The upcoming MSI Claw handheld is the first to be based on the Core Ultra architecture, with Arc graphics. But, early benchmarks suggest that it’s slower than rival handhelds from Asus and potentially more.
TheMSI Clawis an interesting handheld, which is one of the first to debut using Intel’s brand-newCore Ultraarchitecture. As such, it’s a bit of a breath of fresh air when compared to theZ1or7840Udevices that we’ve seen come to market over the past six months, like theROG Ally,Ayaneo Kun, andLenovo Legion Go.
As such,handheldenthusiasts are watching the MSI Claw like a hawk, especially considering that it could go toe-to-toe with AMD chips when it comes to efficiency. However, a report fromVideocardzsuggests that you might not want to get your hopes up too high.
OneBiliBilicreator has had their hands on the MSI Claw early, and run multiple benchmarks of the handheld against the Asus ROG Ally. One thing to note is that this won’t be representative of a full review, and is only showcasing snapshots of performance.
MSI Claw leaked benchmarks
The above benchmarks were all tested at maximum TDP for both devices, with the ROG Ally pulling ahead in pure performance. There were Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmarks at lower TDPs however, which tell a similar story, the ROG Ally can eke out more performance, especially at lower wattages, where the Ally ended up being 54% faster than the Claw at 15W in the Lara Croft title.
There are two variants of the MSI Claw, which offers fewer CPU cores. Additionally, because the MSI Claw is so far from release, it could also not have finalized drivers quite yet. But, if this early indication is anything to go by, you might be better off saving your pennies for a different Windows handheld.
Sayem Ahmed was Dexerto’s Tech Editor in the UK team, leading hardware coverage globally. Sayem is an expert in all things Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and PC components. He has over 10 years of experience, with bylines at Eurogamer, IGN, Trusted Reviews, Kotaku, and many more.
