MSI Claw review: portable gaming console on Intel Core Ultra

Portable gaming consoles, especially those running Windows 11, are still hardly massive. But the demand seems to be growing rapidly. Recently, this niche was dominated by Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch with closed systems, and only little-known Chinese manufacturers were producing Windows-based products. Nowadays, A-brands producing PCs and components have also taken up the challenge. Today, we’re going to tell you about the features and our impressions of the MSI Claw portable console, which is characterized by the use of the Intel platform and a number of other interesting features.

MSI Claw specifications

Package contents

The small box that MSI Claw comes in has bright printing with the main technical features and an image of the device itself. The package includes a basic set: the MSI Claw console itself, a 65W power supply, a separate power cable, and the necessary documentation. But the company offers many interesting and useful accessories separately, which we will talk about later.

Design and ergonomics

Most current portable consoles from well-known manufacturers have a similar design that dates back to the PSP days: a large screen flanked by buttons, sticks, and speakers. The case is quite large, which is quite typical for such devices, especially given the 7-inch display. When you start using it, it may seem that the bezels around the screen are quite wide, but you get used to it quickly.

Theoretically, a slightly larger screen could fit, but then it would make sense to increase the battery, which would lead to an increase in weight. Almost the entire body is made of matte black plastic. Only the D-Pad and a couple of small decorative inserts are glossy. The MSI Claw coating is practical and almost does not collect fingerprints, which is especially nice.

The buttons and sticks are arranged in the usual way used in Xbox gamepads. That is, the position of the sticks is asymmetrical. They have RGB-backlit rings. The four main ABXY buttons are also backlit. Below the left stick is the D-Pad. It is solid. The arrows are not separated, as they are on PlayStation controllers.

There are two more buttons at the top on either side of the screen: the standard Xbox Menu and View, as well as buttons for launching the MSI Center M proprietary application and the Quick Settings menu. Below these buttons are two microphones.

The side edges are ergonomically shaped with curves typical of classic gamepads. It has pleasantly streamlined contours and a recess for the middle fingers. MSI Claw is very comfortable to hold, and all fingers find the right place at once. The index fingers clearly rest on the triggers. The only small complaint (subjective, of course) is that the bumpers could be made a little larger.

It is worth noting that MSI Claw uses sticks and triggers on Hall sensors. That is, there is a magnet in the control, and a Hall sensor under it that monitors magnetic field fluctuations. This eliminates friction and physical contact. This means no joint drift, false triggering, or dead zones. More precisely, dead zones can be customized and reduced to 0.

On the back of the console there are two more small buttons M1 and M2, where you can configure macro commands. They are also involved in using various combinations for quick commands. They are clearly under the middle fingers. The back panel also has a large number of ventilation holes for cold air intake, a dragon logo, and an eyelet for attaching a strap.

On the upper edge, between the bumpers, there is a power button with a built-in fingerprint scanner, a power indicator, a MicroSD slot, a USB Type-C port (Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort, and Power Delivery), a mini-jack for a wired headset, and volume buttons. Below that is a large number of hot air vents.

In general, the MSI Claw is very comfortable, all controls are located in logical places, and the weight of 675 g is not very noticeable even during long games. The only minor criticisms of the design are the small size of the bumpers (as mentioned above) and the rather soft joints, which take some getting used to after DualSense. And a touchpad for interacting with Windows and playing strategy games would be nice. 

Screen

The MSI Claw uses a 7-inch IPS screen with a classic 16:9 aspect ratio, a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, and a refresh rate of 120 Hz. The dot size is 0.0807 mm and the pixel density is 315 PPI. On the one hand, it may seem that the diagonal is too small, given the modern smartphones with almost similar screens. On the other hand, you should keep in mind the power consumption. And in practice, this diagonal feels optimal, as does the resolution.

The screen is touch-sensitive, it is covered by a protective glass and it is noticeably larger than the screen itself below it, so there are wide visible bezels. But against the general background of the black body, this does not strike the eye. The maximum brightness of the display, according to hardware measurements, is 481.318 cd/m². During testing, the brightness was used at the level of 25-35%, which is no longer very comfortable. Higher brightness will be appropriate only outdoors on a sunny day.

