The speed of MSI Claw handheld consoles has jumped enormously – PCW

The success of Steam Deck, ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go is indisputable, that is, compared to the fact that they are the creators of a completely new category. You can’t be so surprised (unfortunately) that the initial series ended up on store shelves with factory errors, software bugs and problematic uptime, but the manufacturers have since tried to fix and solve these. The inconvenience caused by the SD card malfunction related to ROG Ally is treated with an extra warranty period (not everywhere), and in principle there is no longer any particular problem with heating and consumption.

The MSI Claw, which competes with the above, is a strange product not only because, unlike the others, it is based on Intel Core Ultra processors, but also because the manufacturer’s leading decision-makers may have started talking about successors and long-term handheld console plans too early. This is unusual confidence, knowing the performance of Intel IGPs, but it seems that they were not talking in the air at the Taiwanese manufacturer.

According to the latest news, the engineering teams of Intel and MSI have coordinated preparations for the first major software update, which on the Taiwanese side means an improved BIOS, while on the part of the CPU giant it means a driver package guaranteeing a significant increase in performance. The two together bring the performance of the handheld console to a new level, the 45% improvement measured in F1 23 is impressive, but the extra 21-27% found in Hogwarts Legacy, Diablo 4 and Dead Space cannot be considered negligible either.

Certainly, many more games will be affected by the change, the mentioned titles have been examined by MSI’s test lab, and if this continues, Claw can certainly stand proudly against Steam Deck, ROG Ally or Legion Go. The BIOS update is probably focused on the power management of Core Ultra 5/7 processors, which promises more power from the IGP, but the fixes also included items such as no longer needing an external USB drive or hub to install new BIOSes .

How are we doing with the availability of MSI Claw? Only one distributor can be found on the domestic market, with a quick search the little green space creature reveals the prices of the console, which are on the same level as the Lenovo device. For the time being, there is no recipe for ROG Ally to create market superiority, the price of the entry-level model equipped with a plain Ryzen Z1 processor is HUF 200,000 in a completely different league, compared to the Claw with Core Ulra 5, ASUS has a price advantage of HUF 120,000. We eagerly await the summer sales and promotions, but for now Ally is towering over this category.