[Deal du jour] MSI’s recent portable console competes with Asus and Steam in the portable PC market. Less efficient, but also less expensive, it is well worth it at less than €500.
What is this promotion on this portable console?
The MSI Claw A1M-042FR 512GB is marketed upon release at the start of 2024 at the price of €799. It is currently offered at the price of €499.99 on the Fnac website.
What is this console?
The MSI Claw is not original and takes the design and general ergonomics of its competitor, the ROG Ally. As with the latter, MSI’s portable console offers excellent handling, with judiciously placed buttons and a well-distributed weight. Its weight of 675 g will therefore not feel too much, at least during a short session. Its design is good and the triggers and joysticks are accompanied by technology supposed to prevent stick drift, in order to avoid unwanted actions.
The MSI Claw features a 7-inch Full HD IPS LCD panel, with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. Fluidity is there, and the screen delivers good brightness and fairly accurate colorimetry. In terms of performance, the console is based on an Intel Core Ultra 5 135H coupled with 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. It has no reason to be ashamed of the ROG ALly, and is capable of running triple games. A in good conditions. The icing on the cake is that the console hardly heats up, thanks to a very quiet fan.
At this price, is this MSI console a good deal?
Less than €500 is a very good deal! The console runs under Windows and offers great compatibility with PC games available on Steam or the Epic Games Store. The MSI Center M interface simplifies menu navigation. The audio provided by both speakers is decent and the sound is enough to enjoy your games. You will find a 3.5 mm jack if necessary. The connectivity is completed by a Thunderbolt 4 port and a microSD card reader.
Finally, the autonomy is a little over 2 hours for use in Super Battery mode, 1 hour 30 minutes in Balanced mode and just over an hour in Performance mode.
