MSI Finally Launches Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+ Lunar Lake Gaming Handhelds

Let’s talk about super portable gaming PCs. Yeah, okay, that’s another portable message; we were just tired of writing “handheld”. But seriously, these things are cool, and if you haven’t had a chance to get your hands on one, you should definitely try it. It’s hard to understand, if you’re of a certain age: a full multi-core x86-64 processor with powerful integrated graphics and a battery capable of running it for a few hours at a time, all in a compact portable package. the perfect size for playing games.

So today we have the official announcement from MSI regarding its updated Claw handhelds. We’ve talked about both of these machines before, so this article will be relatively brief. However, there are a few new details to cover with the official announcement, so let’s do a quick refresher first.

Comparison of the new Claws with the last generation and its competitors.

The two devices are the Claw 7 AI+ and the Claw 8 AI+. The Claw 7 AI+ appears to be essentially a refresh of the original MSI Claw handheld with a Core Ultra 7 “Lunar Lake” SoC inside. It’s a huge change from the previous generation’s Meteor Lake portion, improving both responsiveness and GPU performance, but we really liked the rest of the Claw handheld, so it makes sense to maintain these great qualities.

What kind of great qualities? A beautiful 120Hz IPS touchscreen in FHD resolution, fast PCIe 4.0 storage, Hall effect joysticks, gyroscopic controls, Wi-Fi 6E, two Thunderbolt 4 sockets and a large 6-cell 54 Wh battery. Upgrading to Lunar Lake means memory is included and the standard model comes with 32GB.

This might seem unnecessary for a gaming system, but remember that we’re using integrated graphics here, so the memory is shared. 32 GB allows you to use up to 16 GB of RAM for video purposes without unnecessarily encroaching on the amount of memory available for general use.

Meanwhile, the Claw 8 AI+ is all-new and brings a slightly larger screen along with a few other changes. The 8-inch display now has a resolution of 1920×1200, but retains the 120Hz refresh rate and 500 nits peak brightness as well as VRR support. The new machine has an “Easy Access” M.2 socket that is populated with a 1TB SSD and the Wi-Fi adapter is upgraded to Wi-Fi 7.

Perhaps the Claw 8 AI+’s most interesting upgrade is the battery, which is 80 watt hours, the same as the ASUS ROG Ally X. We found Lunar Lake-based laptops to have superior battery life Compared to the already impressive efficiency of AMD’s “Phoenix”, the battery life of the Claw 8 AI+ could therefore be quite excellent, although MSI does not make any special statements on this subject.

External connectivity on both machines is identical; Besides the aforementioned Thunderbolt ports, you also get a microSD card reader and a 3.5mm combo audio jack, as well as a fingerprint sensor on the power button if you want to use Windows Hello . The Claw 8 AI+ is a little heavier, as you might expect, but it’s still significantly lighter than Lenovo’s Legion Go handheld.

Unfortunately, both Claw machines are currently out of stock at all US retailers. We can at least tell you the price: the Claw 7 AI+ with 32GB of RAM and 512GB of storage costs $799, while the Claw 8 AI+ with a larger screen and 1TB of storage will set you back $899. These are high-priced handhelds, but they’re also high-end systems that could double as a mobile workstation with a quality docking station. With that in mind, be sure to check out our dock article from Friday: While the Plugable units are no longer on sale, the Sabrent and OWC docks are still marked down to $35.