Beware the MSI Claw Previews

[@FanTheDeck]

New Humble Bundle Alert. 7 amazing games including a couple all-time greats. Check it out. Affiliate Link: www.humblebundle.com/games/awesome-games-done-quick-2024?partner=fanthedeck Non-Affiliate Link: www.humblebundle.com/games/awesome-games-done-quick-2024

[@hasnainsoofi8088]

Great video as always, keep up the good work. I’m looking forward to the next one

[@FanTheDeck]

@@hasnainsoofi8088Here's Bloodstained: 3A2CA-9G44E-NZX73 Enjoy! Consider using my affiliate link next time you buy from Amazon or Humble ♥

[@hasnainsoofi8088]

@@FanTheDeckthank you very much, keep up the good work. I’m looking forward to future steam deck content

[@Sleepy.Time.]

their claims on battery life bring up red flags

[@AthanImmortal]

Yeah 4 hours on a 35W chip on a 53 whr battery kind of set off my alarm bells. I know what the Steam Deck does on 15W on a 40whr. I want some independent verification.

[@marcfusch]

Well, just do the math. 35watts fully utilized + 5~10 watts for every other components that's around 40/45 watts. 53/45=70 minutes of total playtime. Not 2 hours

[@FanTheDeck]

One big problem is that some journos may have been misquoting bc the claims were a little all over the place. 2 hours @ 15W at least sounds plausible. "Best in class battery life" is insane to me.

[@MobileDecay]

I prefer blue flags. 😊

[@akapeegly6463]

@@FanTheDeckmy guess its gonna have the longest battery life when not gaming, as a desktop or just broswing internet I think once u play games not as much

[@jefferrrson1x]

Yoo respect to you with full disclosure in the beginning. Not a lot of creators are willing to risk not getting “free” stuff for review.

[@jat9926]

The claw scene from Toy Story is the perfect analogy for everything I’ve heard about this device.

[@richardahlquist5839]

You honesty and critical insight over the fluff being dished about the Claw earned you a sub. Thank you.

[@acebirdjohn]

Same here, it seems like most KZbinrs are so occupied by pleasing companies or putting content out, that they forget to be skeptical or vigilant.

[@MichaelEMaul]

Just subscribed. I appreciate your integrity and honesty you stated upfront about the handheld. We can’t assume. At any rate I’ll be looking out for new content from you!

[@FanTheDeck]

Much appreciated and happy to have you on board!

[@averagemobileplayergfs7383]

I just purchased a OLED Steam Deck, because what I seen so far really impressed me. I won’t be purchasing any other handheld devices, until the Steam Deck 2.0 comes out in a few years. I do like the new handheld devices being released, that just means more competition in the “handheld” category/market.

[@jheithaus3]

The downfall of the Steam Deck is the lack of GamePass support. Alot of PC gamers and Xbox users subscribe and are just looking at a handheld to play included games.

[@kaizel2264]

​​@@jheithaus3 Steam Better lol I ain't crying about Game Pass(and neither should you if you have a capable Pc)I can literally play all the games I want on PC(Which I have 6 of) PS5 and Xbox Series S. And no I'm not rich I just saved up money like 300 Dollars a month for 3 years. Having no Game Pass Support Doesn't discredit a products Existence when PCs(That don't subscribe to game pass)still out sells XBox 5-1 and PS5 Outsells XBox by 3-1. Steam Might not release Exclusives but they still have more games than XBox And PS combined.

[@AlexDeivid]

I Had the Steamdeck and now I have Rog Ally, and it´s complicated to compare both, in the Steamdeck, most of the games, I used to run in the low settings, and some games struggle to maintain 30FPS, the Rog Ally for other side, run the games very well and I can run many games in the highest settings, it´s amazing when you see games running at 60FPS on high. And the compatibility is very good, you can run games like Fortnite, warzone and all games from Gamepass direct without need to do nothing like some configurations needed for SD to run games that need launchers like from Ubisoft or EA. The battery is worst, but I have a 20.000MAH powerbank that if I need, I can play the Rog Ally for almost 16 hours (2 from internal battery and 14 from external battery).

[@The8bitbeard]

Only the Steam Deck is taking the correct approach for power consumption in a PC gaming handheld. Competitors are trying to stand out with a "bigger number better" approach. Just brute force it and throw more power at the problem, which is sort of what we've been doing with PC gaming forever now. This is a battery powered HANDHELD though, not a desktop PC, so efficiency is king. The Steam Deck represents the best performance at a TDP that's actually reasonable for a handheld, and it focuses on efficiency at lower wattages, which really shows when you compare it to the competition running at sub-15 watts. The Steam Deck DOUBLES the ROG Ally's performance at 10 watts running Subnautica, for example. The Ally only really hits it's stride at 15 watts and higher, and the same seems to be true with these new Intel handhelds. Meanwhile battery technology is the same as it's ever been. What's the point of better performance if you only get 40 minutes of battery life in the process? "Just plug it in.", one might say, but at that point you might as well just be playing on a desktop.

