The MSI Claw 8 AI+: A Review

 

MSI Claw 8 AI+ - The only Intel 7 Handheld in an "affordable" range worth looking at

I bought this one directly from MSI's online store back in...hmmm...end of October, I guess? It was a decision informed at least in part by watching way too many Youtube videos talking about the various MSI Claw types, and how this one was rather better than its predecessors. It was also incredibly difficult to find a preorder of the Xbox Rog Ally X that wasn't booked out to Xmas, although I did manage to snag a preorder on the Legion Go 2 by chance, and yes I did keep that preorder so I now have both the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and the LeGo 2, so I can definitely compare and contrast. Oh and I finally snagged the Xbox Ally X, so yeah, someone please stop me before I tank my credit card.

Anyway, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ is nice enough that I could in theory have stopped right there and I think I'd be able to say I had an ideal handheld PC gaming device and really didn't need to go any further. I bought it for $1049 on MSI's site, and for that price I definitely feel like I got my money's worth. Here's its specs, for the A2VMX Polar Frost edition: it is powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, has an 8 inch IPS touch screen at 120hz, 80 Watt Hr battery, 1 TB M.2 SSD, and the thing has some noteworthy internal speakers.....like, the best speakers you can get in any of these handhelds. 

Because the device uses an Intel chip, it also can use the Intel XeSS upscaling technology. What I have discovered is that no only does this thing run everything I load on to it like a boss, it runs them with much nicer performance figures if the game in question supports XeSS....pretty much if the game has this option, you will want to enable it, its absolutely worth the boost.

In watching endless enthusiast videos about the MSI Claw 8 AI+, I have learned a few things. They are, as follows:

Not all Claws Are Alike: Not all MSI Claws are worthwhile. There is an A8 model which I think is mostly available outside of the US right now that utilizes the Z2 Extreme architecture from AMD, and that one allegedly does not run as well as other Z2 Extreme powered devices already on the market (Xbox Ally X and LeGo 2). 

There is an older 7 inch screen model of MSI Claw with an older model intel chip that is pretty cheap, but also completely not worth the price, allegedly. I am not going to grab one just to find out, I've already got a range of older devices collecting dust on my shelf, don't need one more.

Amazing Speakers: Everyone universally agrees that MSI Claw knows how to pack high quality speakers into a device, and this one demonstrates that amply; the MSI Claw 8 AI+ (I specifically keep using the proper name because the MSI Claw naming conventions are damned confusing) has amazing speakers, absolutely top notch for a device of this size.

Top  Performance: The performance metrics of the MSI Claw 8 AI+ are generally better, sometimes slightly, sometimes by a wide margin, than every other device on the market except maybe Legion Go 2. There was a general concern for a while that Intel's coverage of the graphics processor would lag if the device wasn't successful, but I think based on the fairly stellar performance of this device that Intel must be keeping up.

Okay Ergonomics: The device is fairly comfortable to hold and use, but it could use better "grips" on the sides, as the device can be tedious to keep holding for long play sessions. A popular accessory for the device is a set of side grips you can snap on (these can be 3D printed but a zillion Chinese companies also sell them for varying prices) and they make a huge difference in improving the comfort of the device for long play sessions.

Aesthetics: It's either pretty or ugly depending on your personal aesthetics. I happen to have the newer Arctic White model, which I think looks pretty distinct and cool, but I can concede the older one that came out earlier in 2025 with a mud-brown coloration was not the prettiest.

Hard to Find: I bought it directly from MSI, and I do see it is intermittently available on some websites like Best Buy now, but this thing can be hard to find in stock.

The Micro SD Card Reader Works: this may sound odd, but it's not; the Micro SD card reader works well and you get fast transfer rates. I have had no problem with this one with any games loaded on the card, unlike the Xbox ROG Ally base model and original ROG Ally models. Worth noting that I am using a Micro SD Express card with it; it's not an Express card reader, but it still works and the transfer rate is still better than a normal SD card.

