Challenging the Giants: Is MSI's Steam Deck Poised to Dominate the Handheld Gaming Market?

Can MSI’s Steam Deck Contend with Giants for Handheld Gaming Dominance? | Insights on Tech

June Wan/ZDNET

The handheld gaming space grew by one as MSI unveiled their Steam Deck competitor, the Claw A1M. The portable gaming console is the first to be built with Intel’s new Core Ultra chipset, which uses advanced AI algorithms and on-chip video codec support for enhanced video quality while streaming games as well as improving performance under heavy workloads. And while some first-look specs are impressive, a few of MSI’s decisions leave me scratching my head.

Also: What do you get for the gamer who has everything?

Special Feature

Best of CES 2024 ZDNET sorts through the wave of CES news and announcements to identify innovations that will make the most impact on professionals. Learn about the newest products and trends that transform the future of work and life. Read now

For the GPU, the Claw A1M uses an Intel Arc card, which is pretty much a beefed-up, standalone version of their readily available integrated Xe graphics chips. Here’s what makes this interesting: The Intel Arc support forum is bursting with complaints of Arc cards causing crashes and glitches , as well as flat-out not working with a whole host of games .

The problem seems to stem from various driver updates being incompatible with various games and launchers, so we’ll have to wait and see if Intel addresses the issue before the Claw launches pre-orders.

June Wan/ZDNET

However, there are a few bright spots: The 7-inch IPS display provides 1080p full HD resolution as well as a 120Hz refresh rate, the Claw A1M has a built-in fingerprint reader for added security, and it supports Wi-Fi 7 for faster, more stable online gaming.

Also: Valve’s Steam Deck turned this 40-year-old dad into a gamer again

So, if the MSI Claw A1M caught your attention, how does it stack up against the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally ?

Specs	Steam Deck OLED	Asus ROG Ally	MSI Claw A1M
CPU	AMD Zen 2 4-Core	AMD Ryzen Z1/Z1 Extreme	Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
GPU	AMD RDNA 2	AMD RDNA 3	Intel Arc
RAM	16GB DDR5	16GB DDR5	16GB DDR5
Storage	Up to 1TB internal, expandable with microSD	512GB internal, expandable with microSD	Up to 1TB internal, expandable with microSD
Display	7.4-inch OLED, 1280 x 800 90Hz	7-inch IPS LCD 1080p 120Hz	7-inch IPS LCD 1080p 120Hz
Battery	Up to 12 hours	Up to 12 hours	Up to 4 hours
Dimensions	11.7 x 4.6 x 1.9 inches	11.02 x 4.37 x 0.83 inches	11.57 x 4.6 x 0.83 inches
Weight	640g	608g	675g

While the MSI Claw A1M has some promising specs, the known issues surrounding the Intel Arc graphics drivers is going to make it a hard sell in a market that is already dominated by the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck.