In the battle of the handhelds, MSI’s fighter, the MSI Claw, is so close to entering the arena you can pretty much smell the fear on the Steamdeck and Asus ROG Ally.
According to the pre-order page on NewEgg, the first model of this new handheld gaming PC will be stocked this Friday, the 8th of March.
The first model can be considered as the mid-range model as it features the top-of-the-range Intel Ultra 7 but has less storage capacity than the flagship model, 512GB to 1TB.
The other two models are being slated for release a week later, on the 15th of March. These will be the 1 TB Intel Core Ultra 7-155H model and the 523GB Intel Core Ultra 5-135H model.
From top to bottom, each model will be priced at $799, $749 and $699 respectively. This falls between the 2023 OLED version of the Steamdeck, at $879 for the 1TB model, and the ROG Ally 1TB model, at $635, according to NewEgg prices.
Obviously, that doesn’t really give us a firm release date for the device on South African shores. So, we’ve contacted our MSI spies to see if we can get a little more information from them and perhaps some claw-to-claw action with the handheld itself – we’ll update you with that sweet insider info when the carrier pigeon arrives.
Remember, the MSI Claw is one of the first devices to utilise Intel hardware over AMD, which we get in the Steamdeck, ROG Ally and Legion Go.
It will be extremely interesting to see how they compare and to see if the Intel Arc graphics architecture has what it takes.
The NewEgg pre-order page also shows off a few of the accessories that we can get with the MSI Claw—featuring a sleek-looking carry case, a keyring, a lanyard, a screen protector, and, most excitingly of all, a dock.
However, we only know that the dock has a detachable USB-C cable. As for the other ports and if it will actually hold onto the claw, we have yet to find out.
Are you excited for another player to be entering the handheld gaming sphere? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.