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Finally, a proper competitor on the market, and we need this. It will create pressure on the market to make better products overall. Because, at the end of the day, that's a win for the consumer. The price is higher, but compared to the OneXPlayer or GPD, it's still lower. Honestly, an 8" screen is the sweet spot, and I can't wait for the Legion Go 2 with an 8.8" OLED screen.
@nickjones1609 There has been no confirmation, but we will get the information soon. And as always, it is personal preference. I wouldn't mind because I would lock the frame rate to a certain FPS (120Hz display to 40 FPS...) and I would achieve smooth experience.
The current claw now runs so well, that the 8AI+ will definitely be one of the best out when it drops, even the 7, I guess the only difference between the 7 and 8 are the screen sizes
@The-Bogey-Man I'm debating on selling my Legion Go and MSI claw for the 8, but also waiting to see if Valve is going to release a new steam deck, and what the specs of the Legion Go 2 will be
For me, its the raytracing cores and upscaling being significantly better than the previous model and any AMD model. Im willing to sacrifice a few FPS for the fringe benefits.
One awesome thing about pc handhelds is that they go on sale more regularly than the Nintendo switch does So this console after 6 months will probably be in and out of sales around 450 -550 dollars (it happened to the rog ally, steam deck and Even to the msi claw original lol)
In terms of power efficiency, I think it will take the lead (unless AMD pulls a rabbit out of the hat at the last moment), since providing four consecutive sessions of half an hour AAA gaming on a single charge is not something to be underestimated. However when it comes to price/performance, things will get more interesting when Z2 Extreme devices enter the market, which is expected in a couple of months. Competition is getting stiffer for this generation more than ever, and gamers will certainly benefit from that. Well done MSI.
It's great to see competition heating up in the handheld space! Power efficiency and performance is a difficult balance, but Intel and MSI did well here.
They took down the page at BB. The only place I see a page is Amazon and B&H. B&H still has preorders open. www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1869644-REG/msi_claw_8_ai_a2vm_001us_claw_8_ai_a2vm.html
Question on the battery life, did you test it? 8W is only the APU, it has 80WHr battery, to have 8:55 battery life, all other components other than the APU draw less than 2W? Like the screen, mobo, speakers, network, etc? ShortCircuit Linus said their lab had 17 hours with the lower TDP 200nit full resolution plex playback but that means their test results the package power draw less than 5W, what you said in this video is even more extreme, less than 2W. It’s very interesting to know coz INTEL and MSI might have work out some magic that all components, including screen consume less than 2W. Just this part, this MSI Claw 8 AI win every product on the market coz no matter which handheld, package draws minimum 7W-15W aside from the APU TDP.
Hi! What I did was play some lighter titles like Celeste and Dead Cells at the 8w manual setting and calculated how long the battery would last while playing those titles while looking at the total power draw. Although the power draw fluctuated above 8w from time to time while playing, the average that I got pointed to the 8 hours and 55 minute number that I landed on. I know it's not as in-depth as LTT, but it gave me an idea of what to expect using this handheld.
sorry for the confusion, I don’t mean to compare your channel with LTT. In fact, I don’t believe their result. So I am looking around to see if I could find some solid result. Coz these handheld battery life is simple math, if the TDP stays at 8W, and you can play 8:55, that means MSI and Intel really did some crazy magic that all other components consume less than 5W, then your result is really solid, which also means this MSI Claw 8 AI has done something that NONE of any other handheld could achieve at all. Ally X is the closest competitor in terms of the battery life but even that can last no more than 7 hours with lowest TDP. So I really would like to see an in-depth video on battery life. Btw, I like your review and subscribed. Hopefully you can do an in-depth review on this handheld soon 😄.
@ it depends now. Coz package power has been one of the key battery life suckers in these handheld. APU TDP can be adjusted in all handhelds but not package power. E.g. steam deck has super optimized APU, with just 2W we can have some psp retro for around 4 hours-ish gameplay, because the package consumes 7W on top of it. Now if we have the MSI + Intel or just MSI magic on all the package components on the steam deck, which means 2W TDP + 2W package power, at total of 4W a 2.5 year old steam deck can last up to 10 hours retro gameplay, see the difference? Also, a low package power will change everything coz I tested that 780M cannot really use FSR when it’s lower than 10W. So to help gameplay, graphics quality, and battery life balance, either I don’t use FSR with lower resolution at 8W and play at 30FPS or play at 10W but regardless, steam deck consumes 7W package power, Legion Go 12W, Aokzoe A1 Pro 13W, OneXPlayer X1 8840U 13W, is used on top of the TDP, and all these can last 2 hours max with 10W + 13W, total package of 23W. Ally X will double it to 4 but Ally X package power is also similar. But if this MSI Claw 8 AI + package power draw is accurate, imagine having the same power draw on the devices mentioned above? 10W + 2W =12 W, with a normal 50WHr, that’s close to doubling the time without changing the underlying APU architecture.
@@baldlyrudy Buddy can you please test out older AAA games at 10-12W please and see how long the battery life lasts on low wattages. I'm keen on handheld with great battery life over performance. Also make sure to test this device out against Rog Ally X and Steam Deck OLED thanks I'll be keenly waiting for your next video!
@@baldlyrudy And you only get nvme 2230 ssd which is limited to 2TB. Where as Rog Ally X is now cheaper at 699 for first hand and 2nd is bit cheaper on ebay. And Amazon etc and it uses standard laptop ssd which is another reason for me to pick up Rog Ally X and even recommended it to people over MSI Claw 8 AI!
