The MSI Claw is a Mess: Gaming Handheld Can't Compete

The MSI Claw is a Mess: Gaming Handheld Can't Compete | Review & Benchmarks

Рет қаралды 488,122

Күн бұрын

Sponsor: Lian Li O11D Evo RGB on Amazon geni.us/B3OD
The MSI Claw A1M is a mystery of a handheld gaming device: We can't figure out why they'd make it the way they did. Maybe there's Intel marketing fund involved, but either way, it's just not competitive at its $800 -- or even $700 -- price point against the competition. Compared to the ASUS ROG Ally Z1 Extreme, Z1 Non-Extreme, Lenovo Legion Go, and Steam Deck LCD & OLED, the Claw is hamstrung in either value or performance, and often both. This benchmark looks at some of the best handheld gaming PCs right now, and almost all of those feature AMD's Z1 Extreme or 7840U (or 8840U) variants, which are mostly the same parts. The MSI Claw stands apart for silicon variety with an Intel Ultra solution, like the 155H in ours, but it has to be good to be worth that variety.
The best way to support our work is through our store: store.gamersnexus.net/
Like our content? Please consider becoming our Patron to support us: / gamersnexus
RELATED PRODUCTS [Affiliate Links]
MSI Claw A1M 155H on Best Buy: howl.me/cl2VC5bVwGQ
Lenovo Legion Go on Lenovo site: howl.me/clKICy2sNyQ
ASUS ROG Ally (Non-Extreme and Extreme) on Best Buy: howl.me/clKIJZoW5cS
JS Aux Transparent Steam Deck Shell on Amazon: geni.us/zsE1
RELATED PRODUCTS (not affiliate links)
Steam Deck OLED & LCD on Valve's store: store.steampowered.com/steamd...
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - MSI's Flawed Claw A1M
01:44 - Very Familiar to the ASUS ROG Ally Z1
03:19 - Pricing Comparison: Claw vs. Legion Go, Steam Deck, Ally
05:41 - Complete Mess of Software
09:53 - But it has "AI!"
10:49 - More Software Mess & BIOS
12:09 - Controls, Screen, & Ally Issues
13:26 - MSI Claw Hardware Comparison
15:19 - NEW Benchmark: Handheld Battery Life vs. FPS Comparison
17:57 - 2D Gaming Battery Life Comparison: Deck, Ally, Claw, Go
19:04 - Gaming Benchmark Methodology & Settings
20:01 - Resident Evil 4 Gaming Benchmarks
20:50 - Absolutely Terrible Frametime Pacing on MSI Claw A1M
21:29 - 1080p Resident Evil 4 Benchmarks
22:01 - Cyberpunk Benchmarks
24:06 - 1080p Cyberpunk Benchmarks
24:35 - F1 2023 Benchmarks (720p)
25:05 - RDR2 Benchmarks (720p & 1080p)
25:34 - Baldur's Gate 3 & Dying Light 2 Tests
26:11 - Charge Speed Benchmarks (Handheld Gaming PCs)
27:11 - Thermal Throttling Under CPU Load
28:47 - Conclusion: Best Handheld Gaming PCs
** Please like, comment, and subscribe for more! **
Links to Amazon and Newegg are typically monetized on our channel (affiliate links) and may return a commission of sales to us from the retailer. This is unrelated to the product manufacturer. Any advertisements or sponsorships are disclosed within the video ("this video is brought to you by") and above the fold in the description. We do not ever produce paid content or "sponsored content" (meaning that the content is our idea and is not funded externally aside from whatever ad placement is in the beginning) and we do not ever charge manufacturers for coverage.
Follow us in these locations for more gaming and hardware updates:
t: / gamersnexus
f: / gamersnexus
w: www.gamersnexus.net/
Steve Burke: Host, Writing, Testing, Video Editing
Patrick Lathan: Testing, Writing
Vitalii Makhnovets: Camera
Tim Phetdara: Camera, Video Editing

Пікірлер: 1 900

@GamersNexus Ай бұрын

Maybe time to make a playlist for handheld reviews to make them easier to navigate. In the meantime, check out our other recent ones below! These benchmarks are a huge effort and we often buy the hardware tested and invest weeks of testing time to bring you independent reviews. Help support us by buying one of our PC component wireframe mouse mats! store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-wireframe-mouse-mat (or shirts, glassware, and PC build mats on the store!) Lenovo Legion Go review & in-depth testing: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/f5lnoNudqdewop8.html Steam Deck OLED review: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m82UiZN_sdWwXZc.html

@BaBaNaNaBa Ай бұрын

Maybe next time don't take the Intel funding deal, MSI!

@DanteRatto Ай бұрын

Hope you do the Orange Pi Neo when it comes out.

@jzilla1234 Ай бұрын

I genuinely believe msi only made this because Intel was willing to subsidise them chips for half price. Or Intel approached .si with the idea to get some market share

@kerbalkerman6827 Ай бұрын

Any reason you don't include display details such as colour accuracy and peak brightness in these reviews?

@henrythegreatamerican8136 Ай бұрын

Waiting for the Switch 2. I figure by the time it releases, they'll be tons of good first party games because it's been delayed so long. Not to mention, I seem to have more fun playing a "kiddie" Mario type of game than ARPGs, Survival games, etc.....

@j_ferguson Ай бұрын

"No, no need to delay and give us a golden sample; I'll buy one in Taiwan and use it personally on the 14 hour flight back" "Oh my god"

@javaguru7141 Ай бұрын

This is hysterical😄

@Emmbedd Ай бұрын

What a boss

@JaredJanhsen Ай бұрын

When the vendor forgets Steve travels.

@tayizfire Ай бұрын

Gold 😂😂😂😂

@personman5156 Ай бұрын

LMAO yeah this exact thing was setting off alarm bells in my head. They definitely don't have a lot of confidence in their own product, at least the ones the general public is getting.

@nereushixon Ай бұрын

TLDR - "There's no reason to settle for good enough when better is cheaper" - Steve, GamersNexus

@Slamgod Ай бұрын

Totally agree!! This channel has put so many good decisions under my desk its not even funny. Solid thanks and appreciation to Steve and team. You guys ROCK!!

