MSI chose to go its own way with its first Claw 7 in 2024. In a world full of AMD-powered PC handhelds, the company instead went all-in on Intel — unfortunately, with a less-than-stellar result. The Claw 7’s Ultra 7-155H chip had trouble hitting acceptable performance targets without seriously amping up the power, which was perhaps able if one remained plugged into an outlet most of the time. On the go, however, the need for more power, and the device’s 53Wh battery, really stifled the Claw 7’s usefulness. Compared to the competition, it just wasn’t a very good portable.

I’m here to tell you that is absolutely not the case for the MSI Claw 8 AI+ in 2025. Awkward naming aside, this handheld (which I’ll refer to as the Claw 8 going forward) improves on many of the Claw 7’s shortcomings. While the experience as a whole isn’t quite as mature as what you’ll get from others in the space, such as Valve, ASUS, and Lenovo, the Claw 8 has enough differentiation to make it worth a look if you’re in the market for a new portable PC. That’s way more than I could say about last year’s model.

What Specs Are Included In The MSI Claw 8 AI+?

What Exactly Are You Getting For The Price?

There’s a bigger question, though, of whether that bit of differentiation is worth the Claw 8’s asking price of $899.99, and whether all of those improvements can make up for one major shortcoming that still lingers. Here’s a quick look at the specs of the device I reviewed:

With that, let’s dig into the MSI Claw 8.

The Claw 8 Re-Ups On The Best Parts Of The Claw 7 (While Adding Some Nice Improvements)

Especially The Display

To start, let’s dispel the notion that last year’s Claw 7 was totally forgettable. It wasn’t. In fact, on the design side, it did some really nice things, and the better parts of that device have made their way into this year’s Claw 8. That includes face buttons and shoulder buttons with a good "clickiness" to them, joysticks with a console controller-like feel, triggers with some nice travel, and two mappable buttons on the rear. The face buttons are once again backlit, which is a practice I wish more companies would adopt. Those aforementioned sticks and triggers are Hall effect, too, meaning you can likely avoid stick drift issues while getting some improved accuracy.

All in all, the outer pieces of the Claw 8 are mostly on point. Then again, this was mostly the case last year. What’s new this time around is the display: an 8-inch, 1920 x 1200 beauty of a screen. Colors look great on this thing, and it is way easier to feel immersed on an 8-inch display, especially at 16:10, than it is on a 7-incher. The size difference made itself known pretty quickly. In a few rounds of Rocket League, I was a far more effective player than I’ve ever been on my ROG Ally X. In a season where I’m really struggling to hit Champion, I couldn’t blame it on the handheld while I was playing on the Claw 8.

To get it out of the way, the display isn’t OLED. But we’re quickly learning why some handheld makers are continuing to use LCD s, and that is because there are simply more of them, likely at better prices, that variable refresh rate (VRR) technology. VRR matches the refresh rate of the display to the frame rate of the game you’re playing, smoothing out visuals where there might otherwise be frame tearing or noticeable stutters.

Its usefulness will depend on the type of game you’re playing, of course. If you lean toward visual novels that aren’t as demanding, you’ll probably wish you had OLED. But I promise you that VRR is worth it if you play anything that remotely pushes the hardware. I’m personally glad this feature is present (just as it was in last year's Claw 7), and I’m fine with the tradeoff.

The sound on the Claw 8, to me, seems totally fine. I am not an audio expert by any means, and I’m someone who will typically plug in some headphones or use wireless earbuds rather than play my portable out loud. But the speakers get the job done. They’re front firing (which, believe it or not, isn’t a given in this space), and I couldn’t pick out anything abnormal in what I was hearing. I was happy with how they performed.

Ergonomics are a crucial part of the overall handheld experience, and I happen to believe that the 8-inch form factor represents a sweet spot in size and comfort. The larger area gives you more to grab without feeling too unwieldy. That extra space typically allows for friendlier joystick and button placement, as well as bringing the portable input experience closer to that of a traditional controller.

The MSI Claw 8 sits in sort of a middle zone where the feel is concerned, perhaps a bit above average. It isn't quite as sink-into-your-palms effortless as Lenovo’s Legion Go S, which is now my gold standard at the 8-inch size. It’s also not a chore to hold and to use. Weight distribution is solid. There is some “grip” to get a hold of. It’s pleasant enough, and all sticks, buttons, and triggers are well within reach. It is, quite simply, good.

I do wish the device was a little bit wider, and the right joystick shifted a touch more to the left, though. I think that’d improve the overall feel. There is the tiniest bit of bending your right thumb to get it in place for the stick where, if you hold an Xbox or PlayStation controller, the resting place for it is a bit more natural; your thumb is fully extended. This is much harder to achieve on a handheld, where every millimeter matters. I get that. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s something I hope MSI’s next Claw 8 factors in.

