Flashy Steam Deck Rival Leaks Online With Specs

A new handheld gaming PC called the MSI Claw leaked online, together with a list of some rather impressive-sounding hardware specs. The upcoming device appears poised to challenge the Steam Deck once it hits the market sometime this year.

Ahead of its two-year release anniversary, Valve's popular handheld is nowadays looking at several high-profile competitors. One such Steam Deck rival is the ASUS Rog Ally, which debuted in June 2023. Lenovo also joined the handheld gaming PC race with the Legion Go device back in October.

Taiwanese tech giant MSI teased a Steam Deck competitor of its own on January 4, strongly implying that its portable gaming system is going to be unveiled at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Mere hours following that teaser, an official-looking promo flyer depicting the upcoming device found its way online, courtesy of Twitter user wxnod. According to the leaked image, the upcoming handheld will be called the MSI Claw and feature a rather aggressive-looking exterior that is somewhat reminiscent of the ASUS Rog Ally, just colored black instead of white.

The MSI Claw will be identified by model number A1M, according to an apparent Geekbench profile of the device that emerged online on January 5, as first spotted by Twitter user Olrak29_. The leaked benchmark results indicate that the handheld will offer twice as much RAM as the Steam Deck and incorporate a significantly more powerful CPU in the form of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, which is part of Intel's Meteor Lake processor generation that's expected to fuel a wide variety of high-end 2024 laptops.

MSI Claw (A1M) vs Steam Deck Specs Comparison

While the leaked spec list is incomplete, its main takeaway is that the MSI Claw will ostensibly offer much more powerful hardware than Valve's handset at the expense of battery life. Namely, its CPU of choice operates at 28 watts, which is fairly energy-efficient, but still well above the Steam Deck processor's thermal design power of (up to) 15W.

The leaked promo poster also revealed that MSI is planning to give away multiple Claws to a number of lucky consumers who buy some of its products—like the company's latest series of gaming laptops—later this year. There is currently no indication that this particular giveaway will be available outside of Taiwan and possibly China. However, the handheld console itself appears destined for an international launch, as indicated by the fact that MSI is seemingly planning to announce it at CES 2024, which kicks off on January 9.

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Steam Deck

$580 $697 Save $117

Display card main info widget

4K Capabilities

Yes

Screen

7" diagonal 1280 x 800px (16:10 aspect ratio) 60Hz

Storage

64 GB - 512 GB

CPU

AMD APU Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz

Battery

40Whr battery. 2 - 8 hours of gameplay

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Valve's long-awaited portable console is here, and it's taking the handheld gaming market by storm. Valve partnered with AMD to create Steam Deck's custom APU, optimized for handheld gaming. It is a Zen 2 + RDNA 2 powerhouse, delivering more than enough performance to run the latest AAA games in a very efficient power envelope.

Checkbox: control the expandable behavior of the extra info

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.0 and Dual-band Wi-Fi radio, 2.4GHz and 5GHz

Ports

1x USB-C with DisplayPort 1.4 Alt-mode support; up to 8K @60Hz or 4K @120Hz, 1x USB 3.2,1x Micro SD slot, 1x 3.5 audio jack

Dimensions

298mm x 117mm x 49mm

Weight

Approx. 669 grams

Audio

Stereo with embedded DSP for an immersive listening experience and Dual Microphone Array

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