MSI Claw 8 AI+ review: A talon-ted handheld gaming PC

To say we were disappointed by the original MSI Claw would be an understatement. We had high hopes for the first Intel-powered gaming handheld, but it provided poor game performance, terrible bumpers, a high heat threshold, software issues, and disappointing battery life.

MSI and Intel have returned this holiday season with the Claw 8 AI+. And while the name of this handheld gaming PC is truly terrible, the handheld is a pleasant surprise. Intel worked hard to make the Core Ultra 200V “Lunar Lake” series a proper gaming chip with quality driver updates, improved super sampling, and ray tracing. MSI has updated the joysticks and bumpers on the Claw 8 AI+ to make them clickier and more satisfying and improved the thermals on the Claw 8 AI+ with a new Cooler Boost Hyper Flow system.

So, has the Claw 8 AI+ redeemed MSI? And can this comeback kid oust the Asus ROG Ally X to rank among our best gaming laptops for under $1,500 or best gaming handhelds?

MSI Claw 8 AI+: Specs and benchmarks

MSI Claw 8 AI+: Price and configurations

Right now, there is only one configuration for the Claw 8 AI+ (A2VM), and that is our $899 review model. This edition of the Claw features an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V “Lunar Lake” processor, Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and an 8-inch (1920 x 1200) 120Hz IPS touchscreen display. You can pick up the 8-inch MSI Claw at Best Buy and the MSI Store.

You could also opt for the revamped 7-inch handheld, the MSI Claw 7 AI+ (A2VM), which features the same Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor and integrated Intel Arc 140V graphics, 32GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, and a 7-inch 120Hz IPS display. That model retails for $799 and is available through Amazon.

Both second-gen Claw models are on the pricier side, but we have seen price hikes on other second-generation gaming handhelds. The Steam Deck OLED is significantly pricier than its LED counterpart, and the Asus ROG Ally X jumped in price by $150. Considering the state of inflation, the Claw 8 AI+ being $899 isn’t much of a surprise, though it is a more serious investment.

MSI Claw 8 AI+: Design

The Claw 8 AI+ is heavily redesigned from the original 7-inch chassis. The most obvious difference is the color-blocked exterior chassis, with a Sandstorm beige on the front of the handgrips and a black chassis underneath. While I would prefer a flashier shade like red, purple, or teal for the accent color, the two-tone design does set the Claw 8 AI+ apart from its predecessor. And if any handheld needs a clean slate, it’s the second-generation MSI Claw.

The Claw 8’s handgrips are large enough to fit well in your hands and are nicely arrayed so you can hit all the buttons you need. The handgrips get larger near your palms, mirroring a modern game controller, which is an upgrade on some of the less comfortable handheld designs we’ve seen, like the original Asus ROG Ally. We appreciated the ergonomics on the original Claw, and it seems MSI hasn’t changed that formula too much with the second iteration of the handheld.

As for the thermals and durability, MSI has added an intraflow thermal design for better cooling with fewer air vents on the top and rear sides of the handheld. The joysticks and triggers still use a Hall-Effect design for increased durability and accuracy, but the implementation feels a lot sturdier than the original Claw. The triggers on the Claw 8 AI+ have a little bit of weight and resistance to them as well, offering a much more satisfying click. The triggers and bumpers also click throughout the entire length of the button, so you no longer have any dead space at the edges of the handheld.

The Claw 8 AI+ isn’t the largest or heaviest handheld gaming PC. That title belongs to the Lenovo Legion Go. But it’s certainly large and in charge, measuring 11.77 x 4.96 x 0.94 inches and weighing 1.75 pounds. This is a pretty significant size and weight when compared to most other handheld gaming PCs like:

• Asus ROG Ally X: 11 x 4.4 x 1~1.5 inches, 1.5 pounds
• Steam Deck OLED: 11.73 x 4.6 x 1.93 inches, 1.4 pounds
• Lenovo Legion Go: 8.27 x 5.15 x 0.79 inches, 1.88 pounds
• MSI Claw (A1M): 11.6 x 4.6 x 0.85 inches, 1.48 pounds

MSI Claw 8 AI+: Ports

MSI updated the Claw’s port array with the Claw 8 AI+, offering additional ports to make your gaming experience smoother. The Claw 8’s full array includes:

• 2x Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C
• 1x microSD Card reader
• 1x 3.5mm headphone/mic jack

Because the Claw is a handheld, that should be all you need to connect a headset, expand your storage, and still charge the Claw 8 at the same time.

