One factor this evaluation does not inform you is how precisely MSI Claw 8 AI+ improves on the unique Claw. The reason being merely that MSI itself scrapped the latter earlier than I may attempt it. It lasted three months till this redo was introduced. 3 months! And other people say Steam Deck OLED got here out too quickly.
The excellent news is that the Claw 8 AI+’s largely inside enhancements (together with a brand new CPU, new GPU, and bigger battery) have created a handheld that not solely beats Valve’s upgraded Steam Deck in gaming efficiency, but in addition rivals the most effective of its Home windows-based moveable cousins ββby way of longevity. You already know, most likely higher than Claw. Yeah.
Nonetheless, the Claw 8 AI+ is not for everybody, particularly these with petite mitts. At 299 mm large and 24 mm thick on the heart, it is a lot bulkier than any Steam Deck in handheld type, and at 795 g it weighs about the identical because the rugged Lenovo Legion Go. It is also an costly funding in a market more and more crammed with costly investments, and its formidable Β£899/$900 price ticket dwarfs even the costs of the Legion Go, Asus ROG Ally X, and Zotac Zone. And as soon as once more, I am unable to even get a lawsuit.
Why ought to it endure such large and/or large-scale financial harm? Primarily as a result of inside that heavy shell is a coronary heart that’s beating very arduous. MSI has been adamant about experimenting with Intel chips as an alternative of the present handheld PC customary AMD APUs, notably with the Claw 8 AI+’s Arc 140V GPU. Even when working the sport at native 1200p, it repeatedly beats the 800p-limited Steam Deck, and beats or (kind of) matches different high-end Home windows machines just like the ROG Ally X and Zotac Zone.
The Claw 8 AI+ additionally avoids the entice that Legion Go mistakenly fell into, blinded by the pursuit of spectacular sounding specs. That’s, its display just isn’t inconsistent with its efficiency. Moderately than overshooting with excessively excessive resolutions that the internals could not correctly help, the Claw 8 AI+’s 8-inch, 1920×1200 panel wastes nothing and is clearly able to a snug 45-60fps on quite a few 3D, AAA productions. Drop it all the way down to 1280×800 (and even simply play much less demanding video games, with hundreds of video games out there) and you will simply see framerates greater than 60 fps, taking good benefit of the 120 Hz refresh fee.
Claw 8 AI+ not working all. Monster Hunter Wilds’ benchmark instrument returned outcomes as little as 27 fps with FSR upscaling at minimal settings and extremely efficiency ranges. Nonetheless, it cleans up your Steam deck by that includes video games that are not attainable on Valve’s handheld. For instance, Area Marine II could not obtain a constant 30 fps on Deck, however I used to be in a position to get 30-40 fps on Claw 8 AI+ with FSR in low-quality, easy-to-read efficiency mode. Equally, Horizon Forbidden West requires Extremely Efficiency upscaling to get even nearer to playability with the deck, however right here we not often dropped under 30fps at FSR at sharper high quality settings.
An enormous vent within the rear helps hold this efficiency warmth from changing to common warmth. Whereas the fan noise is not as whispery because the Steam Deck OLED, the Claw 8 AI+’s roaring audio system simply drown out the fan. At dwelling anyway. There’s additionally a headphone choice that mixes Bluetooth with a 3.5mm jack. I like to recommend this as an alternative of being trampled to loss of life by irate commuters.
The Claw 8 AI+’s large 80Whr battery (up from the unique Claw’s 53Whr) makes it one of many longest-lasting handheld PCs within the business, so you may have loads of time to break your passenger’s eardrums. Whereas it is inferior to the Steam Deck OLED, it has some intelligent effectivity enhancements that make it seemingly unbeatable for low-demand video games. The Claw 8 AI+’s 3 hours and 22 minutes on Portal 2 is superb even by Home windows requirements, and it even beats the Deck OLED’s 5 hours and 48 minutes. Nonetheless, MSI’s 2 hours and 13 minutes in Elden Ring was only one minute shy of Deck OLED’s 2 hours and 14 minutes, demonstrating its means to maintain up in additional intense video games.
