'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
Can MSI's Steam Deck rival claw its way to handheld gaming success?
The handheld gaming space grew by one as MSI unveiled their Steam Deck competitor, the Claw A1M. The portable gaming console is the first to be built with Intel's new Core Ultra chipset, which uses advanced AI algorithms and on-chip video codec support for enhanced video quality while streaming games as well as improving performance under heavy workloads. And while some first-look specs are impressive, a few of MSI's decisions leave me scratching my head.
Also: What do you get for the gamer who has everything?
For the GPU, the Claw A1M uses an Intel Arc card, which is pretty much a beefed-up, standalone version of their readily available integrated Xe graphics chips. Here's what makes this interesting: The Intel Arc support forum is bursting with complaints of Arc cards causing crashes and glitches, as well as flat-out not working with a whole host of games.
The problem seems to stem from various driver updates being incompatible with various games and launchers, so we'll have to wait and see if Intel addresses the issue before the Claw launches pre-orders.
However, there are a few bright spots: The 7-inch IPS display provides 1080p full HD resolution as well as a 120Hz refresh rate, the Claw A1M has a built-in fingerprint reader for added security, and it supports Wi-Fi 7 for faster, more stable online gaming.
Also: Valve's Steam Deck turned this 40-year-old dad into a gamer again
So, if the MSI Claw A1M caught your attention, how does it stack up against the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally?
Specs | Steam Deck OLED | Asus ROG Ally | MSI Claw A1M |
CPU | AMD Zen 2 4-Core | AMD Ryzen Z1/Z1 Extreme | Intel Core Ultra 7 155H |
GPU | AMD RDNA 2 | AMD RDNA 3 | Intel Arc |
RAM | 16GB DDR5 | 16GB DDR5 | 16GB DDR5 |
Storage | Up to 1TB internal, expandable with microSD | 512GB internal, expandable with microSD | Up to 1TB internal, expandable with microSD |
Display | 7.4-inch OLED, 1280 x 800 90Hz | 7-inch IPS LCD 1080p 120Hz | 7-inch IPS LCD 1080p 120Hz |
Battery | Up to 12 hours | Up to 12 hours | Up to 4 hours |
Dimensions | 11.7 x 4.6 x 1.9 inches | 11.02 x 4.37 x 0.83 inches | 11.57 x 4.6 x 0.83 inches |
Weight | 640g | 608g | 675g |
While the MSI Claw A1M has some promising specs, the known issues surrounding the Intel Arc graphics drivers is going to make it a hard sell in a market that is already dominated by the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck.