The MSI Claw has arrived to take on the Steam Deck

The base model of the Intel Core Ultra-powered gaming handheld is now available for $699.

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The MSI Claw has officially arrived, as the base model of MSI’s Core Ultra-powered handheld gaming machine is now available from MSI’s website for $699.

There are two other higher-specced models, too, but they’re listed as coming on March 12th. Here’s how the three models stack up:

• $699: Core Ultra 5 / 512GB SSD
• $749: Core Ultra 7 / 512GB SSD
• $799: Core Ultra 7 / 1TB SSD

You can also preorder all three MSI Claw models from Newegg, with availability starting March 15th. Preorders on Newegg come with a couple of freebies, including a Skull and Bones standard edition game code and Xbox Game Pass free for one month. You can buy the MSI Claw from Best Buy, which will ship by April 4th.

MSI first announced the Claw at CES 2024 in January, joining the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, and the Lenovo Legion Go in a growing portable PC market. In addition to being the first device to come with Intel’s Core Ultra processors, it runs Windows and features a seven-inch, 1080p, 48–120Hz variable refresh rate (VRR) LCD display.

The MSI Claw also has an Intel Arc graphics chip with eight Xe-cores, a 53Wh battery with two hours of battery life, and Hall effect triggers and joysticks, which should save you from having to deal with stick drift. It comes with some other handy features as well, including a power button with a fingerprint sensor, a microSD slot, and a Thunderbolt 4 port.

If you’re interested in the MSI Claw, make sure to check out our hands-on with the device at CES.

Update March 8th, 1:37PM ET: Added availability at Best Buy.