The extremely anticipated MSI Claw 8 AI+ gaming handheld may lastly get an official full announcement in just some weeks, as a brand new leak suggests the Intel-powered gadget will likely be debuted on the CES 2025 commerce present in January 2025.

MSI‘s greatest handheld gaming PC contender and direct Steam Deck rival initially broke cowl on the Computex commerce present in June 2024. It was then proven off in slightly extra element on the IFA present in Berlin in September 2024, the place I bought to expertise it and write our MSI Claw 8 AI+ preview, so its arrival has been a very long time coming.

The rumor comes immediately from CES, because it has featured the gadget in its innovation awards forward of the present. You could find the itemizing right here, with it exhibiting that CES has acknowledged the gadget as an “honoree” for the 2025 present. The blurb on the location factors out that the gadget “is the world’s first and solely handheld to characteristic Intel’s new Lunar Lake CPU with 2nd Gen ARC graphics.”

The location goes on to record some options of the product that have been already identified, but additionally lists another elements that haven’t been proven intimately. As an example, it factors out the “newer and bigger 8” display screen” and that it’s going to run Home windows 11 but additionally then lists the gadget as having “48 TOPS of compute energy,” although this refers back to the AI processing skill of the gadget reasonably than its graphics energy. Notably, it lists the battery capability as 82WHr, which the blurb says is sufficient to present “4+ hours of gameplay for AAA titles.”

The unique MSI Claw is an attention-grabbing different to the likes of the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go because it makes use of an Intel CPU, as a substitute of the AMD chips used on these gadgets and the Steam Deck. This completely different strategy had the potential to make a tool with extra energy and battery life than options, had Intel’s CPU delivered meaningfully extra graphics grunt or decrease energy consumption. Nevertheless, in the end, it failed to actually ship on both entrance.

The Intel Lunar Lake chip within the MSI Claw 8 AI+ (why couldn’t MSI skip the AI hype nonsense and simply name it the MSI Claw 2?), although, is anticipated to supply an enormous leap in graphics functionality and will enhance battery life too. Together with these enhancements, the marginally massive 8-inch display screen gives a visible increase over smaller 7-inch display screen gadgets, whereas the styling, construct high quality, and ergonomics of the brand new gadget all enhance on its predecessor.

Finally, the proof of the Claw 8 AI+ will likely be in how its chip performs and the way its silicon compares to the second-generation AMD handheld CPUs anticipated to energy the Asus ROG Ally 2, Lenovo Legion Go 2, and probably even the Steam Deck 2. Based mostly on this leak, we’ll hopefully get extra of an opportunity to seek out out in early January 2025.