Verdict
MSI ’s decision to stick with Intel for the Claw 8 AI+ has pay off , delivering strong benchmark results and define many of the original model ’s flaws . This 2d - generation machine cements MSI as a serious instrumentalist in the hand-held gaming outer space , but its eminent monetary value lets it down .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
It was always run to be sluttish for MSI to meliorate the Claw . The first loop was regarded as a sodding non - starter compare to the Steam Deck , the Lenovo Legion Go , and the Asus ROG Ally . But MSI has done so much more than just make wide-eyed refinements to the Claw 8 AI+ , it ’s gone above and beyond to make a proper contender in the serious PC hand-held place .
With improved software , functioning , and electric battery life , the MSI Claw 8 AI+ is an impressive scrap of kit that exact almost every task in its tread . While there are negative to the twist – namely its price and the occasional Center M quirk – the performance of this handheld compare to its predecessor is a remarkable crook around .
But is it enough to concern the big actor in the market place ?
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Design
While MSI certainly had to go back to the drawing off board with its handheld , the Claw ’s design remain for the most part unaltered . What has changed , though , are the dimensions . Now sporting an 8 - inch FHD+ screen and 80Whr battery , the Claw ’s prominent than ever .
It ’s not quite the big handheld we ’ve screen – that title belong to theLegion Go – but it is noticeably larger than the Ally , pushing it into a category of handhelds that feel ever so more or less less portable than they should be .
The supply sizing comes with extra weight , the 8 AI+ now weigh 795 g , 120 g more than its forerunner and slightly heavier than theAlly X. MSI has attempt to cancel this with its ergonomic grips , which are well-situated and well - shaped . However , during long gaming academic session , I happen myself need to either take breaks or find something to rest it on .
gratefully , lie the Claw on a shock no longer causes the fans to overwork , due to redesigned vents positioned just above the macro buttons on both sides . This not only ameliorate air period and comfortableness but also gives the machine a much neater , symmetrical look .
Beyond just subprogram , MSI has also complicate the Claw ’s overall aesthetic . Despite being made of credit card , the Claw does n’t finger sleazy , and the fresh Sandstone color adds a aerodynamic , advanced aesthetic that stand out from the common inglorious - and - white-hot handhelds .
This aid to detail carry well beyond the finish . The power button , with an in - build fingermark digital scanner , is positioned for easy access with your left-hand - hand , making planetary house - ins so much faster .
One of my best-loved details are the raised dot that sit over the South Dakota card reviewer and two Thunderbolt larboard . This intend in down in the mouth lighting , you no longer have to flub in the dark to plug your handheld in – you just run your digit across the top to find the port .
The spare Thunderbolt 4 slot also means you’re able to plug away your gimmick into your monitor for 4 K gaming at home or even into an external GPU to give it just a bit of extra juice .
Controls
The 8 AI+ has all the same controls as the original Claw , but the design of some of the buttons have been changed to improve the overall performance .
While the layout of the controls is for the most part the same as before , the design of the bumpers and the macro button have been rethought . The bumper are now much well-situated to regain and labor , while the macro button have been flattened to reduce any accidental mislicks .
MSI has also tweaked the design of the four shortcut buttons , which are positioned around the screen . These are relatively easy to obtain – even as someone with small hands – but I was peculiarly disappointed to learn that the correct - hand side menu button still open up the setting pane on the unexpended - hand side of the CRT screen . This take a crap piloting slightly crafty , as you have to change over the system of weights of the Claw onto your left hand to apply the touch screen . The package for these buttons can also be a bit fiddly but they are space out well and relatively promiscuous to press .
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Aside from that , the Claw ’s command work really well . The D - pad , shoulder , and gun trigger clitoris are unbelievably tactile and responsive , and the Hall effect thumbsticks feel nice to the skin senses . I put these to the trial in several games from Rocket League to Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 , and they felt incredibly responsive .
The boldness buttons are n’t in particular loud when pressed and the D - pad is surprisingly flaccid to the touching . However , I will say that the elevate edges on the D - pad catch the undersurface of your quarter round if you ’re trying to do combinations , which is n’t on the dot idealistic .
Display
The success of theSteam Deck OLEDnow intend everyone wants handhelds with fancy show . While the Claw 8 AI+ does n’t deliver on our OLED desires , it does give us an improved display .
This clock time around MSI has opted for an 8 - column inch FHD+ 120Hz exhibit over the 7 - inch FHD display from the original claw . It also now has a varying refresh rate , which was one of the main criticisms of the original Claw .
The quality of the 1920×1200 resolution presentation is astonishingly respectable . It packs in plentitude of particular , specially when compared to the 800p 90Hz Steam Deck OLED screen , and feels smoother and more antiphonal . And at 500 nit , it is plenty lustrous to game on in all weather – even in sunlight .
