The MSI Claw 8 AI+ simply went official, and we acquired fingers on with the brand new gaming handheld to see the way it compares to MSI’s first try. The excellent news is that it’s an enormous step up all spherical, however there are nonetheless causes to attend for last evaluations earlier than placing in that pre-order.
The unique MSI Claw stays the primary and solely main participant in the very best handheld gaming PC area to be powered by Intel {hardware}, and whereas that held again the primary unit, using a brand new Intel Lunar Lake chip units up the MSI Claw 8 AI+ to no less than stand an opportunity in opposition to its AMD-powered rivals.
As its relatively foolish title implies, one of many predominant enhancements with the MSI Claw 8 AI+ is that it now has an 8-inch 1080p show relatively than the 7-inch display screen of its predecessor. It doesn’t revolutionize the hand-held however as we discovered with the Lenovo Legion Go, the additional display screen dimension is commonly welcome, whether or not you’re taking part in video games, watching video, or benefiting from Home windows to do some extra mundane duties.
Construct high quality and basic really feel is an enormous step up with this unit too, as we suspected it will be the case after we took an MSI Claw 8 AI+ first look again in Could. The brand new chassis has a superior mixture of plastics that really feel extra premium within the hand and look higher too.
Likewise, the contours of the machine really feel extra refined, with the rear buttons being an enormous enchancment too. That mentioned, the grips really feel a contact on the shallow facet, with them missing the palm-filling plump of the grips on the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally X.
In any other case, the controls really feel good-quality sufficient, and the styling is pleasingly laid again, even when the cream-colored grips could be a priority for grime build-up. Nonetheless, it’s a far cry from the relatively foolish graphics that adorn the Acer Nitro 7 Blaze.
Flip over the Claw 9 AI+ and you may clearly see the 2 followers that cool this machine. This doubling up of cooling energy definitely has the potential to maintain the machine cooler (and probably quieter, if the followers are in a position to run slower), however we’ll have to attend for our full evaluate testing to essentially get a way of how nicely this works.
Likewise, whereas the gaming expertise on the Claw 8 AI+, with its Intel Lunar Lake CPU and 120Hz display screen, definitely felt impressively easy in motion, its true efficiency uplift over the unique Claw and different gaming handhelds stays to be seen. It definitely didn’t assist that the one sport loaded on the demo models was Hello-Fi Rush, so it wasn’t precisely vital to have 100fps+.
All informed, although, the long run for Intel-powered gaming handhelds appears to be like surprisingly vivid, even when the convenience of use of the Steam Deck OLED means it stays our favourite for now.
