Tom's Guide Producer / Creator Paul Antill, used the MSI Claw as his only gaming console for 1 week.
This is Intel's debut to gaming handhelds, but is it good enough to replace the ASUS ROG Ally, an Xbox Series X or a Gaming Laptop? Here's everything he likes about this portable gaming setup and the cons you can expect.
This is Intel's debut to gaming handhelds, but is it good enough to replace the ASUS ROG Ally, an Xbox Series X or a Gaming Laptop? Here's everything he likes about this portable gaming setup and the cons you can expect.
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00:00For the next week, I'm challenging myself to do all of my gaming on the new MSI Quad.
00:05We're going to see how well this gaming handheld can replace my Xbox, my gaming laptop, and of
00:10course my ASUS ROG Ally, which for a lot of you I'm sure is the most interesting matchup here.
00:16These two look very similar. In a lot of ways, they're basically the same device,
00:20but the Quad uses newer hardware under the hood. How much of a difference does that really make,
00:25well, let's find out. Currently, all gaming handhelds except for the Steam Deck use AMD
00:31hardware, and so this is the first one to really switch things up by going with Intel instead.
00:36Specifically, we either have the Core Ultra 5 or in my case the Core Ultra 7. With both models,
00:41you get 16 gigabytes of RAM. Storage starts at 512 gigabytes, but to upgrade to 1 terabyte,
00:47you need to upgrade as well to the Ultra 7 processor. Considering that there are a lot
00:52of triple A titles that easily hit 90 to 120 plus gigabytes for a single install,
00:57I think 1 terabyte is probably the best bet for most people. Now, in my opinion, there's a lot
01:02riding on this little guy, because one, this would give credibility that Intel and MSI can actually
01:07compete in the handheld scene, and two, it would hopefully give us gamers and PC enthusiasts more
01:13competition, which should translate to more meaningful hardware improvements every year.
01:18More competition, better gaming, that's the thought. But it's actually this Intel chip,
01:23the same one that put this device on the map in the first place, that also might be its own Achilles
01:27heel. Spoiler, its performance, at least right now, it's a bit of a mixed bag, but we'll get
01:34into that. Now, when I first got my claws, okay, bad pun, hands on this in the first place, it felt
01:40and it looked a lot like what I'd imagine a small Xbox would be if Microsoft ever made one. Funny
01:46enough, rumor is they might actually be releasing something like that later this year, so be sure to
01:50subscribe if you want to see me check that out, if and when it releases. But for $699 or $799 for
01:56the fully specced out model that I have here, how close did this get to being a true all-in-one
02:01gaming machine? One of my favorite things, especially on a day like today, is to come out,
02:06enjoy a little fresh air, but still game. And it's when I'm playing out here that I'm a little bit
02:11more forgiving as far as performance goes. I don't mind having lower frame rates, I don't mind
02:15dropping the resolution to 720p, because what beats playing your favorite AAA games with a view
02:20like this? It's incredible to be able to play AAA games from the comfort of my couch, patio,
02:27or anywhere else with relatively decent performance. And I'm talking anywhere from 30 to 60 frames per
02:32second, depending on the game and the graphic settings. And if I could have gotten my hands
02:36on something like this even five years ago, I would have lost my mind. But a lot of that magic
02:41does wear off, and it's not always smooth sailing. Starting with the positive, the experience once
02:46you're actually in your games feels very similar to the Ally. It weighs and feels about the same,
02:51has a very similar button layout, and in a lot of games, if you're not actively looking at your
02:55frames per second, performance feels about on par. The thing is though, I ran into a lot more
03:02issues getting the games to run smoothly in the first place compared to with the Ally.
03:06Much of this does come down to Intel's drivers and their newer hardware not being as widely
03:11supported by developers. For example, one of my favorite titles, Batman Arkham Knight,
03:15wouldn't load at all until I installed this specific patch for ARC graphics.
03:20This wasn't a huge deal, but it did require a level of basic troubleshooting that your average
03:24gamer, especially someone just coming from a console, probably doesn't want to do. In fairness
03:29though, the Ally did have its own share of issues when it first released, so I'm optimistic a lot
03:34of these minor inconveniences can get ironed out in the next few months. On another positive note,
03:40the Claw seems to have the advantage when it comes to battery life. I can usually get about 20,
03:45maybe 30 minutes more on certain games before I need to reach for a charger compared to the
03:50Ally. When plugged in, the Claw also seems to charge a little bit faster to 100%. And together,
03:56this makes the Claw feel like the better choice when I'm on the go and I don't have easy access
04:00to a power outlet. But as great as that is, it's hard to ignore that the Claw still costs more than
04:05the Ally while being at best on par or slightly behind in terms of actual gaming performance.