The RGB Lighting Lights up the buttons: it's actually the only handheld that does this, and it is very cool to have the ABXY buttons illuminate like this.

So why get this device over any of the other handhelds? I would suggest that Intel's Core Ultra 7 processor is generally better at this than the AMD Z2 Extreme, although that chip is pretty amazing, too. While I did try the Microsoft FSE experience on this, I found that MSI Claw works better in regular mode. The Claw's own software is "okay" but not great. Still, it doesn't get in the way, either, which is important.

Overall in terms of raw performance and general grip comfort, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ is a stellar device. I would argue that it is a superior product to the Xbox ROG Ally X, but as I am still testing that one out I will reserve judgement there until later in the year.....the comfort of built in controller grips cannot be understated. But the ability to load up and comfortably play pretty much anything with decent graphics and a nice 8 inch screen with good color depth and amazing speakers cannot be ignored, either.

I hooked up the Claw to a docking station and used it on my external 2K monitor, both for general tasks and for gaming. It ran very smoothly and without issue, so it actually could work as a "big screen" replacement if so desired. I bought a slim bluetooth keyboard and mouse which I connected to it and it worked great....in fact a plurality of my blog posts in the last 6-8 weeks were written on the Claw with this setup. I have since disconnected it but only because I discovered that there is, in fact, one device which does the "big screen" experience even better: the Legion Go 2.

On the Claw I'm currently playing Deadzone Rogue, Atomfall, The Outer Worlds, Division 2, Hail to the Rainbow and The Callisto Protocol and pleased to be making progress in games I have long ignored despite having them in the Steam collection. I also loaded the Xbox app on it and have tried out Forza Horizon 5 and Starfield on it, to great effect. To contrast with the much lower-powered Xbox ROG Ally base model, it probably took a couple minutes for those two games to load into the device, though they ran fine (Starfield was at the edge of "acceptable") but on the Claw they both loaded up almost as fast as on the laptop, and ran like beasts; I capped the framerates at 60 on both, but they otherwise ran at the 1200p resolution of the screen just fine in high graphics settings. Pretty slick.

So barring when I talk about the Legion Go 2 and the Xbox ROG Ally X, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ (that one specifically! Not the others!) is a solid A and if you shop around I have spotted a few in the wild on places like Ebay for less than the $1049 price tag, so you may be able to get it on a deal if you're willing to pay that sort of cash. If you do get one, keep in mind I think it works best as a Windows device, and I have not heard of many having much success with SteamOS on it, probably due limited support for this chipset in Linux.

One last item: you may be wondering about the AI+ element of this device. It's a feature that exists, and supposedly the AI component can help modulate your play experience. I followed an online tutorial designed to maximize the actual power and output of the MSI Claw and killed the AI feature, which was resoundingly considered to do a poor job in this regard. I still seem to get decent battery life even with playing it on "max" TDP and no AI regulation.

Next! We'll chat Steam Deck OLED and its viability in 2026, then the Steam Deck successor of 2025, the Legon Go S.

The Xbox ROG Ally Base Model - A Short Review

 So after some deliberation I decided to make January the month I obsess on the blog on my side-hobby as a handheld PC gaming enthusiast. I have some credentials to this, albeit with the caveat that there are like a millions Youtubers out there who love filming their handheld devices and running endless performance metrics on them. I mainly like the handhelds for gaming, and I tend to go for the vibes when it comes to assessing their performance and value to my personal experience. This means that I may find a device more fun and engaging than reviewers do because I am far less worried about how many FPS I am squeezing out of the device than I am whether it feels good to play and the game seems to run smoothly to my eyes.

So with that in mind, here's my quick review of the first such device of the 2025 crop that I shall dive in to: the Xbox ROG Ally - the base white model! AKA the one with the budget performance specs.

