The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024 is less than a week away, and one of the biggest (figuratively) things we’re looking forward to is MSI’s handheld gaming device. The beauty of the internet is that nothing ever remains secret, which is why the portable gaming PC has already been leaked, and its name is the MSI Claw.
Yesterday, MSI Gaming teased fans about the upcoming handheld gaming PC via a short video uploaded on its official Instagram account. The 9-second teaser contained only snippet shots of the device, with the only clue coming from the caption that read, “A whole new breed of MSI dragon is coming. Get a grip and stay tuned.”
The MSI handheld was supposed to be revealed at CES 2024, which begins on January 7, but thanks to Twitter user @wxnod, we now have a first look at the highly anticipated gaming PC. The Claw is MSI’s answer to the expanding world of portable gaming PCs. With players like the Steam Deck and the ASUS ROG Ally, MSI is throwing its hat to the ring. A hat that looks a lot like the ROG Ally.
From the leaked promotional image, it’s quite obvious that the MSI Claw’s design was based on the ROG Ally. Everything, from the offset joysticks to the flashy RGB scheme, screams plagiarism – everything, but what’s under the hood. Twitter user @Olrak29_ did some digging on what kind of performance we can expect from the MSI Claw, and the results were interesting to say the least
Going against the grain, MSI has decided to use Intel’s latest Meteor Lake processors, more specifically, the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU. Complementing this will be 32GB of LPDDR5 memory. This is a bold move by MSI, given the AMD-dominated landscape we’ve become accustomed to.
Both the ASUS ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go sport an AMD Ryzen Z1 CPU, while the Steam Deck uses an AMD Zen 2 CPU. Using the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU means the MSI will feature the Arc Xe-LPG 128EU integrated graphics solution. Intel’s Xe-LPG GPU is no slouch.
The latest benchmarks from Geekbench put it above AMD’s top integrated RDNA 3 graphics solution, the Radeon 780M. Supporting variable rate shading and ray tracing, Intel’s integrated graphics solution is no longer the runt of the GPU litter.
There’s no information yet on the OS the MSI Claw will run, but chances are it’s Windows 11. Before you start thinking about selling a kidney to get the Claw, it’s worth noting that we don’t have the full picture yet. The official benchmarks or price tag are still yet to be revealed. We’re sure you can wait for the grand reveal at CES 2024.