@1samm1 Ай бұрын

The sentence is good, but really, nothing about the Claw seems "good enough" - it's unreliable, stuttery, has power issues, doesn't feel well in terms of being a handheld. To me, that spells "bad", not "good enough".

@davesprivatelounge Ай бұрын

This is my dating strategy

@scarecrow5848 Ай бұрын

@@1samm1 yeah, most of these problems being from it using a intel processor to be honest. intel shouldn't have entered this market, nobody else is going to use their processors for this. slow, hot, takes too much wattage to get the same performance as AMD cpu's, which is why as mentioned, it runs hot. and I doubt they'll give software tweaks of any kind to improve efficiency at lower wattages.

@milesfarber Ай бұрын

Funny, when i made that same exact quote in 2017 everyone called me an AMD shill

@Sunlight91 Ай бұрын

Store Clerk: Why would you buy one? Steve: My job is to become disappointed.

@GamersNexus Ай бұрын

Hahahahaha

@nanobreaker Ай бұрын

LMAO. Likely what went unsaid.

@nimoy007 Ай бұрын

Thinking the claw makes it on this year's Disappointment shirt!

@AyaWetts Ай бұрын

I remember when the Steam Deck came out everyone was yelling and screaming how it would flop with its horrible battery life... then the competition came out, and all those same people don't seem to care about battery life any more.

@gamingguru2k6 Ай бұрын

I have played on a lot of handhelds. 8 hour battery life is a good sweet spot. 1-3 hours is awful for a handheld. For a gaming laptop, it's not bad.

@ryanabarca8616 Ай бұрын

@@gamingguru2k6 I mean it depends on what youre playing but yeah 1-3 hours is terrible, but playing in bed and not my desk is a good trade off

@xomm Ай бұрын

It's kinda just a fundamental thing with needing to use x86 architecture. ARM translation layers are getting better and better though. Hope one day they'll get that critical mass of compatibility like Proton did recently where it's easily usable for most people.

@Robbie-mw5uu Ай бұрын

literally no one said the steam deck was going to flop

@NZZN_ Ай бұрын

People complained about the Switch's unacceptable battery life and unwieldy form factor in 2017 and now its praised as the gold standard for size and battery life... I miss handhelds like the PSVita which can actually fit in your pocket and last at least 8 hours. What we have now would be considered 'luggables'

@_Yeeted_ Ай бұрын

I see MSI trying to claw back out of the grave that Steve put them in before.

@GamersNexus Ай бұрын

oooooooof

@goldenhate6649 Ай бұрын

A company I will never, ever make the mistake of buying from again with their borderline, if not flat out, malware of a rgb control software

@_Yeeted_ Ай бұрын

@@GamersNexus do you think they will ask you to take the video down again?

@rd-um4sp Ай бұрын

tbf, they dug that grave themselves. Steve just helped with the burying

@kay1229 Ай бұрын

@@_Yeeted_ at this point with the platform Gamers Nexus has NOW and the fact that GN will absolutely take it public and call them out, I think it's a no lol

@VRavTech Ай бұрын

Thanks, Steve

@charlesfuzak Ай бұрын

Back to you, Steve.

@Zapdos0145 Ай бұрын

You can literally see it!

@nosirrahx Ай бұрын

Boring, back to you Steve.

@GamersNexus Ай бұрын

Back to you all!

@austinporterfield1363 Ай бұрын

Thanks Steve.

@SirRoundPotato Ай бұрын

Steve, I just want to commend you and give upmost respect. I've been following your work since way back when you released blog posts about RAM timings/frequency. And to this day, you are doing unbiased reviews and keeping your integrity, in an era where everyone else sold out. That doesn't have a price tag, it's priceless.

@GamersNexus Ай бұрын

Wow! That's a long time. Thanks for sticking with us for so long! I like to think our style hasn't changed much.

@blar2112 Ай бұрын

How the fuck did Valve do it?? Like every single handheld release is a steam Deck advertisement. Crazy.

@maverickvgc4220 Ай бұрын

Not using Windows, that's most of it

@datguy8296 Ай бұрын

Not butchering battery life to keep chasing bigger numbers.

@cat-.- Ай бұрын

@@datguy8296 Absolutely, I think the most high impact decision is to make a balanced spec sheet, components that make sense for each other is more important than one of them being the best

@Slateproc Ай бұрын

Absolute consistency at any cost. By being inoffensively average so well that it may as well be a slab of marble when looking at the variarion in performance

@Despicable_Gamer Ай бұрын

By targeting xbox 360 games

@babyfacedkayos Ай бұрын

Having to buy a separate $80 dock and then recommend a 100w charger too to update the bios is WILD.

@shaneeslick Ай бұрын

Yeah that is Crazy

@Kacper42PL Ай бұрын

Actually maniac

@p5eudo883 Ай бұрын

Reminds me of an Acer laptop I bought that advertised dual drive bays. The second one didn't come with the required metal mounting bracket. They wanted you to pay another $40+ for that tiny scrap of metal to use that second bay. I never bought an Acer product again.

@xXRealXx Ай бұрын

Plus chargers usually don't come with cables, so you have to buy a 100W Type C-Type C cable too... smh

@Lascax Ай бұрын

@@p5eudo883 Oh yeah! I had a model with that too, it was a 17" model! Also when I really evaluated to buy it, it was nowhere to be found like one year after release. That and other multiple warranty issues made me avoiding Acer like plague.

@romanbellic810 Ай бұрын

Now I don't wanna get my claws on it anymore. :(

@GamersNexus Ай бұрын

That :( actually feels sad...

@harryshuman9637 Ай бұрын

bazinga!

@dex6316 Ай бұрын

@@harryshuman9637r/foundtheredditor

@SenileOtaku Ай бұрын

It's from MSI, I wouldn't have anyway.

@romanbellic810 Ай бұрын

@@GamersNexus Of course, I wanted a Claw in my claws. :(

@scorthyn Ай бұрын

Valve: Does nothing, competition keeps shooting themselves in the foot. What's that called?

