MSI Claw Review: Swing and a Miss

[@itchimo82]

I appreciate the fact that you waited before doing the review. You were being more than fair with MSI/INTEL. I don't want to pay to be a beta tester for a inferior product.

[@jinx20001]

not many reviewers actually spend time with a product and live with it in order to give a true objective review and i think thats why retro game corps is up there with the best if not THE best reviewer. Dude could be reviewing washing machines and i would still entirely trust the review because they are not rushed and are the results of weeks of living with the product. Thanks for putting that time in to make these reviews as honest as possible and i hope the channel just exponentially grows.

[@venom74799]

I absolutely agree. Some people grab a product and review it a few hours after launch. I appreciate the longer hold times on reviews to get a full depiction of how ownership of the product would be on a long term scale.

[@rosaria8384]

Yeah, this feels like a more expanded version of Gamers Nexus' review of the Claw. And that's a good thing.

[@LprogressivesANDliberals]

Russ is a ex army man! Content from them tends to be very disciplined & well thought through. I enjoyed it too 🦅🇺🇸

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

Nah. This dude didn't wait for a year before reviewing the device meaning he's obviously missing out on all the fixes that are _just_ around the corner. Fail of a review. (Yes, I'm being sarcastic)

[@Bob_Smith19]

ETA Prime hands head in shame 😂

[@Daidoart]

Finally a Claw review from my favorite KZbin channel

[@shinyplaid]

34:48 “The only reason I’m keeping it is because I’m past my return window.” is a pretty scathing review all by itself. 😂

[@jtdx_]

Tried one in-store and was shocked to see the hefty price tag. They need to price it similar to the Steam Deck to even get some consumers to consider

[@me2olive]

The fact that the Steam Deck with its now 2 year old hardware (except for the OLED screen) can still compete and in many cases outperform more expensive and more recent handhelds is pretty amazing.

[@ElmokillaXDK]

not that surprising since amd and valve worked together to develop the chip, and it runs on linux which is infinitely customizable

[@ElmokillaXDK]

@lofl6968 would could win the handheld gaming war if they just gave windows a handheld gaming mode and control panel to control tdp etc

[@MyZimeCharts]

​​@lofl6968but because Steam is working hard to get every Game to Run in linux I think 95% of the Games Run fine. I tried most Games from my steamlibary on my steamdeck and I didnt find one single game that dont Work on Linux. Even those Games which Had a "non compatable" sign on Steam run very well. And the craziest thing is there is one Windows-Game that didint work on my high-end Windows PC but Work on the steamdeck 😂

[@antonkirilenko3116]

@lofl6968 Funny how running a Windows game on Linux through a compatibility layer can get you better performance than just running the same Windows game on Windows.

[@paulkendrick4153]

@lofl6968 no it isn’t. Stop complaining

[@JavierHerrerag]

Retro game Corps is my fav channel. Period. Love this man's reviews!

[@stormranger528]

Better than ETAprime

[@TOAST818989898]

@@stormranger528not in the same league. The other is just advertisement at this point

[@plaistowjames6792]

Thank you

[@B_Machine]

​@@TOAST818989898 No kidding. I like that he always advises to not spend money on Black Friday and whatnot, but damn his reviews are so bias towards the product.

[@Syssn3ck]

You're putting more time and care into your reviews than MSI put into this handheld device. Thank you so much for this review and it's such a shame, that the Claw doesn't deliver.

[@FostersHomeFG]

Damn! Russ didn't tell me I needed a Snack and Drink. =( Luckily I'm eating lunch =)

[@mec1]

You needed lunch, and I hope it passed The Contra Test.

[@TOAST818989898]

This one is for people that say Russ is too nice of a reviewer... Great work as always btw

[@Madblaster6]

21:10 I would have locked the Ally to 60FPS like the SD. Could have been closer to 2 hours and I'm sure if you lower the TDP you can still get 60 FPS and increase the battery life more.

[@KristopherCost]

Excellent review! I appreciate you taking the bullet for us with this handheld.

[@austinRstr8]

crazy how every handheld pc review is basically just an ad for the steam deck 😂

[@wolffactor56]

Without the benefits that the steam deck is with battery life.

[@BrentCox2B]

Tell you own a steam deck without telling us you own a steam deck lol

[@Chris.in.taiwan]

But the ROG ally is better.