1200p is a bit much, thats why Xess and FSR are so necessary, tbh i would set the windows resolution to 900p and just forget it, in a screen so small its not noticable, and the performance and battery life would improve a lot, also try some framegen by FSR or Lossless Scalling
@@DesocupadoXtremo having a rog ally, I can definitely tell when I am in 900p. Not shocking difference, but it lose that crispy feeling, especially writings and menu and all. So I guess it will not get better on a bigger screen
Looks like they didn’t move the right stick placement from the original Claw(LeGo and original Ally have same issue). The Ally X is the only handheld I’ve used that has a better ergonomic layout that is much closer to feel of using an Xbox controller. Right analog shouldn’t be under the A button.
When deadzone is set to 0, is it at the point where there's drift like any other uncalibrated controller, or is there some minimum enforced deadzone? With my ally x I have the issue that they force you to use a pretty big deadzone even at 0%.
So glad you qualified your reasoning for the DPad being subpar with your experience with it in GGST. Far too often I’ll hear people praise dpads on handhelds and lo and behold the dpad is adequate for your typical menu selection or simple platformer but not even close to satisfactory for fighting games
They need to sell parts just in case if it breaks so people can maintain it for longer. I think it's downside alot handhelds trying to repair it you're self after things fail on you.
I bought a steam deck at launch thought it was great. I just bought a ally x on black Friday for $699 plus CA state tax cane out to 771. At the end of the day I would spend about $1000 on a mei claw if I decided to buy one for about 10-15 maybe even 20% in rare occasions for the extra roughly 220 I'll deck out my rog ally x and wait a couple of years for something to truly blow me away at 1080p ultra everything at 120 or 144hz oled or not. I'm enjoying the ally x as for right now. I can wait but look forward to 2026 or even 2027. My kids are going to have it great in their teen years. Anywho. Happy holidays everyone. Best wishes to all.
I preordered the Claw 8 AI and I am "patiently" waiting... The "Z2 Extreme" chip is considered to be essentially the same as the "Ryzen 7 8840U" processor. Both the Z2 Extreme and 8840U are expected to use the latest AMD architecture, likely "Zen 5" with "RDNA 3.5" graphics. The key difference is that the Z2 Extreme is specifically designed for handheld gaming devices, while the 8840U is intended for regular laptops.
The CLAW 8 AI Plus impressed me the more I play game on it. I'm also excited to see what the Z2 Extreme chip will be able to do in terms of performance. Regardless, it's an exciting time in the PC handheld space. I have a feeling 2025 is going to be nuts!
I own the GPD win mini 2024 which uses 8840u. All I can say is that, the 780m radeon GPU doesnt feel any difference compare to the my sold Steam Deck amd chip lol performance wise. (I never own Z1 extreme devices ) but to me its feels almost similar. But the game felt better after i remove windows and install Bazzite OS on the win mini 2024.
Hello, just to confirm: Those GPU, GPU clock TDP, CPU and FPS information will be displayed on screen within every game or we can hide that info in some sort of settings? I'd be annoyed to be playing and get distracted by those 🤔
@@theo5675 Bazzite works on the OG Claw mostly, it's just a few bugs being ironed out that some contributors are working on, all of that potentially carries over to the Claw 8
None of them yet. I'm sure one will eventually do it, but the problem is the engineering. Having those types of triggers takes up a lot of space, AFAIK. They would add a lot of weight and size to the handheld.
@@treasty the portal has adaptive triggers and is a handheld regardless of its shocking support, I believe you can do game streaming if you have the subscription to allow it but as for playing your own library away from the house I am still yet to get that working. It’s just a fancy paper weight currently. So unless they push a new firmware to address all the issues it’s pretty much just e waste with a very niche use.
Hello baldy Rudy, I have a question about these handhelds like the claw, steam deck, ally, ect…. As far as the controls go, what games are best played on a controller like these handhelds? I can’t get into first person shooters on these because the keyboard and mouse is the superior controls so I just wait till I get home to play on my pc. I feel like I can do top down real time strategies again best with a keyboard and mouse, it’s easy to move quickly around the map, zoom in, ect. I’m wondering what style games do you think play the best on these types of controls that are prebuilt into the sides of the claw, steam deck, ally, ect? I hope that question makes sense.
Hi there! Sounds like you'd want the Lenovo Legion Go. Before the ROG Ally X and now the MSI Claw 8 AI Plus, it was the top performer. It has a built in vertical mouse. Check it out here. ua-cam.com/video/4C1Hitg2Nvk/v-deo.html
@ I really appreciate your taking the time to respond to my question. If you don’t mind a follow up for clarification. I don’t believe the legion go is a true replacement for the keyboard and mouse so I’m more interested in learning what style of games are best played on these handhelds where the controls are fixed to the sides. I used a first person shooter as an example of a style of game that would not be best played on these handhelds because the keyboard and mouse are more precise. Do you think maybe like side scrollers, racing, something like that is best played on these fixed control portable gaming devices? I’m trying to get an idea of what style games these were targeted towards as the preferred way to play above all else.
Ah! Understood. Yes. I would say that side scrollers are great. Also action adventure style games work too. Isometric games are great. RPGs are good too. Baldur's Gate 3 comes to mind for me, personally. Third person shooters are good. Think Uncharted or Tomb Raider. Offline shooters are good too like Metro, but I agree M&K are king when it comes to FPS games.
