MSI Claw vs Asus ROG Ally: Which gaming handheld is for you?
Until now, the segment was dominated by AMD’s Ryzen Z1 series processor, but Intel is now trying to shake things up with the MSI Claw. While both handhelds do share some similarities like screen size and operating system, they vastly differ when it comes to hardware and design. If you are confused between the two, here’s a quick comparison that might help you decide which gaming handheld you should spend your hard-earned money on.
Design and display
Asus ROG Ally and MSI Claw both have 7-inch 120Hz LCD screens that can run the latest titles like Cyberpunk, Starfield, and others at Full HD resolution. Both screens support variable refresh rates and can go up to 500 nits, which should be bright enough if you want to play games indoors.
Both handhelds have an Xbox-style layout with the right side housing an analog stick and A, B, X, and Y buttons whereas the left side features a directional pad and another analog stick. However, the MSI Claw features tactile buttons and Hall effect triggers, which might mean that the buttons and triggers on the handheld might last a bit longer than the ROG Ally.
ROG Ally has an Xbox controller-style layout. (Express Photo)
Hardware
The handheld gaming PC segment has been largely dominated by AMD, with Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and Legion Go all going with AMD’s Ryzen Z1 series processors. On the other hand is MSI’s Claw, the first handheld gaming PC to come with Intel’s Core Ultra series processors.
The most expensive version of the MSI Claw is powered by the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, which packs six performance cores, eight e-cores, and two low-power e-cores whereas the ROG Ally features the tried and tested AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip based on the company’s slightly dated Zen 4 architecture. Both handhelds come with up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM and offer up to 1TB of internal storage. They also let users expand the available storage via microSD card.
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Another thing to note here is that the MSI Claw with Intel Core Ultra processor may not have a sub-15W mode unlike the ROG Ally to help save on power, but some benchmarks suggest the two offer almost similar performance when it comes to gaming. ROG Ally supports AMD Fidelity Super Resolution upscaling technology whereas MSI Claw users will have to use Intel XeSS.
According to Hardware Unboxed, in certain titles, Intel XeSS seems to have an edge over AMD FSR 3 when it comes to image quality and performance. Asus’ ROG Ally can be hooked up with a compatible external GPU for those who want more performance, but MSI offers no such option. However, the company says Claw features several cooling vents, which may help run the device cooler, but it is still unclear how efficient the cooling system is compared to the ROG Ally.
Software
While these handhelds run on Windows 11 Home, MSI and Asus seem to have customized the devices a bit. The ROG Ally comes with Armoury Crate whereas the MSI Claw has the company’s MSI Center M software. As one would expect, Windows 11 isn’t great on small screens, and if you are thinking about using the handheld as a regular PC, be warned, you might often get frustrated with the unintuitive user interface.
However, MSI’s handheld has a pretty useful trick up its sleeve. Apart from being able to run Windows games, Claw also lets gamers run Android titles using the built-in App Player.
MSI Claw features a dedicated cooling system on the back. (Image Source: MSI)
Battery
The MSI Claw has a much larger 53Wh battery than the ROG Ally’s 40Wh battery pack. MSI claims that its handheld lasts up to two hours under full load and during our review of the ROG Ally, we found out that the Asus handheld hardly lasts two hours on a single charge. So in terms of battery, both handhelds pretty much offer a similar experience.
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Price
A major difference between the two handheld gaming PCs is price. The base variant of the Asus ROG Ally that comes with a hexacore processor, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD is priced at Rs 49,990.
However, we recommend spending Rs 10,000 extra and going with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme version, which offers almost double the performance compared to the base model. On the other hand, the cheapest MSI Claw, which comes with Core Ultra 5 starts from Rs 88,990.
MSI Claw vs Asus ROG Ally: Which one should you go with?
MSI Claw and Asus ROG Ally both are capable handheld gaming devices that can comfortably run the latest titles at medium settings at Full HD resolution and offer similar battery life. If you are looking for a handheld that can run both PC and Android games, comes with tactile triggers and Hall effect joysticks that have a longer life, and price is not an issue, the MSI Claw is the way to go. However, budget-conscious gamers can go with the Asus’ ROG Ally, which offers similar performance and battery at almost half the price.
