It’s time to call time on MSI Claw, as its successor has already made an appearance at Computex and is due to arrive later this year. Claw 8 AI Plus, mind, is no mere refresh and more of a reset. MSI has seemingly redesigned its handheld inside and out, complete with a new Lunar Lake SoC, screen, and battery.
The move to a new device may seem surprising, but it seems like the most sensible move given that whatever chance MSI Claw had of standing up against Steam Deck OLED has practically evaporated. Despite continued efforts to improve the handheld’s performance, the damage done is simply too great to overcome. Thankfully, it seems as though Claw 8 AI Plus will be an enormous improvement thanks to changes from MSI and Intel.
| MSI Claw 8 AI Plus specs | |
|---|---|
| SoC | TBC (Intel Lunar Lake) |
| Display | 8in, 1,920 x 1,080, 120Hz, IPS |
| RAM | Up to 32GB LPDDR5X-8,500MHz |
| Storage | Up to 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD |
| Battery | 80WHrs |
As much as MSI Claw was rightly maligned for its performance, both in terms of frame rates and power efficiency, Claw 8 AI Plus shouldn’t suffer from the same fate. It’ll pack an Intel Lunar Lake SoC with Xe2 graphics, and should be notably better in both categories than its Meteor Lake predecessors. Sadly, however, we don’t know how many CPU or GPU cores the handheld will arrive with, as Intel hasn’t revealed any SKUs for its Core Ultra 200 series.
Other internal upgrades announced for Claw 8 AI Plus include faster RAM, clocked at 8,500MHz. More impressively, though, is the substantially larger 80Wh battery (up from 53Wh on the original MSI Claw). This makes it a match for ROG Ally X, but it’s impossible to determine which device will boast superior battery life given the lack of detail we have on its Lunar Lake SoC.
MSI has given the exterior of its handheld a facelift, too. As you may have clocked given its larger battery, Claw 8 AI Plus is larger than its predecessor. Whatever your thoughts on that, hold off for a second. This bump in size creates room for a large 8in display, approaching Lenovo Legion Go levels of screen real estate. MSI is also keen to highlight it’s added a Thunderbolt 4-supported USB-C port, improved the feedback on the device’s shoulder buttons, and included a lighter charger.
There’s no word on price or firm availability yet, but the first Lunar Lake SKUs are expected to hit the market in Q3 2024. We imagine Claw 8 AI Plus will follow shortly if not simultaneously. There’s no doubt that rival systems featuring AMD Ryzen AI 300 series SoCs are in the works and could arrive before MSI’s handheld. Suffice it to say, handheld competition could soon get awesomely out of hand.
For more Computex news, check out our breakdown of Intel Xeon 6 and AMD Ryzen 9000 series processors. We’ve also got the skinny on what’s new with MSI X870 motherboards, as well as a peek at new reverse-cable Gigabyte motherboards too.