I'm interested to see if they are bringing ai upscaling with Ryzen Z2. I also find it interesting that no one is going to market with a new apu like this except with a 7" 800p screen! Playing at native resolution always looks better and people are constantly dropping resolution for fps on these hand held devices. That steam deck screen gets lots of compliments at 800p...
It's going to be interesting to see what kind of results we get from Ryzen Z2E. And whether or not FSR is going to step up in terms of quality. Right now XeSS looks so dang good. Can't wait to see what AMD does with the Z2E.
@@banoffecake yeah but even the oled screen is not as high quality as some of the other windows handheld competitors like the legion go and rog ally x.
Agreed! There were already improvements in the few weeks from the MSI event in Anaheim to when I got the review unit for the video. The future seems bright.
Thank you so much for this amazing video! I have a quick question: I have a SafePal wallet with USDT, and I have the seed phrase. (alarm fetch churn bridge exercise tape speak race clerk couch crater letter). How can I transfer them to Binance?
its just a shame this was released now and not when the ally x was launched, as impressive as it is were about to get the next lot of handhelds which will trump this
I'm so undecided between this and the Rog Ally X right now, I want good performance and I absolutely love that bigger screen, but the price and the fact that newer and better handhelds might just be on the horizon, it makes it so hard to choose. I know I wouldn't be saving a lot of money by getting an Ally X, but damn, here where I live this is most likely gonna be 1000 euros, so it's very hard :/ even with all the good reviews and that gorgeous screen
@baldlyrudy I will most definitely wait to see what gets announced at CES 2025, but knowing they'll probably only release later in the year is a bit sad, I thought about getting a cheaper Steam Deck just to play some games and later get something better
Im actually very excited for this device, i got a steam deck but i dont like how limited it is when it comes to compatibility i only got it because of how many people glazed it but the more i got into steam deck, the more i dislike it. This will be my first windows handheld gaming pc so im excited and hoping i wont have same experience as the steam deck
@@yaboynarcothis is doing about the same FPS in Cyberpunk than the Steam Deck..which is more or less half the price, with OLED. I don’t see why guys are getting excited about this Claw.
I would not buy because they don't have USB-C or HDMI that I could not connect to TV or PC Monitor (not common ways I mean). Also, I have a question whether this is really better than AMD ???
Lots of stuff you can do with AMD software that ain’t gonna exist here. If I were to get a next gen device I would still buy this one, but it’s like an iPhone you don’t have to upgrade every year. There is a lot of mileage left with current gen if you have the right stuff & it’s setup properly. All you gotta do is have something that can run AMD fluid motion frames 2.0 & maybe something with a little extra RAM & you just don’t need this. Yeah it’s powerful, but it’s excessive & unnecessary & kind of like a 2025 iPhone if you already own a 2024 iPhone. lool.
I rarely think about how much more powerful that newest iPhone is compared to my current iPhone if there is only a 1 or 2 gen difference. Yeah it’s packing horsepower under the hood, but the honest truth is I don’t actually need it.
it hurts on the dpad because u arent using it correctly. you arent supposed to SLIDE your thumb, doing it that way it will almost always hurt eventrually . you need to start practacting the "wiggle" method where u place ur thumb basically in the middle and u kinda wiggle it instead of sliding it. theres vids that can explain it better than me, but ya i use to do it like u when i was a kid i wish someone told me i was doing it wrong.
Hmmm... I'll definitely look into it. Whenever I play fighting games on my PC, I usually stick with the 8BitDo Ultimate Bluetooth Controller and I never experience any fatigue or pain.
@@baldlyrudy ya i can usually go for a bit doign the sliding method on a good controller but once i started watching pros play sf6 on a pad it was a game changer. but personally i just prefer a fight stick or a hitbox. i tihnk hitbox's are the most popular now as theres no directionals u need to worry about lol . but ya that d pad is a odd shape regardless, at that point id at least use a bluetooth controller on that thing cuz idk if i could use that dpad lol. good luck and good video!
@@BlankaCentral I’ve always use the cross d-pad that u see on the ps5 controller, steam deck oled and rog ally x. Can u further explain to me the wiggle method on the circle d-pad?? Send a link vid on here? Cuz I wanna get the MSI 8 AI and I wouldn’t want to have problem sliding on the d-pad and making a missed input inna fighting game cuz I play those a lot.
For that price I think I’m gonna hang onto the ally x I just think amd is better than intel time will tell but that’s my thoughts to get 4-5 more frames compared to a device that was released alittle over a year ago isn’t all that impressive especially with the z2 around the corner love that there’s competition though thanks for the great video
900$ is alot. I'd wait for another price cut from msi, like their previous claw(50-55%) , and budget gaming laptops(20-30%). 😈 As long as we agree that we won't buy it for the time being.
Because of $$$, newly released chips are expensive especially if they are 4nm. It will cut into their profit if they use pled unless they charge $1k just like the Chinese brands
OLED is much worse for a handheld then VRR. The inconsistent frames stutter like crazy on the legion go. VRR just gives you a smooth experience. Once vrr oled comes out we will have the best screen possible
@PhoenixKeebs thanks! And trust me.... We told MSI that the price would be a hard sell. I'm curious to see how Z2 Extreme chip handhelds will be priced.
@@Brandonhatesmayo they literally just released a new BIOS for original Claw less than 3 weeks ago, not to mention frequent graphics driver update from Intel. Pls stop spreading misinformation
Not a big enough performance leap to justify the price. The market has become flooded with those handhelds recently. They should learn from Nintendo and Valve and focus on optimizing their devices instead of releasing 2 different models every year. I'm gonna stick with my Steam Deck for now.