[@paulkendrick4153]

Love it. Steam Deck is King and the original. The rest are copies 😊simple as that

[@Chris.in.taiwan]

@@paulkendrick4153 not really. These run windows so are much more flexible.

[@KrazyShark]

Man this review just made me realize how much of a beast the Steam Deck is. 750$ for the MSI Claw... the stutters are unacceptable, this really feels like a prototype. This is why I'm always on guard whenever there's a "Me-too" product from other brands, even well known ones cause I know the lack of polish that the "original" does not have will always make the product suck. When I bought my HP PC tablet many years ago that supposedly was just like a Microsoft Surface, the UI and overall experience was just so bad that it still leaves me with a bitter taste to this day.

[@SWOTHDRA]

the OG steamdeck was a metoo product too

[@oo--7714]

The shader cache was too much for me lol I had to give it away. Can't really say ythe steam deckw as polidhed when my drive was always filling up due to steamworks files and sbader cache.

[@DogginsFroggins]

@@SWOTHDRA How exactly? They basically made an entire operating system, a verfication system on games, insanely cheap price, years of development and innovation, its the opposite of a metoo product.

[@IceYetiWins]

​@@SWOTHDRAhell no

[@adderhoney]

Great review.

[@archaichobo6969]

I returned mine and bought a Steam Deck. The Steam Deck is overall the best choice for me. If I need to play one of the few games that don't run on the Steam Deck I will use my Rog Ally or my Rog strix laptop. Not to mention my desktop with an rtx 3070. I'm not missing out, trust me.

[@poonsamurai]

Double fail, nice

[@ThomasGail]

The steamdeck is the best overall experience. ​@@poonsamurai

[@85crazytechlaz]

​@@poonsamurai lmfao 😂😂 right

[@idkanymore3382]

Steam deck... yikes

[@85crazytechlaz]

​ by now everybody should know that the steam deck is old news and it CANT play a lot of good games so it's pointless to purchase that device this time around sorry man but valve needs to step theregame up @ThomasGail

[@mattb6522]

Good review and analysis! I am more than happy with my Steam Deck. Valve already really set the bar insanely high! The fact that the MSI Claw has constant stuttering in many games (amongst the other issues) at its current price is completely unacceptable. Hopefully MSI will be able to work out a lot of these issues, but I'm surprised many of these issues weren't already addressed and corrected before it even hit the market!

[@DrifterSupremo]

Seems like steam deck OLED is still the best bang for the buck

[@V1CT1MIZED]

Yeah, especially if you want more than 1 hours worth of battery. All these other companies have missed the main point of a handheld. Glad I sold my rog ally.

[@badmoose01]

@@V1CT1MIZEDfr. Rog Ally defenders say they aren’t ever far away from a wall socket so battery life doesn’t matter. I think that’s more of a them problem.

[@kellyweaver8422]

​@badmoose01 wall outlet, car outlet, train, bus or plane outlet...all the same. Beyond that I carry a battery in the case that I carry my Ally in. So just with the internal battery and my extra battery I get about double the battery life.

[@Batmanshack]

Great review, I've seen many others say the same about the Claw... The MSI claw is a lemon, unless they can patch it...

[@oo--7714]

​@@badmoose01heliterally said he got 3 hours in inde games tho😂

[@EricCarter12]

I was waiting and anticipating this video for so long and actually didn't know if you were going to review this device. I'm glad you did, this was a fantastic and thorough review!

[@FORZALEGEND360]

Massive respect for you waiting to review the device. Wasn't there day one like other reviewer's after a quick buck.

[@positivepig]

absolutely love you're channel, and i'm honestly refreshed to see you didn't bullshit on the title with some clickbait bullshit of 'will they won't they?' so just judging on knowing what it generally is and that i usually agree with you and that it looks like this isn't up my alley i can actually skip the vid for the most part and get on with my day. great work great work great work x3. keep me updated on all the minutiae when u can, damnit!

[@tebo2286]

The claw is a lost cause. Let's move on to the next device. Great review by the way

[@Kikkoman85]

I saw the Claw out in the wild (Costco in Ontario, Canada) and thought I should check out a review. Thank you for confirming what I thought, I'll stick with my OG Steam Deck for now :)

[@gregyance9901]

Have you tested the new update in this one? , how is the new performance boost in comparisson with the 7840U , do you have any news about the MSI Claw 8 AI+ ?

