I referred to as the MSI Claw a humiliation, so think about my shock: its successor is the most effective Home windows handheld but

I wrote that nobody can buy MSI and Intel’s unique handheld gaming PC. I actually referred to as it a humiliation, and the corporate blacklisted me after that. MSI stopped pitching me information, and stopped answering my emails, even after the corporate started to put in writing off its dud of a handheld.

So you possibly can think about my shock to search out: MSI and Intel have gone from worst to almost first. In lots of video games, it’s twice as quick as the unique Claw. And with new drivers that bump its efficiency as much as 30 % increased since launch — I examined — the newer $1,000 MSI Claw 8 AI Plus would possibly simply be the most effective Home windows handheld you should purchase.

The Claw 8 has change into a fixture in my life as I carve and puzzle via the hauntingly stunning painted worlds of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Blue Prince, respectively. I’ve quite a lot of different handheld overview models floating round, however I hardly ever need to attain for a unique one.

Sure, it runs Home windows, and should you’ve learn any of my handheld critiques you’ll know the way I really feel about that. Home windows 11 has change into a bloated mess stuffed with annoying upsells and undesirable AI cruft, is annoying to navigate by controller alone, and sometimes wakes up poorly from sleep. I can’t rely the variety of occasions I’ve sworn at Home windows handhelds for popping awake in the midst of the night time, or spontaneously deciding it was time to show their remaining battery life into sizzling exhaust in the midst of my sealed backpack.

However the MSI Claw 8, with Intel’s Lunar Lake, isn’t as dangerous because the Home windows norm. Once you mix that with the newly improved efficiency, the longest battery lifetime of any handheld in all however essentially the most light-weight video games, and a very good 8-inch display screen, it’s sufficient to knock the Asus ROG Ally X off its excessive perch — at the very least till the Xbox model arrives this October.

The MSI Claw 8 AI Plus is the largest mainstream handheld, at almost a foot lengthy, 5 inches tall, and an inch thick, and it’s the one current-gen handheld with an Intel chip. Final 12 months, each measurement and Intel pedigree had been liabilities — however fortunately each handheld maker is paying extra consideration to ergonomics this 12 months, and Intel’s Lunar Lake is an enormous enchancment.

Scalloped grips and balanced weight distribution make the Claw comfy for me to carry, it now not seems to be like a ROG Ally knockoff, and whereas it isn’t gentle at 1.75 kilos (795g), that’s solely a quarter-pound heavier than the Ally X. That’s regardless of the Claw having an additional inch of diagonal display screen actual property and the identical 80 watt-hour battery capability as Asus.

I actually discovered it powerful to return to taking part in Expedition 33 on the Asus ROG Ally X after utilizing the Claw 8, partially as a result of its display screen is extra colourful and extra spacious (with a much smaller bezel), and partially as a result of the sport ran smoother. (I beat the sport, together with your complete Infinite Tower and 4 of the sport’s hardest boss fights, on the Claw 8.)

However earlier than all that, I needed to tangle with Home windows 11 — and was stunned how little detangling was wanted.

The primary time I fired up the MSI Claw 8 AI Plus, I couldn’t consider how briskly Home windows setup had change into. As an alternative of the standard 45 minutes of annoying upsells and necessary updates, I used to be capable of get to the Home windows desktop simply seven minutes after I pressed the facility button.

That’s nonetheless slower than establishing a SteamOS handheld, however quick sufficient I assumed there have to be some mistake! (Did this actually get previous Microsoft certification?) One other curiosity: Once I hit the button that pulls up the Claw’s fast settings menu to regulate brightness, quantity, and my processor’s TDP (giving it extra wattage/gasoline), it launched a brand new widget within the Xbox Recreation Bar with these useful controls as a substitute of a devoted MSI course of! Did any individual unintentionally slip me a preview of Microsoft’s “better of Xbox and Home windows collectively” that’ll ship on the Xbox Ally later this 12 months?

However I received’t lie and say the Home windows expertise was flawless after that. MSI’s Recreation Bar widget turned out to be extremely sluggish and unreliable out of the field. It acquired higher after I modified the Home windows energy mode from “Balanced” to “Finest Efficiency,” however it nonetheless isn’t almost as quick as Asus’ Armory Crate, which has gotten extraordinarily responsive because the Ally first launched, or as dependable as SteamOS, which doesn’t require a separate utility in any respect.

