It’s no secret that the MSI Claw A1M is…not a particularly great handheld gaming PC. Its performance, for one, is not comparable to its competition, and its battery life isn’t great either despite packing a rather generous battery capacity. Granted, after a slew of software updates, the Claw does get quite a bit better in the performance department.

On top of that, the retail price of the Claw has also been reduced in Malaysia, which does make it a tad more attractive to those who are looking to get a handheld gaming PC. However, with a more refined, more powerful successor in the horizon, the Claw A1M is not an easy recommendation despite being more affordable now.

What It Is

Compared to other handheld gaming PCs in the market now, which use AMD hardware, the MSI Claw makes use of Intel chips. The model I’m reviewing here is the higher-end Core Ultra 7 155H model, which had its price cut to RM3,749; that is RM250 less than the RM3,999 launch price. There’s also a more affordable Core Ultra 5 base model of the Claw, which now costs only RM2,999.

As mentioned, the biggest shortcoming of the Claw is its performance level. Unfortunately, the integrated Intel Arc Graphics can’t quite provide comparable gaming experience against the competition, and even the Claw’s 53Wh battery – which is notably bigger than the alternatives – doesn’t offer great battery life. More on these further down the review.

The Good Stuff

Design and build quality of the MSI Claw are quite good. Although it is mostly made of plastic, it doesn’t feel cheap by any means. The handheld gaming PC is also quite comfortable to hold for long periods of time, and the buttons feel great to click. That being said, I’m not a fan of the shoulder buttons, which feel “squishy” and not particularly satisfying to press.

And then we have the 7-inch 1080p IPS display of the Claw, which is pleasant to look at with vibrant colours and wide viewing angles. Thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate, the panel offers good motion clarity as well, making it ideal for fast-paced games. All in all, it’s a good display for gaming purposes.

I’m also quite impressed with the system noise of the Claw. Even when running demanding tasks, the fans don’t get overly loud. As for thermal performance, the back of the system does get quite warm after a long gaming session, but touch points like the grip area remain unaffected.

Another surprising quality of the Claw is its audio quality. The front-facing stereo speakers can actually get quite loud with clean audio reproduction and good separation. Unfortunately, the bass response isn’t particularly strong, which is my only complain with the audio quality of the device.

Now, let’s talk about areas where the Claw leave much to be desired.

The Bad Stuff

There’s no going around it: the performance level of the Claw is not great for a handheld gaming PC that sits at this price point. While the Core Ultra 7 155H processor with integrated Intel Arc Graphics can provide a reasonably good gaming experience in several titles I’ve played, the overall performance of the system lags behind the competition.

In Control, for one, I can only get 25-30fps at 1080p with the graphics settings set to the medium preset. As for Witcher 3, I can get 30-35fps at 1080p in the high graphics preset. Personally, I spent more time playing Zenless Zone Zero and Honkai: Star Rail with the Claw, which can maintain 60fps reasonably well.

That being said, whenever I’m in a new area in either games, there are very noticeable stuttering with huge frame rate drops. Only after going around the same area for some time that the frame rate goes back up to a consistent 60fps, which is quite peculiar.

There’s also the battery life of the Claw, which is not fantastic. With the power setting set to “AI Engine,” I can only get about 1 hour and 30 minutes of gameplay time in Star Rail out of the system’s 53Wh battery. Given that this is a larger battery capacity than, say, the ROG Ally‘s 40Wh cell, the Claw doesn’t have meaningfully better battery life than Asus’ offering.

Evidently, the power efficiency of the Claw has room for improvement.

Is It Worth It?

In a vacuum, the MSI Claw A1M is a decent handheld gaming PC. But compared against other alternatives in the market now, the Claw doesn’t compare favourably. There’s also the fact that MSI is already teasing an improved successor to the Claw back at Computex 2024, which addresses most (if not all) of the current iteration’s issues.

Unless you can get the Claw with a steep discount, it’s not a handheld gaming PC that I can comfortably recommend. It’s paramount for a gaming device to deliver good performance for the money, and unfortunately enough, the Claw isn’t quite there yet, even after all of the software updates that have been issued to improve the system’s performance.

That being said, I do look forward to the next generation Claw powered by Intel’s upcoming Lunar Lake chips. After all, it promises plenty of improvements to the current version.