[@Bilal.Hussain.Shaikh]

1st: Steam Deck Oled 2nd: Rog Ally 3rd: Lenovo Legion Go 4th: MSI Claw

[@loz9324]

15th: MSI Claw

[@Bilal.Hussain.Shaikh]

@@loz9324 👍🏿👍🏻

[@cooler445]

The Legion go is above the rog ally

[@paulkendrick4153]

@@cooler445 lol no it isn’t 😂 not even close

[@cooler445]

@@paulkendrick4153 it is close, and the Legion go tops it

[@trbdann2]

I am now starved and parching because I was not prompted to grab a snack and drink.

[@arr0w769]

its crazy how far ahead the steam deck is right now, they already said theyre planning on a second steam deck once they can improve it enough

[@rushmore3927]

Intel is at least two years away from anything efficient enough to be competitive with AMD. This seems a misguided product.

[@jonesymeow9487]

Exactly.

[@Fernando-ek8jp]

From a business perspective and consumer perspective, absolutely. From a technical one, I am all for companies trying their own thing to see what works. It will be nothing but great from the consumer if Intel tries to take all the feedback and data points possible.

[@jonesymeow9487]

@Fernando-ek8jp there's no point experimenting with hardware components known to not handle this type of application. It's a waste of time, effort, and resources. That's why AMD chips are used in other handhelds with success because they know what would work.

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

My dad works for intel and he says it's actually 1 day less than 2 years

[@rushmore3927]

@@mechanicalmonk2020 Winning!

[@QuirkyAvik]

I bought the ally at launch and I am still amazed at the efficiency of the z1 extreme chip.

[@LordMaxed]

I mean the Ayaneo products (while support is bad) definitely pushes for interesting handhelds like the flip, slide, and DS. The OXP2 is another detachable controller handheld with a bigger screen, the X1 is practically a tablet with controllers and it’s awesome and unique. I wouldn’t ignore or denounce these other Chinese manufacturers and their innovations simply because everyone prefers the US based companies that are known pc manufacturers. I enjoy them and definitely will look forward to seeing someone like Acer, HP, Dell, Alienware, or Microsoft to release their version of a handheld.. heck even an nvidia based handheld pc would be dope. That being said with a little research and good reviews I’d consider Onexplayer or these other handheld pc manufacturers when purchasing one

[@randomcommenterurl]

Although I’ll never buy it, I’m glad it exists. AMD is already stagnating with the 8000 series not bringing much to the table. With competition there will be more incentive for progress

[@reaperreaper5098]

AMD isn’t really stagnating, they have always had a history of having partial or full generations that were refreshed hardware from the prior gen, every other gen. Ryzen 8K is a refresh of 7K Ryzen 6K is a refresh of 5K Ryzen 4K has a ton of its chips being refreshed from prior gens. Ryzen 2K was 1000 series designs on an improved node. The budget AM4 APUs were refreshed Bulldozer chips. The R9 300 series were refreshed 200 cards. The RX 500 series was refreshed 400 cards and a new top card.

[@EmuQuest]

@@reaperreaper5098 6K wasnt a refresh of 5K right? 6K has RDNA 2 GPUs while 5K had the old Vega ones

[@DoubleDragon5180]

@@EmuQuest7k even has Vega GPUs so it’s more likely a refresh

[@justswitched8841]

There's no competition though. Intel is bad for handhelds. It got worse performance than the steam deck with early tests.

[@EmuQuest]

@@DoubleDragon5180 7K has an RDNA3 GPU doesn't it? That's an upgrade from 6K's RDNA 2

[@kennethd4958]

Ok Russ you convinced me.. I went and bought a SteamDeck OLED.

[@MichaOstrowski]

That higher power draw on the Ally seems like CPU Boost was enabled, which is just unnecessary in many situations, especially playing 2D stuff like Balatro.

[@Muhluri]

I wish he told us whether or not he turned it on

[@gnarlyblasterboys4123]

Subbed. Gorgeous review. Really like how you showcased the sound. It is good af. But I own a steam deck and this review makes me happy.

[@arielm7643]

I hope all the negative reception the MSI Claw is getting doesn’t discourage other competitors to enter the handheld market.

[@nickentros]

If they did the same thing with an AMD processor, it would likely be considered a solid alternative to the ROG Ally. Intel is the problem

[@rushmore3927]

If they're Intel chipsets, they need to wait a few years anyway.

