• 3 months ago
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.
Transcript
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.