Finally, there’s the look of the MSI Claw 8 itself. This is probably the least important aspect of the device, and definitely the most subjective, but I’m going to get into it anyway. The Claw 8 is primarily a tan color with black accents and black grips. The rugged nature of said grips make it seem as though it’d be right at home in a tank rolling through the desert. I have to say: I’m not a fan. I’d not shoo anyone away from the Claw 8 simply because of its color scheme or its aesthetic, but it doesn’t do the handheld itself any favors. It doesn’t scream, “powerful gaming device,” which the Claw 8 is. And it’s especially strange, as the packaging it comes in does exactly that.

Everyone, please: just make your handheld black! If you do, it fades into the background. If you don’t, people like me spend a paragraph critiquing the colors you chose.

The Claw 8 Is Let Down By Its Software

MSI Center M Needs Some Attention

As mentioned earlier, the 2024 Claw 7 wasn’t exactly a standout product. A lot of that had to do with its performance, and with so much focus on that, most of the discussion about MSI’s software — and how barebones it was — got buried. The chipset in this year’s MSI Claw 8 is much, much better, and with so many months to cook, I expected MSI to come out swinging with a software experience that really rounded things out. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

MSI Center M still feels like it is merely ticking off some boxes. It does some of what is expected, such as giving you a quick way to launch installed games or flip between performance modes. I appreciate that the quick access menu is built into the “Compact” version of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Bar, effectively making the Claw 8 the first PC handheld with an Xbox button. But there just isn’t a great deal of reliability, flavor, or customization here.

Responsiveness was a big issue throughout my review. At various points, MSI Center M would just straight-up stop working and showed no signs of life when pressing its corresponding button on the Claw 8. That behavior carried over to the button for the quick access “Game Bar” menu, as well, and somehow wasn’t solved by killing the process and attempting to restart it. I had to reboot in order to get things working again.

The game library also stuck out to me as missing some tender love and care. It isn’t particularly attractive; it was a bit hit or miss on game art, and my ed titles were mixed in alongside launchers and even a stray Windows app or two. As a first entry point into MSI Center M, it’s not a very good landing spot and isn’t something you’ll want to spend a lot of time looking at.

Most of all, I was disappointed by the number of configurable options. There are no per-game performance settings to speak of. There's no way to remap controls for certain games. And you really don't have much command over power. We’ll get more into performance specifically in the next section, but to set the table, MSI gives you three options: Endurance, AI Mode, and Manual. I’m mainly griping on the Manual mode here, which only allows you to set a fixed power point at either 8W, 17W or 30W. There’s no way to, say, set the Claw 8 to work at a fixed 10W, or 20W, or 25W. You have only what MSI provides. I suppose what’s there is fine for more casual gamers, but those who really like to get under the hood and tweak might find the options limiting.

It is almost universally accepted at this point that Windows is not the best operating system for PC handhelds. That has, fairly or not, shifted responsibility of the -facing software experience to device manufacturers. Some have done a better job answering the call than others, and I take no pleasure in saying that MSI falls into that “other” camp right now. There’s potential here if MSI can pour the time and resources into it. Right now, though: MSI’s software isn’t adding to the joy of using the Claw 8, and it might even be detracting from it.

If You Want Performance, The Claw 8 Brings It

Get Wrecked In Elden Ring In Glorious 1200p

This is the fun part. Everyone loves a good redemption story, and the Claw 8 of 2025, when compared to the 7-inch iteration from last year, is living out that story through its performance. It’s the first PC handheld that goes above 1920 x 1080 (pushing roughly 11% more pixels) where I believe the native resolution is actually a good fit, and that most games should play fine. That feels like a big deal.

The Claw 8 packs in a massive 80Wh battery, to boot. This offers a nearly 50% jump in capacity from the 2024 Claw 7's 53Wh battery, and as you'll see in the numbers to come, improvements in both performance and efficiency paired with that larger battery go a long way toward making the Claw 8 a much better handheld.

I'll now get into some notes about each of the power modes and their expected battery runtimes.