[@jonesymeow9487]

Intell chips suck at low wattage. You'd think a company like MSI would know such things. Any company that has a solid understanding of the hardware won't be discouraged. This was just MSI creating a flop.

[@Zman1719]

@@jonesymeow9487 Intel probably paid them to put their chip in the Claw

[@justswitched8841]

Maybe they should just stay away from intel

[@Dracossaint]

My theory on why the claw exist is simple.they designed %90 of the device and left the decision on what processor to use until th end. They couldnt get enough allocation of the amd chips andddd went intel or the amd chips would make their margins thin. I wouldnt be surprised that intel is offering them a good price per chip either. Cause they want their foot in the door for this market.

[@frumiousgaming]

Probably upper management said “we need a handheld PC. Here’s your R&D budget, here’s your deadline” without really paying attention to what it needed to be good

[@zinoelgato]

This is why you’re the GOAT when it comes to handheld tech reviews! In depth, thorough and non bias, well done!!!

[@TrialbyFire]

Have you checked to see if you have a defective unit in regards to the controls stopping working? I haven't seen any other reviewers with this issue.

[@David-gs9vw]

Nice video I like how you label the name of the game that you’re playing on your devices

[@SanOcelotl]

If you already own a pc, steam deck is a no brainer, the experience is unmatched, why would you want windows on a handheld device

[@ilm91]

Because of other launchers and more compatibles games. You can‘t play games from Game Pass natively on Steam Deck without using Windows and also many Games with Anti-Cheat Software don‘t work on Steam Decks. There are big reasons to use Windows.

[@ryulanda9399]

Because the SD is underpowered slop

[@SanOcelotl]

@@ilm91 what part of "if you already own a pc" you dont get? i know there are a lot of things steam deck wont do, my point is that windows is horrible to use in a hand held device, if its going to be your only gaming device its obvious windows is the best choice

[@deviouslaw]

maybe you have a PC but if you mainly play games on PC game pass or otherwise incompatible with steam deck, that would still be a reason to get a windows handheld over steam deck. Even if steam deck is better for compatible games. ​@@SanOcelotl

[@paulkendrick4153]

@@ryulanda9399 You’re too poor to afford one. It’s okay kid 😊

[@justjoeblow420]

This was a good reminder of why I've stuck with a Deck. Not only have at this point gotten a fantastic two years of use out of my 256GB Deck but there's also not a ton of reasons to jump to a different handheld as the OLED Steam Deck refresh would be a better minor upgrade than the alternatives. I'd also argue the Deck still has the best input set up on the market to the point that the track pads honestly give the Deck a larger library of games that work well given how much the track pads allow for stuff like very keyboard and mouse oriented games to be playable on the Deck with less friction than the alternative.

[@SpikeBlighty]

Excellent review. Steamdeck so dominant in this market. Valve's voodoo producing amazing battery performance.

[@Roko-jb5hl]

I think a huge reason is because it isn’t running windows. Windows has gotten progressively worse and bloated and resource hoggy ever since XP

[@nathanburg]

I really felt like I was rolling the dice with the ally, but it ended up being my favorite handheld pc. Glad I didn't go for a claw when I had the chance; it doesn't seem like its there yet.

[@MatthewJohnCrittenden]

Those stutters would be enough to rule it out for me. Great review, as ever.

[@aolvs1950]

The only flaw MSI did was choose intel.

[@inmypaants]

My guess is Intel chose MSI ($$$)

[@kewlztertc5386]

It's baffling. MSI is a major PC component manufacturer with a long history of PC gaming. How they could put something like this out is unbelievable.

[@MrMegaManFan]

Dang. Why would you pay $800 for a worse experience than a Steam Deck at half the price? Russ thank you for your honest and unvarnished review of the issues here.

[@Danarchy3]

Because steam sucks! I don't want to rent my games I want to own them. GoG all the way! I don't want to PC on a steam OS, I want a PC OS

[@TheCoolDave]

First of all, thanks for putting in the time and effort to get this video out. I personally was interested in seeing what Intel could do in this handheld market that AMD has almost full control over. A first model, beta at best and it shows. Maybe they will fix it or maybe they will give up on it and it will be on the clearance racks for $250. Even at $250 with those studders, it would be a deal killer... It's like my experience with MSI, last gen PC I went all out on MSI (was a ASUS fan but, wanted to try MSI), flagship motherboard, Video card, all MSI, on 2 machines. My main gaming PC, RMA'ed 4 times, and finally when warranty ended, I picked up a used ASUS board (never a problem) on the 2nd PC a bios update screwed up(not my fault) and I needed a manually through command line re-flash the bios (a non-PC user would have had a big problem here) and got it up.... Never will buy a MSI PC part again and this just shows more of how they treat their customers....