[@MadOliveGaming]

True, though i really wished we at least COULD up the tdp on the deck, even if it would just be from playing docked or on a charger at home.

[@The8bitbeard]

@MadOliveGaming I might wish this too if I didn't already have a decent desktop. I'm not sure how many people are using their Deck as their only gaming PC, but I think a portable device is strongest when used as an efficient, low TDP, portable device. If I want more power I'll just fire up my desktop instead.

[@finidischoonhoven8689]

​@@The8bitbeard that is indeed the current solution but they sell a dedicated dock so they do calculate for playing while not battery limited. So yes your solution works, but it's still a shame we don't get the option because well... simply because steam either didn't think of it or didn't want to do it. Pretty sure other handhelds like the ally give you the option so why doesn't the deck? I love it's 15watt setting for on the go but docked I wished we could push it a bit more.

[@Aereto]

​@@finidischoonhoven8689 There's the power floor and the power ceiling. Best way to have wider margins with lower floors is to be able to undervolt the APU to draw less power. CPU-GPU in one board still has a high power floor. And with high power ceiling needs a cooling system to keep up with the ceiling raise.

[@HekaWaset]

I have both, SD and Legion Go (used to have an Ally as well, but sold it). I love the Steam Deck, really love it, but ever since I got the Go, I have not used it one - not once. I am not saying anything but that you shouldn't dismiss other devices so easily. The Go is a fantastic machine that does a lot right, some of which it does leaps better than the deck.

[@DarkPhoenix1515]

while I don't see myself changing the deck oled anytime soon, I am very happy to see more competition both in terms of handhelds and silicone.

[@Spencerwalker21]

I'm hoping valve is close to launching steam os standalone

[@CyberClu]

Same here. This will only push Valve to create an even better Steam Deck 2 in a few years. As I'm still on the LCD model.

[@alphagodvon]

Me too . I can’t buy no new player with the trackpads like on the steam deck

[@alphagodvon]

I have a strong feeling that Value will release a new System with updated specs every year. This year we might get a speed bump with Battery improvements. Then in 2025 the steam Deck 2

[@potatorigs2155]

It's not competition when they all have the same price .... it's price fixing lol 😆 😆

[@emiliosanchez4610]

It's gonna be interesting to see how it fares when it is out. I am looking forward to seeing more gimick handhelds to be quite honest. Would be cool to see what handhelds could form when some of these companies flex their artistic muscles a little bit.

[@FanTheDeck]

Yeah that's something I really like about the Go. It was trying something different

[@rideordie295]

I’m glad to see all the competition in the hand held market and I hope they all succeed so that they can keep giving us better hand held.

[@ea-sk8er_775]

Truth it seems like the only ones succeeding are the steam deck and maybe the Ally. Everything else just feels like clutter.

[@takashy87]

My personal concerns after seeing a bunch of videos regarding it were the microSD slot location being the same as on the ROG Ally (since the SD slot on the Ally tends to die / kill cards) and also replacability of the SSD. There was very few mentions of it and the 2 videos where they opened up the Claw I couldn't even spot the SSD. One of the videos mentioned that it's under 1 of the fans, but that makes me wonder how easily it can be replaced or if you might end up having to replace the thermal paste every time you want to replace an SSD..

[@FanTheDeck]

Good point on the SSD. Apparently the micro SD card slot issue had to do with the solder joints and it's resolved without moving the SD card slot. I honestly can't confirm that but it does seem likely. Hopefully the additional ventilation the Claw has on the top side is also a big help. We'll definitely see.

[@alexmcdaniel116]

It's crap solder and overvoltage of the card reader... Heat is not really the problem here. It's only a problem because of crap solder

[@RicochetSaw]

It doesn't look like the fans are attached to the heat pipes so it should just be a 2-3 more screws to get to the ssd

[@fairphoneuser9009]

"every time you want to replace an SSD"? How often do you replace an SSD?

[@Aereto]

​@fairphoneuser9009 Preferably once, but I did it twice with the Deck

[@PhillsLifestyle]

The handheld scene is getting really good now with all the competitors

[@Dracossaint]

As always, wait for a third party to show benchmarks!

[@FanTheDeck]

Yes, please

[@Paradigmfusion]

My biggest problem with the claw is it running an Intel solution, we know about the issues with current intel ARC GPUs and Im sure those problems will fall over to the Claw. Especially when it comes to DX11 and prior gaming. Then there is Wifi 7. totally unnecessary as Wifi 7 routers are WAY too spendy, Heck not many folks even have Wifi 6E in their homes.

