MSI Claw 8 AI+ Handheld Gaming PC Showcased at CES 2025

[T0@st]

The MSI Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+ gaming handhelds were previewed late last year—powered by Intel's Lunar Lake Core Ultra APUs and "enhanced with XeSS" graphics technology. MSI's first generation Claw models (based on Intel Meteor Lake Core Ultra processors) launched around early 2024 and struggled to keep up with the competition—many rivals utilized the highly performant AMD Ryzen Z1 APU series. The MSI gaming division has knuckled down on implementing many improvements with its second-gen handhelds—namely a bump up to Team Blue's Core Ultra 7 258V processor. TechPowerUp made a return trip to the Taiwanese multinational's CES floor space in order to find out more. The Claw 8 AI+'s two-tone design was very striking—drawing many eyes away from the muted black shell present on its smaller sibling (Claw 7 AI+).

Company representatives were happy to inform TPU about the aforementioned improvements—comfort levels have been boosted thanks to re-shaped contouring and all control inputs have been re-tuned for precision and easier operation. Users will find it easier to navigate the system's multi-platform interface, thanks to an extensively updated MSI Center M application. The demonstration units were running Steam during TechPowerUp's photo session. MSI has selected IPS display technology for its eight and seven-inch screens—picky customers prefer OLED on their handhelds. We will be witnessing another major battle between Intel and AMD APUs across the 2025 portable gaming market—Lunar Lake versus Strix Point. MSI has already sent Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+ evaluation units to several outlets—early impressions are promising.



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[kapone32]

Too bad for MSI that the Strix APU is coming this year.

 

[Cheeseball]

Too bad for MSI that the Strix APU is coming this year.

Later this year unfortunately. Lenovo isn't done with the Legion Go 2 itself yet (prototypes at the moment), although it does look like they can launch the Go S sooner.

I wonder if ASUS will have an answer by May or June. They simply need to repeat how what they did the Ally X and add more features to it.

Right now this Claw 8 AI+ has slightly better battery life than the ROG Ally X, which makes sense since they have similar battery specs (80Wh) and Lunar Lake is more mobile-friendly with a 4+4e configuration that matches Steam Deck OLED efficiency.

 

[kapone32]

Later this year unfortunately. Lenovo isn't done with the Legion Go 2 itself yet (prototypes at the moment), although it does look like they can launch the Go S sooner.

I wonder if ASUS will have an answer by May or June. They simply need to repeat how what they did the Ally X and add more features to it.

Right now this Claw 8 AI+ has slightly better battery life than the ROG Ally X, which makes sense since they have similar battery specs (80Wh) and Lunar Lake is more mobile-friendly with a 4+4e configuration that matches Steam Deck OLED efficiency.

Yes but the Ally is cheaper and supports the same 120hz Freesync is also included..

 

[Cheeseball]

Yes but the Ally is cheaper and supports the same 120hz Freesync is also included..

Ally non-X is cheaper for sure, but lacks proper connectivity and is now older. Ally X is only cheaper by $100 for the 1 TB model. The 2 TB model is the same price at $899. Also the Claw 8 has a bigger 8" 16:10 screen.

I'd like to say that the Claw AI 7 should be $150 cheaper, especially with the stock 512 GB SSD, but it has the same 258V chip which is more efficient than the Z1 Extreme.

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Slightly off-topic, pinging @TheLostSwede since you're knowledgeable with ICs

Do you happen to know if the Thunderbolt 4 support in the newer Intel Lunar Lake chips (e.g. 258V) support the full 40 Gbps on a PCI-E 4.0 bus? I would like to test with my USB4v1 devices but I don't have access to any Lunar Lake laptops at the moment. Surely the built-in support is not as limited as JHL7440 and I can't find anyone who has tried it out with benchmarks yet.

 

[HairyLobsters]

Why the AI+ naming?

 

[JustBenching]

Besides the name that's silly, this is the one to get. Baterry life is promising