[@Just_An_Ignacio]

Arguibly the best of having ARC integrated graphics is being able to use the XMX version of XeSS, which is really close to DLSS image quality and performance and is overall better than FSR, a nice feature when you are playing at 480p upscaled to 1080p the most of the time. Well... when the ARC graphics decide to execute your title decently in the first place.

[@glennshoemake4200]

42 watts to play Doom Eternal isn't bad if you compare it to the 80 and 100 watt lightbulbs we used to have. 😊

[@ForceRecon112]

I'm hoping for the new claw 8AI+ that they fix alot of the bugs from the Gen 1 handheld in addition to the hardware upgrades they're making. IF they can do that, I think the updated model will be right up there with the Ally X

[@yhckelly]

I was/am a hardcore console guy- I see game discs like a fun library for part-time kicks. About a year ago. I bought a mid-tier steam deck and it blew my mind. These handhelds are totally awesome. Thanks for the video!

[@Jack32X]

Regarding the ARC drivers, you may need to install Intel DSA, a separate app in order to get the check updates to work. utterly stupid I know but that's the situation with my laptop for example

[@MrRojan]

No drinking and food warnings?

[@808GT]

Grab your favourite snack and beverage 😅

[@DFGdanger]

As the channel grows he needs to start thinking about his responsibility of not making the obesity epidemic worse :P

[@gdpiscopo]

This is cool and I'm glad there's competition. I have a Steam Deck and it has a bunch of minor bugs that need to be tweaked as well. Software bugs aren't just limited to this thing.

[@retrohandhelds]

These battery life tests are amazing to have, I actually came away liking the Claw a bit better after this. Still not worth the price, but not terrible entirely. Great video my friend! - Stubbs

[@ben-tendo]

Sorry to hear you're stuck with this just because of it taking so long for issues to potentially be resolved via updates. If I were you I'd go direct and argue that returning it to the manufacturer due to the delays in their own updates etc. being why it took so long for you to decide.

[@charliesayno1115]

Brilliant review & much appreciated. The SBS comparison of all 3 top dogs speaks volumes in a way that typical tech specs never do.

[@nefariou5]

you're amazing for going to so much trouble with this device, and giving them lots of time and chances. But personally if the performance was that bad, and the stutters were that bad, your initial review should've been scathing. if a device gets better later it can get a updated review. this device got more passes than it deserved

[@trekintosh]

The 90% battery thing is a bit weird yeah. GPD does a similar thing in some of their machines. If you plug it in between 95 and 100 it goes into passthrough mode and doesn’t charge. It’s actually useful if you want to eke out a few more FPSs

[@Karashata]

Not sure if it's already been mentioned and I'm not sure I can skim through all the comments on the video to find out, but, the VRR "test" you showed from testufo is just a simulation to demonstrate how much smoother motion appears on a VRR display as the frame rate changes versus a display with fixed refresh rate and vsync on, and does not actually test a displays VRR capability.

[@RecamierWinston]

Legion GO ftw. That screen and all those controller features. Chefs kiss.

[@Rudizel]

I think the claw has potential especially if they fix the freezing up and power draw issue. I believe the two are related and will be eventually fixed by software and firmware update. Should also be going on sale by that time so for anyone picking it up later it will be a double win.

[@huskyspade3461]

Good video. Thanks for staying objective. Your review was certainly consistent with other reviews of the device. It was an interesting prospect, but I'm sticking with my Steam Deck as it offers a superior user experience.

[@farmerandy82]

So short version: Stick with a Steam Deck?

[@mravg79]

If you already got one? Seems like a good choice.

[@alanandfriends-s2o]

@@mravg79 If you don't already have one, it's a good choice. Otherwise buy a laptop with a dgpu and plug it into a wall.