The colours are rich and vibrant , but because it ’s an IPS LCD blind , the contrast is n’t fantastic . I establish that in in particular glowering conniption , like night time in Horizon Zero Dawn or Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 , I had to boost the brightness to see what I was doing . It ’s not idealistic , but it is to be expected with an IPS panel .
That being said , I ca n’t do much else to blame the display . It ’s big , shiny , and inviting , and I ’ve enjoyed playing game on it .
Performance
The MSI Claw 8 AI+ is the first handheld we ’ve see that ’s powered by Intel Lunar Lake . While there was a slight concern over MSI ’s decisiveness to stick with Intel over AMD , it ’s clear that call has pay off .
In elementary terms , the Claw ’s performance is the best yet , get every other handheld we ’ve benchmarked so far . But first , let ’s look at the spec .
Under the hood , MSI has cram a knock-down Intel Core Ultra 7 258V CPU , which is built to prioritise powerfulness efficiency , an improved Intel Arc 140V iGPU , which has eight Xe² cores and eight beam - tracing units at its disposal . That ’s quite the statement from a company whose first handheld failed to make a splash .
For retention , it has 32 GB of LPDDR5x-8533 RAM and storage wise , 1 TB SSD will keep you proceed , but there ’s also a micro SD card expansion slot enshroud on the top track should you need it .
The specs are a marked improvement from the original model and those improvements made themselves abundantly clear in our benchmark .
Against the Steam Deck OLED , the Ally , Ally X , Ayaneo 2S , and the Lenovo Legion Go , the MSI Claw 8 AI+ consistently come out on top for our 3DMark Time Spy , PC Mark 10 , and Geekbench score . This show the superpower of the partnership of the Intel processor and iGPU in do both play and office staff - found labor .
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The Claw also has fantastic SSD performance with a read speed of 6155.43MB / s and a write speed of 5301.85MS / reciprocal ohm according to Crystal Disk Mark , propose game installs and consignment screen should complete with ease .
While the numbers above are certainly impressive , there is a caveat . The Claw does what it needs to and on paper it look like the obvious choice , but when it hail to actual performance , the handheld is n’t as consistent as I ’d have liked . In game like Rocket League , FC 25 , Firewatch , and The Invicibles , the Claw was capable to hold a steady 60 or so FPS .
However , in more graphically demanding games like Horizon Zero Dawn , the Claw struggled to maintain a decent norm . This was in particular noticeable in Kingdom Come Deliverance , where my FPS dipped to as low as 16 once I inscribe the metropolis of Guttenberg . To fix this , I had to drop the graphical preferences down , but even then , it struggled to stick around static .
To empathize the execution better , I put the Claw to the test , benchmarking three game – Horizon Zero Dawn , hacker 2077 , and Dirt Rally – at the highest stage of graphics at 720p and 1080p . I did these benchmark at 8W , 17W , 30W , as well as the AI and Endurance preferences to give you a better musical theme of how these can impact performance and power efficiency .
These tests were also performed on battery as the Claw is design to be a portable handheld .
As you’re able to see , the Claw is by far one of the most herculean portable handhelds yet , but its functioning can be somewhat spotty . In our Horizon Zero Dawn run , the Rog Allyjustbeats the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and the Rog Ally X at 720p by a unmarried frame , but at 1080p , the Claw runs out with it with an norm of 40 fps . This is a similar story for Cyberpunk 2077 , where the Ally X pips the Claw in our 720p test , but not in our 1080p test .
However , it seemed to clamber a bit with Dirt Rally . At 720p , the Claw managed 56 Federal Protective Service to the Ally X ’s 83 , and at 1080p , the Claw struggled with an average of 36 fps , compare to the Ally X ’s 55 fps .
The Claw perform at its skillful at 30W , but the benchmarking proves that you ’re not cash in one’s chips to sacrifice too much by allowing the AI to tweak your preferences for you – provide , of class , that you have the office cable system ready when you eventually near that 15 % battery St. Mark .
The other affair to say is that even at load , the Claw stays middling nerveless . The fans do quetch in quite a piece , especially when play more recent triple - A titles , but they ’re quite quiet . I would n’t go as far as to say they ’re silent as I decidedly point out their aristocratic whir when I was act in seam one nighttime , but they ’re quiet enough for your better half to ignore and kip soundly next to you if required .
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you may change the fan curve ball if you require , but the default configurations are enough to keep the Claw squeamish and nerveless .
Battery Life
The MSI Claw 8 AI+ follows the trend of hand-held PCs with bigger batteries – except in the Claw ’s case , it does it better .