And no, I can by no means, ever belief the Claw 8’s energy button to maintain it asleep. I at all times need to explicitly put the system into hibernation mode as a substitute, which is fortunately the primary choice in that Recreation Bar widget. (Microsoft actually must get out of its personal method and let producers set the facility button to hibernate as a substitute of Trendy Standby.)

It’s additionally a bit irritating to return to a world the place I’ve to manually obtain the most recent Intel graphics drivers as a result of they by no means confirmed up in MSI Middle’s updates tab. However as soon as I put in these new graphics drivers and realized to keep away from the facility button, I used to be rewarded with a few of the highest efficiency and the most effective battery life I’ve seen from a handheld but. It’s simply higher on the complete turbo mode factor, with increased body charges and better TDP choices than the Ally X with Home windows, and it’s extra power-efficient than the SteamOS Lenovo Legion Go S, even when Lenovo’s Steam handheld acquired increased body charges in half my benchmarks.

We’re not speaking a few step change in efficiency right here: this pricy $1,000 handheld nonetheless doesn’t have close to the body fee of a equally priced gaming laptop computer. It’s simply sufficient further energy to make video games really feel clean on this handheld that had been borderline uneven on its friends, like Expedition 33 (even then, these handhelds want AI upscaling to get there).

However I didn’t need to sacrifice battery life to get that further energy. I usually even push the Claw 8’s chip to 30 watts, an influence mode that the Asus ROG Ally X doesn’t supply except plugged in, for an additional body fee benefit — whereas getting roughly the identical battery life because the Ally X will get at its 25W unplugged most.

And although the Steam Deck has lengthy reigned because the effectivity champ, I discovered the Claw 8 may even beat the Steam Deck on each efficiency and energy use when set to the identical 15-watt TDP, usually draining its battery 2 and even 3 watts slower. Once you mix that with its huge 80-watt-hour pack, it handily beat rivals in my Grime Rally drain take a look at, lasting almost 19 minutes longer than the Asus ROG Ally X with Bazzite, 28 minutes longer than the Steam Deck OLED, and 80 minutes longer than the Legion Go S with SteamOS and AMD’s Z1 Excessive chip.

Under, you possibly can see how battery life would possibly evaluate at every efficiency tier. For instance: the Claw 8 and Legion Go S with SteamOS each supply the identical 66 frames per second once you supply their chips 15 watts of electrical energy, however you’ll most likely get 3.9 hours of battery from the Claw versus 2.3 hours from the Legion. That’s as a result of MSI’s Intel chip is drawing much less energy from a bigger battery.

All this stated, you continue to can’t ease off the gasoline fairly like with AMD chips, at the very least not out of the field. Formally, the Intel Core Extremely 7 258V is a 17W–37W chip, and whereas MSI enables you to set the chip’s TDP as little as 8 watts, I nonetheless noticed the Claw empty my battery at a fee of at the very least 11W in Balatro, the magic poker sport I take advantage of as my best-case-scenario take a look at. Meaning at minimal display screen brightness, with wi-fi off, I’m getting round seven hours max — whereas the Steam Deck OLED can get 9 hours and the Asus ROG Ally X can handle 10 in such light-weight video games.

I’ve some quibbles with the Claw’s {hardware}. Although the audio system are above common, the rumble is annoying and weak. Corridor impact joysticks and devoted gyro modes are good, however aiming felt sloppy out of the field, like MSI didn’t hassle tuning both to a console controller normal, and I nonetheless haven’t fairly nailed it with tweaks in both particular person sport settings or MSI Middle. It’s additionally not the quickest handheld to cost or obtain video games, regardless of its two Thunderbolt 4 ports and Wi-Fi 7, although not gradual both.

However the actual hurdles for the Claw 8 are that $1,000 value — and that MSI would possibly solely have yet another complete month atop the Home windows heap. Microsoft and Asus’ Xbox Ally is coming October sixteenth, with a revamped OS, and it might reshape the entire handheld market.

Images by Sean Hollister / The Verge