MSI Launches Claw A1M Handheld Gaming Device With Core Ultra 7 CPU, Starts At $699

[phoronix]

Phoronix: MSI Launches Claw A1M Handheld Gaming Device With Core Ultra 7 CPU, Starts At $699

Following various leaks / rumors / teases in recent days, MSI today formally unveiled the Claw A1M as their first handheld gaming device and the first handheld gaming console in recent time to use an Intel SoC...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/MSI-Claw-A1M

[sophisticles]

$700?!?

Who is buying these things?

I can buy a PS5 and a PS3 for that.

I can buy a PS4 and a XBOX for that money.

I don't know, i just don't know.

[fluke]

$700?!?
I can buy a PS5 and a PS3 for that.
.

Sure. But you can't exactly put those in your pocket (cargo pants right?) And you need to lug around some sort of screen.

These devices are very much just laptops in a different form factor.

[aschmidtm]

$700?!?

Who is buying these things?

I can buy a PS5 and a PS3 for that.

I can buy a PS4 and a XBOX for that money.

I don't know, i just don't know.

Which one of those pairs comes with a Steam library?

[Daktyl198]

Which one of those pairs comes with a Steam library?

None, but they perform the same as a $1500 PC and if you get an Xbox, you can get Xbox Game Pass to get access to a large library of games.

The only reason the Steam Deck is so popular is because of it's entry price of $400. Not because it's an amazing piece of hardware (even though it is).

[stormcrow]

No, this is mostly "me too" trying to cash in on Steam Deck's partial success. Partial, in that it's probably making Valve a profit through game sales, not that it's gaining a huge market share with gamers. "Steam Deck" but with Windows, because Windows is still and probably will be for the foreseeable future, the OS of choice for the PC gaming crowd since the PC crowd is slightly(*) more aware of what's going on under the hood. Console gamers are generally not the least bit knowledgeable nor do they care about the software stack under their games. They only care whether the system works when they turn it on or not and "OMG NOT ANOTHER HOUR LONG UPDATE!!!!111". This device targets those people that don't give a crap about Linux nor free software per se. You don't need layers of fallible compatibility libraries full of reverse engineered ABI translation when you're already running native.

This is going after the portable gaming crowd similar to Switch. People that don't want scalding hot gaming laptops and all the problems they bring with them. The price they're offered at is probably the price point where they make a profit on the hardware itself, not by selling games and licensing for the hardware which is how the XBox, PlayStation, and Nintendo (and probably Valve, too) make money. They don't make much if any money on the hardware itself. XBox division doesn't make money on the hardware and never has. MSI doesn't have a game store nor licensing deals like Valve, et al do.

That said, there's no way I'd buy anything from MSI ever again. I'm not interested in these handhelds to begin with, I'm just fed up with MSI in general.

* And I do mean slightly. As in, danger to themselves and others kind of thing thanks to the gamer computer literacy myth.

[jorgepl]

At that price point, how are they making money?

[Volta]

Does windows still has the most stupid update policy? I'm putting MSI on my black list for supporting spying trash. Not to mention broken and sluggish hvci.

[V1tol]

MSI better focus on their BIOS/UEFI support. Unability to save settings between firmware upgrades on not cheap mobos is extremely frustrating.

[ktecho]

MSI better focus on their BIOS/UEFI support. Unability to save settings between firmware upgrades on not cheap mobos is extremely frustrating.

Yeah, because this is the only company in the world that supports windows...