@cybercifrado Ай бұрын

Hmm. I vote for, "schadenfreude".

@jaredarmstrong7403 Ай бұрын

The funny thing about Valve, is that they are exceedingly competent. They’re not always the best at everything, but they’re good at everything and excel in a few areas.

@reinbeers5322 Ай бұрын

Just Valve doing what it does best lol.

@ItWasSaucerShaped 21 күн бұрын

own goal

@GL-ms9ek 7 күн бұрын

The US Democratic Party

@Vigilence Ай бұрын

Nothing beats the accuracy the steam deck track pad offers. Surprised to see no one implement something similar.

@cameronbosch1213 Ай бұрын

The Legion Go and upcoming Orange Pi Neo both have touchpads. But yeah, the touchpads on the Steam Deck are great.

@utfigyii5987 Ай бұрын

A pc should definetely have a way to properly emulate a mouse. The ROG Ally missing the touchpads is a major dealbreaker.

@uglybad4 Ай бұрын

@@cameronbosch1213 I've only seen the Legion in videos so my opinion is unfounded but it just *looks* like the right hand trackpad is way too far out of the way to be comfy to use casually or on a moment's notice. Also it's just the one pad right? I've actually gotten a lot of mileage out of having two

@cameronbosch1213 Ай бұрын

@@uglybad4 Same here, which is why I really like the Steam Deck.

@callawolf531 Ай бұрын

Yeah, the track pads on the Steam Deck are a must for sure, and I use the right one for when I play a first person game. It's kinda weird that the other systems haven't implemented them yet

@Vehemently7535 Ай бұрын

I like the icons for showing how you acquired it. Love this channel!

@GamersNexus Ай бұрын

Thank you! Working on a small update for those soon too to improve readability on that text. Needs a drop shadow or something!

@50shadesofmycow Ай бұрын

@@GamersNexusyou are just a treasure ❤

@Lolwutfordawin Ай бұрын

What icons? I missed them and am curious now

@emanueleborghini3186 Ай бұрын

@@Lolwutfordawin 0:25 bottom left

@PrograError Ай бұрын

@@GamersNexus TBH, I would have just simplified it to a flat icon with just the text in it, then add some win 7-ese BG/ drop shadow. And to show which kind it was chosen a different colour from the rest. Fit in a lot better than a Skeuomorphic-ish design out of a budget radio replacement with screen/ Android Auto/ CarPlay, IMO

@lunaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Ай бұрын

Steve whipping out Mandarin like its NOTHING

@tim3172 Ай бұрын

Over a billion people whip out Mandarin like it's* NOTHING. (it's = it is. Its is possessive.)

@em.dot.2 Ай бұрын

@tim3172 someone learning a second language as an adult should always be commended. It ain't easy. Especially going from a Germanic language to an Eastern one. Very difficult.

@tringuyen7519 Ай бұрын

@@tim3172Only bc the CCP is made speaking Cantonese illegal.

@Avendesora Ай бұрын

@@tim3172 You're going to be a lot happier and a lot less publicly mocked and ridiculed when you figure out the difference between KZfaq comments and the essays you have to write for your middle school English class, boo.

@Avendesora Ай бұрын

@@snarkywombat155 Everyone reading and replying to this thread is literate. If you're going to slobber yourself over everything being perfect, use better language. you're failing to communicate your point otherwise, right? Nobody can understand it unless they have a very high IQ to figure it out.

@Riboshom Ай бұрын

I must have missed it in a previous episode because nobody seems to be commenting about it, but Steve apparently speaks chineese well enough to have a conversation with the store clerk and that's kind of impressive.

@sbdnsngdsnsns31312 Ай бұрын

He learned it years ago for trips to Taiwan and greater Taiwan.

@PrograError Ай бұрын

I believe he used it during the Li Lian factory tour vid

@vasheroo Ай бұрын

I'm so glad you guys have done all this handheld testing. I picked up both versions of the deck over time and I've really enjoyed them both.

@IMZ44 Ай бұрын

It shows Valve did some strange magic in creating the Steam Deck. The device isn't perfect, but the Deck is still ahead of the game.

@aruce9 Ай бұрын

The approach is similar to apples. They have control over the hardware and the software so they can optimize for the steam decks specific hardware and get the best performance for it

@IMZ44 Ай бұрын

@aruce9 I respect that approach. Plus, the OS for the Steam Deck was optimized well. Windows 11 is another story.

@DaleonM4 Ай бұрын

@aruce9 I mean msi, lenovo and asus have their own software to make windows usable. Even tho they can't teak windows they can make it usuable with good software so at some extend the approach is similar enough to Apple's.

@MM.MischiefManaged Ай бұрын

@@DaleonM4 Yeah but that doesnt optimize the garbage windows is. If anything tht software is more overhead.

@bryo4321 Ай бұрын

It’s a great approach for this type of device and I think the incredibly consistent performance and frame times is a testament to that. God battery life, stable performance, slick UI. Deck rocks

@rphilipsgeekery4589 Ай бұрын

Lol i love that ...the store assistant was honest, here he would avoid answering the question to avoid embarrassing you / put you off buying

@krknife Ай бұрын

As if employees get paid enough here to lie. If you are friendly, a lot of times they will talk to you just like this.

@rphilipsgeekery4589 Ай бұрын

@@krknife yes a minimum wage person could probably get fired for being honset

@Yellowredstone Ай бұрын

"We won't send you one." "Okay, then we'll buy one." "I was not expecting that."

@shoelesshobo7744 Ай бұрын

Thank you Steve as someone who was in the market for one of these handheld gaming I relied heavily on Gamernexus videos as a way to compare the ROG ally and the SteamDeck. to make a decision on which one I wanted to go with. Keep putting out your informative and unbiased content.

@GamersNexus Ай бұрын

Thank you! What'd you end up choosing?

@trekintosh Ай бұрын

I’m now so desperate to know what handheld shoelesshobo7744 decided to buy it’s unreal.

