The market of handheld gaming PCs has been growing exponentially in recent years. Unsurprisingly, 2024 is starting off with some new arrivals, as revealed during CES 2024. From MSI’s court, it’s unveiled the all-new Claw.
The Claw is MSI’s answer to Valve’s ever popular Steam Deck, sporting “up to” the powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 53Wh battery, and a 7″ 108op, 120Hz touchscreen.
Claws out
According to MSI, the Claw has been designed to be both incredibly ergonomic and have enough power under the hood to provide decent gameplay time, even for high-end games. Its handles are curved, allowing the device to sit in the user’s palms. The battery allows for gameplay sessions of up to around 2 hours under maximum load.
MSI has also built the MSI Center M software, which allows quick access to common settings. These include lighting controls for the RGB ring lights that surround the thumbsticks and illuminate the face buttons, and there’s even macro key settings.
Users can also select between Gamepad Mode and Control Mode; the former is used for most games, whereas the latter allows the Claw to be used more like a traditional PC.
On that note, it comes with Windows 11 Home Edition pre-installed out of the box and can be used for even non-gaming tasks.
The Intel Core Ultra 7 processor features 6 p-cores, 8 e-cores, 2 low power e-cores, and “Intel’s first integrated NPU” which all allow the Claw to run efficiently under lower conditions and then kick up the power when needed.
Additional specs include a Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port that also supports PD charging and display out, a micro SD card reader, 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth 5.4 and support for Wi-Fi 7. A fingerprint reader is also included for signing into the mini PC.
Interestingly, MSI touts that the Claw isn’t just great for handheld PC gaming, but its MSI App Player software will introduce players to various Android mobile games that can run on the machine.
Making moves
According to a report from The Verge, MSI will launch three models that range from $699 to $799, each possessing different specs.
The lowest spec will release with a Core Ultra 5 rather than an Ultra 7, and will have 512GB of onboard storage. On the other hand, the most expensive configuration of the Claw will have 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of PCIe M.2 storage.
As for when you’ll actually be able to get your hands on a Claw, MSI hasn’t revealed an exact release date just yet. However, it has at least confirmed that the claw will arrive within the first half of 2024.
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