Although we don’t know in this review, how the MSI Claw 8 Ai+ improves with the original nail is simply because MSI itself delves into the latter before trying it out. It lasted three months before the exchange was announced. 3 months! And people say the steam deck OLED came soon.
The good news is that the Claw 8 Ai+ mainly internally revamped – new CPUs, new GPUs, FATTER batteries, and more, not only thrash the valve’s upgraded steam decks in gaming performance, but also the best with a rich range of window-based ranges in longevity, but also produced handhelds. What do you know, it’s probably better than nails. Yeah.
Read Also:
The same goes for the Claw 8 Ai+ is not particularly suitable for everyone at Petite Mitt. At 299mm wide and 24mm thick in the center, it is a handheld that is much bulkier than any steam deck, and at 795g it is almost as heavy as the Slabish Lenovo Legion. It’s also a pricey investment in a market that’s increasingly packed with expensive investments, and the scary £899/$900 price tag for Legion’s go, Asus Rog Ally X, Zotac Zone. And once again, you don’t even get a case.
Why can you withstand all of this mass and/or large-scale financial damage? Mainly because there is something in it that bears a large amount of shells very enthusiastically. MSI is stuck with experiments using Intel chips instead of current handheld PC standard AMD APUs. In particular, the Claw 8 Ai+’s ARC 140V GPU pays off. Even when running the game on native 1200p, it repeatedly outperforms 800p limited steam decks and pounds (more or less) other high-end window machines like the Rog Ally X and Zotac zone.
The Claw 8 Ai+ avoids moving traps that blinded legions by their pursuit of impressive sound specifications, and their screens do not mismatch their performance. Rather than overshooting at an excessively high resolution that its interior cannot properly support, the Claw 8 Ai+’s 8-inch, 1920×1200 panel is wasted nothing, and it’s obviously possible to 45-60fps with a large number of 3D, AAA fares. Drops into 1280×800 (or just playing a tough game that can be used by thousands of people) and easily see framerates above 60fps.
Claw 8 ai+ won’t run all. Monster Hunter Wilds’ benchmark tool returned 27fps low with minimum settings and Ultra Performance-Level Upscaling. However, it will clear up on the Steam deck by dealing with games that are not possible with Valve’s handheld. For example, Space Marine II can’t reach a stable 30fps on the deck, but it was getting 30-40fps on the Claw 8 Ai+ and had FSR in an easy-to-read performance mode. Similarly, Horizon Forbidden West requires Ultra Performance Upscaling to approach playability on deck, but here it rarely falls below 30fps on FSR with a much sharper quality setting.
The huge rear vent stretch helps to ensure that the heat of this performance does not convert to normal heat. While fans aren’t as whispered as steam deck OLEDs, the Claw 8 Ai+’s intense speakers are easy to own. Anyway, at home. Bluetooth and 3.5mm Jack Combine for Headphone options are recommended as an alternative to being stomped by intense commuters.
With the Claw 8 Ai+’s Chunky 80whr battery (up from the original claw 53whr) becoming one of the longest-lasting handheld PCs in the business, there will be plenty of time to damage the eardrums to fellow passengers. The clever efficiency improvements have become seemingly invincible in low demand games, rather than in the Steam Deck OLED range. The 3h 22m on the Claw 8 Ai+ on Portal 2 is not great on Windows standard and is not near the 5h 48m on the deck OLED. But then Eldenling’s MSI’s 2H 13m shows the ability to catch up with thirst games, just one minute shy of the 2H 14m on deck OLED.
Among Windows rivals, the Rog Ally X can withstand the Claw 8 Ai+ with endurance, with a shortfall of 2H 59m on Portal 2. The ASUS device took a narrow lead on the Forza Horizon 5, followed by the Claw 8 Ai+ with 2H 55m and 2H 52m, but the latter is said to deliver more frightening battery performance considering it has a larger, more pixel-rich screen.
The screen itself isn’t half bad either. Covers 99.1% of the SRGB color gamut and hits a contrast ratio of 1412:1. However, with this money it’s a bit slippery to get only the LCD/IPS panel, rather than the OLED displays like the updated steam deck or the ZOTAC zone. In addition to being physically thin, more power efficient and superior quality of portable PCs, both of these OLED screens are produced infinite Contrast and brightness peaks above 900cd/m2 in HDR compatible games. The Claw 8 Ai+ does not have support for this HDR as its brightness is top at 521cd/m2. This is not higher than the original LCD Steam deck. In any case, you’ll need most of these nits as a protection against the reflectivity of the shiny screen of the 8 ai+. The anti-glare finish is another steam deck OLED PERK that is missing from this model.
This strange blend of odd specs and low-end fundamentality is repeatedly evident in the Claw 8 Ai+ design. You get some great things like some that are next to the MicroSD card slot with dual USB-C ports mounted on top, and some great things like the fingerprint sensor built into the power button. But it is also a sturdy thumbstick, smaller than the ones on a much more affordable deck, and is covered in cheap, moving plastic. There is no single trackpad to help you navigate Windows 11, which is very touchscreen-friendly. Personally, I have a front paneling damp Dour, greenish grey colour scheme with no atmosphere.
That’s not a big problem – unless you’re a more Trabant fan – but the difficulty of wielding the windows is. Yes, Windows 11 feels lost and confused in the handheld, like I did with the first Rog Ally. The constant mood of thrusts with a shrunken UI indicates that in fact it represents one of the fewer headaches. This is because these portable PCs are more likely to buggy than desktops, and the Claw 8 Ai+ is unfortunately no exception. In addition to the similar problem of landing randomly sized app windows like ZOTAC zones, particularly annoying input bugs, the A button no longer registers with steam and forced it to the touchscreen.
MSI has made an effort to add handheld-specific comfort in the form of a handy quick-setting overlay menu and its central M all-in-one game launcher, but neither of them really transforms into Windows assets. The configuration overlay may only be visible after a few seconds, and the launcher’s side-scrolling interface fits only five games at most, so it ended up not using it. Like Windows Handheld, you get a wider range of native supported game launchers than Steamos, but considering that most of these can be installed on Steam Deck with Lutris, it’s not more than that advantage.
Such scratches, simply ok display, and dull design means it’s impossible to be completely excited about the MSI Claw 8 Ai+. Especially for 900 big ones, if you can expect very reasonably expect the best overall features. Still, this isn’t like a bauble with some thumbs up. In fact, it is the most powerful (on average) handheld PC among its peers, unlike the same framerate-oriented ZOTAC zone, and does not compromise battery life to get there.
By these metrics – and I’m forced to conclude that it’s more important than it looks like a Soviet sedan – the MSI Claw 8 ai+ isn’t just the tweaks needed for the first generation of fate. It is a good, strong handheld in itself, and the performance and practicality it brings is a fitting addition to the ever-growing portable scene.
This review is based on a review unit provided by the manufacturer.