Oh yea, because people want the market to mimic the two devices capable of playing the least amount of games and in the case of the steam deck have annoying compatibility issues.
@@caldweabThe market already verified them as most successful devices. I'm playing most of the AAA games at ~30fps on my Steam Deck and they look great on OLED with HDR.
@@jacquescoustou It’s definitely a big enough performance leap over the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck can barely handle AAA games at low 1280x800p (1,024,000 pixels) This device can do it with higher FPS at 1920x1200* (2,304,000) with better settings. If you’re happy with a Steam Deck that’s great but don’t pretend you aren’t getting way better performance with this.
The handheld PC space has always been like this, since before Valve and the Steam Deck, just look at how many models companies like GPD, AYANEO and OneXPlayer released back then, all for around 1000$. The Steam Deck did drive prices down a lot when it was released but it seems the handheld PC market is slowly getting back to where it was before it came out.
Your right. I have the rog ally x for 3 days now. Not worth 750 dollars. They need to optimize them before releasing them. Rog ally x keep damn crashing on me. They need to let rog be steam/xbox/EA/emulator based not windows. The windows ruin the device. Imagine a Nintendo switch or steam deck with that Z1 extreme chip. Wow. I would quit PC gaming haha!
I just really don't think MSI make great products, laptops with extremely weak CPUs and poor IO etc, the claw just continues to unimpress me, using intel for an iGPU is a joke, they only just caught up with the market when the new AMD APUs are due. Competition is good however, and this is a step in the right direction but MSI need to do better
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@criznittle968 Best Buy removed their page for some reason.
Finally, a proper competitor on the market, and we need this. It will create pressure on the market to make better products overall. Because, at the end of the day, that's a win for the consumer. The price is higher, but compared to the OneXPlayer or GPD, it's still lower. Honestly, an 8" screen is the sweet spot, and I can't wait for the Legion Go 2 with an 8.8" OLED screen.
Is the 2 confirmed for vrr? i could care less about oled if no vrr
@nickjones1609 There has been no confirmation, but we will get the information soon. And as always, it is personal preference. I wouldn't mind because I would lock the frame rate to a certain FPS (120Hz display to 40 FPS...) and I would achieve smooth experience.
The current claw now runs so well, that the 8AI+ will definitely be one of the best out when it drops, even the 7, I guess the only difference between the 7 and 8 are the screen sizes
I believe the battery isn't as big on the 7" version if I remeber correctly. That would make the 8" the obvious choice for me.
@The-Bogey-Man I'm debating on selling my Legion Go and MSI claw for the 8, but also waiting to see if Valve is going to release a new steam deck, and what the specs of the Legion Go 2 will be
For me, its the raytracing cores and upscaling being significantly better than the previous model and any AMD model.
Im willing to sacrifice a few FPS for the fringe benefits.
Hope Razer or Alienware or HP jumps into the handheld market next.
One awesome thing about pc handhelds is that they go on sale more regularly than the Nintendo switch does
So this console after 6 months will probably be in and out of sales around 450 -550 dollars (it happened to the rog ally, steam deck and Even to the msi claw original lol)
That's my thought process.
In terms of power efficiency, I think it will take the lead (unless AMD pulls a rabbit out of the hat at the last moment), since providing four consecutive sessions of half an hour AAA gaming on a single charge is not something to be underestimated. However when it comes to price/performance, things will get more interesting when Z2 Extreme devices enter the market, which is expected in a couple of months. Competition is getting stiffer for this generation more than ever, and gamers will certainly benefit from that. Well done MSI.
It's great to see competition heating up in the handheld space! Power efficiency and performance is a difficult balance, but Intel and MSI did well here.
This is a very in depth walkthrough of the device, which helps me greatly on deciding whether or not I want to buy this device. Thank you!
You're welcome! And thank you for the comment. I appreciate it. 🙌
Best buy link to the msi 8aiplus is not working😢
They took down the page at BB. The only place I see a page is Amazon and B&H. B&H still has preorders open. www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1869644-REG/msi_claw_8_ai_a2vm_001us_claw_8_ai_a2vm.html
I like the way the xyab buttons glows.
Gives it a gamer flare. Wish the Legion Go had the same thing
Question on the battery life, did you test it? 8W is only the APU, it has 80WHr battery, to have 8:55 battery life, all other components other than the APU draw less than 2W? Like the screen, mobo, speakers, network, etc? ShortCircuit Linus said their lab had 17 hours with the lower TDP 200nit full resolution plex playback but that means their test results the package power draw less than 5W, what you said in this video is even more extreme, less than 2W. It’s very interesting to know coz INTEL and MSI might have work out some magic that all components, including screen consume less than 2W. Just this part, this MSI Claw 8 AI win every product on the market coz no matter which handheld, package draws minimum 7W-15W aside from the APU TDP.
Hi! What I did was play some lighter titles like Celeste and Dead Cells at the 8w manual setting and calculated how long the battery would last while playing those titles while looking at the total power draw.
Although the power draw fluctuated above 8w from time to time while playing, the average that I got pointed to the 8 hours and 55 minute number that I landed on.
I know it's not as in-depth as LTT, but it gave me an idea of what to expect using this handheld.
sorry for the confusion, I don’t mean to compare your channel with LTT. In fact, I don’t believe their result. So I am looking around to see if I could find some solid result. Coz these handheld battery life is simple math, if the TDP stays at 8W, and you can play 8:55, that means MSI and Intel really did some crazy magic that all other components consume less than 5W, then your result is really solid, which also means this MSI Claw 8 AI has done something that NONE of any other handheld could achieve at all.
