The highly anticipated MSI Claw 8 AI+ gaming handheld could finally get an official full announcement in just a few weeks, as a new leak suggests the Intel-powered device will be debuted at the CES 2025 trade show in January 2025.
MSI‘s best handheld gaming PC contender and direct Steam Deck rival originally broke cover at the Computex trade show in June 2024. It was then shown off in a little more detail at the IFA show in Berlin in September 2024, where I got to experience it and write our MSI Claw 8 AI+ preview, so its arrival has been a long time coming.
The rumor comes directly from CES, as it has featured the device in its innovation awards ahead of the show. You can find the listing here, with it showing that CES has recognized the device as an “honoree” for the 2025 show. The blurb on the site points out that the device “is the world’s first and only handheld to feature Intel’s new Lunar Lake CPU with 2nd Gen ARC graphics.”
The site goes on to list some features of the product that were already known, but also lists some other aspects that haven’t been shown in detail. For instance, it points out the “newer and larger 8” screen” and that it will run Windows 11 but also then lists the device as having “48 TOPS of compute power,” though this refers to the AI processing ability of the device rather than its graphics power. Notably, it lists the battery capacity as 82WHr, which the blurb says is enough to provide “4+ hours of gameplay for AAA titles.”
The original MSI Claw is an interesting alternative to the likes of the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go as it uses an Intel CPU, instead of the AMD chips used on those devices and the Steam Deck. This different approach had the potential to make a device with more power and battery life than alternatives, had Intel’s CPU delivered meaningfully more graphics grunt or lower power consumption. However, ultimately, it failed to really deliver on either front.
The Intel Lunar Lake chip in the MSI Claw 8 AI+ (why couldn’t MSI skip the AI hype nonsense and just call it the MSI Claw 2?), though, is expected to offer a big leap in graphics capability and could improve battery life too. Along with these improvements, the slightly large 8-inch screen provides a visual boost over smaller 7-inch screen devices, while the styling, build quality, and ergonomics of the new device all improve on its predecessor.
Ultimately, the proof of the Claw 8 AI+ will be in how its chip performs and how its silicon compares to the second-generation AMD handheld CPUs expected to power the Asus ROG Ally 2, Lenovo Legion Go 2, and possibly even the Steam Deck 2. Based on this leak, we’ll hopefully get more of a chance to find out in early January 2025.