Meet the MSI Claw 8 AI+, MSI's shot at redemption for the PC gaming handheld market
IFA 2024 has been bringing in plenty of tech and gaming news, and MSI has dropped its own bomb by confirming the specs for its upcoming PC gaming handheld, the MSI Claw 8 AI+.
It turns out that MSI will still be using an Intel CPU to power its system, namely the Intel Core Ultra 200V Lunar Lake SoC. MSI is also boosting the memory speed, battery life, and screen size compared to its predecessor.
The maximum system memory is increasing to 32GB, and will move from LPDDR5-6400 to LPDDR5x-8533. Battery capacity will increase to 80Wh (nearly double the original system's 53Wh), and there will be two Thunderbolt 4 ports. The new model will support the M.2 2280 SSD form factor and the screen size will increase to eight inches, though it will not be upgraded to an OLED display.
The MSI Claw 8 AI+ is the official follow-up to the original Claw 8 A1M model which was infamously met with plenty of scathing reviews and poor reception upon launch. Since then, MSI pushed out multitudes of BIOS updates that greatly improved the performance. However, it still falls short of other superior portables like the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally X, and Lenovo Legion GO.
Will MSI succeed this time?
While I do agree with MSI’s decision to start anew with the MSI Claw 8 AI+, as the A1M model was simply not cutting it even with all the performance updates, it’s always difficult to win back lost trust when it comes to pushing out a flawed product.
The new Intel CPU it’s equipped with sounds impressive, as the Lunar Lake architecture is potentially able to blow AMD mobile CPUs out of the water performance-wise. So theoretically, it makes sense why MSI is sticking with Intel - that and it makes the MSI Claw stand out more in the growing sea of gaming handhelds.
However, considering all the massive issues the original model had, it’s hard for me to trust that this next go around with Intel won’t backfire. Technically, we never received official confirmation as to which end of the manufacturing process went wrong, but many of the portable’s woes stemmed from the constant Intel driver issues and subsequent downloads fixing them.
Personally, I’m rooting for MSI to pull out a win here, as I always support plenty of healthy competition in any given market. Having yet another viable PC gaming handheld option to choose from is a win in my book, as it’ll motivate the other tech giants to keep innovating. It also seems like MSI is listening to buyer criticism and incorporating it into their final product, much like how nearly every improvement in the ROG Ally X can be traced directly back to community feedback.
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