There are gamers in every generation from Gen X to Alpha, and all the millennials and Zoomers in between, but we all have one thing in common. We grew up with handheld gaming. From the Game Boy to the Nintendo DS to the current era of the phone and tablet, portable gaming has always been a cornerstone of the medium.
If you’ve been paying attention to Valve’s Steam Deck and its ilk, you know that the handheld PC trend is hitting a fever pitch. Everyone is coming out guns blazing. The latest MSI Claw is one burly machine, and a step in the right direction for anyone trying to compete in this space with Valve.
The Claw 8AI+ isn’t the first time MSI has made a PC handheld. The MSI Claw A1M was a first attempt at a Windows gaming handheld powered by Intel and it was… fine. There really wasn’t any reason to give it the time of day over a Steam Deck or ROG Ally. The new Claw is a change to the narrative. It’s the most powerful gaming handheld I’ve tried, with the biggest and best screen on the market. But like every other gaming handheld, bigger games weigh it down.
MSI Claw 8AI+
| Display | 8″ 1920 x 1200 touchscreen |
|---|---|
| Refresh Rate | Up to 120 Hz |
| RAM | 32 GB |
| Storage | 1 TB |
| Weight | 1.75 lbs |
| Ports | 2x Thunderbolt 4, 1 MicroSD Reader |
The biggest, most powerful handheld gaming machine yet
My experience with the Claw 8AI+ is largely the same as I had with the ROG Ally X Windows handheld. It’s a gaming PC with all the capabilities that entails; it supports your web browsers, your files, your third-party apps and programs, the whole deal. It’s just lacking a mouse and keyboard in favor of, well, being a handheld. You can transition between two control modes and adjust other settings from a quick menu. In general, though, you are here to play games, and the interface makes that mostly easy to do.
Like with any of these, navigating Windows without a mouse can be a hassle and the console’s gaming hub, the MSI Center, is pretty abysmal. You’re better off launching your games from their native apps. SteamOS is still the interface to beat, but MSI is closing the gap on ASUS.
What you want hear about, I imagine, is the screen. The machine is named after it, after all. Dwarfing the 7.4-inch display on the Steam Deck OLED, the new Claw has an 8-inch FHD+ (higher res than 1080p, lower than 1440p). It’s a bigger difference than it sounds. I’m looking down at it a lot as it turns out. The larger screen means I don’t have to strain my neck to play from less optimal viewing angles. The heft of the machine means I often don’t want to lift it to my eyes.
Yes, it’s big. If you have small hands, beware. Ergonomically, though, the design is sound. The Claw is heavy, and long sessions in the wrong position will numb my arm, but it’s also ergonomically designed from a controls standpoint. The buttons feel good and the stick layout is natural. The triggers have a good depth for shooters, and there are two programmable back paddles. The whole back of the thing is made of cooling fans, so it never gets hot. Surprisingly, it also never got too loud, either. At least never loud enough to overpower whatever I was playing.
You may be asking what the AI in the Claw 8AI+ does? What makes it so… plus? Primarily, it is being used for optimization. You can turn off these features, but they are on by default, always working in the background when you launch a game to detect the optimal graphics setting. It won’t always be optimal (there will be room for tinkering), but it’s almost always playable. It’s also contributing to the console’s healthy battery life and lack of fan overload. Credit where credit’s due.
Size wasn’t a concern for me when testing out the Claw, but if you want a slightly smaller version of the exact same console, MSI launched the Claw 7AI+ simultaneously. It’s the same thing, only a 7 inch screen instead, and that knocks $100 off the price tag. I got my hands on one at CES. Naturally it’s a bit lighter but ergonomically the two devices are extremely similar.
What I tested and how the games ran
I tested out a couple dozen titles that ranged from pixelized indies to the most technically demanding polygons and shaders of modern 3D graphics. In general, I found they fell into one of three categories: flawless, playable, and the struggle zone.
If a game runs smoothly at a consistent frame-rate with little to no impact to graphical fidelity, I consider that as flawless as you can get. Opinions differ, sure, but I’m talking small titles and older console games that aren’t built to scale with your PC. Even new indies like Citizen Sleeper 2, Balatro, and twitchy action deep cut Nine Sols fell into the flawless zone on the Claw. I had no issues whatsoever running multiplayer standards like Left 4 Dead 2 and the remaster of PS2 favorite We Love Katamari.
In the playable category, we have mildly demanding 3D titles like the popular hero shooter Marvel Rivals and brand new Obsidian RPG Avowed. Rivals runs well enough to play matches without feeling disadvantaged. Avowed required some graphics tinkering, but I got it running at a solid 30 fps on medium settings. Nothing super impressive, but enough to consider playable for a game of that slower pace. I got inconsistent frame rates from the recently remastered Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, an older game with a modern coat of paint. In that instance, a highly technical sword action game that’s about combat mastery, it falls past playable.
Which brings me to the trainwrecks. There numbers are few, thankfully, but that might just be my lack of patience for downloading large games. Point being, if you wanted to play the ambitious but already technically troubled S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl you may be stuck waiting 30 minutes for the shaders to compile before the game boots up at 12 frames per second on the lowest settings. I was. Do all the AI upscaling you want, there’s some things you can’t force.
Among everything I tried, there was only one oddity I couldn’t get running, Everything else at least booted up, albeit occasionally giving me the S.T.A.L.K.E.R treatment. A handful of titles didn’t have controller support (or made it too complicated to set up), but in all those cases they were old PC games that technically ran phenomenally.
How the MSI Claw compares to the Steam Deck
Right now, my Steam Deck OLED is the top dog. It’s easy to hold for hours and runs the type of games I want to play on the couch. SteamOS is a breeze and, honestly now that I’ve spent more time with it, I’ve discovered it’s not all that difficult to play retro games on the device.
When it comes to raw power, the new Claw outperforms my Steam Deck. On paper, it’s a big leap, but in practice it’s not a game-changer. The two devices are still playing in the same ballpark. Neither can run a brand new game as well as a PS5 Pro or PC built with an NVIDIA 5000 series GPU.
In terms of displays, the OLED of the Steam Deck is great, but the size and improved resolution make the Claw 8AI+ the winner in that department. It’s got a larger, more dynamic screen. If that is your top priority when shopping for a handheld, go with the Claw.
Final Verdict
The MSI Claw 8AI+ is the most powerful gaming handheld I’ve tried. It’s got the biggest, best, screen—even compared to the Steam Deck OLED. If you want an upgrade from your Steam Deck, I can’t think of a better option. All this should be a surprise and relief given the brand’s last attempt. MSI has made improvements worthy of a generational leap. Still, $900 is a lot to ask for any consumer electronic. More than anything, the price is what will make or break the console for you.
Given the limited stock thus far, it’s more likely to find a a Claw 8AI+ being sold for twice the price it’s actually worth than one on sale. Still, If the average gamer asks me for buying advice it’s hard to come to any other verdict aside from this—wait for a sale.
MSI Claw 8AI+
| Display | 8″ 1920 x 1200 touchscreen |
|---|---|
| Refresh Rate | Up to 120 Hz |
| RAM | 32 GB |
| Storage | 1 TB |
| Weight | 1.75 lbs |
| Ports | 2x Thunderbolt 4, 1 MicroSD Reader |
Why Trust Esquire?
Here at Esquire, we compile our guides by performing heavy research and testing, and the gadgets we choose to award are what we’d spend our own money on. It’s all about picking the best tech, homeware, and kitchen tools for you based the hands-on experience of our writers and editors in New York, and across the globe. For this review, I spent a little over three weeks testing out dozens of games on the Claw 8AI+ provided by MSI.
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