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00:00Over the past year or so, we've seen a lot of powerful handhelds come into the space, right?
00:06We saw the Steam Deck, we saw the ROG Ally, and a bunch of cool devices from boutique brands like Ioneo.
00:11But all of these devices run AMD chips.
00:14And with good reason, because Intel's offering in this form factor is just, it's not competitive.
00:19But I always wondered, what would Intel's response be?
00:22Turns out, they've been working on something pretty cool.
00:24And this is it here.
00:25So this is the MSI Claw, and this is the first handheld that uses the new Intel chip, the new Meteor Lake chips.
00:31So at first glance, the external hardware might look like just a black ROG Ally, but it's actually a pretty different kind of product.
00:38So the first thing, the handheld ergonomics of the MSI Claw feel surprisingly different from the Ally.
00:43Like if you look at them just from the top view, they don't look that different in terms of just like the shape of them.
00:48They both have that kind of angular bottom, and they have like a similar kind of feel.
00:53But this device is a lot flatter.
00:55If you looked at them, kind of like their profile of them.
00:58The black device, the MSI Claw, that hump, like this over here, it makes a very big difference when you're holding it.
01:04So one of the things I've always, not really complained about, but noted about the Allies,
01:08despite the kind of flatness of the product, me liking how flat it is, it does have a very flat grip to it.
01:15And I've never loved the ergonomics of this device, compared to like the Steam Deck.
01:19This has like a super bulbous hump, the Steam Deck's grip.
01:23These have what I would consider like the most ergonomic feel of all the handhelds.
01:27This is in between.
01:29The MSI Claw feels like it's a mixture between like semi-flat, but having a nice hump on the back.
01:34And I really like the way that this thing feels.
01:36Now it is smaller than say something like the Steam Deck.
01:38This is a more compact system, and also has a 7-inch screen, just like the Ally.
01:42It is a little bit heavier, but this product overall is just, in my mind, a direct competitor to the ROG Ally.
01:48It just has a completely different chip.
01:50Now I do want to mention just these buttons.
01:52These light up.
01:53I've never seen a handheld console where the ABXY buttons light up.
01:57It's running these lights underneath some smoked plastic, so it's not like a super bright light.
02:03But they do light up, if that matters to you.
02:06Now the chip in here is an Intel Core Ultra 7, but I'm shooting this on pre-production hardware.
02:11So the exterior design of this product is pretty much finalized.
02:15I imagine that it's so late in the game that they couldn't change too much at this point.
02:19But in terms of the performance, and the drivers, and the internal stuff, that can all be tweaked and adjusted before launch.
02:25Now in terms of power profiles, there's three of them.
02:27So at the very bottom, you have the super battery mode that pulls 15 watts.
02:30And then the balance mode pulls 30.
02:32And at the top end, if you want to go full blast, extreme performance, 45 watts.
02:37Now there's a couple things to take away from this.
02:39I guess the first thing is that at the top end, if you want to, this system can pull more juice than the ROG Ally.
02:47This thing caps out at 30 watts.
02:49This is 45 at the top end.
02:51But at the bottom end, the other takeaway is that the kind of, if you're playing like really light titles, like 2D indie games, or if you want emulation,
02:59this system can, the lowest it'll go is 15 watts.
03:03Where this can go like 9 or 10 watts.
03:05There's a difference in kind of like where the power profile lies.
03:10The performance testing I was allowed to do on it though, was very limited.
03:14And because of that, I can't get a good gauge of how efficient this chip actually is.
03:18My initial impressions though, is that this system is on par with what the ROG Ally does at that 25 to 30 watt profile.
03:26Now if you open it up, you can tell that this system was built to handle more power draw.
03:30It has two fans and two heat pipes, which is great because it allows you to cool the system very well.
03:34But there was this one area that kind of concerned me.
03:38In the menu, I noticed that there was a cooler boost option.
