MSI boasted that the Claw 8 AI+ console is on average 20% faster than the Asus ROG Ally X

After the frankly unsuccessful Claw 7 based on Intel Meteor Lake, which turned out to be worse and more expensive than its competitors, MSI has a new chance to convince gamers that its new portable console Claw 8 AI+ is a gaming device worth paying attention to. MSI claims that its new product is on average 20% more productive than the Asus ROG Ally X in power saving mode.

Image source: MSI

The Claw 7 portable gaming console turned out to be one of the most talked about new products at the CES 2024 electronics exhibition. In practice, it turned out that the console is slower and much more expensive than competitors such as Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go based on AMD Ryzen Z1 processors. Interest in the MSI console quickly faded, which forced the company to adjust its price. However, the final nail in the coffin of the original Claw 7 was MSI’s announcement that the console would be upgraded to a more modern Intel architecture in the future.

Some time later, MSI announced a new Claw 8 AI+ console on the Intel Lunar Lake platform with an eight-core Core Ultra 7 258V. The console received a large 8-inch display and 32 GB of LPDDR5X-8533 RAM. This was followed by the announcement of a more compact model Claw 7 AI+ on the same processor, but with a 7-inch screen and 16 GB of RAM. The older version received a price tag of $899, and the younger version was $100 cheaper.

This time around, MSI seems to be more confident in its new product and even invited some reviewers and bloggers to its headquarters to demonstrate the gadget. One of them turned out to be the author of the YouTube channel ETA Prime, specializing in various game consoles. He published a video with first impressions of the new product and even shared an official MSI slide with information about the performance of the new console.