@shoelesshobo7744 Ай бұрын

@@GamersNexus I ended up chosing the SteamDeck OLED over the Ally. While I did notice the Ally had much better performance when in its performance mode I am mainly buying the thing for being able to play smaller titles on the go so for the extra cost it seemed like wasted potential I was also worried that to be getting those FPS I am sacrificing battery longevity. The wait time however is probably going to be a killer now though as I could have had a ROG Ally in hand today versus having to put in an order for the SteamDeck OLED which may have swayed my decision had I considered it prior to ordering. 😆

@tlefevre2918 Ай бұрын

@@shoelesshobo7744 deck oled is a great choice, i bought mine on release day and it has not let me down.

@Secret_Takodachi Ай бұрын

Thanks Steve, this video helped motivate me to sell my 256Gb LCD Steam Deck on FB marketplace so I can upgrade to the most expensive OLED Steam Deck for less than $400. When I consider how much use I got out of my OG Steam Deck + how good the condition was when I sold it (w/ case & original charging cable) I think you helped one person upgrade their handheld hobby for "cheap" & helped someone else get into the market for less with a high quality pre-owned handheld.

@GamersNexus Ай бұрын

That's awesome that these videos are helping with buying decisions! Hope the new owner knows they're getting a deal with a used device!

@50shadesofmycow Ай бұрын

This is awesome to read. I’ve also found that Valve generally puts in a lot more effort and polish. Their customer support is also honestly excellent. Got a hardware problem even out of warranty? No problem, they’ll sent you a new unit (thanks Gabe ❤)

@wheeledion Ай бұрын

@@GamersNexusThey always do! I switched to arc recently due to your followups

@Tossphate Ай бұрын

Last week I bought my mint condition 1tb LCD deck for £200. This thing is amazing. I only realised my expectations were unrealistic (forgetting about the whole windows/Linux thing) after exploring using non-steam launchers, and even then, the deck exceeds my expectations up via proton.

@VSMOKE1 Ай бұрын

How much did you get for it I want to sell mine as well that OLED been teasing me

@cardboardsnail Ай бұрын

The battery life on these handhelds is nostalgic. It reminds me of the Game Gear.

@thierryfaquet7405 Ай бұрын

Ha yes the good old day. I remember getting my gear on christmas and the dread asking for batteries after a few hours 😂 Still what a machine, I still remember how amazed me and my brother were by the backlit color screen. Wish I still had it even if it would certainly not run anymore.

@Zaque-TV Ай бұрын

@thierryfaquet7405 its so insane that that thing took SIX batteries! And not rechargeable!

@xXYannuschXx Ай бұрын

Thats what happens when you feel like you NEED the most powerfull APU avaible in these things. The SteamDeck so far is the only one with good battery life.

@thierryfaquet7405 Ай бұрын

@@Zaque-TV yeah my mother was quite smart and got us the little power supply. We played sitting on the ground near a socket 😂 cause the cable wasn’t that long (wtf sega)

@secret5. Ай бұрын

@@Zaque-TVBut there were rechargeable packs that worked great.

@MisterPikol Ай бұрын

Mofo here speaking Mandarin like it's no deal

@karamarakamarama 9 күн бұрын

It took me out for a sec lmao

@Pbenter Ай бұрын

Thanks for including the Z1 in these tests! It is much more relevant after the recent price cut at Best Buy.

@olivur_1459 Ай бұрын

I didn't know Steve spoke Mandarin. Nice

@MegaCm123456 Ай бұрын

crazy, right!?

@Artiom97es Ай бұрын

i didnt know too, that is amazing

@DorothyWayneright5 Ай бұрын

Soon enough, he'll be elected next president of Taiwan. Guys a legend.

@user-hh5pj5jv8p Ай бұрын

Yeah he's spoken it for years now. You can see it in a few vids

@markwmcnaughton Ай бұрын

He’s commented on Chinese language and culture KZfaq channels before, it’s weird seeing Steve out in the wild

@ethanlieske9678 Ай бұрын

Thanks for all the great coverage of the handheld side.

@MitchellWinning Ай бұрын

Really appreciate the honesty for the community. You guys are incredible.

@alexanderdiogenes8067 Ай бұрын

the surprise on Steve's face when Anthropometry turned out to be a real thing lol

@toufusoup Ай бұрын

When the promotional material focused on the hardware like core count and stuff 100% they’re trying to cover up bigger issues. Thanks for being the sacrificial lamb, Steve.

@LanceThumping Ай бұрын

It's pretty funny how so many of the handhelds show off their beefed up CPUs but the reason the Steam Deck is giving such stable performance is because they specifically went with a device that cut back the CPU a bit to give the GPU more headroom. It's given them super consistent performance and far better battery life (since the CPU isn't eating extra power for no reason).

@utarefson9 Ай бұрын

@@LanceThumping Yeah, anyone who's already into pc gaming knows how much more important the GPU is. Marketing is trying to fool people who don't know better.

@mitsync Ай бұрын

Chart suggestion: a scatterplot FPS vs battery life. That should show efficiency outliers well, as they would stick out to the top right of the chart, and it would remove the need to put FPS data in the line labels at 15:47

@PixelShade Ай бұрын

I don't know how the Steam Deck OLED perform compared to the LCD version. But my experience on the LCD version is that you gain A LOT of battery with minimal performance loss when going from 15W to somewhere around 8-12W. (where the APU is most efficient). This is the main reason why I feel the Steam Deck is leagues ahead of the competition as it succeeds in its mission of being a portable device.

@HunterTracks Ай бұрын

Hey, look at the bright side -- with that fan noise, you can play Metro with maximum immersion.

@antonkirilenko3116 Ай бұрын

Unless of course the thing's nuclear and at higher power modes the internal geiger counter kicks in to warn you.

@stobe187 Ай бұрын

The styling of the Claw reminds me of bootleg handhelds you see as props in mid-tier games..

@VSMOKE1 Ай бұрын

The D-Pad Just Looks so ugly that's exactly where my eyes focus when I look at that

@stobe187 Ай бұрын

@@VSMOKE1 To me it's the whole thing, just looks so generic and cheap.

