Discussion Handheld PC Gaming devices

[gorobei]

MSI has entered the ring. (with an intel soc)
premature release of marketing docs ahead of CES reveal.

MSI CLAW gaming handheld leaked, features Intel Core Ultra 7 155H with Arc graphics and 32GB memory - VideoCardz.com

MSI handheld leaked MSI to compete with ASUS and Lenovo with a brand-new handheld. MSI CLAW, Source: @wnxod Less than 24 hours since MSI’s first teaser on social media and we now have a picture, name, and full specs of the upcoming device. This gaming handheld is called CLAW, and it will be...

videocardz.com

MSI’s Steam Deck competitor has leaked, and it’s powered by an Intel Meteor Lake chip

We’ll likely see the Claw at CES.

www.theverge.com

the Claw [/cringe]
meteorlake 6Pcore 8Ecore 2Lpcore
32gb ram

they will seriously need to step up the performance of the alchemist gpu units or this is dead in the water for AAA modern games. the retro emulation could be ok if the low power cores can improve the battery life. though intel could probably spare the engineers to make sure the cpu uses the bare min of the tdp and the rest goes to gpu.

[edit]
CES hands on with engineering samples.

MSI Claw hands-on: the Steam Deck rival with Intel inside

A lot hangs on an unproven Intel processor.

www.theverge.com

7" ips (msi say they will support VRR)
53 whr batt
16gb ram
$700/750/800 configs
struggles(24fps) with modern games at 720p, needs to push power envelope to get any real fps.

going for extra battery life seems questionable. the 8840u with rdn3 is just around the corner and will have way more gpu using less power than the 7840. limiting the claw to being good at older/retro games with extra battery time puts you up against the steamdeck which is better optimized for low power.

 

[gorobei]

first linux handheld Orange Pi Neo.

what were they thinking: no exposed screws sounds like it makes it harder to mod, which should really attract linux users who are all about custom builds.

Orange Pi Neo Gaming Handheld Revealed, Powered by Ryzen 7 7840U

The Manjaro Linux team exhibited Orange Pi Neo gaming handhelds at the annual FOSDEM event this past weekend. Attendees were welcomed to play around with early examples at the KDE booth in Brussels, Belgium—Orange Pi expressed its ambition (last year) to expand its single-board operation into...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[gorobei]

ayaneo flip in 2 flavors DualScreen or KeyBoard

im guessing the 3ds generation was pretty huge so a jumbo sized emulator could be a draw.

 

[gorobei]

msi claw reviews are coming in....

general assessment is that there is a reason why there were no early samples to reviewers.

the good:

• same display as the Ally
• basic grip feel is good
• speakers are a little better than Ally
• hall effect sticks are nice
• the cooling vents are bigger

the bad:

• shoulder buttons are mushy and they moved the pivot location such that you need to use an uncomfortable grip to use them
• the software is a mess, the driver updates dont help much.
• the dpad is bad
• the soc is doomed. uses too much power, minimum 20W floor (compared to 10W and 15W on the competition), to get fps even close to the 7840u/Z1 you have to max out the power/fan/noise/heat and still come in 2nd place. most of the larger battery will get eaten up by the soc so you dont even get longer playtime.

the conjecture is that this is another 'intel paying a brand to stick their chip inside a product' either to stop amd from being the only name in the handheld market or to find somewhere to dump some of their chips to avoid bad laptop sales numbers (like those early 10nm chips they dumped on lenovo to be used in china-only laptops so they could say they met their forecast of delivering 10nm by such-n-such year). msi did the bare minimum work on this, the product design engineers did some nice work but it is clear that no one cared about bringing a solid product out.


on a more optimistic note:
someone stuck a Framework mainboard in a custom printed shell.

should be interesting to see what an amd board will do.

 

[gorobei]

phawx review of msi Claw or as one commenter put it: msi Flaw

7w idle power draw, horrible frame interval lows, fan doesnt ramp up so while quiet at full tdp it gets hot. at $100 more expensive than the Ally while delivering the same performance as steamdeck but having worse battery time.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

phawx review of msi Claw or as one commenter put it: msi Flaw

7w idle power draw, horrible frame interval lows, fan doesnt ramp up so while quiet at full tdp it gets hot. at $100 more expensive than the Ally while delivering the same performance as steamdeck but having worse battery time.

- Does this really surprise anyone though?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

- Does this really surprise anyone though?

The price does. It's the opposite of ARC dGPUs by offering terrible value for the money. AMD copies Nvidia. Now Intel copies AMD. That is Intel is using AMD's strategy of fleecing their loyal customers with initial pricing. I fully expect this to see a 20% price drop in a few months. Otherwise it'll gather dust. If they made enough of them to sit on shelves.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

The price does. It's the opposite of ARC dGPUs by offering terrible value for the money. AMD copies Nvidia. Now Intel copies AMD. That is Intel is using AMD's strategy of fleecing their loyal customers with initial pricing. I fully expect this to see a 20% price drop in a few months. Otherwise it'll gather dust. If they made enough of them to sit on shelves.

