The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicks off this Tuesday, January 9, and one of the big announcements that’s expected to be there has now leaked. MSI, the PC gaming brand, posted a teaser video of what looks like its own gaming handheld and implying that more information would be revealed at CES. Less than 24 hours after the post, leaks about the device have appeared online. The leaks include images of the handheld and some early benchmark numbers as well as the name of the device, the Claw.
The MSI Claw has a similar look to the other gaming handhelds on the market, but with MSI branding featured on it, including the iconic dragon logo and the “true gaming” tagline. Where the handheld stands out from its competitors though is what is inside the casing. While the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip has been the popular choice so far, MSI has opted for the new Intel Meteor Lake chip, specifically the Core Ultra 7 155H chip, to power its handheld hardware dreams. Early benchmarks show it having more power than the Z1 chip, but more testing and some real world use of running games will show which chip is ultimately the best.
The handheld PC gaming market is an exciting area of growth for the gaming space that will continue to push the technology forward. The Steam Deck seemingly kicked off the trend with others like the ASUS ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go helping create competition and innovation in the field. MSI is hoping its Claw can burst onto the scene and capture some serious market share. Another thing it has going for it is the built in 32GB of RAM compared to the 16GB that its competitors have. That may not make a difference for many games on the device, but in a new, developing area of the market it’s those small differences that sometimes separate the winners from the losers.
With everything we do know now about the MSI Claw, there remains much to still be revealed this week by MSI at CES. For instance, there is no info as of yet about how big the screen is or what type of screen it is. There is also no information available on things like battery life or the pricing options. While some of its thunder has been stolen by the leak, MSI still has a chance to build some serious hype with the official reveal of the Claw and how it chooses to show it off to us all. CES is happening this week, starting Tuesday, January 9, and running until Friday, January 12.
Image: MSI