Ally X is the closest competitor in terms of the battery life but even that can last no more than 7 hours with lowest TDP.
So I really would like to see an in-depth video on battery life. Btw, I like your review and subscribed. Hopefully you can do an in-depth review on this handheld soon 😄.
Ur not going to get much better than 2 hours playing triple a games at normal tdp. Even with a 80 watt hour battery.
@ it depends now. Coz package power has been one of the key battery life suckers in these handheld. APU TDP can be adjusted in all handhelds but not package power. E.g. steam deck has super optimized APU, with just 2W we can have some psp retro for around 4 hours-ish gameplay, because the package consumes 7W on top of it. Now if we have the MSI + Intel or just MSI magic on all the package components on the steam deck, which means 2W TDP + 2W package power, at total of 4W a 2.5 year old steam deck can last up to 10 hours retro gameplay, see the difference?
Also, a low package power will change everything coz I tested that 780M cannot really use FSR when it’s lower than 10W. So to help gameplay, graphics quality, and battery life balance, either I don’t use FSR with lower resolution at 8W and play at 30FPS or play at 10W but regardless, steam deck consumes 7W package power, Legion Go 12W, Aokzoe A1 Pro 13W, OneXPlayer X1 8840U 13W, is used on top of the TDP, and all these can last 2 hours max with 10W + 13W, total package of 23W. Ally X will double it to 4 but Ally X package power is also similar.
But if this MSI Claw 8 AI + package power draw is accurate, imagine having the same power draw on the devices mentioned above? 10W + 2W =12 W, with a normal 50WHr, that’s close to doubling the time without changing the underlying APU architecture.
@@baldlyrudy Buddy can you please test out older AAA games at 10-12W please and see how long the battery life lasts on low wattages.
I'm keen on handheld with great battery life over performance. Also make sure to test this device out against Rog Ally X and Steam Deck OLED thanks I'll be keenly waiting for your next video!
_being someone who has used everything that's available in the market rn, the opinion really matters_
It's amazing, but the price tag is a no for me
I get that. $899 is a lot.
There's a Claw 7 AI+ for $799
@@baldlyrudy And you only get nvme 2230 ssd which is limited to 2TB. Where as Rog Ally X is now cheaper at 699 for first hand and 2nd is bit cheaper on ebay. And Amazon etc and it uses standard laptop ssd which is another reason for me to pick up Rog Ally X and even recommended it to people over MSI Claw 8 AI!
I would love to see a handheld with the stick found on the Neo Geo Pocket Color. That thing was amazing for fighting games.
Huh, I heard many reviewers saying the D-pad improved so much it was a non-issue.
Release dates outside of North America?
17th
1200p is a bit much, thats why Xess and FSR are so necessary, tbh i would set the windows resolution to 900p and just forget it, in a screen so small its not noticable, and the performance and battery life would improve a lot, also try some framegen by FSR or Lossless Scalling
@@DesocupadoXtremo having a rog ally, I can definitely tell when I am in 900p. Not shocking difference, but it lose that crispy feeling, especially writings and menu and all. So I guess it will not get better on a bigger screen
Looks like they didn’t move the right stick placement from the original Claw(LeGo and original Ally have same issue). The Ally X is the only handheld I’ve used that has a better ergonomic layout that is much closer to feel of using an Xbox controller. Right analog shouldn’t be under the A button.
When deadzone is set to 0, is it at the point where there's drift like any other uncalibrated controller, or is there some minimum enforced deadzone? With my ally x I have the issue that they force you to use a pretty big deadzone even at 0%.
So glad you qualified your reasoning for the DPad being subpar with your experience with it in GGST. Far too often I’ll hear people praise dpads on handhelds and lo and behold the dpad is adequate for your typical menu selection or simple platformer but not even close to satisfactory for fighting games
They need to sell parts just in case if it breaks so people can maintain it for longer. I think it's downside alot handhelds trying to repair it you're self after things fail on you.
I bought a steam deck at launch thought it was great. I just bought a ally x on black Friday for $699 plus CA state tax cane out to 771. At the end of the day I would spend about $1000 on a mei claw if I decided to buy one for about 10-15 maybe even 20% in rare occasions for the extra roughly 220 I'll deck out my rog ally x and wait a couple of years for something to truly blow me away at 1080p ultra everything at 120 or 144hz oled or not. I'm enjoying the ally x as for right now. I can wait but look forward to 2026 or even 2027. My kids are going to have it great in their teen years. Anywho. Happy holidays everyone. Best wishes to all.
I preordered the Claw 8 AI and I am "patiently" waiting... The "Z2 Extreme" chip is considered to be essentially the same as the "Ryzen 7 8840U" processor. Both the Z2 Extreme and 8840U are expected to use the latest AMD architecture, likely "Zen 5" with "RDNA 3.5" graphics. The key difference is that the Z2 Extreme is specifically designed for handheld gaming devices, while the 8840U is intended for regular laptops.
The CLAW 8 AI Plus impressed me the more I play game on it. I'm also excited to see what the Z2 Extreme chip will be able to do in terms of performance. Regardless, it's an exciting time in the PC handheld space. I have a feeling 2025 is going to be nuts!
@@baldlyrudy Facts. Always appreciate your videos.
Thanks bro!
