During my testing of the MSI Claw, I experienced a mess of disappointing issues that forced me to give it a less-than-positive score. In fact, we wouldn’t recommend the Claw to anyone seeking a handheld gaming PC in its current state. This is pretty heartbreaking as a lover of the best handheld gaming devices, but you’re far better off investing in the Lenovo Legion Go or Asus ROG Ally.
However, one facet of its physical design baffled me (and it’s not the first time I’ve seen it). It’s something that might not bother most gamers who experience it, as my grip on devices often differs from theirs. But even if they have no issue with it, it’s a strange mishap in design nonetheless. I’m, of course, talking about bumpers that are clickable only on most of its surface, with some parts being difficult or impossible to push down. Let me explain.
Faulty bumpers bother me
The first time I faced this issue was with the original Xbox One controller. My brother and I got into frequent arguments about which was superior, as I was a PlayStation kid while he loved Xbox. I’d cite how the DualShock 4 has a bumper that’s fully clickable, while there’s a whole portion of the bumpers on Xbox One gamepads that is extremely firm and difficult to click. This is always at the very end of the bumper closest to the middle of the controller.
My natural method of holding a controller meant that my fingers were spread out across the length of the top, so whenever I would click down, my fingers would fail to input anything due to the pressure of the bumpers. It was like pressing into any other part of the plastic. However, my brother never realized this, and he was shocked when I showed him the problem. Again, this has to do with the natural way someone holds a controller, and if you don’t do so in a specific way, you’ll never realize it.
I vividly recall playing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice on Xbox One, and I had so much trouble parrying due to how I hold a controller. Even something as high as 90% reliability in how often the bumper would input is enough to completely ruin the experience, especially in fights as hardcore as the ones in Sekiro. It was enough to make me purchase the game separately on Steam just so I could play the game with a DualShock 4 controller.
But between the launch of the Xbox One and Series X, the company started introducing new standardized controller designs. These are simply known as Xbox Wireless Controllers now rather than featuring any specific attachment to a console, but they’re sometimes referred to as Xbox Series X controllers.
In these iterations, the bumper is fully clickable across its entire surface, and in fact, I currently use an Xbox controller as my sole gamepad when playing PC games. It’s hard to say if enough people complained for Xbox to fix the issue or if it was a problem they were already aware of and amended later. Ever since this new iteration resolved that problem, I hadn’t experienced another controller fall into this same trap.
The MSI Claw changed that, and playing through Elden Ring brought me back to my time with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice—ironically developed by the same studio. And while it’s already pretty offensive to have a bumper that isn’t clickable on a detached controller, it’s a whole other issue on a handheld gaming device. You can’t replace the controller and there’s no expectation for a new iteration—like Pro controllers—that can easily be purchased to improve the experience. Instead, you’d need to invest in a whole new console.
Bottom line
If the MSI Claw wasn’t an absolute mess for other reasons, including inferior gaming performance, uncomfortable levels of heat, and messy software, this problem alone is enough for me to choose alternatives like the ROG Ally or Legion Go. I’ve put hundreds of hours into my ROG Ally and have had no notable issues with its gamepad design, but I realized this issue within a few minutes of testing the Claw.
It’s unfortunate that this flaw made it through the testing phases of the Claw, but if you’re like me and cannot stand bumpers that aren’t fully clickable, we recommend investing in alternatives like the ROG Ally.