-I'm sure the engineers already knew they had a turd on their hands a long time ago, this is probably shareholder bait to say Intel and MSI have something in the handheld space.

 

[gorobei]

GN sticks a fork in the claw.

steve was the first to actually buy one in the taiwan store however long after release, those things will be sitting on the shelves until the write-down.

intel had to have paid msi to make this, but it cant have been worth it. it damages the msi brand and doesnt do much for intel. it is priced like they dont want anyone to buy it. i dont think you can overcome such a horrible first impression.

 

[gorobei]

OneXPlayer X1 intel 3in1
10.95 inch display

they are taking the laptop replacement/tablet/handheld to the limit.
intel ultra7-155H 6P/8E/2LP cores
32/64gb
1/2/4 TB
2560x1600 120hz
harman audio
65Whr battery
$1100-1500 ($2000+ for bundle)

this is a tablet with laptop power that you can sort of game on depending on intel gpu driver status. for the sysadmin who messes with multiple farms while traveling it has the oculink. the weight and battery life means only short gaming sessions. the slide on controllers making it slightly less awkward than lugging around a gaming laptop and xbox controller.

if this was available with an amd apu, i would have a use for this because of the pen support. for art sketching the size is just barely tolerable, and the 11 inch screen for media consumption is a positive (assuming the kickstand can hold up).

 

[gorobei]

Ally follow up: the Ally X

Asus’ next ROG Ally will be the ROG Ally X

The company’s promising big battery life gains.

www.theverge.com

same apu and screen, bigger battery, ssd changed to use m.2 2280 size, changed joystick daughterboards for easier mod/repair, relocated sd card slot, black case.

but you might want to hold off on buying based on GamerNexus warranty experience.

Info - [GN] asus dun f#%d up. warranty claim rejection "scam or fraud?"

i cant see Steve ever letting this go. GN sent their Ally in for joystick repair under warranty. asus rejects item for micro nick damage indicating some sort of violation of warranty. usual email runaround and other abuse of process by RMA department. random claims of liquid damage. rejected...

forums.anandtech.com

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I never buy anything from Asus NIB. I have been warning people off of them for well over a decade.

The Claw continues to improve with updates, but the present pricing is way too much. Even if significantly cheaper, it will still have some QoL issues. Like the marshmallow bumpers, and first gen ARC issues that still are not resolved, including Arkham Knight not loading without user intervention. And frame pacing issues with Meteor Lake, due perhaps to power management between the CPU and GPU?

The Steam Deck is the only one I would consider at present, if I personally wanted a handheld.

 

[gorcorps]

I'm still really interested in the Legion Go, but the shape of the controllers is a really odd choice

I was pretty locked in on the Steam Deck OLED for a while, but the size of the Legion Go is really intriguing and I've been considering it... The thing just doesn't look very comfortable which is a shame

 

[gorobei]

I'm still really interested in the Legion Go, but the shape of the controllers is a really odd choice

I was pretty locked in on the Steam Deck OLED for a while, but the size of the Legion Go is really intriguing and I've been considering it... The thing just doesn't look very comfortable which is a shame

retro gaming corp did a revist on the Legion Go. it is now among his favorite pcHH. one of the big changes were some etsy 3d printed housing/grips that eliminate the sharp edges and cover the extra mouse buttons.

the vertical bullet hell shmup dock-thing makes me smile.

in light of the GN ally rma, i do think all the larger handhelds need to go down the removable controller path. there is no reason to send in an entire unit for a joystick fix and have to deal with the "give them your windows password" and whole harddrive privacy hassle.

 

[Oyeve]

Ally follow up: the Ally X

Asus’ next ROG Ally will be the ROG Ally X

The company’s promising big battery life gains.

www.theverge.com

same apu and screen, bigger battery, ssd changed to use m.2 2280 size, changed joystick daughterboards for easier mod/repair, relocated sd card slot, black case.

but you might want to hold off on buying based on GamerNexus warranty experience.

Info - [GN] asus dun f#%d up. warranty claim rejection "scam or fraud?"

i cant see Steve ever letting this go. GN sent their Ally in for joystick repair under warranty. asus rejects item for micro nick damage indicating some sort of violation of warranty. usual email runaround and other abuse of process by RMA department. random claims of liquid damage. rejected...

forums.anandtech.com

And 100 bucks more. Think I'll stick with the of ally.

