After having its debut spoiled by leaks, the MSI Claw A1M has still managed to make an early impact in the handheld market, largely due to the intrigue surrounding its decision to side with Intel for its APU rather than AMD. While its primary competitors all chose team red, the MSI Claw needed a unique selling point, and believes it found this with Intel. However, we seem to be missing one key spec that was leaked in the lead-up to CES, and can’t help but wonder if it’s being held for a future model.
Whether or not the MSI Claw goes on to be one of the best handheld gaming PCs remains to be seen. What we do know is that there will be three models available at the still unspecified launch date, and they’re priced competitively against the market, if you exclude the Steam Deck.
The first MSI Claw is the A1M-052US, which has the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H alongside 512GB of SSD storage, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, a 53WHr battery, and Intel Arc 5 graphics. This model will be considered an entry-level device and cost $699.99, as shown in the initial price leaks we reported.
If you’re after a little more processing power, the MSI Claw A1M-051US is the middle ground, offering an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H while maintaining otherwise the same specs. This model will retail for $749.99.
Finally, if you want the highest base storage possible, the MSI Claw A1M-050US is the choice for you, as it retains the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H but ups the SSD storage to 1TB.
Most notable is the absence of the rumored 32GB RAM model. This was part of the initial leaks for the Claw, but there has been very little mention of it since. Granted, whether or not a gaming handheld needs 32GB of RAM is another matter entirely, especially when the ROG Ally, Legion Go, and Steam Deck all offer 16GB and are perfectly capable.
While we wait for official benchmarks to truly judge the performance, we did go hands-on with it in our MSI Claw preview at CES and found it to likely be a genuine contender to the ROG Ally, but it may struggle to dethrone the Steam Deck OLED.
If you’ve already got a Steam Deck and are looking for inspiration for new games to play, check out the best Steam Deck games that are optimized for Valve’s handheld.