According to Tom's Hardware, Best Buy has put the original MSI Claw A1M on clearance at $562.99, a 25% cut from its $749.99 list price. The handheld includes a Core Ultra 7 155H from Intel's Meteor Lake family, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 7-inch 1080p/120Hz display. The outlet calls it the cheapest current handheld gaming PC option, noting that even an ROG Ally with a Ryzen Z2 A and 512GB of storage costs $600.
Tom's Hardware says the A1M is nearly identical in build and layout to the original Asus ROG Ally, but the Intel chip inside was not designed for handheld gaming. It delivers decent performance at a relatively high power draw: roughly 30 FPS in Horizon Zero Dawn at native 1080p on a 30W Balanced plan, and over 30 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 at a 40W plugged-in budget. The outlet measures it 5–10% behind the Ryzen Z1 Extreme with worse battery life.
MSI's software has improved through dozens of firmware and overlay updates since launch, though it remains less polished than Asus's. Tom's Hardware would normally recommend the ROG Ally at equal prices, but given the price gap, the A1M is worth considering. Just keep a quality USB-C charger handy.