[@mravg79]

@@alanandfriends-s2o I actually bought Deck OLED in January instead of gaming laptop. I know two different devices but for my backlog Deck works like w charm and in dock mode fully replaced my old laptop (after all Deck is just low power Linux PC) For new games I also have consoles. But I'm strongly considering return to PC gaming (last 12 years it was mix pc and consoles).

[@alanandfriends-s2o]

@@mravg79 I think the SD OLED is a great choice for a handheld. I take issue with people choosing an Ally over a laptop, purely because windows is infurating to use without a trackpad or a mouse and keyboard and unless you want to sit next to an outlet, the power/performance is actually a bit worse than the SD. If you HAVE to have a windows handheld I think the Legion Go is a better option.

[@mravg79]

@@alanandfriends-s2o I have not used Windows handhelds so except for 2 obvious advantages - native game pass pc support, and no problems with multiplayer (anti-cheat) games. I do not see much of an appeal. If one really want to go through with it is it possible to install windows on steam Deck (for example on SD card). If it comes to replacing laptop the only way to go with handheld PC I see as acceptable is using some kind of dock/usb hub with mouse keyboard and external display. It does not matter what underlying system we have (windows or Linux) or what additional features (track pads) the device has in portable mode using a desktop version of the system is not an optimal experience (this also applies to Steam Deck). I'm fully aware of deck limitations like changing the OS language which requires tinkering, and will be reset after OS update. And lack of anti-cheat support. But to me Windows as OS seems to be resource greedy, and not really designed for handheld experience. For people who limit themselves to only Steam games with the steam UI there is no reason to ever look at underlying OS.

[@Neolith_]

I'm a fan of arcade flight games. I was curious as to what the game shown here is? 0:21 Great video, Russ.

[@CrYoGeNiC6977]

Makes me so glad I got the Legion Go and not have to regret it.

[@Vonliktenstien]

The Steam Deck is such a balanced device. It's of course got it's limitations, but they're so well considered for the form factor. 9.9/10 for me since I got the OLED. A VRR display would have pushed it over the edge.

[@bb_lou]

XeSS is available and usable on AMD GPUs too, you can use XeSS on any GPU AFAIK, both Cyberpunk 2077 and Death Stranding work with it on my AMD set up.

[@coachnutt61]

That battery feature got me on my deck! I actually started a RMA on it lol! 😅

[@ingramli7733]

This review reminded me how good the original Steam Deck was when it was released 2 years ago, not only it match and surpass its competitors released later in term of game smoothness (for me, the smoothness is way more important than the average FPS u got), it is also more battery efficient (even though original SD has smaller battery and slightly less battery efficient SoC, it should still beat ROG and the Claw). The more new players step in following the success Valve achieved with SD, the more I appreciate how polished the original SD design was.

[@NeilGilbert]

The honesty is what makes this SO GOOD. I appreciate you!

[@kevmarkwell5713]

Good review thank you, I think the issues were unforeseen but I'm confident a fix will be done to bring it up to the MSI branding we all know and love. hopefully some bios/driver updates will resolve this. I can see why MSI went with Intel, there is a lot of talk and focus on "AI" at the moment, being an intel ultra core it ticks that box.

[@blind_neighbourhoodNerd]

Excellent review!! Need a decent Dpad these things. I had to uninstall Street Fighter 6 off the Legion Go because of the awful Dpad choice

[@fonzitheman]

Man, thats a lot of battery testing, cant imagine how long it took you stuffing around doing all that ☺️. Very good video btw 👍

[@clarkepallagud2471]

I feel like you should Revisit the Lenovo Legion Go. I hear it has come a long way since launch with software updates and so on. would be a great vid to watch! been thinking of picking up one myself

[@clarkepallagud2471]

@LanceDragoonGamer92 oh nice, looking forward to it!

[@snuffytoon]

That Steam Deck OLED battery is truly something special. That Horizon Chase Turbo demonstration almost had my jaw on the floor

[@maddoggaming1171]

If you’re willing to wait for a sale you could get the newly price dropped Rog Ally Z1 (non extreme) for about $300 which is way less than half the cost of the cheapest Claw sku, and until the claw gets better optimization it’s not even significantly more powerful than the base Z1 (which is sad).

[@DogginsFroggins]

Excellent reviews, half of these comments are basically people advertising their preferred device and saying its amazing because they bought it, nobody cares guys.

