ASUS ROG Ally again available at $599
Now is the time for a price cut for the MSI Claw.
MSI Claw might now be facing a tough competition with ASUS dropping the price of its ROG Ally console through Best Buy, especially considering how recently Claw was released (last week). ASUS has a history of discounting its Ally handhelds occasionally, and this latest move couldn’t have come at a worse time for MSI.
In the high-end handheld market, there are currently four major players: Valve Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and MSI Claw. The Claw made a big splash at CES 2024 but has since been overshadowed by ASUS’ aggressive pricing strategy and lack of any MSI marketing effort.
The ROG Ally comes in two CPU options: the Ryzen Z1 Extreme, which is the high-end model, and a non-Extreme version with a scaled-down Zen4/RDNA3 APU. The Extreme version is favored by those looking to play modern games, while the non-Extreme version is suitable for older games and emulation. However, the recent launch of the Steam Deck OLED has added pressure on both versions of the ROG Ally, further complicating MSI’s position in the market.
ROG Ally Price, Source: BestBuy
Knowing the situation, ASUS has lowered the price for the Extreme version from $699 to $599, while the non-Extreme Ally is now available at $399, so over a $200 discount. The current market for popular handhelds looks like this:
Gaming Handleds Priced from High to Low (As of March 15, 2024)
- MSI Claw A1M Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, (16GB RAM/1 TB SSD) $799 [ Newegg ], [ MSI US Store ]
- MSI Claw A1M Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, (16GB RAM/512GB SSD) $749 [ Newegg ], [ MSI US Store ]
- MSI Claw A1M Intel Core Ultra 5 135H (16GB RAM/512GB SSD) $699 [ Newegg ], [ MSI US Store ]
- Lenovo Legion Go AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme (16GB, 512GB) $699 [ Amazon ] [ Lenovo US Store ]
- Valve Steam Deck OLED AMD Sephiroth (16GB, 1TB) $649 [Steam]
- Valve Steam Deck OLED AMD Sephiroth (16GB, 512GB) $549 [Steam]
- ASUS ROG Ally AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme (16GB RAM/512GB SSD) $599 [ BestBuy ]
- ASUS ROG Ally AMD Ryzen Z1 (16GB RAM/512GB SSD) $399 [ BestBuy ]
- Valve Steam Deck AMD Van Gogh (16GB, 256GB) $399 [Steam]
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The cheaper Steam Deck with LCD may still be a better choice than ROG Ally Z1-non-E considering it has twice as many GPU cores, only of older version. However, the SteamOS ecosystem may be considered less troublesome than a native Windows installation for many.
MSI Claw has already been tested and shown as slower than Ally. If this product is expected to be successful, the company needs to reduce the price quickly.
| Handheld Gaming Consoles Specs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz | MSI Claw | ASUS ROG Ally | Lenovo Legion Go | Valve Steam Deck OLED |
| Picture |  |  |  |  |
| Architecture | Intel Redwood Cove, Crestmont & Xe-LPG | AMD Zen4 & RDNA3 | AMD Zen4 & RDNA3 | AMD Zen2 & RDNA2 |
| APU | Core 7 Ultra 155H 16C/22T up to 4.8 GHz or Core 5 Ultra 135H 14C/18T up to 4.6 GHz | Ryzen Z1 Extreme 8C/16T up to 5.1 GHz or Ryzen Z1 6C/12T up to 4.9 GHz | Ryzen Z1 Extreme 8C/16T up to 5.1 GHz or Ryzen Z1 6C/12T up to 4.9 GHz | AMD Sephiroth (6nm) 4C/8T up to 3.5 GHz |
| SoC GPU | Arc Graphics 8 Xe-C @ 2.25 GHz [155H] 7 Xe-C @ 2.20 GHz [135H] | AMD iGPU 12CU @ 2.7 GHz [Z1E] 4CU @ 2.5 GHz [Z1] | AMD iGPU 12CU @ 2.7 GHz [Z1E] 4CU @ 2.5 GHz [Z1] | AMD iGPU 8CU @ 1.6 GHz |
| SoC TDP | 28W | 1-30W | 9-30W | 4-15W |
| External GPU | Thunderbolt 4 | ROG XG Mobile (up to RTX 4090) | USB4 | Not officially |
| Memory Capacity | 16GB LPDDR5-6400 | 16GB LPDDR5-6400 | 16GB LPDDR5X-7500 | 16GB LPDDR5-6400 |
| Storage Capacity | 1TB/512GB | 512GB | 1TB/512GB | 512GB/1TB SSD |
| Storage Type | M.2 NVMe 2230 SSD PCIe 4×4 | M.2 NVMe 2230 SSD PCIe 4×4 | M.2 NVMe 2242 SSD PCIe 4×4 | M.2 NVMe 2230 SSD PCIe 3×4 |
| Display | 7″ 1920×1080, 120Hz, 500 nits, VRR | 7″ 1920×1080, 120Hz, 500 nits, 7ms, VRR | 8.8″ 2560×1600 IPS, 144Hz, 500 nits | 7.4″ 1200×800, 90 Hz |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 7 + Bluetooth 5.4 | Wi-Fi 6E, BT 5.2 | Wi-Fi 6E, BT 5.2 | Wi-Fi 6E, BT 5.3 |
| Battery | 53 Wh, 6-Cell | 40 Wh, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion | 49.2 Wh, 900 mAh (controllers) | 50 Wh |
| Weight | 675 g | 608g / 1.34 lbs | 854g / 1.87 lbs | 640 g / 1.41 lbs |
| Dimensions (L×W×H) | 29.4 × 11.7 × 2.1 cm 11.6 × 4.6 × 0.8 in | 28.0 × 11.3 × 3.9 cm 11.0 × 4.5 × 1.5 in | 29.9 × 13.1 × 4.1 cm 11.8 × 5.2 × 1.6 in | 29.8 × 11.7 × 4.9 cm 11.7 × 4.6 × 1.9 in |
| Default OS | Windows 11 | Windows 11 | Windows 11 | Steam OS/Win 11 |
| Retail Price | $799/€949 [155HU+1TB] $749/€849 [155H+512GB] $699 [135H+512GB] | $699/€799 [Z1E] $599/€699 [Z1] | $749 [Z1E+1TB] $699/€799 [1E+512GB] | $649/€679 [1TB] $549/€569 [512GB] |
| Release Date | March 2024 | June 2023 [Z1E] September 2023 [Z1] | October 31, 2023 | November 2023 |
Source: BestBuy