With a 80Wh assault and battery , which is only found in the Asus Rog Ally X , the Claw pop the question some of the best battery life in the marketplace right now . In fact , in our PCMark 10 battery examination , the Claw delivered results of 3 hours 19 minute – that ’s the good in our handheld testing yet .
Of course , the actual battery lifetime depends on how you apply the Claw , what resolution you act your games in , and what your TDP is go down to . For the most part , I retrieve leaving the TDP on 17W gave me the best battery performance during my testing – especially in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 , where I vex just over two hours of game time at 1200p on intermediate options .
I also test the Claw in our Horizon Zero Dawn tests , playing the plot at 720p on Ultra . With the TPD set to 17W , I was able to get just over three hours worth of game prison term , putting the Claw just ahead of the Ally X.
I also experimented quite a bit with the AI preset , which allows the machine to modify the power draw on the rainfly . The AI setting ’s TDP mostly sat at around 16 - 17W , but I get that as the battery living dwindled , so too did the operation of the Claw . Despite turning off all battery save preferences , the AI basically put the handheld into power rescue mode when it hit ~15 % . While testing this with Horizon Zero Dawn and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 , I saw my FPS free fall from around 30 FPS to around 10 in just seconds , inclose falter in the process .
As for charging times , well the Claw takes just over two hours to be to the full excite with the 65W charger include in the boxful . It ’s deserving noting that if you ’re just topping up the barrage fire rather than charging it from zero , you’re able to still use the machine and play game on it – it just postulate much longer to charge .
It ’s safe to say that the 80Whr bombardment is a massive advance over the original model and the number speak for themselves .
Games and Software
If the original Claw was call back for anything , it was for its unspeakable computer software . Fortunately MSI ’s Center M computer software has been improved for the 8 AI+ but it ’s still not perfect .
During my first few days of examination , I found the handset glitched between desktop and gaming way , locking out the grimace clit from being used until I re-start the French telephone . I ’ve not been able to replicate this at all and I ’m hoping it ’s just a bug that ’ll be desex by an update , but it did force me to abandon playing a biz .
One of the most prominent problems , though , is the way of life in which the software package interact with game . While testing FC 25 , Rocket League , and Cyberpunk 2077 , the MSI Quick preferences sidebar would appear now when request . The same go for the Center M menu . However , in Horizon Zero Dawn and The Invicibles , call for one of these via the cutoff buttons would result in a horrendous time lag – sometimes up to ten seconds – that would often pull you out of the game completely .
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rent me be clear , when the software package work , it ’s fluid and easy to use , but when it does n’t it ’s a frustrating experience . I ’m certain MSI will gear up it in a future update , but for now it ’s something to study if you ’re weighing up your options against one of the other staggeringly popular handheld devices .
MSI has also put a Brobdingnagian focus on AI with this example , as indicated by the name . As well as the AI locomotive the equipment has , the Claw ship with Microsoft Copilot+ , allowing you to perform some tasks like X using cloud - based processing . The AI engine itself has its pro and cons , but beyond that , I do n’t think the average substance abuser will interact with it much .
Should you buy it?
The 8 - inch FHD+ display urinate playing game an right-down joyfulness and it hits that odorous place between the Asus ROG Ally X and the Legion Lenovo Go .
The MSI Claw 8 AI+ has a hefty exercising weight and a crowing price tag . If you want a handheld that ’s not only cheap , lighter , and can offer up the same case of performance , grab the Asus ROG Ally X.
Final Thoughts
The MSI Claw 8 AI+ is a huge step forward for MSI , proving that it has learned from its blemished first endeavor . After using it as my principal gambling system for a fortnight , I keep come back to its sleek designing , telling specs , gorgeous blind , and self-colored performance – this is easily one of the most impressive handhelds I ’ve tested .
That enunciate , MSI ’s pricing strategy makes it a much tougher sell than it require to be . While the benchmarks speak for themselves , the hefty £ 899/$900 price tag put it in direct competition with alternatives like theROG Ally , where the price - to - operation ratio does n’t quite work in its party favor , specially with no practice bundling cause or sieve protector .
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How we test
We test the MSI Claw 8 AI+ by playing a variety of different games at different graphics preferences , while checking the fair and minimum build rate via in - game benchmarks .
We also carry on various assault and battery tests by play biz for long stint of prison term , trying out a variety of graphics setting to determine whether they made an impact .
FAQs
The MSI Claw 8 AI+ runs Windows 11 .
Yes , you could dock the Claw , but the proprietary MSI Nest Docking Station is sold separately .
No , the MSI Claw 8 AI+ does not get with any accouterment . The only thing you ’ll find in the box is the Claw and its battery charger .
Test Data
Full Specs
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