• Endurance Mode is mostly about limiting resources to hit a capped frame rate. I did a brief bit of testing here but quickly realized that by default, it targets 30 FPS (though this can be configured in Intel’s settings). The benefits you’ll see here in battery life depend on how much power a game needs to hit the chosen mark, so it can vary. For the purposes of frame rate testing, this was left out.
• AI Mode lets the system power run a bit more free, using AI to adapt settings. You’ll likely get between 3-4 hours of battery life in this mode.
• Manual Mode lets you set the system power manually: 8W, 17W, or 30W. To be honest, I had a dreadful time with the 8W manual mode. It slowed the system to such a crawl that I had difficulty launching MSI’s software to get out of it, never mind actually getting into games. I’m not sure why it’s here, but it probably shouldn’t be. I do not recommend anyone use this. 17W should net you 3-4 hours of playtime, similar to AI Mode. 30W will take you closer to 2 hours.

It should be noted that battery life estimates are worst-case scenarios. If you’re playing something like Celeste, even at 30W, you’ll experience a longer playtime versus a game like Cyberpunk 2077.

Now, let’s see how the MSI Claw 8 fared.

The verdict, at least where performance is concerned, is this: the Claw 8 came to play this year.

We’re getting far better performance at both 17W and 30W than we ever could have expected from last year’s MSI Claw 7. Credit goes not only to MSI for including a better chip, but to Intel, as well, for having that chip be worthwhile. The 258V performs leaps and bounds better than the 155H in the Claw 7. It’s more efficient at lower wattages and reaches higher highs when more power is fed to it.

I want to go back to the 1920 x 1200 display because I think the Claw 8’s performance at that resolution is a welcome change for the market. In the past, we’ve had some handhelds come in with even higher resolution s, where downscaling is almost necessary for most titles. And in my Lenovo Legion Go S review, I wondered why that device had this same 1920 x 1200 display when 800p seemed like the safer play. The Claw 8 has changed my thinking on this. With the appropriate power, 1200p is absolutely doable.

I do have some numbers with a downscale to 800p, also, for those curious:

You’ll undoubtedly get some higher frame rates by drawing down the resolution, but with VRR on board, I’m not sure it’s entirely necessary. Personally, outside of gathering the above figures, I spent my time playing at 1200p. The crispness of the visuals in exchange for some frames was a bargain I was willing to make.

It's a revelation to game at a higher resolution on such a large display. In Destiny 2's Crucible, I was lining up my bow's reticle over actual heads instead of tiny, pixelated blobs. In Forza Horizon 5, I was able to better appreciate the far-out scenery, where in the past on smaller handhelds, I've mostly focused on my car and what was around it.

And then there's Rocket League. This isn't the most impressive game for a device like the MSI Claw 8 to run. You can play Rocket League on the Nintendo Switch. But to have that game running at high frame rates on an 8-inch, 1200p display is truly something. A sense of depth in the 3D space is important in a game like this. I mostly play it on a 65-inch TV for that reason. But on the Claw 8's display, at that level of detail, I didn't feel like I'd taken a huge step back. That's really cool.

Before we close this out, you might be noticing something in the charts above at both 1200p and 800p: there’s very little difference between AI Mode and the manual 17W mode. With that in mind, it seems you can simply treat AI Mode as that 17W mode. That’s handy, as changing the manual power limit requires you to enter MSI Center M and go to a bespoke menu screen for it, and having to do that constantly is a bit annoying. Instead, just set Manual to 30W and never touch it again. You can then use MSI’s quick access menu to switch between Endurance, AI Mode and Manual. Easy enough.

The Claw 8 May Be Worth It To The Right People

It's Good At What It Does, But It Could Be Better

As mentioned at the start, the MSI Claw 8 retails in the U.S. for $899.99. That makes it one of the more expensive PC handhelds on the market. Is it worth that price to everybody? That is debatable. Is it worth that price to anybody? I think it is, but only those who are okay with what they’re getting in return.

The Claw 8 is a good product. It does a lot of nice things on the design front, though there is room for improvement. It is technically very capable. Stripping everything else away, if you want an 8-inch PC handheld that can competently and natively play games at 1200p, with some perks like VRR and Hall effect sticks and triggers, the Claw 8 isn’t just a fine choice — it’s really the only choice at the moment. However, the Claw 8 isn’t a great product, and that largely has to do with its software.

MSI still has a lot of work to do on this end, such as making it more reliable, providing more useful features, and augmenting the software to be more complementary to the experience. Right now, it feels a bit more like an obstacle that must be overcome, and it holds the Claw 8 back. If you're someone who wants to exert more control over your handheld, especially, you might find the Claw 8 doesn't make that as easy as it could be.

I’m still deciding whether to buy one. But I say this as someone who owns many of these devices: If you’re getting one for the first time, you like the feature set, and the software isn’t that important to you, I say go for it. It'll play your games really well. If you want something closer to perfect for $900, though, the Claw 8 isn’t quite there.

ScreenRant was provided a Claw 8 AI+ by MSI for this review.