[@cloudycolacorp]

Last PC handheld I had with an intel chip really struggled with certain games, often the kind of older stuff that is fun on a handheld

[@SWOTHDRA]

Many dont even have wifi 6

[@fairphoneuser9009]

I really like that you've pointed out the marketing of the lowest price and the performance of the best model. That annoyed me like hell in the Ally's marketing...

[@B_Machine]

In an interview of an AMD Marketing rep at CES (also by PC world), it was asked what benefits NPU has for gaming and why include it (basically if it was necessary). The rep explained that development and use of NPUs in gaming systems is a sort of chicken and egg problem, so something had to come first. So basically the use is largely unknown, but these companies are taking the initiative to provide the first iteration of half the puzzle.

[@JoeL-xk6bo]

They're also claiming price at $699 but that model has the much worse Core Ultra 5 APU. The model everyone is previewing is the $800 model. $699 = core ultra 5 + 512GB +16GB RAM $749 = Core ultra 7 +512GB + 16GB RAM $799 = core ultra 7 + 1TB + 16GB RAM

[@FanTheDeck]

'sactly

[@bush2137]

Maybe I math wrong, but 2 hours * 35 watts is 70Wh, and it doesn't have a 70Wh battery. Also the screen uses a few Wh

[@FanTheDeck]

Yeah that claim/quote from Linus was just flat out wrong unfortunately

[@judie9853]

Slowly big brands jumpin' into handheld market but no one nailed yet except Valve 😂

[@FanTheDeck]

The Ally def seems to have a solid base. But yeah I hear ya for sure

[@dirkwood4544]

I have both but I only use the Ally🤷‍♂️

[@joshuatipton1994]

I give my GF the Steam Deck and went only on my Ally good reason why when we play Palworld together I have to be the world host when we use the Steam deck it crashes after a bit. Then the unit needs a full reboot because its gets stuck on a black screen.@@FanTheDeck

[@seebarry4068]

It’s a fun sector and I would love to have one, but I think the battery tech isn’t there yet. Hall sensors is a smart and classy move.

[@AyaWetts]

There is no way I am using an Intel GPU for a dedicated gaming machine... maybe in a few years if they have proven themselves more, but right now its not worth the risk with the bad track record.

[@siomaybandung10]

one thing I learn (at least) during early pc handheld device era is to not buy these devices as soon as they’re available on market

[@PM-xc8oo]

I just don't see how this is supposed to work out well when it is clear that Meteor Lake just doesn't perform well at low TDPS like the competing APUs do. That bigger battery just doesn't matter too much if you're having to run at a higher power profile. Then add that to the state of Intel's GPU drivers and I'm just not confident in this thing. Still hoping this works out since it would be nice to see Microsoft incentivized to tweak Windows to make it work better out of the box with this handheld gaming device form factor.

[@mrdadecounty3056]

Honestly I love my Legion go because of its screen and it's got the same power as the Rog until an upgrade comes to the legion go, I won't be downgrading anytime soon. I'm so used to that big 8.8 in screen and how gorgeous it is I bought the Rog Ally when it first came out and it was great until I compared it to the legion go screen and then it was all over there won me over especially when I'm playing games like my mech warrior. 5 or BattleTech that big screen makes a difference and the thumbs pad on it. I love it. I use it for BattleTech. You can't use it for a lot of games, but you could definitely use it for simple turn-based RTS games like that. Everything else I use the controllers and if not I hook up my series. X controller to it it and play a lot of third person. Open world games like I'm playing alpha protocol. I'm playing the saboteur. I'm playing mech warrior 5 and it runs quite smooth actually and I don't have to have it on low settings. I actually run it at 1080P and run most settings on low shadows is always the first thing I try to turn off because I really don't care. It's a sacrifice that I can live without and it does make a big difference on performance and then I tend to turn off most things. What I tend to like to keep on is texture, quality and Anti-Aliasing those are the most important to me. But yeah that gorgeous screen on the legion go. I can't let it go. The steam deck OLED of course it's a better screen, but it's also much weaker device and that for me is a no-go

[@redcrimson1028]

Great comment!!! Love your comment! Best content dude. Listen, I'm in the same boat as you. For a flop of a system such as the steam deck in sales and popularity, people live D$ck riding it! I have all handhelds (see my channel) and besides the switch, the legion go is great!!! It smashes the the deck quality wise. It's hard to let that 8.8 inch screen go. It is truly beautiful in person. Choosing the deck over the rog or legion is a huge step down. As far as comfort, ease of use (debatable though) and battery life? The Steam deck wins hands down but that's about it. Legion go/rog is the way to go

