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Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Daily Mirror
MSI Claw 8 AI+ review – the best performing gaming handheld you can buy
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? 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive: Intel plans a big push into handheld gaming PCs to take on AMD
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Handheld gaming PCs aren't exactly a niche anymore. Every major gaming hardware manufacturer, other than Alienware, has joined the handheld PC market with at least one attempt at a gaming handheld. And within the world of gaming handhelds, AMD has reigned supreme, supplying chips for the Asus ROG Ally X, Lenovo Legion Go, and more. Intel handhelds, on the other hand, have been something of a niche within a niche. We had the MSI Claw release in 2024, and a few other Meteor Lake handhelds were announced by companies like OneXPlayer and AOKZOE. MSI also updated the Claw with Intel's Lunar Lake chipset for the Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+, though neither handheld is readily available on the shelves. But just because Intel is taking a backseat for now doesn't mean it's content to sit in second place. Intel VP and General Manager, of Client AI and Technical Marketing, Robert Hallock tells Laptop Mag, "Intel is beefing up its staff to support gaming ISVs who want to do handhelds." And with expert support staff from engineers to game developers, Intel is readying itself to make a big push into the handheld market. As part of Intel's commitment to the handheld gaming PC market, the company is increasing its support network for handheld manufacturers. Hallock explains, "We're starting a number of internal programs to give them more assistance in targeting this performance profile because – relative to what they're accustomed to – [handhelds] are still relatively rare in terms of availability." Part of Intel's plan to support the emerging handheld market is seeding devices to game developers. "A lot of game devs tend to just target what they have on their desks or in their QA labs," Hallock says, "and so [we're] arming them with more handhelds as prototype devices. Getting them dev kits leading into Panther Lake." But Intel plans to offer more than just dev kits for handhelds. Intel is also keeping handheld specialists on staff as additional support for engineers and software developers. At CES, Intel had a wall of upcoming products featuring Intel chipsets. Familiar Intel-powered devices lined the shelves, including the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and Tencent Sunday Dragon 3D handhelds as well as several upcoming Arrow Lake laptops by Acer, Asus, Dell, and Lenovo. But there were a few other gaming handhelds next to the Claw and Sunday Dragon 3D handheld. I wasn't able to identify those devices at the time, and probably for good reason, as Hallock confirmed those handhelds were powered by Intel's latest Arrow Lake H SoC (System-on-a-chip). "Those are coming, you know, Arrow [Lake] H has about the same graphics performance as Lunar [Lake] and some of these handhelds are going all the way up to 30 watts now. And Arrow [Lake] fits really nicely in that sort of form factor," Hallock confirms. Based on what we've seen of Arrow Lake H's integrated Arc 140T graphics tile, we'd be pretty pleased with the performance on an Arrow Lake H gaming handheld, though the battery life might not be as good as the Lunar Lake handhelds. "It's not just Lunar [Lake] either. Whatever our vendors want to take for their product design, we're more than happy to do so. And the cool thing about having more than one SoC design is you can actually be flexible like that," Hallock says. "We don't have to take the same design and just keep cutting it bigger and smaller." Arrow Lake H isn't the endpoint for Intel's handheld commitment either. Co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus confirmed at CES that Intel's next-generation of mobile chips, Panther Lake is already in testing. And Hallock confirmed that Intel is already willing to work with partners to get Panther Lake handhelds on the schedule. But what do we know about Panther Lake so far? This upcoming chipset design won't be joining the Intel Core Ultra 200 family alongside Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake. Panther Lake is the codename for Intel's upcoming mobile CPU family of SoCs, similar to Arrow Lake, and will likely be part of Intel's Core Ultra 300 generation. And while former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger confirmed that Lunar Lake was something of a one-off in terms of chip design, particularly in putting the system memory on the CPU package, Panther Lake is intended to build on the success of Lunar Lake. "Panther Lake is essentially a direct successor to what Lunar [Lake]'s doing," Hallock tells us. "You saw the [CPU] package get held up at CES, it doesn't have memory on package this time." And while that is a major change from the Lunar Lake design it does have its advantages. "That makes it really nice for handheld vendors as well because now they can customize the memory they put in the platform. But we have other technologies that can compensate for the removal of the memory on package, which saves power," Hallock adds. So even without the benefit of having memory on the CPU package, Panther Lake shouldn't be much slower than Lunar Lake, while offering a more standard silicon design that allows for RAM configuration customization. "We're trying to build a family tree out of Lunar Lake," Hallock explains. "We're trying to create a stack based on that product. We're trying to take the things that people love and do more of it." So while Arrow Lake-H handhelds are coming soon, and a few Lunar Lake handhelds have already been announced, if you have the patience to wait for the Panther Lake versions it might get you the best of both worlds. Intel's internal support for handheld development is less about gamers, it's more of a commitment to hardware design and game developer partners. "If there's a game developer out there who happens upon this article eventually and you've been thinking about handhelds, give us an e-mail," Hallock says. "We would love to work with you and help you optimize your software for handheld devices. We have that staff. We have performance profiling tools. We have game developers on staff who are very familiar with optimizing graphics presets for devices of this performance profile or this form factor, and we would love to step in and give you a hand." "It's a big goal for some of the groups inside Intel to work on this, to make it their number one priority in '24 and '25 and then headed into Panther Lake as know that designing a new game for a new piece of hardware isn't always so we're ready and willing to jump in and help you do it. So if your game isn't coming out in the Lunar Lake generation, cool, we can help you do it for the Panther Lake generation, that's fine." But for all that Hallock's message isn't for gamers, ultimately consumers will have a much better experience on Intel handhelds thanks to partnerships and co-engineering teams like this one. Intel is known for working closely with its OEM partners and expanding into the game development side makes sense. Both for handheld devices that use Intel's SoC chipsets, but also for Intel's Arc discrete graphics business. Ultimately, steeper competition in the handheld gaming space will only benefit gamers in the long run. Silicon Survey 2025 One of my favorite AAA games looks stunning on Intel's new integrated graphics Nintendo Switch 2 price leak suggests affordability in Canada — but what about the U.S.?