Xbox ROG Ally Base Model Specs: From the ASUS website: Ryzen Z2 A processor  2.8GHz (6MB Cache, up to 3.8 GHz, 4 cores, 8 Threads); GPU is AMD Radeon Graphics Card (integrated? not sure); 7 inch, 1080p IPS display, touch screen, 120hz refresh 500 nits brightness, and AMDFreesync Premium

The Xbox ROG Ally base model is a decent budget priced handheld gaming PC. It runs MSRP $600 but you can find it on sale for cheaper usually. This new line of ASUS handhelds are equipped with the best form factor for comfortable handheld gaming on the market; they are far more satisfying to play on the go than almost every other device, and I find only the Legon Go S to be comparatively friendly to the hands (also the Playstation Portal if you want to count that). 

It's Xbox marketing will disappoint a lot of people who will find the Windows Full Screen Experience (FSE) a shallow replacement for an actual Xbox experience, but it does run a surprising number of top tier games just fine....notably Microsoft published titles like Horizon 5, Gears 5 and Gears Reloaded, Halo Master Chief Collection, etc. all run pretty well on this, but other games may struggle. It's hampered by only 512GB of storage, and the expansion slot for an SSD is often insufficient for running modern games, but I use the SSD slot to load older games and less demanding titles. Bottom line: if your gaming experience revolves around Hades and Hollow Knight, this handheld is a great choice (but so is a Steam Deck). If you want to run games curated by Microsoft to run well (like Gears of War and Forza Horizon 5) it is also a good choice. Other graphically-intensive titles will be all over the place in terms of quality, performance and feel, however. 

I set up Steam, GOG and Xbox's platforms on the device and it ran each just fine. I ran in to repeated issues with how the Windows FSE switches between the storefronts, and whether the storefronts would drop to the background while playing games, which was often so frustrating I would have to kill the FSE mode to get things to play nice, however.

Both Xbox ROG Ally models have the standard 7 inch IPS screen common on prior Asus handhelds. The screen is totally fine, and looks crisp, but it pales when you compare it to the infinitely superior screens of the Legion Go series, especially the Go 2's OLED screen. Good news though: if you are not insane like I and other enthusiasts are, and just buy a single handheld device, I don't think you will be bothered by the screen size.

I tried the Xbox ROG Ally out on a dock with a hookup to a 1080p big screen to see how it functioned as a dockable work station and the answer is: not very well. It showed obvious performance issues in jumping to tasks, the keyboard and mouse, and compared to other handhelds (even the original ASUS Rog Ally which I used this way constantly) it was an inferior experience. So the Z2 A processor is just not great at this sort of docking setup, I can confirm.

Another problem with the device is actually a FSE problem. Microsoft's handheld solution does not play well with the controls on this thing, and I often find that while in FSE mode, the game I am trying to boot in to does not automatically pop up, or the control scheme changes from gamepad to keyboard, or while in a game it will also detect button pushes and activate other features or games in other storefronts. This is a problem that uniquely impacts this device, though some of the issues are found on other handhelds as well (MSI Claw notably), enough so that my preference is to disable the FSE entirely in order to enjoy a game uninterrupted.

Get this thing on sale if you can find it and want a Steam Deck replacement, and aren't too worried about high end performance (say, you prefer indie titles and older titles for gaming). But if you want performance and can save up to get something better (such as the Xbox Ally X) I suggest you do that. Spoiler for later blog posts: my personal preferred handheld is the Legion Go 2, but you can buy like 2 and 1/2 of these for the same price so YMMV. Solid C as a rating. 

Games I am playing on my Xbox ROG Ally currently: Forza Horizon 5, Gears 5, Deadzone Rogue, Berserk Recharged, Hollow Knight and Hades (I am waaaay behind on the last two franchises, trying to catch up). I have also loaded up some older titles like Hunted: The Reckoning and Bioshock 2 and had very satisfying play experiences on the device.

Will I still have this handheld by 2027? I don't know. It's really comfortable to play, and I like a lot when it works well, but literally everything it does well other devices do as well or better, and the Xbox ROG Ally X also exists, and it has the same comfort in play. So I may end up gifting it to a friend or relative.