@jjforcebreaker 22 күн бұрын

Great work as usual, thanks!

@jamesdegriz Ай бұрын

LOVE your work folks!

@luminance69 Ай бұрын

I would love to see a comparison between the Taiwan and MSI review unit

@CR0SSJ Ай бұрын

the more and more times I see any review of the MSI Claw it just seems like Intel wanted a "handheld gaming device" to please some one at the board and MSI was the only idiot that agreed to build one. Then both parties just shrugged and said "I mean we did the minimum viable product and left it in the dust day -1 on release.

@malobuchino Ай бұрын

massive review, thank you

@taiiat0 Ай бұрын

eyyyyy Brew Barons! that game has looked interesting to me and had been planning on playing it, indeed! cool to see super niche games be mentioned anywhere.

@Shard113 Ай бұрын

I am amazed to see how well the steamdeck holds up. The weakest of them all by a decent margin, but the over all design, the software special sauce is keeping it more than viable.

@XVa-uj8m Ай бұрын

I definitely want to buy a Steam Deck OLED. If ASUS Ally had OLED I might consider it as I plan to run my games from GOG on it and would love that extra oomph on the emulation end. Even for the sound setup the Non-Z Extreme might be worth buying and adding a OLED screen mod if one comes.

@OmniUni Ай бұрын

@@XVa-uj8mOn the Deck, Heroic Launcher has GOG integration, and most emulators are both easily available and there are also utilities for directly integrating your emulated games (and GOG games) directly into the Deck's launcher. Even with third-party systems like that, it's amazing how nicely the Deck is integrated.

@XVa-uj8m Ай бұрын

@@OmniUni If it requires Galaxy I don't use that and never will.

@AbhishekG2000 Ай бұрын

Steam deck has lower resoultion.

@B_Don99 Ай бұрын

@@XVa-uj8mit doesn’t require galaxy. You can install and run any GOG game using proton.

@Surururu Ай бұрын

Would love to see how the MSI sent one performed

@dead-claudia Ай бұрын

same like there's a cat clawing at the bag's door rn

@honeybadger6275 Ай бұрын

He doesn't do a comparison? That's disappointing.

@Surururu Ай бұрын

@@honeybadger6275 yea would love if they just added the “msi sample model” lol

@LordZordid Ай бұрын

I would also like to know how the golden sample compared.

@Vtorious123 Ай бұрын

Needs to be done. The people need the truth.

@splitklickety Ай бұрын

Man I dunno. Kinda new to Gamer Nexus and Im laughing way to much at these reviews than I should. Keep the banter/bits up. I love it, haha.

@fourtii8707 Ай бұрын

Omg Steve your Mandarin is impeccable!

@cppctek Ай бұрын

Yoo let’s gooo! I myself hated the claw and had so many games fail to launch or crash. The 1% lows were terrible and the idle ram usage was insane. I had so many issues with the devices buttons being to hard to press like the d-pad and shoulder buttons. The backplate appeared to be very vented but ended up not being fully vented like the pictures appear. I’m very disappointed with msi. They should have consulted handheld experts and done more testing in the background in the hands of real gamers. We could have easily helped them. Also the temp monitor … why didn’t it have one the price to performance is insulting also. Lol. 😂 thanks Steve thank you so much for being honest!!! So many people seemed scared and hesitant to speak the truth on the claw and kept misleading people into thinking it was hopeful or useful. I saw some people cherry pick benchmarks and games and not show 1% lows or mention any issues at all.

@DuvJones Ай бұрын

You know, that initial interaction with MSI.... that screams alarm. 29:20 I have been following you for a bit.... I didn't think that I would EVER hear you say something like that in a review. Your right, but it is unexpected.

@sean8102 Ай бұрын

Yeah the fact they basically panicked when Steve told them "no problem I'm buying one now". And the fact the one they sent was altered and not the same as a out of the box one would be just isn't a good look.

@eccentricthinker142 Ай бұрын

@@sean8102 That's just sad at this point. They should know that GN has both the means and willingness to go out of their own ways to get their hands on retail hardware. Don't they have a way to actually disguise the golden sample properly?

@greasebob Ай бұрын

Did you timestamp that right? Not caring about the specifics of framerate is what you are talking about?

@DuvJones Ай бұрын

@@greasebob Yeah.

@hassosigbjoernson5738 Ай бұрын

Kudos to actually showing the support sites and the traffic and response there is on it! Since some gadgets rely heavily on community support, it has become a big factor for me. *I would prefer a slower or worst product when it has the better community or official support!*

@LancerIKA Ай бұрын

Microelectronics giants still cannot beat the digital shop.

@Bryan-T Ай бұрын

The steam deck's 1% is so much better than the rest. I'm not interested in a handheld but if I was I would get the OLED deck for sure.

@red0death1 Ай бұрын

Right seems like a no brainer, some of those 1s are awful.

@catch82 Ай бұрын

It's Windows. Throw Bazzite (SteamOS) onto the Legion Go, which I did last month, or the Ally and the 1%'s are the same.

@Bolt451 Ай бұрын

It's just some of the gam compatibility

@meneldal Ай бұрын

Likely to be a OS thing.

@joshjlmgproductions3313 Ай бұрын

@@meneldalIt's also a RAM thing. The Steam Deck has over twice the memory bandwidth of the Ally.

@LampDoesVideogame Ай бұрын

Damn, Steve, new respect for you knowing Mandarin tf!

@MiningdragonLP Ай бұрын

I would love a comparison between the unit you bought and the review sample

@MoonlitWood 20 күн бұрын

Wasn't expecting to see The Brew Barons show up at 29:17, but I'm certainly happy I did!

@whatsforsupa Ай бұрын

I almost waited for this, and I'm SO happy I went with the SD-OLED instead.

@cromefire_ Ай бұрын

Especially on efficiency, the Steam Deck is still impressive. It really shows what's possible if you optimize the OS for the hardware **and** dumping all the windows overhead. It's all just so well balanced, the low resolution screen is of course kinda a bummer in some ways, but you'd probably not get that great efficiency otherwise and it's still enough at the formfactor.