[@mrdadecounty3056]

@@redcrimson1028 listen. I even went on Amazon and bought a 100 w car charger. That way when I'm on my lunch break at work, I have it plugged in and I'm playing on my Legion Go. I don't mind that I'm hooked up to a cable. I bought a long 10-ft cable so when I'm playing next to my bed then I have another one downstairs in the living room and I got 100 w Chargers everywhere and they're all fast Chargers so they do work for the legion go which needs to be at least 65 so honestly it's not that big of a deal. It's less of an inconvenience to have to go downstairs to my big screen TV to play on my series. X and honestly I'm playing games on my Legion goal that I can't play a 60 FPS on my series X because the developers never made A patch for it but because this is a PC it's good to go. I'm playing a lot of games that I never did get to beat at 60, mostly between 45 and 60. And honestly, I used to be a big 60 believer and so I started playing games between 45 to 50 to 60 and realize that they moved just as smooth as the one that's at 60fps. I never realized that the moment you go from 30 to 45. There's such a huge difference in how fluid everything moves. I knew that 60 was but from 30 to 45 I never knew that. I wish more developers would have aimed for 45 to 50 when they couldn't achieve 60 and lock it there. And honestly for consoles everybody would have been so much happier. But yeah I love playing. I just finished buying for $1.99 on Gog yesterday. Camache the helicopter game and man that game is really good. Surprisingly. Also I have dark horizon so many games that I play on there now that just look great. Even my Alfred protocol looks great on there and it runs extremely smooth like at Max settings. Everything playing the saboteur at 1080P looks gorgeous and runs like a dream on The legion go and yeah I am playing older games but that's a choice that I'm making. I have a gaming PC. I can play all the modern stuff but honestly the modern stuff does it hold a candle to some of the older stuff when it comes into the quality? The story the gameplay sure nowadays games are just better graphically apart from that there's not really much to it with the exception of baldur's gate. 3. But most games older games are way better than anything that we've been getting for the last. I don't know how many years now. It's kind of sad. I almost feel like developers just completely gave up on quality. I even play Spider-Man out here now when they come out with a more powerful Legion goal where it comes with amd's next Apu. Yeah that's an instant buy for me for sure as long as the screen is as good and they don't mess with it

[@styls3429]

It’s all a preference…..

[@redcrimson1028]

@styls3429 Yeah, you're right! That's why 133 million people chose the switch over these wannabe pchandhelds!. Let's talk about preferences some more, shall we? The Steam deck sold 1.6 million with a guestimation of close to 3 million, the rog Ally sold 500,000, and the legion go as much as I love it is a flop! They all are Flops! So if we are talking about preferences? Obviously, the world preference the switch. Now, shove your preferences where the sun don't shine

[@styls3429]

Wow everyone is a tough guy when it comes to making an opinion…. This world has gone to shit…

[@vancemah8407]

From what I've seen, the Claw is the ROG Ally with a different flavor but possibly better battery. What was really funny was the guy from Android Authority claiming AC Mirage was running "buttery smooth" then the B-roll literally showing frame stutters as he was saying it. The SD OLED, on the other hand, though underpowered compared to the competition, is still king for me. Battery is almost, if not, on par with my Switch OLED. It's my first PC handheld and have not regretted it. Like Asus, I'd expect the Claw to have at least 6 months of growing pains with drivers and software, if not more. As it stands, the Claw is a concept car with extra bells and whistles that you have likely no use for yet.

[@FanTheDeck]

We laughed at the AC Mirage thing in the FTD Discord lol. His editor did him dirty 🤣🤣

[@mikaeldannenberger6]

Idk if you saw this but there is some comparision videos already on youtube between this and the ally (in japanese): sadly the reality comes in: the claw has 20% less performance for 20% more power draw...intel atm is waaaay less efficient that amd in the apu market, that's a fact.... Looks like a DOA product for me...

[@CrashD6]

I see 2 main problems with it, using a higher wattage chip and different hardware between models. The other brands usually go for AMD because o power-to-wattage, and Intel chips usually have higher wattage compared to AMD chips with similar performance, why is it important? Battery life, they can use a bigger battery, but if it depletes as fast as the lower TDP devices, then it has no advantage against the competition. The other problem is its different chips between models. It makes sense for PCs to have different specs, but game devs take the Steam Deck into consideration because it's equal across the board, it's far easier to develop for one single device with one single spec, if they add 2 or 3 different specs, then it just makes more sense to develop for general low end desktops instead.

[@charlienewman7496]

I bet anything that this thing will have a major price drop by summer....due to drivers, battery life, and too high of a launch price.

[@HoLeeFvk6945]

Considering SteamDeck is less than $499 (Got mine for about $350 512GB 2nd hand), compared to its competitors which are $599 and above, SD stands out for me, not in terms of performance, but affordability and at least minimum experience.

