Update: We’ve finally got an Australian launch date and price for MSI’s crack at the PC gaming handheld market, and it’s coming out reasonably soon on March 28th.
The Claw will coming in two flavours, with an Intel Core Ultra 5 135H/512GB model costing $1399 while the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H/1TB SSD model will run you $1599.
Both models sport sport Intel’s XeSS upscaling tech and run on Windows 11 with 16GB of RAM, Hall Effect joysticks, and a reported two hours of untethered gaming on the 7″ 1080p display thanks to a 53Wh battery.
Pre-orders for the device are live now at JB Hi-Fi, and you’ll even nab a cheeky $30 Steam gift card when pre-ordering one.
Original Story: With CES giving us exciting tech and gaming-related announcements thick and fast, MSI has revealed its entry into the growing handheld PC gaming race with the MSI Claw, an Intel-powered device that the company is calling “the most all-around gaming handheld with the best user experience.”
To achieve this, the MSI Claw is packing some pretty compelling hardware including Intel’s brand-new Meteor Lake Core Ultra processor starting at a Core Ultra 5 in the base model and going up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H. These processors sport Intel’s XeSS upscaling tech (think NVIDIA DLSS) and so compatible games should see some decent performance benefits. It’ll have 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage, and the MSI Claw will also feature a huge 53Wh battery which will reportedly offer around two hours of untethered gaming even on the most demanding AAA titles.
On the outside, the MSI Claw sports tactile buttons and Hall effect triggers and joysticks, dedicated macro buttons and features a 7″ 120Hz VRR IPS panel with a resolution of 1080p. The handheld is reportedly designed with ergonomics
It’s all powered by Windows 11, which should allow for more flexibility with players’ game libraries than something like the Steam Deck’s own OS, and MSI’s dedicated software will allow easy handheld-enabled access to game libraries and will reportedly even feature the ability to run Android games.