One factor this evaluation can’t inform you is how precisely the MSI Claw 8 AI+ improves on the unique Claw, for the straightforward motive that MSI themselves binned off the latter earlier than I had an opportunity to strive it. Three months, it lasted, earlier than this do-over received introduced. Three months! And other people say the Steam Deck OLED got here too quickly.
The excellent news is that the Claw 8 AI+’s mostly-internal revamping – new CPU, new GPU, fatter battery and many others. – has produced a handheld that not solely thrashes Valve’s upgraded Steam Deck on video games efficiency, however is up there with the most effective of its Home windows-based brethren-portables on longevity. You recognize what, it in all probability is best than the Claw. Yeah.
All the identical, the Claw 8 AI+ received’t go well with everybody, particularly these of petite mitt. At 299mm large and 24mm thick within the center, it’s a far bulkier handheld than any Steam Deck, and at 795g it’s virtually as heavy because the slabbish Lenovo Legion Go. It’s additionally an costly funding in a market that’s more and more filled with costly investments, its frightful £899 / $900 price ticket dwarfing even these of the Legion Go, the Asus ROG Ally X, and the Zotac Zone. And, as soon as once more, you don’t even get a case.
Why endure all this mass, and/or large monetary harm? Primarily, it’s as a result of inside that hefty shell lies one very enthusiastically beating coronary heart. MSI have caught by their experiment in utilizing Intel chips as a substitute of the present handheld PC-standard AMD APUs, and specifically, the Claw 8 AI+’s Arc 140V GPU pays off. Even working video games at native 1200p, it repeatedly outpaces the 800p-limited Steam Deck, and both beats or (roughly) matches different high-end Home windows machines just like the ROG Ally X and Zotac Zone.
The Claw 8 AI+ additionally avoids a entice that the Legion Go, blinded by the pursuit of impressive-sounding specs, blundered into: its display isn’t mismatched to its efficiency. Somewhat than overshoot with an excessively excessive decision that its internals couldn’t correctly help, the Claw 8 AI+’s 8in, 1920×1200 panel doesn’t waste something, with a pleasing 45-60fps clearly doable in quite a few 3D, AAA fare. Dropping to 1280×800 (or just enjoying much less demanding video games, of which hundreds can be found) also can simply see framerates excessive above 60fps, the place you’ll be able to take correct benefit of the 120Hz refresh fee.
The Claw 8 AI+ received’t run the whole lot. Monster Hunter Wilds’ benchmark software returned a lowly 27fps, on minimal settings and Extremely Efficiency-level FSR upscaling. But it does make a transparent up on the Steam Deck by dealing with video games that aren’t fairly possible on Valve’s handheld. Area Marine II, for instance, can’t make it to a secure 30fps on the Deck, however I used to be getting 30-40fps on the Claw 8 AI+ with Low high quality and FSR on its legible Efficiency mode. Likewise, Horizon Forbidden West wants Extremely Efficiency upscaling to even strategy playability on the Deck, however right here it seldom dropped under 30fps with FSR on its a lot sharper High quality setting.
An unlimited stretch of rear vents helps be certain that this efficiency hotness doesn’t convert into common hotness, and whereas the followers aren’t as whispery because the Steam Deck OLED’s, the Claw 8 AI+’s thunderous audio system can simply drown them out. At house, anyway. Bluetooth and a 3.5mm jack mix for headphone choices, which I do suggest as an alternative choice to being stomped to dying by irate commuters.
You’d definitely have loads of time to inflict eardrum harm in your fellow passengers, because the Claw 8 AI+’s chunky 80Whr battery – up from 53Whr on the unique Claw – makes it one of many longest-lasting handheld PCs within the enterprise. Not fairly to the extent of the Steam Deck OLED, which made some intelligent effectivity enhancements to develop into seemingly unbeatable in low-demand video games: the Claw 8 AI+’s 3h 22m in Portal 2 is each nice by Home windows requirements and nowhere close to the Deck OLED’s 5h 48m. However then, the MSI’s 2h 13m in Elden Ring is just a single minute shy of the Deck OLED’s 2h 14m, exhibiting a functionality to catch up in thirstier video games.