The static contrast ratio is 1183:1. The color gamut is very close to the sRGB color space, the color temperature is slightly overestimated, about 7500K, that is, the picture has a slightly cool tint.

You can adjust the brightness either in Windows Settings or in the Quick Settings menu. You can also quickly change the refresh rate and resolution there.

Hardware platform

Unlike other similar solutions, MSI Claw is not powered by AMD, but by the new Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor. There is also a configuration with the simpler Core Ultra 5. The processor has a configuration of 16 cores: 6 powerful, 8 energy-efficient and 2 ultra-efficient. It supports up to 22 computing threads. The maximum frequency is 4.8 GHz.

In addition, the chip includes an Intel AI Boost neuroprocessor (NPU) for machine learning and AI functions. But the most important thing for a gaming console is the graphics accelerator based on Intel Arc architecture, which includes 8 Xe cores and has a frequency of up to 2.25 GHz. The base power of the processor is stated at 28 watts. But in MSI Claw, it varies from 20 to 40 watts, depending on the load and the selected operating mode.

The processor is complemented by 16 GB of LPDDR5-6400 RAM, some of which is used for the needs of the graphics accelerator. Wireless interfaces include Intel Killer BE Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. The drive is a 1TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 2230 SSD with a capacity of 1TB. And here we should give the engineers a failing grade: it is possible to replace the SSD on your own, but it is quite difficult. Drives larger than 2230 won’t work. But more importantly, the console needs to be disassembled down to the processor, including dismantling the cooling system. And it is necessary to apply new thermal paste when putting the system back together.

The Cooler Boost HyperFlow cooling system contains heatpipes and two fans. Cold air flows in through a large number of holes on the back panel, and hot air flows out through the top. Therefore, hands generally do not come into contact with hot parts of the console. There were no problems with overheating or system instability during use. The noise level is comparable to ultrabooks, so it’s comfortable to use.

It doesn’t make much sense to measure the performance of a gaming console with standard benchmarks, although formally, MSI Claw can be considered a mini-PC on Windows 11. Given the use of an up-to-date ultrabook processor, you can expect appropriate performance in work tasks, which is enough to work with documents, as well as basic photo and video processing.

MSI Claw performance in games

The most interesting thing, of course, is how MSI Claw “pulls” games, especially modern titles that require high system performance. The console came to us with the latest BIOS, which has significantly improved performance. It is also worth mentioning that scaling systems play an important role in such devices. Given the use of the Intel Arc video accelerator, it is most logical to use XeSS, although FSR from AMD is also available. It all depends on the priorities: usually FSR helps to get a higher frame rate, and XeSS provides a much better visual picture.

MSI has created a separate website, which contains the optimal settings for current games. But, of course, they are not mandatory. In general, we can say that the console can handle the vast majority of modern demanding games and allows you to get a comfortable frame rate of 50-60 FPS at low-medium graphics settings with native resolution. Given the small diagonal of the display, the picture almost always looks good. Some titles sometimes have staters, but judging by my own observations, this is mostly a problem with shader loading in Unreal Engine games. And this is a global problem, not just for MSI Claw or other portables. Some of the games we tested, you can see the FPS figures in the screenshots. Some games have a frame rate close to 60 FPS, some have a slightly higher frame rate:

Ghostrunner 2:

Dying Light 2:

Witcher 3:

Mortal Kombat 11:

Uncharted 4:

Sifu:

Ghost of Tsushima:

But games do not end with current AAA projects. There are casual games that run at 120 FPS without any problems. Various emulators, such as PPSSPP, work great. And a bunch of old games. For me, the MSI Claw opened up the opportunity to clean up my backlog a bit, play Alpha Protocol, Max Payne 3, Star Wars Force Unleashed, and many other games that were gathering dust in the Steam library, because I have no desire to play on a desktop PC after the PS5.

And another source of games for MSI Claw is MSI App Player. This is an application that allows you to play games from Android. With a library of more “full-fledged” games, you don’t want to play on your smartphone, but it’s still a nice bonus.

Sound from the built-in speakers

MSI Claw is equipped with two speakers with a power of 2 W each. They are located on the bottom of the front panel of the console and are directed at the user. Considering the dimensions of the console, the sound was quite loud and of high quality. Virtual surround sound is supported, which in games really creates the impression of immersion and allows you to determine the position of the sound source.