 

[gorobei]

weibu gp10 lunarlake

Intel's unreleased Lunar Lake CPU appears in gaming handheld listing

The Weibu GP10a handheld gaming PC powered by an Intel Core Ultra "Lunar Lake" processor appears on a Computex product page, signaling that Lunar Lake handhelds could be a viable option.

www.pcworld.com

10.95" 1920x1080 120hz
up to 64gb ram integrated into cpu
2280 m.2 up to 2tb

another shenzen maker, very similar to the oneXplayer x1. hopefully lunarlake can get the power/heat issues under control with the new gpu gen.

 

[gorobei]

LTT preview of allyX. meaningful improvements over the og ally(battery, 2xusb ports, grip, full size m.2, back buttons) but he wont recommend it unless asus gets its rma practices in order.

ally sd card issue seemingly due to cheap fuse, which linus' lab quasi confirmed.

ROG Ally SD Card Slot Fix Shines Light On PTC Fuse Failure Modes

The Asus ROG Ally is a handheld that, to our pleasant surprise, has attracted a decently sized modding community. Recently, we’ve stumbled upon a Reddit post investigating a somewhat common f…

hackaday.com

 

[gorobei]

Zotac Zone engineering sample from computex (not final)

8840u 8/16 780m igpu
16gb
512 gb m.2 2280
7" amoled display 1920x1080 120hz no vrr
48 whr
hall effect sticks, jog wheel rings

Zotac Zone gaming handheld specs and images have already been leaked, OLED remains the big talking point

Just a couple of days after being revealed, a full list of Zotac Zone specs has been leaked - its OLED panel remains a big selling point.

www.pcguide.com

per pcworld, zotac wont be using the frore cooler due to cost and wanting to be in the same neighborhood as the others. odd that they dont play up the touchpads. while i'm not crazy about the front camera, i would love to see a back camera so you could use it for candid stills/video or even as an AR game option.

update with LTT

 

[gorobei]

MSI doubles down.
Claw 8ai+ using lunarlake coming out sometime this year. the claw only came out 3 months ago.
8" screen
80 whr battery

MSI confirms "Claw 8 AI Plus" with Intel Lunar Lake and 80Wh battery, just 3 months after introducing first-gen handheld - VideoCardz.com

There is a new Claw coming with newer Intel CPU No point in buying Claw with Core Ultra 100 at this point. Claw 8AI+, Source: HotHardware Perhaps this could be one of the most interesting announcements from Computex in regard to Intel products. MSI has now confirmed to The Verge that it will...

videocardz.com

 

[gorobei]

antec bringing rebadged ayaneo slide to the US.

Antec Enters the handheld gaming market with Core HS, a rebadged Ayaneo Slide powered by the familiar Ryzen 7 7840U

Antec Core HS is said to retail between $600 and $900 USD.

www.tomshardware.com

having a US based company and domestic rma center would make me feel more comfortable about buying a rebadge. the potentially higher sales volume could drop the price assuming ayaneo doesnt care about competing with themselves, but the additional support network they would have to setup could eat in to that savings.

the real question would be how long would you have to wait for ayaneo to put out patches for the software.

 

[Fallen Kell]

I might need to look at these again, especially the ones that allow for a little customization and support for USB/bluetooth keyboards/mice.

 

[gorobei]

XPG Nia prototype

amd 7/8xxx apu
lpcamm2 memory easily accessible from back
tilt up screen
front camera for foveated rendering

XPG Demos "Nia" Handheld Gaming PC With Foveated Rendering, Swappable DRAM

www.anandtech.com

if they can get FR to work, it could really cut down on the power usage even for these 1st gen apu's allowing tons of extra battery life. this is ambitious.

 

[gorobei]

allyX reviews coming in.

pretty much double the battery life and other quality of life stuff. performance at higher tdp isnt much of a boost until you get past 20w, but most of this is on the cpu side instead of gpu where it is needed. amd needs to work on its drivers, as using an external gpu will uninstall the igpu drivers while it is plugged in and leave you with no graphic drivers when you disconnect.

battery life now compares to steamdeck, but at slightly higher performance.

bazzite linux on the allyX is seemingly getting viable enough to make it comparable to the steamdeck.

on a side note sony seems to be abandoning steamdeck as they are pushing ps overlay for pc users and locking off linux proton.

 

[gorobei]

acer nitro blaze
7" 1080p ips 144hz freesync premium(VRR) screen
ryzen 8840U
16gb
up to 2tb ssd 2280 size
2x usb4 typeC
pre production model, no price or battery size at this time

adam questioned them about the brand nitro vs predator and they responded that predator was for their premium line, so potentially a higher end version in the works.

 

[gorobei]

amd confirms ryzen Z2 apu for next gen of handhelds.

Z2 is another off the shelf apu with some minor tweaks due some time early 2025.

at some point amd needs to easy back on the cpu side and put more gpu units along with better tuning for power budget to limit the cpu and throw the rest at the gpu.