But if you plan to use the Claw 8 AI+ to power your home office, we’d recommend investing in one of the best laptop docking stations or USB-C hubs so you can connect a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

MSI Claw 8 AI+: Battery life

The MSI Claw 8 AI+ comes with three different user scenario power modes, AI Engine mode is the default, while Endurance mode is designed to give you the absolute best battery life, or you can opt for Manual mode. The latter allows you to set the TDP at 30W, 17W, or 8W power. While gaming on the Claw 8 AI+, I typically ran games at the 30W manual TDP or AI Engine mode. I did notice I could get a bit more of my daily MMO grind in while running on AI Engine mode, though the performance wasn’t as slick as at 30W power, which makes sense. I averaged about 2 hours of game time in Final Fantasy XIV at 30W and got roughly another 30 minutes when using AI Engine mode.

We benchmarked the Claw 8 AI+ at the 30W power mode, and that included our initial battery life benchmarks. At the full 30W power, we got a PCMark 10 battery life run of 2 hours and 22 minutes. On the default AI Engine Mode, we got a PCMark 10 battery life run of 3 hours and 6 minutes. Because we generally test handhelds in their default power modes, that 3:06 battery time is the one we’re using for comparison, which makes the Claw 8 AI+ the longest-lived handheld gaming PC we’ve tested so far.

MSI claims the Claw 8 AI+ offers over 4 hours of gaming time with the Endurance mode, so we did check that as well. On the PCMark 10 gaming battery test, with the display set to 150 nits, the Claw lasted 4 hours and 21 minutes.

You will take a hit to performance while running in Endurance mode, but if you’re just playing a low-intensity indie game or you don't need a competitive framerate, it's perfect for on-the-go gaming.

MSI Claw 8 AI+: Display

The Claw 8 features an 8-inch, 120Hz (1920 x 1200) IPS touchscreen display. This glossy IPS display is honestly impressive. The Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail endgame hub city Solution Nine looked as vibrant as I’ve ever seen, with solid differentiation in the neon pink and cotton-candy blue in the simulated lights of the cyberpunk city.

Baldur’s Gate III looked similarly lush, with deep contrast, high detail quality, and a stunning amount of color in the Act One zone of the game. The Emerald Grove had a nice array of greens between the lush plant life and the neon-green hints of Druid magic, indicating a solid degree of color accuracy in the display. Sure, we’ve seen creator-level gaming laptops with a greater deal of vibrancy and color accuracy, but the Claw 8 AI+ display delivers impressive quality for an 8-inch display panel on a handheld gaming PC.

The Claw 8 AI+ is also bright enough to cut through screen glare, even with a glossy IPS display. We have tested brighter gaming handhelds, with the Steam Deck OLED hitting an average peak brightness of 597 nits, over 100 nits brighter than the Claw 8 AI+ (473 nits). However, all of these handhelds are bright enough to game on the go.

The Claw 8 AI+’s touchscreen also functions as expected, with a fairly accurate read of taps and gestures. However, you may want to increase your display zoom when in Windows 11 desktop to give yourself easier touch targets to tap.

MSI Claw 8 AI+: Audio

The DTS dual speaker array on the Claw 8 AI+ is top-firing, coming from the speaker vents just below the display on the front of the handheld. MSI also packed noise-cancelling technology into the Claw 8 AI+, making its speakers more impactful. This helps with audio volume and clarity, so you can enjoy hearing the sweet instrumentals of Baldur’s Gate III or feel the thrill of the grind with the Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers battle theme “rencounter”.

I cranked up the audio on the Claw 8 AI + while doing fate grinding in the older Shadowbringers zones to level my Pictomancer, and I was not disappointed by the volume and clarity. Between the screaming metal-style guitar riffs and the battle cry vocals, the Shadowbringers battle theme has rarely sounded better from such small speakers.

Of course, if you want an immersive gaming experience with studio-quality sound, I’d recommend connecting a set of the best headphones to the Claw 8 rather than using the built-in speakers.

MSI Claw 8 AI+: Gaming and graphics

Like all other Windows-based gaming handhelds, you need to use the Windows 11 desktop to download and install your games for the first time. Once you’ve got the games on the Claw 8 AI+, you can bypass Windows almost entirely by launching games from the MSI Center M interface, which is a nice workaround for my least favorite aspect of handheld gaming PCs. Which is to say, Windows itself.

As for gaming performance, the integrated Intel Arc 140V graphics chip inside the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V “Lunar Lake” processor puts out some impressive graphics quality and smooth framerates. While your optimized settings will differ based on the game, you can get some solid performance at 30W power with even the highest graphics presets at 1080p, though dropping down to medium will get you smoother framerates.

With Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail at the Standard (Laptop) graphics settings at 1080p resolution, I averaged 40-50fps on most content. While not the smoothest experience, it let me handle end-game trials and dungeons without any stuttering or sudden frame drops. In Bladur’s Gate III, I enjoyed a smooth experience at High graphics presets at 1080p or 1200p resolution, but Medium settings were a little more reliable.