The z2e is the hx 370 not the 8840u the 8840u is the z1E
I own the GPD win mini 2024 which uses 8840u. All I can say is that, the 780m radeon GPU doesnt feel any difference compare to the my sold Steam Deck amd chip lol performance wise. (I never own Z1 extreme devices ) but to me its feels almost similar. But the game felt better after i remove windows and install Bazzite OS on the win mini 2024.
Can you drop the resolution to 1080p and see what performance you get?
The first Claw did not recognise L3 in call of duty. This is the sprint button. This Claw 8 is probably the same
Hello, just to confirm: Those GPU, GPU clock TDP, CPU and FPS information will be displayed on screen within every game or we can hide that info in some sort of settings? I'd be annoyed to be playing and get distracted by those 🤔
All the info that was on screen was an application called MSI Afterburner. If you don't have it installed, then you don't have to worry about it.
Alright, @@baldlyrudyvery enlightening information ❤thanks for the fast answer, enjoy ❤
@TheValter1987 thank you!
I honestly hope the Bazzite team or contributors can make the OS work on the Claw 8, if they do I'm sold because the device is pretty promising
I'll pass the message onto the devs.
Intel is really bad at Linux I don’t expect it to work
@@theo5675 Bazzite works on the OG Claw mostly, it's just a few bugs being ironed out that some contributors are working on, all of that potentially carries over to the Claw 8
it is worth upgrading to this from the Steam Deck oled?
Not if you want the console experience
Which handheld have adaptive triggers like ps5
None of them yet. I'm sure one will eventually do it, but the problem is the engineering. Having those types of triggers takes up a lot of space, AFAIK. They would add a lot of weight and size to the handheld.
@@baldlyrudy you're right, also the playstation portal has the adaptive triggers but it's not really a handheld
@@treasty the portal has adaptive triggers and is a handheld regardless of its shocking support, I believe you can do game streaming if you have the subscription to allow it but as for playing your own library away from the house I am still yet to get that working. It’s just a fancy paper weight currently. So unless they push a new firmware to address all the issues it’s pretty much just e waste with a very niche use.
Hello baldy Rudy, I have a question about these handhelds like the claw, steam deck, ally, ect…. As far as the controls go, what games are best played on a controller like these handhelds? I can’t get into first person shooters on these because the keyboard and mouse is the superior controls so I just wait till I get home to play on my pc. I feel like I can do top down real time strategies again best with a keyboard and mouse, it’s easy to move quickly around the map, zoom in, ect. I’m wondering what style games do you think play the best on these types of controls that are prebuilt into the sides of the claw, steam deck, ally, ect? I hope that question makes sense.
Hi there! Sounds like you'd want the Lenovo Legion Go.
Before the ROG Ally X and now the MSI Claw 8 AI Plus, it was the top performer. It has a built in vertical mouse. Check it out here. ua-cam.com/video/4C1Hitg2Nvk/v-deo.html
@ I really appreciate your taking the time to respond to my question. If you don’t mind a follow up for clarification. I don’t believe the legion go is a true replacement for the keyboard and mouse so I’m more interested in learning what style of games are best played on these handhelds where the controls are fixed to the sides. I used a first person shooter as an example of a style of game that would not be best played on these handhelds because the keyboard and mouse are more precise. Do you think maybe like side scrollers, racing, something like that is best played on these fixed control portable gaming devices? I’m trying to get an idea of what style games these were targeted towards as the preferred way to play above all else.
Ah! Understood. Yes. I would say that side scrollers are great. Also action adventure style games work too. Isometric games are great. RPGs are good too. Baldur's Gate 3 comes to mind for me, personally. Third person shooters are good. Think Uncharted or Tomb Raider. Offline shooters are good too like Metro, but I agree M&K are king when it comes to FPS games.
@ thank you!
@@peterstewart3806 you're welcome! I hope that helps.
I'm interested to see if they are bringing ai upscaling with Ryzen Z2. I also find it interesting that no one is going to market with a new apu like this except with a 7" 800p screen! Playing at native resolution always looks better and people are constantly dropping resolution for fps on these hand held devices. That steam deck screen gets lots of compliments at 800p...
It's going to be interesting to see what kind of results we get from Ryzen Z2E. And whether or not FSR is going to step up in terms of quality. Right now XeSS looks so dang good. Can't wait to see what AMD does with the Z2E.
Steam Deck also has OLED display, it helps a lot.
The steam deck screen is very low quality. I bought a legion go refurbished for 450 and that was a huge upgrade over my launch model steam deck 256 gb
@@ghostlegit launch model of the Steam Deck is not OLED, theres been upgrades now.
@@banoffecake yeah but even the oled screen is not as high quality as some of the other windows handheld competitors like the legion go and rog ally x.
Remember this product doesn’t officially release until mid January. I bet these few issues will be addressed before release.
Agreed! There were already improvements in the few weeks from the MSI event in Anaheim to when I got the review unit for the video. The future seems bright.
Its nice, but im definitely going to wait to see how it stacks up against the z2 extreme variants coming out next year
💯
A great detailed review. Appreciate the time and effort 😊
I can figure out when this thing is coming out they said dec 26th but that day came and went
The Ray Tracing performance is nuts!
Dude.... absolutely mind blowing!
I like your videos. You are honest and transparent in reviews.
Thanks! "Honesty is a currency".