[@HoLeeFvk6945]

And I've got chance to play PC/Xbox exclusives (Nintendo also :D) since I've been a PlayStation user for a while.

[@SWOTHDRA]

​@@HoLeeFvk6945so ur stealing

[@LPcrazy_88]

I don't understand why basic features can't be clearly detailed... MSI, you make the damn product. You know the model # of the display, you know the specs... Just tell us what it's capable of. I don't even care about VRR myself, but it makes me suspicious when they say "we're looking into it" when it's a simple yes or no. To me it sounds more like MSI knows it's not VRR capable but they don't want to say no to hamper any potential hype for their device.

[@losteden6390]

I have the Rog Ally and the Deck OLED ... Those are the best handhelds on the market . Legion falls further behind and the Claw doesn't look that interesting- they haven't said if it has a VRR screen yet either ...

[@Ryan_Wiseman]

I love seeing the competition, but I feel like we are still about five years off of having stability in the handheld market, especially for handhelds that want to do high resolution gaming with raytracing. The Claw advertises that is does 4K and 8K, so it will be interesting to see which titles do best on a device like this (and how long the battery truly is) since raytracing is very demanding for most PCs. Honestly, the big specs they are trying to push may be a disappointment if the specs are optimized poorly and for limited titles. They may be hoping that people use an eGPU to accelerate the device (w/ TB4 support), which while I like the eGPU support, it makes your experience as expensive as getting a decent PC. If they do a good job with pulling off 4K w/ raytracing, it will change the handheld market permanently, which is what I'd like to see

[@steventechno]

I'm glad to see even more UMPCs. I'll be sticking with the steam deck as it's still enough for me. I can't wait to see a large number of options in the future.

[@swclemmons1]

Lack of 32gb model as well as unknown performance from Intel is a deal breaker..

[@JosephStillGames]

Nice coverage! Also wouldn't personally get the Claw after all the handhelds we've been through. Also just design wise, the Claw proves to me that maybe the problem with the ROG Ally looking 'cheap' wasn't the white color...

[@aaryscare214]

Glad to see more show up. Handheld pcs are only gonna get better.

[@AFistfulOf4K]

If anyone's wondering, the reason a portrait display is a bad thing is that in Windows (unknown for Linux), rotating the display in software incurs a significant input lag penalty. I forget what it is exactly, but I want to say around 30ms. Don't quote me on that though, it's been a long time since I tested it with a pair of identical monitors.

[@poison7512]

VRR is non negotiable on a device that will mostly be used to run games at lower FPS.

[@theo5675]

NPU will not be used for gaming for a very long time if ever handhelds don’t need it that’s why AMD disabled it from the z1 extreme it’s not necessary

[@aaronogden9900]

In the U.K. the Z1 extreme Ally is £599 and the Steam Deck OLED is £480-£570 so it will be interesting to see how MSI prices this going forward. Great to see Intel stepping into the APU market with the intention of challenging AMD though.

[@Cakebattered]

Great video. These handhelds at release aren't indicative of what they will be 6 months later. That was true for the Ally and Steam Deck. Go read/watch an early Steam Deck review. Terms like "Console Like" weren't used to describe it. That didn't occur until nearly a year later. The Ally didn't really start to get praise until its 6th month mark. The Legion Go is just reaching its 3 month mark. So I'm not putting any stock in these early previews, or even the release day reviews.

[@zzzzzap]

It will be hard for the MSI Claw to compete with the Steam Deck Oled. While missing the trackpads completely, the MSI Claw has fewer buttons, a shorter battery life and the Msi Software will be a pain for sure compared with Steam OS. Interesting will be a comparison of the performance compared to the Steam Deck Oled and other gaming handhelds. But it's for sure overpriced.

[@Partinaire]

After like 3 weeks of going back and forth between The Ally and the Legion Go i decided too buy the Go...then right after that the MSI got announced lol. But i honestly think i made the right choice, i have the same skepticisms that you focused on this your video.

[@cloudycolacorp]

It’s weird to hear AMD’s APU marketing term be used to refer to intel chipsets now too lol

[@PandorusFightStick]

VRR wont be on the msi claw, would defiantly be finalised bu now!! but i have had SD , ally, the go and by far love the go!!

[@NoviDooms]

The base Z1 ROG Ally is still not even available in Canada lol.

[@nonyabusiness-f9e]

anyone who trusts msi or intel deserves whatever they get. ill check out some reviews on it but im not expecting anything from it.

