MSI Claw 8 AI+ review – the best performing gaming handheld you can buy

Daily Mirror

2 days ago

If you're looking for a ripping fast gaming handheld, there's not many better than MSI's latest.
The MSI Claw 8 AI+ is one of the most premium gaming handhelds you can buy, but it comes with a premium price tag. So, does it provide a premium experience? And how do Intel graphics impact performance?
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The MSI Claw 8 AI+ replaces the original MSI Claw, and it's better in every way, but that's also reflected in the cost. The price for MSI' s new and shiny model is £899 / $999 / AU$1799. In terms of comparisons, one of the closest devices in terms of specs is the Asus ROG Ally X, which is priced at £799 / $799 / AU$1599.
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But that's not really fair, because the MSI Claw 8 AI+ has 8GB more RAM, a bigger screen, Wi-Fi 7, and a newer Intel Core Ultra 7 (series 2) APU, as opposed to the AMD Z1 extreme, which first debuted in May 2023. In truth, in terms of pure specs, this device is at the raggedy edge.
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MSI Claw 8 AI+ design and features
The MSI Claw 8 AI+ is rocking some beefy specs and is one of the very first handhelds to feature Intel Arc graphics under the hood. The key specs you need to know are that it's got an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, a huge 80-watt-hour battery, 1TB of storage, 32GB of LPDDR5x memory, WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Basically, everything you'd ever need.
If you're wondering what the AI+ thing is all about, it technically has a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that delivers 47 TOPS, which is on par with the latest Copilot+ PC s, for those pesky AI workloads. While we're on the subject of AI, MSI says that the Claw 8 AI+ can be used as a mini-PC, thanks to its powerful NPU, using the built-in Copilot to work and create. But I won't be testing that functionality in this review and will instead focus specifically on its gameplay capabilities.
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Let's talk about the colour first, which MSI calls Sandstorm. Seeing it in pictures and in other videos, I wasn't a fan. But having spent a bit of time with it in person, I actually really like it. It's got a matte, vintage, retro Dell PC vibe, and is kind of similar to the 50th Anniversary limited edition colour scheme that PlayStation launched for its PS5 consoles earlier this year. In a market that is dominated by black or white, fair play for MSI for going for something a bit different. It stands out, that's for sure.
Onto the specifics: You get a 1920 x 1200 screen at a 16:10 ratio. It's also 120Hz, VRR capable, 500 nits, and IPS. It's a pretty nice display and is obviously slightly higher resolution than the 1920 x 1080 resolution on handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally X. But, for this price, I would have liked to see an OLED or AMOLED display, or at least an IPS display with proper HDR support.
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It's got excellent hall-effect joysticks and triggers, with RGB, that are precise and, more importantly, durable, unlike the Nintendo Switch 2, which, as I spoke about in my review, is very likely to experience stick drift, but there are no such problems here. The ABXY buttons also have RGB, which is nice, and they're pretty standard, Xbox controller-like, as are the D-Pad and the bumpers.
As is the case with most handhelds right now, this handheld features four menu-style buttons: a View button, a Menu button, an MSI Centre button, and a Quick Settings button. The back also has two M1/M2 Marco buttons.
On MSI Centre specifically, this is the software you use to customise the performance of the device, and I found it to be a bit strange to use. I mean, it's fine for the majority of settings, and offers a similar experience to customisation programs you'd find on other handhelds, like the ability to change joystick deadzones, etc, but in regards to changing the performance of the device, it's not great. It's got this AI Engine mode, which essentially decides what performance the device will produce at any given time. In my testing, it was a bit inconsistent, and I just ended up putting it on manual or endurance for the most part.
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Even in manual mode, the customisation is very, very basic. You get two sliders to set the TDP, and you can change the fan curves, and that's it. That's your lot. There's zero customisation of the other performance modes, and that's just downright strange for a device that is capable of so much.
This handheld is beefy in size, thanks to the bigger screen, but it weighs just over 800g, which is almost 300g more than the Switch 2, about 120g heavier than the Asus ROG Ally X and 100g more than the Zotac Zone. Now you'd think that this weight would impact the ergonomics, but it genuinely doesn't; the ergonomics are excellent, and I particularly like these finger channels (a phrase I've coined myself) on the back that feel really satisfying to slip into.
Despite its weight and size, I had zero issues holding it for long periods, and I have no complaints about the ergonomics. In terms of other features, it's got two Thunderbolt 4 ports, which can support DisplayPort and power delivery, and you can connect two monitors simultaneously. It's also got a Micro SD card slot, an audio combo jack, a power button with a fingerprint reader, a volume rocker, and two front-facing speakers.
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MSI Claw 8 AI+ performance
As mentioned, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ has a Intel Core Ultra 7 (series 2), boasting 8 cores, with four efficiency cores and four performance cores, with the latter able to turbo up to 4.8GHz, and it's also able to deliver a max TDP of 37W, and a min of 8W in the endurance mode. So, to put the MSI Claw 8's Intel performance to the test, we put it in manual mode and cranked the sliders to maximum TDP and maximum fan speeds, doing the same with the Asus ROG Ally X, and here are the results, just below this paragraph. Bear in mind that the MSI Claw is running at the slightly higher resolution of 1920 x 1200 versus the ROG Ally X's 1920 x 1080.
Despite running at a slightly higher resolution, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ outperformed the ASUS ROG Ally in most of the benchmarking tests we ran, showing once and for all that if you're looking for pure performance and the best frame rates possible, the Claw 8 AI+ is probably the best gaming handheld you can buy right now. It also showcased its performance with Intel's AI upscaling technology, Intel XeSS, with the benchmarks showing an up to 52% increase in frames compared to running natively.
The battery life is also clearly a major selling point for this device, managing just over 2 hours in Cyberpunk 2077 in performance mode, and three and a half hours in the F1 25 looped benchmark in endurance mode, although this does seriously impact performance, going from a 50 average FPS to low 30s in that particular game. This is market-leading battery life, or at least market-matching battery life, as I found I got a similar level of battery from the Asus ROG Ally X, which has the same 80Wh battery, but the MSI Claw 8 AI+ also has a bigger screen, so it does an outstanding job, in regards to the efficiency of it's processing unit but also with it's battery size.
MSI Claw 8 AI+ overall thoughts
The MSI Claw 8 AI+ has pretty much everything you'd want from a gaming handheld right now, offering superb performance, good ergonomics, strong battery life and cutting-edge features. It's one of, if not the, best gaming handheld on the market right now, and it's priced that way too.
It's a high price to pay, so whether you decide to buy one or not will depend on your budget. You could almost buy two Steam Deck OLED 's for the price of one MSI Claw 8 AI+. But, if you want the best performance, battery life and modern features, there's no doubt that it's your best bet, even if it isn't the perfect device.