[@Muhluri]

The steam deck bros are the worst

[@TheCloudfoot72]

Love my Ally! I always play with the power adapter attached so battery problems don’t affect me. I figured they were all going to have short battery lives just like gaming laptops. The battery tech is just not there yet. Great review thanks!

[@benlau2045]

I have tried the MSI claw and I’m glad I stuck with the rog ally despite being an older product because of its shoulder buttons. It is not comfortable using it for games relying on it soo much which I did and you cannot fix with a software update duhhh. I really outright felt the Claw is out of the competition out of the bat because of this. Yes , updates will come but being that this is the first intel device means a lot more work than normal needs to be put in to optimize those drivers which also takes a good amount of time.

[@glasssawsslipperstraws7410]

I think the only thing that will beat a steam deck for me and get me to ditch it is if there was a smaller machine that could do the same performance, like a switch with the specs and OS of the steam deck.

[@David-ln8qh]

The sheer number of inputs is so big for me, at worst you have 8 inputs from the two trackpads alongside 4 back buttons. Add in gesture/analog trackpad selection with modifier keys and gyro and it becomes trivial to play nearly any keyboard and mouse game on the Deck.

[@LegitMLG360noscoper]

This just shows how beautifully polished the steam deck experience is. Valve made the absolute best hardware and software decisions they could have.

[@Baumie11]

Hades has such a solid soundtrack.

[@yusepbcn]

Note: the fan configuration you set up on performance also affects the manual profile. I found it in my review, very poor UX design.

[@Game4Lord]

From what I've seen of this thing, the UI surrounding the MSI Center M seems really half baked.

[@ridge_r4cer]

I had those strange issues when i took a chance on the Intel GPU for my desktop. I really wanted to stick w/ Intel for my graphics card, but i couldnt enjoy my PC as a gaming rig. I essentially returned the card and went w/ AMD.

[@MrKugler]

Unrelated to this video, but are you going to be making a RG35xx Plus garlic OS tutorial in the near future?

[@TeoR]

Props for trying to give them time to patch/update it. Sadly, it didn't work.

[@CrunchyTire]

It feels like they were out of ideas from the get go because it mimics the ally aesthetically in so many ways. Like some of the buttons, where they put the logo, etc. It feels like they just made their own ally rather than their own handheld.

[@ughitstravis9243]

Seeing things like this make glad I got the OLED SD man crazy

[@Roko-jb5hl]

It’s a good looking handheld in my opinion. Basically a black Ally, which I wish was a choice. I’m still worried about the Ally and card issues.

[@Kuriketto]

I've heard the 155H's CPU itself is a mixed bag, even though the iGPU is the strongest Intel's ever produced. I'm guessing there's something wonky going on with the CPU utilization in the games that were tested here, since it seems oddly low, and that might explain the stuttering.

[@alejandrobarcelo3987]

Great video as allways, the quality fo your reviews are just amazing. It´s a "cheap" copy of the Asus Rog Ally, a not finished product at a very high price, seems that the Steam Deck Oled is thes best choice for the price.

[@fernandoibarra2081]

I was waiting for this! Saw some reviews and was unsure how it will uphold in the future.

[@Exessive-Gaming]

Funny you mention the battery, For future sake, reason MSI implemented the charge state at the percent is because batteries actually only reach peak efficiently charge at 80 percent out of 100 percent, this is why with small batteries as well as big batteries like tesla batteries you don';t even need to charge past 80 percent. "Short hand version answer for those people who are confused and throwing their hands up"

[@MrSamuel1234567]

I think the Aokzoe A1 Pro is quite underated and should be used in comparisons with other devices. I love my Aokzoe A1.

[@Muhluri]

I'd have loved to get the A1 pro for it's big battery

[@berightback91]

great video, and kudos to great ergonomic features from MSI

[@kanna2002]

This was great, thank you for the work getting this video out. I am wondering if you would advise on a device. Where I am, the standard Steamdeck is the price of the ROG ally, would this make the Ally the obvious choice?

[@Ess_Chalk]

Did your testing include the BIOS and driver updates of the past week? I don't think that it would change your review but I'm curious.

[@matuzaato]

Fantastic review, thanks for saving people's money

[@TheTheShizzler]

The funny thing is, I remember all the handhelds before the Steam Deck and I think GPD releasing the first AMD powered one. It's so crazy that since the Steam Deck and the release of RDNA 2 that NOBODY was using Intel and now Intel can't run anything