@SnakebitSTI Ай бұрын

Hardware compatibility is usually a big issue for Linux laptops. It's common for Windows to best much lighter Linux distributions on battery life. Pairing the Steam Deck's OS and hardware is probably a big part of why it performs so well.

@Shotblur Ай бұрын

Honestly, the screen (especially the OLED) looks absolutely amazing and I don't need 1080p out of my five inch screen.

@crestofhonor2349 Ай бұрын

It's the chip and less on the OS. Switching to Bazzite still has the Deck winning by quite a margin because the chip is more efficient. There's a reason valve had AMD make a custom chip and didn't use a modified laptop chip like the Z1 and Z1X

@Rroff2 Ай бұрын

Windows 10/11 doesn't do handhelds any favours, but a lot of the problem is the hardware - the Ryzen Z1 (Extreme) SoC could be a lot more optimised than it is for handheld use - though AMD market it for this use it is spun off a general purpose mobile design and not the most power efficient, the GPU especially has relatively high idle wattage.

@cromefire_ Ай бұрын

@@crestofhonor2349 Well, the Z1X and Z1 are also custom chips, it's not like the Steam Deck's chip is mich more custom than that. In fact it's likely a repurposed VR chip, so it's not like Valve had "AMD make it", it's that AMD had a lot of chips and Valve could get them for cheap. Most of its advantages are down to Zen 2, everything else stems from good hardware choices, the firmware and the OS. And yes that includes the 800p panel, no RGB lighting and more, which makes soo much more sense for something that needs to be efficient. There's a reason Valve didn't go for the more powerful Z1X, they explicitly said that they want more efficiency from the processor before they upgrade anything and they won't trade performance for battery life. All the other handhelds try to market themselves with higher performance, higher resolution screens, more Features and RGB, but Valve has understood the game and the went full on efficiency and UI/UX and the users seems to agree with them.

@KaminKevCrew Ай бұрын

I bought the Deck OLED. In my opinion, it’s the only good, finished product out of these. The touchpads were a great idea and I love using them for interfacing with the keyboard, and various games. Also, something that I haven’t seen anyone talk about - the tops of the Deck OLED sticks are capacitive. I’d suggest trying portal to anyone that has one. If you put your thumb on the top of the right thumb stick, the gyro in the Deck can be used for aiming. If you don’t want to use that, you can use the edge of the thumb stick, and the gyro is instantly deactivated. IMO this provides the *very best* input system out there for precision aiming. And because you can deactivate the gyro by moving your thumb position, you can ‘reset’ it for infinite gyro aiming. Also, my favorite part of this is that I discovered that feature organically. I didn’t see anything about it in any of the videos I watched, but just by playing the game I realized that was happening.

@robertlefeaux Ай бұрын

Ugh. Sometimes I miss being able to do stuff easily outside of steam but I always appreciate the simplicity of the steam deck. It's been a great companion since going full mobile.

@rafauwaxc2871 Ай бұрын

I thoroughly enjoyed your actual real life gaming experience on the plane. You should do this for every handheld review! Keep up the great work guys! 👍🏽

@daviddesrosiers1946 Ай бұрын

I'm just happy as a clam with my OG Steam Deck, thank you very much.

@cameronbosch1213 Ай бұрын

At high tide or low tide? 🤔

@maverickvgc4220 Ай бұрын

Are there any plans to test Chimera OS or some other Steam OS based distros on the Ally? I'd love to see how much of those frametime problems is just Windows.

@PXAbstraction Ай бұрын

Why? As someone who once her a brand new MSI X570 motherboard catch fire on first power on, MSI, that's why. Everything about this screams that it's a product MSI wasn't planning to make, but then saw the success of ASUS and some executive said "Get one of these done! You have 6 months!"

@JMR0303 19 күн бұрын

And now ASUS has crapped the bed with its borderline scam after-sales support, so they’re *both* bad, but for different reasons.

@Fate025 Ай бұрын

"I've seen it, heard of it, but never saw anyone buying it, you are the first!" Wow thanks Steve!!!

@candidosilva7755 Ай бұрын

Now i see why i heard about this console some time ago but it went Quiet. Thanks for the testing. Keep up the excelent work guys.

@the_beefy1986 Ай бұрын

Seeing the bars so close together for the Deck and knowing how consistent that makes it's experience is shocking. It's the oldest but still one of the best. Glad I took the plunge.

@runescapefan0001 Ай бұрын

Quality content 👌 as usual

@lucian6172 Ай бұрын

Damn. Almost 100 users trying to fix the broken.

@miguelangelramos7709 Ай бұрын

Thats weird about your ally mine has none of those Defects, bought it at best buy on sep 2023 and still kicking amazingly good, especially with all the updates

@AtariZeroTV Ай бұрын

I had no idea you speak Chinese! I also speak, though I'm a few years out of practice at this point. I got by BA in Mandarin and lived deep in central China for a year a while ago, which was a wild and eye-opening experience.

@lwolf1285 Ай бұрын

Been great with my ayaneo 2s. Runs everything I've thrown in it, upgraded to a 4tb m.2 and have a 1tb sd card mostly for my emulators & its games

@mightylink65 Ай бұрын

$800 is too much for something that doesn't perform as well as the Legion Go. I don't think the Claw is going to sell very well because it's neither as good as a Legion Go or as cheap as a Steam deck which makes it really undesirable for both sides of the market. I would steer clear from this handheld, it's going to get phased out and become unsupported.

@XVa-uj8m Ай бұрын

And the ASUS Ally and Steamdeck are cheaper if you don't want a handheld that is Chinese owned and likely put a backdoor in the UEFI for the CCP.

@PrograError Ай бұрын

@@XVa-uj8m dude MSI is Taiwanese... just like ASUS... And Taiwan ain't China. Plus the info is literal google away

@XVa-uj8m Ай бұрын

@@PrograError Huh? I was talking about Lenovo.

