaw showed up (it says Claw here but per MSI the name is Klaw) I was excited to get it up and going. My first impression of the machine was very high, the thing is big, but not heavy, it's got a superb screen and all the buttons in just the right place. Sure some of the buttons feel a bit mushy (the front of the unit bumpers) but I had zero issues in anything I did in regards to the controls. The entire bootup process was pretty cool, the RGB lights come up and despite all the RGB in my life, I never get tired of a rainbow of color like the Klaw exhibits so awesomely. However, my progress came to a screeching halt when it asked me for my Wi-Fi login and I could not get the keyboard to come up. I tried both methods that MSI offers on their site, with a double tap and with a button dedicated to it, but neither worked. I had to wait for a support call to figure out how to fix it. The fix was a simple HARD reboot but I had not been able to figure out how to do this and information online does not address a hard reboot. Anytime I had tried to reboot it just came up to the Wi-Fi login screen. After a few days support got back to me (again it was the Memorial day weekend holiday) they told me to reboot was simply holding in the power button for 15 seconds, waiting for 15 seconds and then voila a hard reboot. Once I did this I was back up to the Wi-Fi screen and this time I had a virtual keyboard so it was smooth sailing after that issue was resolved. Running the games has two ways to do so, either run them how you normally do on your home PC or use the MSI interface, which is really nice and is similiar to the SteamOS running full screen. Note that there are two ways to operate when playing a game, in game controller mode (think Nintendo Switch) or Desktop mode (think PC). I tried all sorts of games and ran into what most PC gamers know, some games work quite brilliantly (Forza Motorsport, F1 24, FC 24, TopSpin 2K25) but some games simply would not work at all (Madden NFL 24) and so there's some technical issues going on here. I got a "out of graphic memory" when trying to run Madden, did a hard reboot and got a DirectX issue. So this is a fantastic machine, but it's early on and so go into it knowing that. How does this stack up to the SteamDeck and others? I have no idea as i've never used any of the others. But i can say this is an amazing machine when it all works together, but right now it is definitely going to fall into the early adopters need only apply. This one could be the best of all the handhelds in my view, if MSI continues to support it. Know that going in and I think you will enjoy this machine a lot.

This is my first introduction into the Windows-based handheld gaming devices so I didn't know what to expect. Looking at the specs MSI Claw A1M 7" definitely peaked my interest but the real test was going to be how my real world experience went. Setup was a bit more tedious than expected but nothing difficult or too off putting. Installing games was fairly simple. I was impressed by the options available but I went with XBox Game Pass since I am already a subscriber. The device itself felt extremely comfortable in my hands with the placement of the buttons feeling natural and easy to work with. Responsiveness was as expected with no complaints. The resolution of the screen was impressive to my eyes with great color and high refresh rates. I couldn't find anything I didn't like about the hardware. Overall software wise I experienced a few minor issues but it seems like BIOS updates are addressing those hiccups. The few games that I have tried so far have performed smoothly with no issues. Overall, I can say that I fairly enjoy using the MSI Claw A1M 7". While I do like it I do think there is always room for improvement so I am excited to see how future updates help improve things.

Best buy for some reason under specs says LED screen it is an ips screen NOT LED

Love this item, very fast runs games good. Don’t listen to haters all the handhelds had problems until they was updated check out for yoursrlf like i did. Excellent gaming device