It’s been a whirlwind week for the MSI Claw A1M. It leaked before an official reveal at CES, and has since gone through a round of testing at the hands of the press at the Las Vegas show. We know its price and specs, but we now also know new models are already being worked on.
We were lucky enough to go hands-on with the device for our MSI Claw preview, live at CES 2024. We’re impressed by MSI’s tech – especially as a comparison to the ROG Ally – but it falls short of being a true Steam Deck competitor.
In the days since its official reveal, system product managing director at MSI, Clifford Chun, spoke to IGN about the future of the Claw, stating the following:
“So, this will be only the first version of our Claw. We are anticipating to come out version 2, version 3, version 4 down the road, and it’s already in the pipeline.”
This is refreshing to hear, but also a little preemptive considering we still have no confirmed release date for the A1M. Granted, the MSI Claw price already looks set to cause headaches for the ROG Ally and Legion Go, but speaking on new models so soon is bold.
On the other hand, we’ve been desperate to hear more about the Steam Deck 2 since shortly after the initial release of the Steam Deck LCD. We were surprised by the reveal and launch of the Steam Deck OLED last year, and this did lead to an update on the current state of a possible Steam Deck successor, but the news has been incredibly light ever since.
There seem to be two extreme perspectives fighting it out. MSI is upfront about future iterations and Valve is happy enough to let work quietly continue behind the scenes. Both are a more than understandable approach to a booming market and neither will want to make a mistake that could be costly.
Stick with us for more hands-on previews, news, and interviews from CES live in Las Vegas.