The sound is handled by a software solution from Nahimic. There are a lot of ready-made settings for games, movies, music, etc. In addition, there is a noise reduction function based on machine learning.

Software

To begin with, MSI Claw runs on Windows 11 Home. That is, we have a completely open OS on which you can install anything from games to conditional Photoshop or DaVinci Resolve. So in a sense, this is a full-fledged PC. For a more convenient “console” interaction, the MSI Center M application is provided. It starts automatically with the console and after installing and configuring games, its interaction with the Windows interface can be minimized.

MSI Center M looks like a typical console dashboard. We immediately get access to a horizontal carousel or tile of installed games. You can change the background, game icon, sort and add games from additional sources. Above the list of games, there are buttons to quickly go to all popular gaming services. Except for GOG, although there were no problems with it either.

Below is a line to go to the various settings. The first section is editing console power scenarios. There is an AI Engine that automatically adjusts the power and many more settings, including backlighting, sound, and controller mode. Extreme Performance is the most productive mode with the ability to manually adjust the fans. Balanced and Super Battery for less demanding games and longer battery life. In Manual mode, you can customize the TDP levels for battery and network operation.

The next section is responsible for setting up control modes: gamepad and desktop. It contains quite a few useful settings: from key assignments, trigger and stick settings (dead zones, etc.), vibration, macro commands, keyboard shortcuts (especially important in desktop mode), and calibration. This is really important for the correct operation of sticks and triggers with Hall sensors. There are many keyboard shortcuts, they are separate for each mode, and it will take some time to memorize the right ones.

The third, fifth, and sixth sections are not very interesting. The third one launches a browser with a settings site for games. The fifth and sixth are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections. The fourth section of the Quick Settings Editor is more interesting. As we have already mentioned, there is a quick settings panel launched by the bottom button on the right of the screen. In this panel, you have quick access to brightness, volume, shutdown menu, switching between controller modes, accessing the desktop, screen overlay, and a bunch of other useful functions. The number of tiles is limited, and it is in the Quick Settings Editor that you can customize them.

The last section contains the rest of the settings. In particular, AI Engine operation, backlighting, Nahimic sound settings, noise reduction, screenshot and video gallery, system information, updates, connection to MSI service, and application settings. In general, it’s convenient to use, although some things could be improved. In particular, more options for displaying games, more flexible settings for Quick Settings tiles, etc.

Useful accessories

MSI offers many interesting accessories for Claw. In particular, the MSI Claw Accessory Kit. It includes a protective glass, a wrist strap, a keychain in the form of a paw with claws, and a protective case. It is perfect for traveling. Inside, there are padded inserts for extra protection and pockets for cables and memory cards. It can also be used as a stand.

Also interesting is the MSI Claw Nest docking station, which can significantly expand the capabilities of the console. It has a retractable MSI Claw stand and many additional connectors. These include: HDMI 2.0, USB Type-C for console connection, USB Type-C with Power Delivery 3.0 up to 100 W, USB Type-C 3.2 Gen1 5 GB/s, two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 5 GB/s, and RJ-45 network with 10/100/1000 Mbps support.

This will allow you to connect an external monitor, keyboard, mouse, or external drive and turn the console into something close to a regular PC. The only thing you should know is that MSI recommends using a 100W power supply instead of the bundled one for correct operation if you have a lot of things connected.

Battery life

The MSI Claw is equipped with a 53 Wh battery, which is slightly larger than the average for modern laptops. Therefore, you can expect a good battery life. Nowadays, during regular power outages, battery life is especially important. Everything, of course, depends on the usage scenario and games. For example, you can play Cyberpunk 2077 with the maximum power mode and the backlight on for about 1.5 hours. But if we are talking about casual games or something from the old days, this figure can reach 5 hours. But it’s worth noting here that it’s best to use Battery Saver mode for undemanding games, not AI Engine.

Using the MSI Claw as a PC is another story. I’m not sure that this option will be used often, but it is available and quite effective, especially when using the MSI Claw Nest docking station. The console can play FullHD video for about 8 hours. When it comes to conditional work with documents, you can expect about 6.5 hours. Yes, ultrabooks are more durable, but in any case, the ability to use the MSI Claw in this way is a significant bonus.