Amongst its Home windows opponents, solely the ROG Ally X can match the Claw 8 AI+ by way of sturdiness, with Portal 2 falling quick at 2 hours and 59 minutes. The Asus machine narrowly led with Forza Horizon 5’s 2 hours and 55 minutes and Claw 8 AI+’s 2 hours and 52 minutes, however contemplating the latter has a bigger, extra pixel-count display, it nonetheless has extra formidable battery efficiency.
The display itself is not unhealthy both, protecting 99.1% of the sRGB colour gamut and reaching a distinction ratio of 1412:1. This can be a benchmark for wealthy colours and deep blacks. Nonetheless, for this sum of money, it feels a bit sneaky to solely get an LCD/IPS panel quite than an OLED show like the newest Steam Deck or Zotac Zone. These OLED screens aren’t solely bodily thinner, extra energy environment friendly, and have superior high quality for moveable PCs; infinite Take pleasure in as much as 900cd/m2 of distinction and brightness for HDR-enabled video games. The Claw 8 AI+ lacks this HDR help because the brightness reaches as much as 521cd/m2, which is not any greater than the brightness of the unique LCD Steam Deck. In any case, you may most likely want most of those options as safety towards Claw 8 AI+’s shiny display reflections. The anti-glare end is one other advantage of the Steam Deck OLED that this mannequin lacks.
This unusual mix of high-spec and low-end fundamentals recurs within the design of the Claw 8 AI+. There are some good touches like twin USB-C ports subsequent to the top-mounted microSD card slot and a fingerprint sensor constructed into the facility button. Nevertheless it’s additionally coated in low cost plastic and has thumbsticks which can be smaller and fewer sturdy than the way more inexpensive Deck OLED ones. There is not a single trackpad that will help you navigate Home windows 11, which may be very touchscreen-unfriendly. I additionally personally do not just like the damp, gloomy, greenish-gray colour scheme of the entrance panel, which appears like MSI raided the paint storage room of a defunct Lada manufacturing facility.
Except you are a Trabant fan, it isn’t an excessive amount of of a problem, however you may have a tough time getting used to Home windows. Sure, Home windows 11 nonetheless feels as misplaced and complicated on handhelds because it did on the unique ROG Ally. The effort of regularly fidgeting with the lowered UI truly speaks to one of many OS’s lesser complications. As a result of the OS is all the time extra bug-prone on these moveable PCs than on desktops. Sadly, Claw 8 AI+ is not any exception. Along with related points with random app window resizing that I skilled with Zotac Zone, there was a very annoying enter bug that triggered Steam to now not register the A button and pressure it to look on the touchscreen.
MSI has made efforts so as to add handheld-specific comforts within the type of a useful Fast Settings overlay menu and the Heart M all-in-one sport launcher, however neither of them actually modified Home windows’ fortunes. I ended up not utilizing it a lot in any respect, because the settings overlay generally solely appeared after a number of seconds delay, and the launcher’s side-scrolling interface solely match at most 5 video games on the display. Like different Home windows handhelds, it has a wider vary of natively supported sport launchers than SteamOS, however that is not as a lot of a bonus as you would possibly assume, contemplating most of those could be put in into your Steam deck utilizing Lutris anyway.
Given these blemishes, the completely okay show, and the boring design, it is inconceivable to be utterly excited concerning the MSI Claw 8 AI+. Particularly with regards to one thing as giant as 900 items, the place you may fairly fairly count on top-of-the-line options all through. Nonetheless, this isn’t boring and boring. In reality, it is essentially the most highly effective handheld PC in its vary (on common), and in contrast to the equally framerate-focused Zotac Zone, it does not sacrifice battery life to get there.
Though now we have to conclude that these metrics are extra essential than whether or not or not it appears like a Soviet sedan, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ is greater than only a mandatory tweak to the doomed authentic Claw. It is a superb and highly effective handheld in its personal proper, and the efficiency and practicality it brings makes it a worthy addition to the ever-growing moveable scene.
This evaluation is predicated on evaluation items offered by the producer.