@YurttheSilentChief1 Ай бұрын

If not MSI or Asus's incompetency is shown here, then Windows 11's shortcomings in the handheld space sure is another spectacle to behold...

@antonkirilenko3116 Ай бұрын

Yeah, Windows is the main user experience drawback of all of these handhelds. Steam OS on the Steam Deck is like next generation in user experience compared to Windows.

@Chrisezo Ай бұрын

Thanks for making the video, after so many years of watching your content, and seeing that you actually use the products that you review in real environments and situations, I can trust your opinions and data obtained from the tests you do, which after seeing this video I am going to stay far away from the Claw, and I can really appreciate that as I was considering in getting one. If I may be so bold to ask a favor is there any chance you have a way to obtain an AYANEO Flip DS and test it? I am really interested in purchasing the 64GB RAM version as after watching the video by Retro Game Corps, I am somewhat convinced that it is the handheld PC that I have always been waiting for, but if you did make a video on it then I could trust your opinion and finally come to a decision.

@PaulOsbornesChannel Ай бұрын

I like how you included FPS in the battery benchmark, it would be similarly helpful to include approx battery life in the gaming benchmark for each (as it applies)

@ErrorMessageNotFound Ай бұрын

I'm curious if there would have been any performance difference between the one you bought and the one they sent you. If they changed something and what the effect of those changes was.

@juhanimertanen3452 Ай бұрын

Rog Ally has been a delight so far, minus few "unable to update" win11 issues. It's going to replace my wife's old laptop soon, but finding a good dock (in my country) is difficult and Asus eGPU prices are out of the line.

@fuentesjuanjose90 Ай бұрын

That's why they went with a proprietary cable so you won't use any egpu of your choice. Very scummy that's why I went with the legion go and it works like a charm.

@jackykwan2580 Ай бұрын

Legion go is very expensive outside the US, the price makes it very unattractive. At my side the go costs $200 more.

@jxxxxx44 Ай бұрын

@@fuentesjuanjose90 how much did xi Jinping pay you?

@BaronVonBeef Ай бұрын

There's a surprising fix for the SD card slot coming from reddit, Next to it is a PPTC fuse (looks similar to a smd resistor) which needs reflowing

@Jokerasmaw Ай бұрын

Got the Asus ROG Ally yesterday. I love it, it’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a handheld gaming console. The MSI claw was on display there and I couldn’t believe how similar it was to the ASUS for an extra 400$

@butterscotchpanda Ай бұрын

It's interesting to see how hampered the Claw is by its tighter power envelope, given how comparatively strong the Arc iGPs' performance was in larger, less restricted mobile devices. Still, as a first gen adopter of Arc, I can be humble and acknowledge that Alchemist had and still has a lot of rough edges that need ironing out, and while it's interesting to see Intel making a showing in this market, MSI needed to go a lot more aggressive with the pricing on this to justify its existence. Edit: Wow this doesn't even seem to be a power envelope thing. What did you do MSI??? How do you mess it up this bad?

@jamv2122 Ай бұрын

msi mess up alot both in build quality and code see toms hardware forums for how many msi boards you can see with issues lol.

@butterscotchpanda Ай бұрын

@@jamv2122 Asus motherboards blow up, Gigabyte motherboards are a security risk, ASRock has absolute dogshit warranty, the list goes on. There's not really any good manufacturers, so I try not to have brand loyalty _or_ disloyalty, but just judge things on a case by case basis. AND OH BOY THIS THING'S ONE HELL OF A CASE. It's got the bones of a solid handheld, but it drops the ball in so many easily avoidable ways. The pricing needed to be far more aggressive than it is, as the most important thing, and I'd be surprised if these aren't on extreme fire sale in under two years.

@radugrigoras Ай бұрын

Dude it has 8CUs…Intel stuck an ultra book cpu in a handheld. If they wanted an actual gaming chip they would of only had the 6 pcores and more GPU, don’t waste die space on e cores and super e cores and BS AI

@Magnosummit Ай бұрын

@@jamv2122 when it finally happens to me, I guess I won't be surprised, but two PC builds using MSI mobos and GPUs and I've had no issues at all. My 3080 has handled everything really well with a moderate undervolt, is quiet, etc. I'll keep buying from them until I have an issue that customer service can't or won't remedy.

@dex6316 Ай бұрын

⁠⁠@@radugrigorasactually some e cores are good for gaming. Not for actually running the game per say, but running background tasks like the screen they end up being more efficient which is good for battery life. Super e cores are also not even used except when idling which increases battery life.

@HermSezPlayToWin Ай бұрын

Thanks Steve!

@supervisedchaos Ай бұрын

12:00 nice job having the G.O.A.T for games in this clip

@SateLight Ай бұрын

you know it's so bad when after 1 month sitting on the shelf, the first one to buy your product is a reviewer from overseas

@Dan-Simms Ай бұрын

Even though I had low expectations, I had high hopes that it would be competitive with the other handhelds. Too bad it seems to just be about 2x more expensive than it should be.

@fixitman2174 Ай бұрын

I've owned one MSI product ever, about 4 years ago. I only owned it about a week, then returned it due to several defects. The primary defect was in their support department. Thanks for reassuring me they still deserve a spot on my blacklist.

@TheTastefulThickness Ай бұрын

I really like their motherboards. I think they have a good record

@coochie8670 Ай бұрын

I've never had an issue with their GPU's.

@LucasHolt Ай бұрын

In fairness, Asus support is also terrible. I haven't had to get support from lenovo so I'm not sure about them. Looking at this review, I think the only valid answer is a valve steam deck. It has battery life and the screen actually makes sense for a device like this. 120hz to 144hz refresh is silly when the devices are in the 20-60 fps range.

@SyncF Ай бұрын

@@coochie8670 In europe their GPUs have been good to me, i'm on a first gen 3090 gaming X, no issues. Haven't tried any of their monitors or handhelds because I know it's different HQs/teams here same as the reason they're unreliable in the US for GPUs apparently.