Amongst its Home windows rivals, the one one that may stand as much as the Claw 8 AI+ on endurance is the ROG Ally X, and that fell brief in Portal 2 with 2h 59m. The Asus machine took a slender lead in Forza Horizon 5, lasting 2h 55m to the 2h 52m of the Claw 8 AI+, although contemplating the latter has a much bigger, extra pixel-rich display, I’d nonetheless say it places within the extra formidable battery efficiency.
The display itself ain’t half dangerous both, protecting 99.1% of the sRGB color gamut and hitting a distinction ratio of 1412:1 – which is benchmark-speak for wealthy colors and deep blacks. For this cash, nonetheless, it does really feel a bit skimpish to solely get an LCD/IPS panel, relatively than an OLED show like that of the up to date Steam Deck or Zotac Zone. Apart from being bodily thinner and extra power-efficient, glorious qualities for a transportable PC, these OLED screens each produce infinite distinction and brightness that peaks at over 900cd/m2 in HDR-compatible video games. The Claw 8 AI+ lacks this HDR help as its brightness tops out at 521cd/m2, which isn’t even greater than that on the unique, LCD Steam Deck. You’d probably want most of these nits, in any occasion, as a defence towards the reflectivity of the Claw 8 AI+’s shiny display; an anti-glare end being one other Steam Deck OLED perk that this mannequin lacks.
This odd mix of excessive specs and lower-end basicness is repeatedly evident within the Claw 8 AI+’s design. You do get some niceties, like the twin USB-C ports up subsequent to the top-mounted microSD card slot, in addition to a fingerprint sensor constructed into the ability button. However then it’s additionally coated in cheap-feeling plastic, with smaller, much less hardy thumbsticks than these of the way more inexpensive Deck OLED. There’s not a single trackpad to assist navigate the very a lot touchscreen-unfriendly Home windows 11, and I personally don’t vibe with the entrance panelling’s damp, dour, greenish-grey color scheme, which appears to be like as if MSI simply raided the paint storage cabinet of a disused Lada manufacturing facility.
That’s not an enormous hassle – until you’re extra of a Trabant fan – however the difficulties in wielding Home windows shall be. Sure, Home windows 11 nonetheless feels as misplaced and confused on a handheld because it did on the primary ROG Ally. It’s telling that the fixed fiddliness of poking at its shrunken UI truly represents considered one of its lesser complications, because the OS all the time appears extra bug-prone on these transportable PCs than it does on desktops, and the Claw 8 AI+ is unfortunately no exception. On prime of comparable points with randomly resizing app home windows as I had on the Zotac Zone, one notably annoying enter bug noticed the A button stop to register in Steam, forcing me onto the touchscreen.
MSI has made the trouble so as to add some handheld-specific comforts, within the types of a useful quick-settings overlay menu and its Heart M all-in-one video games launcher, although neither are really game-changing for Home windows’s fortunes. The settings overlay generally solely seems after just a few seconds of lag, and the launcher’s side-scrolling interface solely matches 5 video games onscreen at most, so I ended up virtually by no means utilizing it. As with every Home windows handheld, you do get a wider vary of natively supported sport launchers than on SteamOS, although contemplating most of those might be put in on a Steam Deck with Lutris anyway, that’s much less of a bonus than it seems like.
Blemishes like this, the merely okay show, and the boring design imply that it’s unimaginable to get outright excited concerning the MSI Claw 8 AI+. Particularly when, for 900 huge ones, you may fairly moderately count on top-of-the-line options all through. Nonetheless, it’s not like that is some thumbsticked bauble both. It’s, in reality, probably the most highly effective (on common) handheld PC amongst its friends, and in contrast to the equally framerate-minded Zotac Zone, doesn’t compromise on battery life to get there.
By these metrics – and I’m compelled to conclude that they’re extra essential than whether or not it appears to be like like a Soviet sedan – the MSI Claw 8 AI+ isn’t only a mandatory tweak to the doomed first-gen Claw. It’s an excellent, sturdy handheld in its personal proper, and the efficiency and practicality it brings are worthy additions to the ever-growing transportable scene.
This evaluation is predicated on a evaluation unit offered by the producer.
