It hasn’t been long since the MSI Claw launched back in early March this year, but the high price tag made it a tough sell. Compared to established gaming PC handhelds such as the Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally – or even Lenovo’s Legion Go, it didn’t have too much going in its favor. We tested the MSI Claw and found it fairly underwhelming considering the alternatives.
The good news is that the price has now been dropped, at least in the UK. On the flipside, it still isn’t cheaper than the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme which offers better performance. On top of that, reviews of the Claw show that there is much to be desired.
MSI Claw drops by £200 at UK retailer Currys
Now available on the Currys website for a reduced price of £599.00, the top-spec Intel Core Ultra 7 model with a 1TB storage now offers you better value for money than ever before. We’d say that the usual retail price of £799.00 was simply not worth it, but this is a little more appealing. One nice bonus from Currys is that you’ll also get a copy of the game Skull and Bones for free (until May 31st).
Interestingly enough, the Core Ultra 5 with 512GB variant isn’t discounted at the time of writing, so this is a definite skip for us. However, the fact that the ASUS ROG Ally Z1 Extreme is even cheaper at Currys, currently going for £549 at full price, makes it the best pick of the bunch.
MSI Claw hasn’t had the best launch
Despite an attempt of clawing back customers with an attractive price drop, MSI’s entry to the gaming PC handheld market is unlikely to make much of a dent. It does mark the introduction of Intel processing power to a gaming handheld, but the established Ryzen-based hardware in the ROG Ally, Steam Deck, and Legion Go is much more up to the task. It looks like there is plenty of optimization to be done if Intel’s Ultra CPU wants to compete.
Popular YouTube channel Gamer’s Nexus said that the MSI Claw is a mess, backing it up with benchmarks compared against all of the market’s main alternatives. So, public opinion on the Claw already isn’t too good – and this price drop is unlikely to change much.
