The MSI Claw 8 AI+ is available from leading retailers and you can also get Diablo 4 + Vessel of Hatred expansion and a Steam voucher for free when purchasing it before March 31st. Head HERE for more info.
The MSI Claw 7 came out last year and differentiated itself from the rest of the market with an Intel processor, and MSI has followed it up with the MSI Claw 8 AI+ which is hugely improved in almost every way.
Pulling it out of the box, my favourite thing about the MSI Claw 8 AI+ is the new larger 8-inch display. It’s such a great, vibrant LCD display and 8-inches is absolutely the sweet spot in terms of portability yet having a big display that makes everything pop. It’s capable of 500 nits of peak brightness which makes it perfect for playing in direct sunlight.
It has a 120hz refresh rate with VRR support which is especially great for playing indie games such as Hades 2 that can run with full frames with no issues.
The Claw 7 had one of my favourite designs and true to its name was super comfortable in the hands. Despite the Claw 8 AI+ being bigger, it’s been perfectly designed to be super ergonomic moulding to the hands perfectly. Every button on the device has been improved to be more responsive meaning the face buttons have a perfect click to them, and the analogue sticks and triggers use hall effect sensors so they’ll stand the test of time with no stick drift.
Another improvement is a second Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port on the top, so you can now keep it charging, but then also plug in a monitor or headphones or a mouse/keyboard and you’ve got the flexibility to do that with two USB-C ports.
There’s two 2w front-facing speakers on the front and I also noticed a huge improvement with those two not only in how loud they were able to get but clarity and bass as well. You also get Wi-FI 7 support which makes for faster downloads and lower latency online gaming.
An increase in handheld size means that there’s now a bigger battery with an 80 WHr battery that combines with the new Intel Core Ultra 7 processor efficiency to provide a way better battery life.
You’ll no longer be keeping an eye on how long is left with the larger battery life that lasts 2-3 hours whilst playing AAA games or more than 4-5 hours whilst using the Endurance mode that uses AI to give you the exact amount of wattage that you need whilst gaming.
Speaking of that Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, you’ve got up to 50% improved GPU performance and up to 27% improved CPU performance and combined with Intel XeSS upscaling, it’s now more than capable of running the latest AAA games at 60 FPS.
It never ceases to amaze me how capable these handhelds are and how quiet and cool they’re able to remain even whilst playing the latest games like Black Myth Wukong or Spider-Man 2 without any stutters.
Another big improvement is the upgraded MSI Center M which is super capable of pulling in all of the games from your launchers including Steam, Epic Game Store, Xbox Game Pass, Ubisoft, EA and more which is one of the best things about this being a Windows device – you can play games from all platforms.
There’s also a quick setting view where you can launch the latest games that you’ve played, change performance modes, add a performance widget, change brightness and adjust a bunch more settings and this is one of the best and easy to use UIs that I’ve used on a Windows handhelds yet.
There’s a number of accessories available as well such as an official travel case, but a must buy is the MSI Nest Docking station. This not only lets you keep your Claw 8 AI+ charged at all times, but you can connect it to a monitor and because the Claw runs Windows 11, you can use it as a home computer for productivity or just play games on a larger screen.
The MSI Claw 8 AI+ is available from leading retailers and you can also get Diablo 4 + Vessel of Hatred expansion and a Steam voucher for free when purchasing it before March 31st. Head HERE for more info.