Thank you so much for this amazing video! I have a quick question: I have a SafePal wallet with USDT, and I have the seed phrase. (alarm fetch churn bridge exercise tape speak race clerk couch crater letter). How can I transfer them to Binance?
its just a shame this was released now and not when the ally x was launched, as impressive as it is were about to get the next lot of handhelds which will trump this
Seems pretty good besides the dpad
It is. I'm just curious to see the Z2E performance from AMD. Then we'll see how the playing field is this year.
The 8 ai link doesnt work
Whoa! Best Buy took down the link. I found one for Amazon, but it's still showing as OOS.
I'm so undecided between this and the Rog Ally X right now, I want good performance and I absolutely love that bigger screen, but the price and the fact that newer and better handhelds might just be on the horizon, it makes it so hard to choose.
I know I wouldn't be saving a lot of money by getting an Ally X, but damn, here where I live this is most likely gonna be 1000 euros, so it's very hard :/ even with all the good reviews and that gorgeous screen
I would wait and see what the handhelds running Z2 Extreme chips are going to be priced at. But yeah, the CLAW 8 AI Plus has me impressed.
@baldlyrudy I will most definitely wait to see what gets announced at CES 2025, but knowing they'll probably only release later in the year is a bit sad, I thought about getting a cheaper Steam Deck just to play some games and later get something better
@@justphoenyx05 yup. I'll be there to see them in person, so I'm hoping to get some first hand experience there.
@@baldlyrudy I would definitely hope so, it would be great to have a look at them from a first hand experience
@justphoenyx05 most definitely! If I get a chance, I'll share some footage and thoughts.
For someone that almost exclusively plays GamePass games, which is preferable between Claw 8 AI+ and ROG Ally X?
I may or may not be working on a video about this exact thing.
Obviously the 8 inch screen is better but this price point hurts especially when ally x is like $200 cheaper
Very detailed video I’m getting if z2 doesn’t outperforms it.
I'm looking FWD for the Lenovo Legion Go 2
Love what I see from the claw this time around but 900$ and no OLED screen is a hard no from me
Meh I will stick to my legion go handheld. :)
I would choose this over AMD handhelds solely because of XeSS.
XeSS looks so much better than FSR.
Still waiting for the new Legion go 2 . Oled hdr is a must for me. Because im using GeForce now and PXPlay.
Price killed the spirit😂
Commenting from my oneXplayer x1. Best handheld
I heard that the handheld is too sharp around corners… also the triggers being off .. hmmm il wait.
Corners are fine, but the triggers feel weird.
Why not stalker 2?
Because I don't own it yet. 🫣
The first msi claw works great dont have any problems with it playing eft, delta force, lotr return to moria runs great have a few videos to show that
Im actually very excited for this device, i got a steam deck but i dont like how limited it is when it comes to compatibility i only got it because of how many people glazed it but the more i got into steam deck, the more i dislike it. This will be my first windows handheld gaming pc so im excited and hoping i wont have same experience as the steam deck
I'm very, very impressed with this handheld. The raytracing performance is mind-blowing to me.
You can run windows on the steam deck.
@@yaboynarcothis is doing about the same FPS in Cyberpunk than the Steam Deck..which is more or less half the price, with OLED.
I don’t see why guys are getting excited about this Claw.
@@richardsracingmadIt does much more fps in cp with steamdeck settings. Maybe same fps and much better visuals.
I want..
I would not buy because they don't have USB-C or HDMI that I could not connect to TV or PC Monitor (not common ways I mean). Also, I have a question whether this is really better than AMD ???
Lots of stuff you can do with AMD software that ain’t gonna exist here. If I were to get a next gen device I would still buy this one, but it’s like an iPhone you don’t have to upgrade every year. There is a lot of mileage left with current gen if you have the right stuff & it’s setup properly. All you gotta do is have something that can run AMD fluid motion frames 2.0 & maybe something with a little extra RAM & you just don’t need this. Yeah it’s powerful, but it’s excessive & unnecessary & kind of like a 2025 iPhone if you already own a 2024 iPhone. lool.
I rarely think about how much more powerful that newest iPhone is compared to my current iPhone if there is only a 1 or 2 gen difference. Yeah it’s packing horsepower under the hood, but the honest truth is I don’t actually need it.
it hurts on the dpad because u arent using it correctly. you arent supposed to SLIDE your thumb, doing it that way it will almost always hurt eventrually . you need to start practacting the "wiggle" method where u place ur thumb basically in the middle and u kinda wiggle it instead of sliding it. theres vids that can explain it better than me, but ya i use to do it like u when i was a kid i wish someone told me i was doing it wrong.
Hmmm... I'll definitely look into it. Whenever I play fighting games on my PC, I usually stick with the 8BitDo Ultimate Bluetooth Controller and I never experience any fatigue or pain.
@@baldlyrudy ya i can usually go for a bit doign the sliding method on a good controller but once i started watching pros play sf6 on a pad it was a game changer. but personally i just prefer a fight stick or a hitbox. i tihnk hitbox's are the most popular now as theres no directionals u need to worry about lol . but ya that d pad is a odd shape regardless, at that point id at least use a bluetooth controller on that thing cuz idk if i could use that dpad lol. good luck and good video!
@@BlankaCentral I’ve always use the cross d-pad that u see on the ps5 controller, steam deck oled and rog ally x. Can u further explain to me the wiggle method on the circle d-pad?? Send a link vid on here? Cuz I wanna get the MSI 8 AI and I wouldn’t want to have problem sliding on the d-pad and making a missed input inna fighting game cuz I play those a lot.
