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MSI has come to Computex this week ready to showcase a ton of new products, and among them was a new variation of the company’s Claw handheld, the Claw 8 AI Plus. With the original Claw having been launched only a little earlier this year, you might wonder what MSI could be offering in the new version of the Claw that would warrant its release.
The answer to that is a significantly bigger battery and MSI has upgraded to a new CPU with Intel’s new Lunar Lake chips. The more important upgrade of the two should be the new CPUs. MSI’s original Claw A1M model was sporting a Meteor Lake Intel Core Ultra 5. The new Claw 8 AI Plus features Intel’s Lunar Lake chip, which is supposed to have up to 50 percent more GPU performance than its Meteor Lake counterpart.
This alone should help the new MSI Claw 8 AI Plus deliver a better gaming experience, as it’s expected it’ll offer better performance and smoother gameplay thanks to the more powerful CPU/GPU combo. Not be forgotten though is the bigger battery. MSI hasn’t announced a cost yet nor is it confirmed when the handheld will launch. However, it may be sooner than expected. The Claw A1M was announced in January at CES, and it was available to buy in early March. Just two months later.
The MSI Claw 8 AI Plus comes with a significantly bigger battery
MSI’s first handheld came with a 53Wh battery. This was larger than the Steam Deck and ROG Ally. However, it didn’t really help the Claw last longer on a charge. The new MSI Claw 8 AI Plus aims to boost your gameplay session with an 80Wh battery. The same you’ll find in the new ROG Ally X that ASUS announced this week. It’s unclear how much of an impact this larger battery will make, but it’ll definitely be a nice bump.
The Claw 8 AI Plus most certainly is going to need that bigger battery though. Given its more powerful chipset and larger display.
MSI also updated the screen size
If the name of the handheld didn’t give it away, the MSI Claw 8 AI Plus also comes with a larger screen size. MSI has stretched it from 7 inches to 8 inches. It’s also keeping the same Full HD resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. As Tom’s Guide notes, the display is also touch-enabled. It has support for Variable Refresh Rate as well.
Additionally, MSI has updated the design a bit. Buttons appear to be in the same place but the shell now has a new lighter color as opposed to matte black. It also looks like the bottom corners have less of a defined curvature. MSI reportedly gave the Claw 8 AI Plus a new cooling system as well. It’s called the ‘Cooler Boost HyperFlow’ system and should help keep the temperatures down when compared to the Claw A1M.
MSI is also still using the same Hall Effect joysticks with RGB lighting.
Image Credit: Tom’s Guide