MSI Claw A8 FULL REVIEW ｜ ROG Ally Who？？？

Hey, I've got some good news. The MSI Claw A8 has finally made its way to North America, and in this review, I'm gonna share what this gaming handheld does really well, where it falls short, and how it compares to two other very popular gaming handhelds, its sibling, the MSI Claw 8 AI+, and the ROG Xbox Ally X. So let's start with one of the biggest questions that you probably have. How does the MSI Claw A8 compare to last year's MSI Claw 8 AI+. Confusing naming aside, the design here gets some really nice refinement. While the CLAW A8 sticks to that same 8-inch 1920x1200 IPS 120Hz display, the chassis has more aggressive styling that's less rounded overall, and also has a slightly deeper grip on the back, which helps distribute the weight a lot better for those longer gaming sessions. Right now, it looks like the North American market is only going to get the white Polar Tempest color to start with. But a very good source has told me that we could see the neon green color, which I'm really excited for, arrive in a few months. But besides those little design upgrades, the most fundamental difference is actually going to be on the inside with the processor. The Claw A8 is powered by the newer AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme, which is the same chip powering other popular handhelds like the Lenovo Legion Go 2 and the ROG Xbox Ally X, making it the better choice for those who prefer more mature driver support, which are better optimized for certain games like Cyberpunk 2077 and even Forza Horizon 5. In contrast, last year's 8 AI Plus utilizes Intel's Lunar Lake chip, which has the edge with lower power efficiency and better performance in games which support Intel XeSS upscaling like Tomb Raider. Beyond their chips though, there are a few other hardware trade-offs to consider. Last year's CLAW 8 AI Plus boasts a beefier 32GB of RAM, whereas the A8 scales things back to 24GB of RAM. Where the new CLAW A8 wins, though, is on its storage flexibility with native support for full-size M.2 2280 SSDs, which are often more affordable if you wanted to upgrade down the line, while the CLAW 8 AI Plus sticks to the smaller 2230 form factor. Something else worth considering is their support for other operating systems. Both of these devices support Windows 11 out of the box, and while it may be better with the new Xbox Fullscreen experience for getting into your games faster and having less background bloat, you still might prefer the leaner Steam OS or other Linux OSes like Bazzite, which are currently only supported on AMD hardware, which is found on the CLAW A8. Things get a little bit more interesting It'll be interesting if you're deciding between the MSI Claw A8 and the ROG Xbox Ally X. You're looking at two devices with nearly identical performance DNA. Both are rocking the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme, a massive 80-watt-hour battery for long-haul gaming, and so performance and efficiency between these two are going to be about on par. But where you might be swayed one way or another is with their designs. With the CLAW A8, you have that significantly more immersive 8-inch 1200p display, which makes a world of difference for readability. And immersion for your games, and I think it's the best combination for size and portability in a handheld. While the ROG Xbox Ally X has a smaller seven inch display, it doubles down on its ergonomics with its more Xbox like controller grips, which if I'm being honest, I definitely was a hater at first and thought they looked very awkward. But since actually getting to play my games on them, I think this is the most comfortable gaming handheld I have ever tested. And while maybe minor, I think it's also worth considering the whole Xbox factor that you get here. Thanks to the official Xbox branding, the Ally X may have a slight edge in polish, driver stability, and feeling like a true console hybrid thanks to its close partnership with Microsoft. So with those comparisons in mind, let's take a quick look at the gaming performance, which you can expect with the CLAW A8 on its highest 35 watt power mode at native display resolution. The lower 24 gigabytes of RAM on the CLAW A8 versus the 32 gigabytes on the CLAW 8 AI Plus might seem worrying at first, but in reality, The extra RAM is probably going to be more beneficial if you're doing lots of multitasking rather than playing just one game. So in Forza Horizon 5, which I've been playing a lot recently, on its lowest preset I'm usually getting between 90 to 100 frames per second and sometimes well into the 110s in the less dense areas of the map. And even during races with more car models rendered, driving around always felt very fluid and I never noticed any frame drops. Doom the Dark Ages is one of the more demanding games I play, and on its low preset with ray tracing, performance was sitting in the low to mid 40s, which I'd say is still pretty decent on a handheld. That said, this is a game where you may actually prefer to lower the display resolution to 720p in order to get closer to the 50s and 60s for that faster paced action. For Cyberpunk 2077, while this has been out for a few years now, it still looks gorgeous and is now very well optimized for handhelds. And no matter where I was running or driving around, I was getting anywhere between 40 to 45 frames per second using its Steam Deck graphics settings preset. Personally, I actually prefer the extra fidelity from the higher resolution of the display over getting extra frames by dropping things down, but if you really want to get closer to 60 frames per second, that is an option. And all that to say, gaming performance on the CLAW A8 is excellent and on par with the ROG Xbox Ally X, Lenovo Legion Go 2, and in some titles, even better than the CLAW 8 AI Plus. One of my biggest complaints which I have shared a ton in my previous gaming handheld reviews has always been Windows 11. It's still not great on smaller touch screens, but thanks to the relatively new Xbox full screen experience, you really don't have to deal with it as much. You now have the choice to boot directly into this full screen Xbox app with your games, Xbox store, and even other stores like Steam, Epic Games, GOG, and Ubisoft Connect all quickly available. Besides getting you into your games faster, another really big advantage is that many unnecessary Windows services are no longer running in the background, which could have otherwise been hogging up precious system resources and draining your battery life. For the most part, unless I actually need to access my Windows apps like Chrome, I barely even touch the Windows desktop anymore, and I'm really thankful that that's an option. But here's where things get really awkward. Pricing. The MSI CLAW A8 costs $1149, which is $50 more than the CLAW 8 AI+, and $150 more than the ASUS ROG Ally X. I mean, honestly, I think all of these new handhelds are extremely expensive and it puts them in the same territory where you could get a gaming laptop with vastly more power for the same price or even less. Of course, portability is the real selling point with handhelds, but it comes with a big trade-off Off to performance. I mean, I really miss the days of the original ASUS ROG Ally with the Z1 Extreme chip costing $699 for its top of the line model. It might be almost three years old now, but its performance is still pretty much on par with the newer handhelds running the AMD Z2 Extreme chip. In fairness, RAM shortages and tariffs are largely to blame for these price hikes, but I'm curious to know how you guys feel about $1,000 handhelds becoming the norm. If we can take a step back, though, I got to say the release of the MSI CLAW A8 came as a bit of a surprise to me at first and has me genuinely curious if MSI will be all in with AMD going forward or if they'll be partnering with Intel again for an update to the CLAW 8 AI+. Early tests have shown that Intel Panther Lake can offer really impressive upscaling and gaming performance rivaling mid-range laptop GPUs while still being very power efficient. Intel has confirmed that a special handheld version of the chip is coming and if it scales down well, this could be the big performance bump that I and a lot of you are patiently waiting for. So for anyone who really liked the 8-inch display and form factor with the MSI CLAW 8 AI+, but wish there was an AMD variant, the wait is over. Let me know what you think of MSI offering both an AMD and Intel handheld and if you'd be picking up the new Claw A8 or sticking with last last year's Claw 8 AI Plus. Be sure to stay subscribed for more gaming handheld content, follow me to see what other cool tech I'm reviewing, and until the next one, I'll catch you later.