I need to upgrade my pc this year, my i7 11700 with a 3070ti is starting to feel the strain on my 1440p monitor. 😊
For that price I think I’m gonna hang onto the ally x I just think amd is better than intel time will tell but that’s my thoughts to get 4-5 more frames compared to a device that was released alittle over a year ago isn’t all that impressive especially with the z2 around the corner love that there’s competition though thanks for the great video
i feel AMD is better for gaming, i have an Asus Flow Z13 and a steam deck and ally, and i feel the hand helds play games better
900$ is alot. I'd wait for another price cut from msi, like their previous claw(50-55%) , and budget gaming laptops(20-30%). 😈
As long as we agree that we won't buy it for the time being.
there are entry level phones out there that have amoled screens. how come this one dont?
Because of $$$, newly released chips are expensive especially if they are 4nm. It will cut into their profit if they use pled unless they charge $1k just like the Chinese brands
Because handheld PCs and phones are not the same
I feel MSI is just playing catch up to Rog ally it’s barely any improvement im waiting for the z2E legion go oled I feel that would be a better option
Yeah the legion go 2 but Lenovo don't really care about graphics driver
Im tired of these companies using their customers as beta testers. Just release a product thats fully baked to justify that price
Longue periode of time 😅
No OLED, no buy.
@@banoffecake This
@@banoffecake
Agree
OLED is much worse for a handheld then VRR. The inconsistent frames stutter like crazy on the legion go. VRR just gives you a smooth experience. Once vrr oled comes out we will have the best screen possible
We lived decades without OLED, it just isn't a deal breaker yet bro
Ehh? Which oled small screen has vrr. Go ahead tell me. I truly want to know. Also black boxes around spiderman games? Why?
$1300 CAD, That's like $200 more than a 4070 ti super 💀💀💀
Yup. But you can't take a 4070ti super with you on the plane and play games on it. There are pros and cons for everything.
@@baldlyrudy yeah I get that. I just wasn't expecting it to be priced that high. Nice review 👍
@PhoenixKeebs thanks! And trust me.... We told MSI that the price would be a hard sell. I'm curious to see how Z2 Extreme chip handhelds will be priced.
MY LEGION GO ❤❤❤
Intel, 899, and they have pretty much stopped their support for the first device that isn’t ever a year old. Nah
@@Brandonhatesmayo they literally just released a new BIOS for original Claw less than 3 weeks ago, not to mention frequent graphics driver update from Intel. Pls stop spreading misinformation
@@ucle9955 people love to hate just to hate, for no reason
Thin bezels come on
Another handheld that is not coming to Turkey
@@mr.wrongtime5398 time to become a first world country
@mr.wrongtime5398 Come to the west bro! 🤣
You are not missing much by not being a beta tester. All those handheld are for early adopters. 2026/2027 will see a proper global rollout.
@@Langelmaki dude believe me im trying
@@satanspy banana republic
NO TRACKPAD WTF!!😠
Zotac Zone is where that's at.
@@baldlyrudy I personally think a handheld pc gaming device makes so much more sense with a trackpad.
@gamesplan2044 it definitely makes it easier to navigate through Windows. That is one of the perks with the Legion Go.
To answer the question :- no.
New PC handheld king until CES2025 in a couple of weeks
30:43
I agree!
Thought about the fact that you might say it somewhere in the video, still watching though 😅
@@JU0DAS lol! It's a longer video. Enjoy!
🫥🫥
Ily
Not a big enough performance leap to justify the price. The market has become flooded with those handhelds recently. They should learn from Nintendo and Valve and focus on optimizing their devices instead of releasing 2 different models every year. I'm gonna stick with my Steam Deck for now.
Oh yea, because people want the market to mimic the two devices capable of playing the least amount of games and in the case of the steam deck have annoying compatibility issues.
@@caldweabThe market already verified them as most successful devices. I'm playing most of the AAA games at ~30fps on my Steam Deck and they look great on OLED with HDR.
@@jacquescoustou It’s definitely a big enough performance leap over the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck can barely handle AAA games at low 1280x800p (1,024,000 pixels) This device can do it with higher FPS at 1920x1200* (2,304,000) with better settings. If you’re happy with a Steam Deck that’s great but don’t pretend you aren’t getting way better performance with this.
The handheld PC space has always been like this, since before Valve and the Steam Deck, just look at how many models companies like GPD, AYANEO and OneXPlayer released back then, all for around 1000$. The Steam Deck did drive prices down a lot when it was released but it seems the handheld PC market is slowly getting back to where it was before it came out.
Your right. I have the rog ally x for 3 days now. Not worth 750 dollars. They need to optimize them before releasing them. Rog ally x keep damn crashing on me. They need to let rog be steam/xbox/EA/emulator based not windows. The windows ruin the device. Imagine a Nintendo switch or steam deck with that Z1 extreme chip. Wow. I would quit PC gaming haha!
900 dollars.
Look like a cash grab. No it is a cash grab.
This might be the ugliest handheld I've ever seen.
You haven't seen many handhelds then
I just really don't think MSI make great products, laptops with extremely weak CPUs and poor IO etc, the claw just continues to unimpress me, using intel for an iGPU is a joke, they only just caught up with the market when the new AMD APUs are due. Competition is good however, and this is a step in the right direction but MSI need to do better
They shouldve offered trade in credit for their previous dud.
@30:50 false claim, the one x fly f1 pro has the crown in performance
True. Completely forgot about that.
No oled.. FAIL no hdr.. FAIL...
OLED isn't Jesus, just so you know