04:11And even though I wasn't expecting the Claw to blow the Ally out of the water,
04:15I was surprised to find that in a lot of games like Batman Arkham Knight, the Claw ran about
04:19the same. And in games like Red Dead 2, it was actually 10 to 15 frames per second behind in
04:24most tests. From what I've tested, Gotham Knights is one of the few games that actually reliably
04:29seems to run better on the Claw, but it's a title I don't necessarily enjoy playing, so
04:35it doesn't really say too much. But at least in my test, for the games that matter most to me,
04:40the Claw isn't really offering any significant advantages, yet at least. Maybe with future
04:45software or driver updates, but it's hard to predict. Now, because the Claw is stuck with
04:51the same 7-inch display that we find on the Ally, it's not the best for immersion. When I'm at home,
04:56I actually prefer to play my games on my 65-inch Hisense TV. And going into this challenge, I knew
05:02I wasn't going to be doing any 4K gaming, but I was curious to see what the experience of using
05:07the Claw as a console replacement would be like. Getting the big screen experience is a little bit
05:12trickier. Again, because this only has the one USB-C port, we're going to need a dock or a dongle
05:20like this in order to have power as well as an HDMI output. Because MSI's dock hasn't actually
05:27officially released yet, I'm using Plugable's PT-Stand 1. There's a lot of extra steps here,
05:33and we're not done yet. Because this is a touchscreen handheld first, it's not really
05:37designed to be in a docked situation, unless you have external peripherals like a wireless keyboard
05:43and mouse. Even on lowest settings in some AAA games that you'll probably want to play, like Red
05:48Dead Redemption 2, which has been out for a couple years now, you're going to be maxing out around 30
05:52frames per second at its lowest settings at 1080p. I'm sure you could drop this down to 720p, but
05:58this is already a large 4K TV. As much as I really want to play the Claw hooked up to the TV and to
06:04enjoy it on the bigger screen, it doesn't really feel like it's designed for it. Just with the fact
06:09that consoles are cheaper, they hook up with just the one HDMI cable, a power cord, and as soon as
06:14you plug one of these in and connect it, you're in your game pretty quickly. On the other hand,
06:20with MSI Claw or any other handheld, you're going to need one of these, one of these,
06:24on top of having a controller. There's something to be said for the simplicity of just setting up
06:30an Xbox using two cables and being able to jump back into your games in seconds just by turning
06:35it on. One of the biggest reasons that you'd probably want an MSI Claw, and the reason you'd
06:41put up with all the oddities that come with Windows 11, is so that you can hook it up to a
06:45monitor like this, connect it with your mouse and keyboard, and use it as a desktop replacement.
06:50When it came to general productivity, it did an excellent job, and this is probably the big
06:54strength of this new Intel chip. For the most part, I could actually forget that I was using
06:58a handheld device. I'm someone who has way too many Chrome tabs open at once, Google Docs,
07:03Research, YouTube videos, all at the same time. And even with Slack and a few other apps running
07:08in the background, it all runs really smoothly. I'd even go as far as to say that as a desktop
07:12replacement, I think the Claw does a much better job than the Ally because of that extra CPU
07:17horsepower from multitasking. Now, although I can't take full advantage of playing beautiful
07:22games like Red Dead 2 on this ultra wide monitor at max settings, for less demanding games at 1080p,
07:28it does hold its own. But if I could only play one game for the rest of my life,
07:32it'd probably be Overwatch 2. This can hit between 100 to 120 frames per second at 1080p
07:37with low settings. And even though it's not the most visually impressive experience,
07:41it's about on par with the Ally, which for me is good enough for something this small.
07:47So in the past week, trying to use the Claw for everything, I think I've learned a lot about this
07:51device. One, it has a lot of room for improvement. And the biggest takeaway for me is that this
07:56works best as a handheld, which sure isn't a huge surprise, but it also helped me realize just how
08:02great consoles still are and probably won't get replaced anytime soon. But as it currently stands,
08:07the ASUS ROG Ally, in my opinion, is the safer bet for a lot of people as it offers the most
08:12bang for buck with the most consistent and reliable gaming performance. Having said that,
08:17I think the Claw is still very much in beta, which in my opinion, isn't a bad thing if you
08:22know what you're getting yourself into. MSI and Intel have a lot riding on this. And because of
08:27that, I think it's likely that the Claw hasn't seen its full potential yet. Featured driver
08:32updates could be promising. And if you're like me, an early adopter, this could be one of the
08:37more interesting handhelds that we see this year. But what do you think about the Claw?
08:41Is it something that you'd pick up for yourself? Let me know in the comments. For more cool tech,
08:45you can follow us everywhere at Tom's Guide, and you can follow me to see what I'm reviewing next.
08:50Until the next one, I'll catch you later.