The original MSI Claw (A1M) was forgotten about almost as quickly as it launched, being the first handheld from MSI, and the first one to sport an Intel CPU (in this case, the Core Ultra 7 155H from the Meteor Lake family). Unsurprisingly, Best Buy has the handheld on clearance, and right now it’s available for a surprisingly good price of $562.99 considering how expensive newer handhelds are.
In this case of handheld gaming PC, this is the cheapest option you can get right now. Even the ROG Xbox Ally with the Ryzen Z2 A and 512GB of storage is $600. Handhelds with 1TB of storage and the Ryzen Z1 Extreme (the chip Intel originally targeted) will run you north of $1,000.
In both build quality and layout, the A1M is nearly a carbon copy of the original Asus ROG Ally. It sports a 7-inch 1080p display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a single USB-C port for charging and peripherals, and a microSD card slot for storage expansion; though, you can replace the SSD inside, as well.
This is a great deal considering the price of handhelds right now, especially those packing 1TB of storage, but the A1M was glossed over quickly for a reason. The Meteor Lake chip inside wasn’t built for handheld gaming, so although it offers decent performance, it does so at relatively high power draw.
In a game like Horizon Zero Dawn, it’s able to achieve around 30 FPS at native 1080p with the Balanced power plan, which uses a 30W target. Plugged in with a full 40W power budget, the game can crack 30 FPS in titles like Cyberpunk 2077 with the Steam Deck preset.
It falls between 5% and 10% short of the Z1 Extreme, and with worse battery life. With prices equal, we’d normally recommend the ROG Ally. Considering the price gap, the A1M is worth considering. The software isn’t as clear as what you get with an Asus handheld, but MSI has made dozens of updates to its firmware and overlay software since the original A1M launched.
Performance is less of a concern than battery life, with the Meteor Lake chip sucking down quite a bit of power relative to modern PC handhelds. That’s not a dealbreaker at this price, but make sure to have a quality USB-C charger at the ready.
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