03:40Now cooler boost is the kind of software feature that a lot of MSI laptops have, that just turn the fans on to max.
03:46It's for like overclocking a lot of their devices.
03:49But on this system, when I hit this cooler boost button, and the fans kick in, that's loud.
03:56Like, that's hella loud.
03:59Now, I never had to turn this on.
04:01In all my testing, I was like, why would you even need that option?
04:04Because it never gets hot enough to require it, and it was never activated to the point where the cooler boost was just like actively running like that.
04:11But I thought, why would they even put this in here?
04:14Like, does the Intel chip just unlock to some kind of crazy performance mode when you blast the fans on it?
04:19I can't tell on this pre-production unit, like this engineering sample doesn't seem to have a need for the cooler boost at all.
04:25But maybe on the retail unit, there is a purpose to it.
04:28Now, in terms of the normal fan noise and normal kind of thermal characteristics, it's a very cool and quiet system.
04:34Like, way cooler and quieter than previous Intel handhelds.
04:38Those were all like comically poor.
04:40This is really good.
04:42But again, in terms of like an actual comparison between this product and AMD, I need a retail unit to come in.
04:48Now, there's a bigger battery inside the MSI claw.
04:51This is a 53 watt hour battery, which is significantly larger than the one that's in the ROG Ally.
04:56This is a 40 watt hour battery.
04:58I think just based on sheer size, it's like 30, maybe 35% bigger inside the MSI claw.
05:03But, MSI is claiming a 50% increase in battery life.
05:08So, I think it's possible.
05:10Based on my limited testing, I think at the 15 watt profile, you can get about 50% more battery life on the MSI claw versus the ROG Ally.
05:18But again, I really need to get the retail units in to do some proper testing.
05:22But it is interesting that that's the claim that they made.
05:24A 50% bump in battery life over its competitor.
05:28A couple things I want to close this video on.
05:30The screens, actually, I'll bring this back in real quick.
05:33I think they're the same screens between the two devices.
05:35They're both 7 inches.
05:36They're both 120 hertz.
05:37I think the claw also has variable refresh rate.
05:40But I do think that they're awesome screens.
05:43Like the Ally had a great screen for an LCD panel.
05:46If there's one screen you're going to bring over, I'm glad it's that one.
05:48Now, the controls, why do I keep removing this?
05:51The controls between the two are very similar.
05:54It's just like the layout and functionality.
05:57But I would say the biggest difference is actually in the back button.
06:01The ROG Ally has a large back button.
06:04But the only way to really actuate this, or the way that I think most people do it, is by pressing this section of it.
06:09This kind of like angled piece here.
06:11So if you're in-game, you would press it like so.
06:14If you try to press it from the outside, it doesn't really trigger.
06:17Same with the top or the bottom.
06:19It's really you got to press it there or you don't press it at all.
06:23On the MSI Claw, it's a smaller button.
06:26I'll flip it around so you can kind of see the size comparison.
06:29The Claw does have a smaller back button.
06:31But this thing has a bunch of facets to it.
06:34And I noticed that you can trigger it anyway.
06:38Like you can press any one of those different facets and it would work.
06:41So when you're in-game, you can trigger it from the top.
06:45Like being able to press down on it.
06:47It's just like where your hand naturally rests.
06:50You can trigger them like that.
06:51And I just found it to be really useful in Street Fighter 6.
06:54Just any game that uses back buttons, where you want to use back buttons.
06:57I like that usability.
06:58But it's a minor detail.
07:00Thought I'd bring it up because I just noticed it when I was using it during this short testing period.
07:05But there you have it.
07:06That is the MSI Claw.
07:07I think this is such a neat product.
07:09It came in a left field.
07:10Like I was not expecting Intel or MSI to drop something like this.
07:14It wasn't on the radar.
07:15So it's cool that they actually have something that competes with all those AMD products out there.
07:19Okay, there you have it.
07:21MSI Claw.