[@marksjourneytothephilippin9574]

I have a msi stealth laptop from 8+ years ago, maybe 10, and it’s still amazing. Can play Skyrim ultimate edition Hd with a ton of graphic mods and edit short 4k videos still. Would only upgrade soon for next gen games and 6-8k video editing which is still very future proof. I’m not a fan boy but I’m definitely impressed so far and may definitely give them a try for this.

[@KevyoKAJ]

Thanks for this video. I’m a Legion Go owner, but wanted to ask your thoughts on these MSI claw preview videos directly comparing it to either the Steam Deck or the ROG Ally, and not mentioning (not even for reference) the Legion Go. Has the Legion Go essentially been lumped into the “other handhelds” category by reviewers with the SD and Ally being the only true options for consumers? Or is there another series of explanations why the Go hasn’t received a ton of coverage past its initial release?

[@Aereto]

Operating Systems is a major factor of how much hardware performance you need to have equal game performance between each other. Windows is atrocious for its overhead hence the need for higher performance components to keep that from cutting into its performance ceiling.

[@HekaWaset]

Go owner here. I agree with you, I think its because LTT didnt receive a review unit hes salty about the Go. I dont know why everyone else seems to ignore it. Maybe because it performs better than the Ally and both Steam decks?

[@drewa4235]

I'm not going to lie. The handheld gaming market in my opionion is the one thing that needs to die....like right now. These contraptions have horrible performance\battery life\portability......there I said it. The current crop of apu's from amd (and soon to be intel) run like garbage at 15 watts and not much better at full power. People shouldn't be excited they can play games at 30fps upscaled from 480p (or lower) at the lowest quality settings imaginable, it feels like a race to the bottom. These things are big, heavy and uncomfortable to hold for any extended amount of time. Not to mention how quickly they will outdate as newer games come because of how underpowered they are. Every single one of these handheld computers will end up as e waste when the next model comes out.

[@godwhomismike]

I hate the first look videos many channels put out these days. Most sound like they studied the product specs, or are just really good at reading the company's official product literature. Nothing critical, no opinions, no real content. Glad to hear some opinion and honest feedback. Subscribed.

[@RoundHouseSlap]

No vrr, no 32gb, no lpddr5x, and intel. So yeah it’s a no for me.

[@thephantom9080]

Hopefully, a company brings a custom HDR OLED like the one in the steam deck but with the addition of VRR and a stronger SOC with 50Whr battery. A product like that will be interesting for me, other than that, the steam deck oled is the way to go to be innocent. Those juicy HDR highlights on OLED with the amazing battery life compared to anything on the market is just too good to miss out on. Also we are talking about 550$ instead of 700$+ for the other devices. Just disappointed that it lacks VRR, with it, steam deck oled would have been total perfection.

[@RedMageGaming]

There's only so much you can do with the shell, but i am kind of disappointed that it just looks like a dark mode ally lol. Thunderbolt 4 is actually the big stand out feature here. As it's the only large prominent manufacturer released handheld with the feature it stands out from the crowd. Making it the only handheld of the now four major players to have commercial egpu support not tied to a proprietary over-priced solution. That's a big deal for dock options.

[@9r33ks]

I have similar doubts about MSI Claw. I'll wait for proper tests and reviews.

[@FanTheDeck]

Absolutely

[@groenevinger3893]

it`s a collaboration of two top tier brands, not sure why you should have doubts.. it may not be perfect, but so does the competition

[@9r33ks]

@@groenevinger3893 that;'s EXACTLY why I am having doubts. Both MSI and intel are known for entirely wrong reasons.

[@iyeetsecurity922]

If it's not made by Valve, I've no interest in buying it because it's certain that they'll support their products far, far longer if not indefinitely.

[@GeorgeNoiseless]

The real price-performance leap is still a generation or two away, at this price point MSI isn't doing anything revolutionary, this is testing the true demand in the higher price segment. That said, this process of iteration on competition is absolutely a great thing!

[@TheBlargMarg]

Pretty much like the Ally, I'll wait a few months before I get interested. I got my Ally around November of 2023 and with all of the updates has made the Ally a significantly better computer.

[@Thornskade]

I love that the handheld market is a big deal now, but as I already have a GPD Win 2, Steam Deck, Anbernic RG405V and Legion Go, I'm most likely not going to buy any new handhelds in the foreseeable future. It's already too much really

[@acebirdjohn]

Subscribed! Thanks for your work, more of this kind of reporting please!

[@non-newtoniandruid]

2:39 What a time saver! I'm so tired of waiting for my second SD to toast in my Ally every morning, finally i can have a balanced breakfast!

[@punctcom]

I hope it will be somewhat a good device, as more competition in the handheld space is what will help us, the consumers, the most.

