MSI Is Already Planning A Claw 2 Gaming Handheld And It Won't Be The Last
PC gaming handhelds have been around a long while, though they really picked up steam (pun intended) when Valve launched its Steam Deck two years ago. It proved there was a market for these devices when properly balancing hardware and pricing (and of course game support). Since then, we've seen some major players jump on board, including ASUS (ROG Ally), Lenovo (Legion Go), and now MSI (Claw). But are these one-and-done plays? Not for MSI.
Not for Valve, either, which on multiple occasions has talked about an eventual second-generation Steam Deck console. Valve won't be the only one, though. Even though MSI's Claw gaming handheld is not yet available to purchase, the company is planning several more follow-up models in the years to come.
The revelation (or confirmation) came from Clifford Chun, MSI's System Product Managing Director, during an interview with IGN regarding the Claw. Chun touched on a number of topics, including what the future holds for MSI's entry into the gaming handheld space.
"So, this will be only the first version of our Claw. We are anticipating to come out [with] version 2, version 3, version 4 down the road and it's already in the pipeline," Chun stated.
The Claw's apparent roadmap came in response to a question about how long MSI intends on supporting the handheld. According to Chun, MSI is taking a similar approach to support as it does with its laptops, noting "our aim for users who use this will be roughly two to three years because game titles demand a lot more every two or three years."
Chun views the two to three year time frame as a baseline for support. For users who are mostly interested in playing retro games on the go, Chun notes that "you can play MSI Claw for 10 years."
As for when exactly we can expect a second-generation model, he says it depends on developments in the hardware space, and namely CPUs and graphics. He doesn't really tip MSI's hand in that regard, but it's still interesting that MSI intends on not only launching a Claw 2, but a Claw 3 and even a Claw 4 at some point.
For a point of reference, the first-gen Claw that is en route will be offered with up to a Core Ultra 7 155H processor based on Meteor Lake, with integrated Arc graphics. It will also feature a 7-inch IPS display (1920x1080, 120Hz, touch support), 16GB of LPDDR5-6400 RAM, 512GB to 1TB of storage, Killer Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 wireless connectivity, and a few other odds and ends.
One thing that's notable about the Claw is that it eschews AMD's custom silicon as found in competing models for Intel's Meteor Lake architecture. While Meteor Lake is not custom-designed for handhelds (it's a notebook chip, first and foremost), it's power-friendly enough for the segment, and Arc packs a decent punch for gaming. It's also notable that Intel collaborated with MSI on the Claw.
You can check out the full interview for what else Chun had to say about the Claw.