@coochie8670 Ай бұрын

@SyncF I live in the US, and have had an MSI branded 1080, and now a 4070, no issues. Maybe i just got lucky with the silicone lottery.

@MD4564 Ай бұрын

Hey Steve, from Taipei which shop did you buy it from ? Traveling there for work and looking at local computer hardware shops.

@pingwong117 Ай бұрын

Love the annual/biannual MSI special from GN, massive entertainment

@D4ll4s69 Ай бұрын

I almost bought a Legion Go. After all these reviews I wait for the next generation. Thank you for the excellent content Steve & Team!!!!!

@MorkaiAU Ай бұрын

Rumours suggest there will be an Ally 2 either late in 2024 or early in 2025, which is what I'm currently waiting for. AMD has their new Strix Point APUs coming soon too, I'm not sure when they're supposed to launch exactly, but Computex is not far off, so I would not be surprised if we get more news on them then.

@kylenyce8198 Ай бұрын

got the deck, rog ally and legion go. legion is my fav. not as weird with its windows jank like the rog ally is. and larger screen than it and the deck.

@GeneralFuct Ай бұрын

Love my Legion, use it docked as a desktop at my girlfriends place. Using the screen combined with either Moonlight or GeForce Now makes it an easy choice out of the 3.

@anro_gaming Ай бұрын

I'll wait for the next gen leap too, still stick with my ol switch

@bosstowndynamics5488 Ай бұрын

@@MorkaiAUHopefully ASUS adds touchpads, currently the only handheld with a current gen chip and dual touchpads I'm aware of is the Ayaneo Kun, which obviously has its own issues

@ClappOnUpp Ай бұрын

Yep, let's all wait for that 70% off sticker on the claw. Then I'd buy one.

@ZenVulgarity Ай бұрын

Thank you so much Steve for these reviews. I know that as someone who has a partner who sometimes can't access a computer easily, the ability to play their games on a portable device has been very helpful. I hope that competition really drives these handhelds to be better- so far we've been very happy with the steam deck, but it's good to know there's no real reason to switch up quite yet.

@najimm5577 Ай бұрын

Thanks for the review! Please, talk about the Steam Deck OLED mura and PWM issues... It's a hardware mess...

@NeoDaOne Ай бұрын

I think we are mature now and have more info showing that having high frame rate is only one part of the overall experience when playing vgs. A stable framerate is the absolute key to great experiences. I have noticed stutters in games before but never really stopped to know why. Didnt think anything of it, unaware because that seemed to be part of the deal with gameplay. Now I have a better understanding of what this stuff means. Especially when playing certain games on the switch and how terrible those experiences are. I am glad frametime and other new terms of info explaining what is happening with hardware/software are being added to your overall breakdowns when it comes to devices and gameplay. Huge fan of it. Very informative. Your one of the best. Keep it up.

@BingsBuddery Ай бұрын

Lol, the MSI naming convention section was gold.

@jabertone4971 Ай бұрын

Hey Steve , Are you guys planning on being at the Micro Center grand opening in Charlotte ?

@drifter4training Ай бұрын

My sweet setup for portable pc would be a steam deck and pc tablet for general use something like recently announced minisforum V3 tablet.. hopefully it's bios settings is decent

@Aphaedon Ай бұрын

As someone who bought a Legion go a month ago... I feel better about not waiting for this!

@9r33ks Ай бұрын

Battery life is the most important thing for me in a handheld. If it can't withstand the duration of flight, why would I want it? It's useless to me, no matter how good the screen is and how many fps I'm getting. Size and ergonomics are also important, but they are secondary in the case of me being on a flight where I don't have access to good enough charging. The situation can be offset by a power bank, but as Steve said, if you end up on a long flight, you might consider being screwed by your device's power consumption.

@BrianRoediger Ай бұрын

I really hope y'all would review the GPD Win4 handheld. Just bought it and am dying to know your take. I suspect it'll be brutal on the UI side (there is none), and fairly positive in the features side.

@natea4158 Ай бұрын

you should had still tested the unit they sent you anyway just to compare and see if they did try to alter some thing to make it perform better before sending it to you...

@Strellock Ай бұрын

Seeing how clumsy and unresponsive even something as basic as menu navigation is, I'm glad I'm stuck with a steam deck, lol!

@SuchoSK Ай бұрын

Thank you, Steve. Would be cool if you managed to throw GPD in the mix next. Less mainstream and on the pricey side, but were among first in handheld pc gaming market and would be interesting to see how they fare against new kids on the block.

@Catalanskrr Ай бұрын

Hey steve, will there be reviews for the dark base 701 and or the shadow base 800?

@mrwannabe00 Ай бұрын

Looks like I'll wait for the Steam Deck 2

@Sebbz Ай бұрын

Enjoy waiting 2 years then 😅

@mrwannabe00 Ай бұрын

@@Sebbz eh time flies my friend

@denniia Ай бұрын

@@Sebbz 2 years? Thats hella generous, considering the Index is near 5 years old. I'd say maybe 4 to 6 years before Steam Deck 2 tbh, the tech needs to be there for a big leap in performence to make it worth it and we arent quite there yet.

@Patrick-tw7nr Ай бұрын

I would say 2026 earliest as they just refreshed the OG steam deck with the OLED model and seems to be selling well and just enough of an upgrade to not rush out another model. There should be a more powerful AMD APU with 18 Cu’s that Valve can use and probably use only 16 of those along with a Zen 4 or 5 cpu and get it to 15 watts

@user-ds8rj2vc4v Ай бұрын

@@denniia There are rumours of a new Valve VR set. But I think the Deck 2 would be something different because it needs the performance to make a notabel improvement. I think the 4 to 6 years was accurate for when the Deck first launched, but time has since passed. I think we're looking at about another 2-3 years in reality because it'll need to compete with other handhelds and it is already losing in terms of performance, give it another 3 years and it'll be a laughing stock. The Ally is able to push 30W and in some games hit double the performance. If Valve gets an APU in 3 years, they could easily have a 100% performance increase at the same TDP. Put in USB4 or 5 for an eGPU support and 32GB RAM and it'd be a PC killer for many.