MSI Claw in pictures: The first gaming handheld to be powered by an Intel processor

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Note: This article was first published on 9 January 2024.

Ahead of MSI's official announcement, we got a quick look at the company's gaming handheld dubbed the "Claw", powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 and Arc processors.

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At a glance, the MSI Claw bears an uncanny resemblance to the ROG Ally. Note the RGB around the thumbsticks.

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The MSI Claw comes with a suite of controls - including a D-pad button, double shoulder buttons as well as a set of triggers below. We don't know many details at the point of writing (this is before MSI's official announcement), but we have heard that the battery life ranges between four to eight hours depending on the games played and the settings used.

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Form factor wise, the MSI Claw feels like it falls somewhere in between the more svelte ROG Ally and the heavier Legion Go.

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Cooling vents are placed at the top of the handheld. I played Hades for a few minutes and the areas around the controllers remained cool, but we'll have to see how the MSI Claw's thermal efficiency hold out when playing more intensive games on it.

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One of the things I'm most curious about will be how the Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and Arc graphics unit compare to the AMD Ryzen Z1 processor used on the ROG Ally and Legion Go gaming handhelds. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.

In the meantime, don't forget to check out our quick video for a good look and feel of this upcoming handheld gaming device.