[@jinx20001]

Im glad you went in hard on the claims, this was a well thought out video and points to some things that dont seem to stick when thrown at the wall. The battery life claim is a very optimistic one if you ask me and i reckon a lot of that comes off the back of having a larger battery which... is just not good. More critically handhelds need efficiency over a larger battery they hope will just be enough to get that bit better battery. Personally i just dont see it, all those cores need power, they are not sleeping when playing indie games so how high will the TDP need to be just to keep it alive when playing the most basic games... the best i had out of my ally is 4 hours at 7w playing dead cells, can the claw even manage 7w and still operate with the sheer amount or cores that need power, it may be one of the reasons they have not opted for 32gb ram also, it would just need more power just to operate. This is really what separates the deck oled from the windows machines for me, its impressive what they can do with 30w but its not as impressive as what the deck can do with the same power as a pregnancy test, playing a game at 3-4w and getting 12 hours battery is damn impressive while maintaining good performance (in lighter games ofcourse, cue club 2, katana zero, cobalt core - that kinda thing). 50 percent more battery life than the ally is nice but its still not all that impressive, that puts it at 6 hours playing a game like dead cells at 7w (if indeed it can even do 7w and perform good enough), its ok... but its not great. Great to have options though, never a bad thing... even if its clearly made by the same factory with the same tooling and they slapped an MSI logo on it.

[@OMGRaj]

Great video with great points. Thank you.

[@Nickbaldeagle02]

They can all claim what they want. Nothing is tempting me away from my Steam Deck. It all just works. The trackpads are perfect for mouse games.

[@finraziel]

I'm not in the market to buy one anyway, but I'd be most worried about if Intel has their arc drivers in order for older games nowadays. Handhelds like these are ideal to play those older games from your backlog but if dx9 performance sucks... VRR I used to think was a big deal, but honestly I don't really miss it on my steam deck, especially on the 90 Hz oled screen now.

[@graelstream2353]

Nice video sir! I'm still hoping that the msi claw works well. I was about to buy the steam deck Oled when I saw their teaser trailer and decided to wait. I kinda want to keep my msi ecosystem hehe he. Keep up the good work sir!

[@doomguard89]

💪

[@FanTheDeck]

Yessir!

[@haikaido]

This feels like something that could have been said in a community post. Engineering samples are not final release products, all product descriptions are not to be believed until a retail unit is in someones hands.

[@MaximillianArturo]

I am so curious how this fares next to the other handhelds.

[@accelement3499]

So many things would have to be better hat replacing the Deck seems impossible but I'm ready for the challengers all day.

[@Muhluri]

2:24 we know how that went with the Legion Go

[@iamtheliquor809]

I want to see someone like Alienware come out with a handheld but using an Nvidia chip! I would buy that to go along with my Steam Deck Oled.

[@MidnightSpecial777]

The only thing that could truly impress me is if somehow the Claw had battery life that was 50% better than my Steam Deck OLED. If that were the case I'd be interested in it, although not exactly ready to jump ship.

[@prdsatx4467]

I wasnt really interested when it was announced and I saw the leaked images. Now i'm really not interested. One thing that bothers me is the lack of touchpad. That is what makes the Steam Deck and Legion Go leap years better in my opinion.

[@richthepup]

8:56 steam deck is kicking everyone’s butt on price-to-value ratios esp since you still need to buy docks/sd cards for any handheld

[@WillySou]

The Claw seems to me dead on arrival. Around 150$ more expensive the Ally Z1E at current prices. It doesn't stand out in any way... The LeGo has the great versatility, big screen and input options. The Ally has vrr, is very light, has great performance and efficiency. The Claw (awful name btw) has a very very power hungry Apu, probably no VRR, the same ram size as all the others and Arc is notable for poor driver support. It would have been a good device if it was released one year ago. But today there are enough options and this device just doesn't stand out in any way...

[@TheNets]

I enjoyed the video but a comment about the Intel engineer talking about the NPU: he is right and maybe it was a misunderstanding. He was not talking about existing game animations, he is talking about future game that could rely on AI models for animation blending. We already saw some projects on GDC last year about it. Specifically about this one, I believe you made a mistake and took a comment out of context.

[@monstercameron]

wifi 7 routers are around $3-400 per unit on the lowend I have the entry level deco wifi 7

[@FanTheDeck]

My mistake. I might be able to edit that out so that I'm not misleading anyone else. Thanks for letting me know - I'll see what I can do here.

[@monstercameron]

@@FanTheDeck all's well, just an FYI, I upgraded from deco x20s wifi5 to deco BE63 wifi 7. All my devices are only wifi 6/6e though. Even so I can stably do a gigabit wirelessly and play league of legends with rock solid ping/ Worthy upgrade imho

[@AvanCade]

This is such a non issue. As a famous KZbinr says, judge a product by its current features and not by what is promised. This is ultimately up to the consumer.

