MSi and Intel have teamed up at CES 2024 to announce the world’s first gaming handheld with an Intel Core Ultra chip, the MSI Claw.
MSI Claw is the latest addition to a growing class of Steam Deck competitors, but so far, they’ve all been powered by AMD APUs like the AMD Z1 and AMD Z1 Extreme. The MSI Claw will come equipped with up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with integrated Intel Arc graphics, 16GB LPDDR5, NVMe SSD storage, Intel Killer WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, and a 7-inch Full HD 120Hz touchscreen. refresh rate, with 100% sRGB color coverage and brightness up to 500 nits.
As the first gaming laptop powered by Intel’s new Core Ultra processor, MSI Claw is an important stage for Intel to showcase its latest architecture in a market that has seen huge growth following the breakout success of the Steam Deck. As MSI’s first gaming handheld, the Claw comes with some serious gaming pedigree behind it, something that should help set it apart from the growing number of competitors like the Lenovo Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally.
One thing that MSI Claw also brings to the game is the Intel XeSS graphics upgrade. Unlike ROG Ally and Legion Go, which rely on software algorithms to render a frame at a lower than native resolution before expanding it to the target frame resolution, MSI Claw will be able to use dedicated AI hardware to better upscale frames. lower resolution. . This will provide a higher quality result with fewer visual artifacts while maintaining faster frame rates.
In addition to the impressive internal specifications, the new handheld also comes equipped with a 53Wh battery, the largest battery for any gaming handheld on the market right now. This should make the MSI Claw an ideal gaming portable device for those who won’t have easy access to a power outlet to keep the device charged, and MSI promises 50% longer battery life than other portable devices, including two full hours. of battery life under full performance workloads.
Finally, MSI Claw also features full key recording functionality so users can create their own personal macros for certain games.
The stakes and possibilities are huge for MSI Claw
The introduction of portable PC gaming devices onto the scene with the Steam Deck opened up a whole new way for people to get into PC gaming and for long-time PC gamers to have an easier way to play on the go. without having to rely on one of the best gaming laptops, which are barely portable when thin and light, and are downright cumbersome when you get to the desktop replacement level.
So it’s understandable that MSI would launch its own competing handheld, but while AMD’s Z1 and Z1 Extreme chips that power the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go are pretty well established now as capable gaming processors, you can’t say the same thing still. about the Intel Core Ultra with its integrated Arc graphics. With 8 performance than a desktop card.
However, even with that stipulation, the Intel Arc GPU has some notable advantages. With respectably powerful dedicated ray tracing cores, games that use ray tracing will look great, but the biggest draw will be the XeSS enhancement technology.
The hardware AI cores on the Arc graphics architecture simply surpass any software solution AMD can implement with FSR (especially when it comes to the quality of the resulting enhanced frame), making the MSI Claw the first handheld for gaming that features a hardware-driven improvement. It will absolutely be a major asset to the new handheld, assuming it works as intended.
This is the first Intel Core Ultra processor in a gaming laptop, so while there shouldn’t be any problems bringing the power of Arc graphics and Intel processors to a gaming laptop (which is just a computer with Windows 11, at the end of the year). day), there’s also no getting around the fact that this is the first time Intel has tried to do this, and the fate of MSI’s handheld is now tied to how well Intel adapts its processor to the new form factor. It is indeed a complicated act, but there is no denying that MSI Claw is revolutionizing the most exciting gaming hardware market of the moment.