Even Cyberpunk 2077 was playable thanks to a careful application of Intel’s XeSS super sampling technology and downgrading the graphics to the Medium preset. When we benchmarked the game, we ran it at Ultra settings, without any software assistance, which accounts for the difference in playability. But our lab got Black Myth: Wukong going at 30fps on Medium settings, which is pretty good for that rigorous game benchmark. In fact, in our lab testing, the Claw 8 had consistently better framerates than all of its competition, including a 5-7 fps lead on the Asus ROG Ally X across most games.

MSI Claw 8 AI+: Performance and heat

While I wouldn’t use the Claw 8 AI+ as a mini PC, it has the performance to handle any web browsing, email managing, or spreadsheet manipulation you need. With an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V “Lunar Lake” processor, it doesn’t have the most powerful multi-thread performance in a mobile CPU, but it is more than most people need and can handle even more demanding applications like Photoshop.

While the Asus ROG Ally X has a lead on the Claw 8 AI+ in terms of raw CPU power with a higher Geekbench 6 score (11,255), but the Claw 8 (10,917) is more than twice as powerful as the Steam Deck OLED (4,542) and has a nearly 11% lead on the Legion Go (9,857) and 7% increase over the original Claw A1M (10,209).

The Claw 8 AI+ also has a speedy SSD, which makes downloading massive game files less of a pain. On our office’s high-speed internet connection, I got Baldur’s Gate III up and running in about 90 minutes.

As for heat management, MSI’s intraflow Cooler Boost Hyper Flow system did keep the system relatively cool. I kept the Claw balanced on a knee through long gaming sessions without any discomfort. In our lab’s heat testing, the handheld hit a high temperature of 96.6 degrees Fahrenheit while looping the Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition benchmark on the Extreme preset. While this is above the Laptop Mag comfort threshold of 95 degrees, it’s 8 degrees cooler than the original Claw A1M and over 10 degrees cooler than the Lenovo Legion Go. While we stress heat concerns on laptops, this is even more critical on handheld gaming PCs as the expectation is that you are holding it at all times.

MSI Claw 8 AI+: AI features

MSI markets the Claw 8 AI+ as a Copilot+ mini-PC. With an Intel Lunar Lake chip under the hood, that’s not as absurd a claim as it might have been with the original handheld. While I have no desire to dock a handheld gaming PC and turn it into a workstation, I know of people who have replaced a laptop or desktop computer with a handheld.

The Claw 8 AI+ comes with the standard Copilot+ offerings, including Microsoft CoCreate and Live Captions. As an Intel Lunar Lake machine, you can also access Intel’s AI Playground features to expand your AI offerings. While I am not sold on Copilot+ AI just yet, early AI adopters who are also handheld gaming PC enthusiasts might find this more of a selling point.

MSI Claw 8 AI+: Software and warranty

The MSI Claw 8 AI+ comes with Windows 11 pre-installed, which includes the usual applications like a trial of Microsoft Office 365, the Xbox app for PC, and Copilot.

MSI Center M in pre-installed on the Claw 8 AI+ to help control your performance settings. MSI Center M also launches your games, letting you skip the Windows desktop once your games are installed.

The MSI Claw 8 AI+ comes with a 1-year limited warranty for parts and labor.

Bottom line

The MSI Claw 8 AI+ is an incredible improvement over the original Claw A1M. The rebuilt Claw has slick gaming performance, impressive battery life, a stunning display, improved thermals, great ergonomics, improved triggers, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and 32GB of system memory to support it all. Plus, it’s far more stable than the original Claw, which suffered from numerous optimization issues with its Intel Meteor Lake processor.

However, the Claw 8 AI+ is the most expensive of the mainstream handheld gaming PCs, costing $899 for the 8-inch model, and $799 for the smaller Claw 7 AI+ A2VM. However, the recently revamped Asus ROG Ally X is $799 for the 1TB model, which makes the Claw pricing seem reasonable since the Ally is a 7-inch handheld. The Claw 7 AI+ A2VM has less storage space, with only a 512GB SSD, however, the Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+ both feature a new Intel processor and 32GB of memory, which accounts for some of the price differences. The Ally X uses the Ryzen Z1 Extreme from June 2023, which is just a slight rework of the Ryzen Z1 released in May of 2023. So, the Claw 8 AI+ has considerably newer hardware.

The Claw 8 is also a bit heavy, at 1.75 pounds. But it stays cool enough that you can balance the Claw on your lap or a knee without too much of an issue. So that can offset some of the weight from your wrists.

Personally, if I were to get one of these handheld PCs for myself, I’d probably opt for the Claw 7 A2VM because it’s a bit smaller and easier to carry, and I’d just slot in a 1TB microSD card to expand my storage and call it a day. But the Claw 8 does have the slick 8-inch display, which can make playing games with expansive HUDs a bit easier since you’ve got extra screen space to take up with ability hotbars, group chat windows, minimaps, and enmity lists. So, if you are primarily an MMO player like me, perhaps the Claw 8 is the correct choice.