MSI Claw review: Awkward

No one should buy MSI Claw. It’s not technically broken: the first 7-inch Intel Core ultra-handheld gaming computer doesn’t crash or anything like that all the time. But the Talon was so far removed from its competition that it was effectively dead on arrival.

The $750 MSI Claw feels like an inferior clone of the Asus ROG Ally in almost every way—except it’s more expensive, not less! You can get a better experience while saving hundreds of dollars if you choose the Steam Deck OLED.

I spent weeks looking for a silver lining. In the end, I only found three tiny ways that Claw improves on the competition.

My MSI Claw journey didn’t start by running benchmarks. My expectations had hit rock bottom, so I embarked on a simpler test: making Claw a daily driver for the not-particularly intensive games I’d played on other handhelds.I launched the PC port of Studio Ghibli Ni no Kuni, diver daveand fallout new vegas — a nearly 14-year-old game.

Each of them runs smoothly on the $549 Steam Deck OLED. No one can run smoothly on the $749 MSI Claw. Even when the system tells me they’re running at 60 fps or higher, and the 48-120 Hz variable refresh rate screen is supposed to smooth things out, they stutter or stutter. Claw also drops frames when the deck remains stable and delivers fewer frames initially.

So I started some more repeatable benchmarks. How bad is the Intel Core Ultra 155H compared to the competition? take a look:

If your jaw hasn’t hit the floor yet, let me sum it up for you: The cheaper Steam Deck OLED pretty much wipes the floor when powered by MSI Claw and Performance.

The Claw, set to maximum power and plugged into the wall for turbo boost, ran some games slower than my Steam Deck would have on battery power alone.Can you imagine spending an extra two hundred dollars to play a game like this? Shadow of the Tomb Raider At 45 fps instead of 60 fps — and only when you’re connected to a wall?

Compared to Windows gaming handsets, the Claw doesn’t fare much better: Rivals like the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go are 10 to 10 percent more powerful. Exceed double Performance depends on game and power mode.

There is a bright spot: return, one of the most intensive PC games I’ve ever tried, actually runs better on Claw than on Deck or Ally.But not good enough to play…when I sit down and play every hour Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Cyberpunk 2077, I didn’t find them playable either. Both can be played at the same (low) settings on the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and Lenovo Legion Go, so Claw has no reason to cause confusion.

I even fired up 3DMark Time Spy and Fire Strike to see if MSI had accidentally given me a lemon, but no – my Claw score was slightly higher than MSI’s own internal benchmark. Yes, I ran these benchmarks on a recent Intel graphics driver, which should bring significant improvements over the one that originally came with Claw.

At least the Claw’s battery life doesn’t seem to be any worse than its Windows counterpart. MSI equipped it with a 53-watt-hour battery pack, which is slightly larger than the Legion Go and significantly larger than the Ally, and I saw roughly the same 1.5 hours Shadow of the Tomb Raider TOLL.I have 2 hours and 25 minutes fallout new vegas and achieved a maximum run time of 4 hours and 19 minutes Balatero, one of the least demanding games I’ve ever played on a handheld. (My first run lasted 3.25 hours; I gained an extra hour by putting the system into super battery mode and dimming the screen significantly.)

But compared to the Steam Deck OLED, which can easily last twice as long Balatero Having Lara Croft raid tombs for over two hours isn’t great – and I don’t know how MSI can justify its marketing claim that Claw is “50% more durable” than the average handheld. reasonable.

It is worth noting that MSI did A lot of thought has been put into the user experience of Claw.Although the hardware may look Just like the cheaper Batman version of the Asus ROG Ally, which copies the exact same button layout and most of the same curves, it feels a little better in the hand. I appreciate its larger grip, sturdier surface buttons, and Hall effect levers and triggers for longer life. Like Ally, Claw has some of the best speakers on a gaming console, enhanced here with surprisingly Nahimic virtual surround sound that delivered a pleasant echo around me when I couldn’t reach my grave.

I really wish MSI hadn’t gone with a stiffer but sloppier D-pad or added so many unnecessary spikes to the air vents—they repeatedly prevented me from finding its charging port in a darkened bedroom. The rumble of the claws feels bad, too. At least MSI lets you turn it off!

But the thing I want to shut down most is Windows.

It’s been almost a year since ASUS released the ROG Ally, and it’s been more than two years since the Steam Deck, but Microsoft hasn’t taken any meaningful steps to make its operating system more friendly to screens operated by gaming controllers. I can pretty much copy/paste the criticism from the ROG Ally review: I had the same issues summoning the virtual keyboard and playing games – most of this stuff only works on the Steam Deck, despite and/or due to its Linux underpinnings.

And, I encountered very similar sleeping issues to what I saw with the Lenovo Legion Go: I couldn’t believe that this portable device didn’t wake up on its own when I set it down or put it in my bag. Only here, it’s slightly worse, as the MSI Center utility tends to hang when waking up from sleep – sometimes disabling my gamepad controls until I restart it.

While MSI Center also hides important features like remappable controls, I like that it includes launchers for every major PC gaming platform and comes with lots of handy quick-access shortcuts that work right out of the box (like turning off RGB lighting) switch) and is relatively agile. Deck, Ally, and Legion Go all had buggy, slower interfaces at launch.

But these days, all of these features are more comprehensive, and all allow you to install updates natively – whereas Claw still wants you to navigate to MSI’s website and download the important bits manually or wait for Windows Update to deliver the goods.

MSI claw no The worst handheld gaming computer I’ve ever come across. A few years ago I played some handhelds that weren’t even worth reviewing, they were so poorly thought out and narrowly marketed that I don’t feel the need to warn you. But stores like Best Buy actually sell the MSI Claw — which is the worst way to buy it among the current crop of competing handhelds.

Photography: Sean Hollister/The Verge