MSI to Launch Lunar Lake-Powered Claw 8 AI+ Gaming Handheld in 2025

The newly unveiled Claw 8 AI+ handheld won’t be launching this year, unfortunately. But at least MSI has plans to launch it in early 2025. This might be the one that can take on with the current premium gaming handhelds from ASUS, Zotac, and Antec.

Powered by the Core Ultra 200V CPU, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ handheld will be released next year

MSI showcased several new products at the IFA event 2024 held in Berlin. The products contained many gaming and productivity laptops but also had the newest gaming handheld. This is the Claw 8 AI+ gaming handheld console, which will feature newer hardware based on the newly launched Intel Lunar Lake mobile processors.

The Claw 8 handheld will take over the Claw 7 handheld powered by the Intel Core Ultra 100H Meteor Lake processor and will feature the Core Ultra 200V platform. Lunar Lake not only enhances the single and multi-core performance but also brings a dedicated NPU(Neural Processing Unit) for faster AI operations. The Core Ultra 200V brings the latest Xe2 Battlemage Graphics, which Intel claims to be the best iGPU in the mobile category at the moment.

While MSI is likely going to launch the Lunar Lake laptops this year, the Claw 8 won’t be seen on the shelves until 2025. However, it is expected to launch in Q1 and will be the first Windows 11-based handheld with an Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processor.

MSI at IFA 2024 said,

With the Claw 8 AI+, MSI is also presenting the first Windows 11 gaming handheld with the new Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processor and significantly increased AI performance at IFA 2024. Sales ae scheduled to start in early 2025….Buyers of the CLaw 8 AI+ will receive a free one-month trial of Xbox Game Pass.(via Videocardz)

The Claw 8 is not only better than the Claw 7 in its hardware but will also boast a bigger screen size and higher battery life. The connectivity, RAM, storage, and various aspects of the handheld will be improved, which will allow it to compete with the fastest gaming handhelds on the market. It’s not yet evident whether the MSI Claw 8 will outperform the ROG Ally X or Zotac Gaming ZONE but it will most likely go against these handhelds head-to-head.

The Claw 8 will feature an 8-inch 1200p display with VRR and will have a faster LPDDR5X 8533MHz RAM compared to the LPDDR5 6400MHz on the Claw 7. Furthermore, the battery life is increased from 53Wh to 80Wh, which is highly competitive and should allow users to play for several hours on a single charge. There will be 2x Thunderbolt 4 ports instead of 1 and for storage, users will be able to fit a regular M.2 2280 form factor SSD for increased storage capacity.