[@FanTheDeck]

Agreed that it's up to the consumer. That's why I think it's helpful to educate the consumer from time to time.

[@SWOTHDRA]

​​@@FanTheDeckur just a steam deck fanboy

[@FanTheDeck]

@@SWOTHDRA where've you been?

[@FSAPOJake]

The fact that it uses an Intel CPU + Graphics already makes it very unproven in the handheld space. We need actual real reviews.

[@groenevinger3893]

the fact that it uses an Intel apu makes its very interessting to make to see the reviews.. finally something different than thos amd apus. It is unproven, but i know that msi and intel are both top tier brands, it will be competitve

[@jesusbarrera6916]

@@groenevinger3893 there were other INTEL CPUs in handhelds in the past

[@Chad_Wick]

not a fan of how you get diffrent processors for diffrent models with the steam deck it's just the memory

[@boombox8675]

i think ppl r willing to get lower perf/resolution for more battery life if it means more gametime and thats the main issue with intel processor. they cant perf in the lower tdp that handheld needs. i liked phawks vid on metorlake but hey, the more mainstream brand the better for us. and these brands r the only one with much more availbility (still no steamdeck in australia and asia). also no matter how extrodinary job small brands like ayaneyo does they will alwase be for enthusiast so its good that asus msi lenovo getting on it (even if they chasing trends) the more mainsteam pc handheld will become

[@son0fsocal]

Well My Friend, I don’t have anything to worry about because I never planned on buying one 👊🏼

[@landont.5400]

Channel name says it all, No bias at all

[@Saif0412]

Intel still has a lot of work to do on driver support to bring it up to Nvidia/AMD level and battery life won't be anywhere near Steam Deck OLED's. Was hoping at least 7500mt 32GB ram as well, so that's another let down. Seriously doubt it will be much faster than 7840u /Z1 extreme chips. We'll see after reviews though.

[@Musashi12525]

Cyber dopamine ran assassin creeds internal benchmark if you want to know a frame rate

[@terreos87]

No 32gb model. No sale for me. Plus it doesn't seem to have anything that sets it apart from the others.

[@rangergooseman]

I already have a Go and SteamDeck OLED, there's nothing here to set it apart from the others, other than being Intel based and that's not enough

[@FanTheDeck]

Understandable

[@terreos87]

@@rangergooseman That's fair. Good chance it won't be much better if at all performance wise either. It's too safe of a design too. It seems like they just copied the ROG Ally and called it a day.

[@HiTechLoLife]

Battery Life... The one true metric and even MSI knows it. That's probably why it's the probably the most unrealistic metric from their advertising.

[@earldixon8095]

Who wouldn't want to pay hundreds of dollars for a machine that cant run a vast swath of your library and will likely get less than an hour of battery life. What a time to be alive! Don`t get me wrong I`m all about competition but "good competition" would be preferred.

[@nuclearthrone2497]

I’m quite excited about the Claw, also about WiFi 7, hope it will get actually certified though and curious about the actual chip and max gbps it can achieve

[@iyeetsecurity922]

I'm holding out for Wi-Fi 9.

[@adhishprasai8627]

I have steam deck OG and Legion 5 RTX 3060 I will upgrade both when handheld can do 4k 60 in every game docked and pc can do 8k 120 ultra .....

[@cinnabarsin4288]

Never ever pre-order or buy into the hype until something is proven out. The Ally already showed how well something like this can be painted. Turned out to be a perfectly good device but nowhere near what was being painted up front and with plenty of its own problems.

[@franzlaman]

Great video, I’m curious to see how the intel chip will work in the claw, since AMD has been the main cpu in latest window’s handheld, I have had a legion go, and now have a rog ally, prefer the ally due to its smaller size. Keep up the great work

[@maskedlover8768]

Great indept look on marketing of Claw =]]]]

[@FanTheDeck]

ty ty

[@MyurrDurr]

Such huge bezels on top and bottom ;-; why

[@CuriousTinkering]

What people need to be really cautious about are the Intel drivers and battery life! Also Ben of Lenovo didn't say the Go will have a Landscape Display. He said that the device will have a landscape default. I interpreted is that it's a portrait display but orientated in landscape by default via software. But this is doesn't matter because more people booting the device or the first time were greeted with a Windows 11 set up in portrait. 😂

[@Ghost88o9]

Love your content, personally, I have a feeling the ally is gonna be the better but. The claw is gonna need months of software optimization To even come close to competitive..

[@groto27]

Your channel is awesome!

[@FanTheDeck]

Here you go - KWQRJ-77LED-PMFK7 Enjoy! Maybe consider using my affiliate link next time you buy from Amazon or humble ♥️🙏🏼

[@groto27]

@@FanTheDeck will do! Thank you!!