MSI Claw 8 AI+ vs ROG Ally X: Lunar Lake APU reportedly allows MSI to close gap in both performance and battery life

In our review of the OG MSI Claw handheld gaming console, we concluded that MSI’s first-gen Claw was “not worthy of our recommendation”. A major part of this conclusion was the Meteor Lake Core Ultra 7 155H. The APU was not only underpowered vs the Ryzen Z1 Extreme of the Rog Ally but was also inefficient.

Fast forward seven months and we now have our first third-party look at the improvements that MSI has been able to make with the second-gen MSI Claw 8. Called the "Claw 8 AI+", MSI’s handheld console runs the Core Ultra 7 258V, the latest Lunar Lake APU from Intel with a next-gen Xe2 Arc 140V iGPU. Per Dave2D’s testing, the Lunar Lake chip allows the MSI Claw 8 AI+ to finally stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Asus ROG Ally X in both performance and battery life.

Starting with the gaming test at 17 W and the resolution/graphics set to 1080p/low, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ matches or outperforms the Asus ROG Ally X and the Lenovo Legion Go in titles like Ghost of Tsushima (33 FPS) and Black Myth: Wukong (23 FPS). The Claw 8 AI+ pulls ahead of the ROG Ally X in Cyberpunk 2077 by 9% (48 vs 44FPS), by 19.5% in Red Dead Redemption 2 (49 vs 41 FPS), and by a massive 46% in F1 23 (51 vs 35 FPS).

Moreover, enabling FSR/XeSS cleans up the low frame rates in heavy titles like Black Myth: Wukong with the Claw 8 AI+ now reaching 51 FPS. Cyberpunk 2077 also jumps to 60 FPS with image reconstruction enabled.

At 30 W with the same resolution, graphics, and FSR/XeSS, all three handheld consoles see some marginal performance gains. For instance, the Claw 8 AI+, ROG Ally X, and the Legion Go now run Black Myth: Wukong at around 60 FPS. The Claw 8 AI+ also outperforms the other two competitors in Ghost of Tsushima and Baldur’s Gate 3 by a small margin.

When it comes to battery life, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and the ROG Ally X trade blows. Both consoles feature a large 80 Wh battery and, as such, can last a long time when under little load. For instance, the Claw 8 AI+ and the ROG Ally X last 14 hours and 29 minutes and 15 hours and 17 minutes when playing a YouTube stream, respectively.

Additionally, the Claw 8 AI+ shows that it can not only hang with but also outlast the ROG Ally X in gaming. While playing Cyberpunk 2077, the Claw 8 AI+ lasts 19 minutes longer. The ROG Ally X, on the other hand, takes the lead in Street Fighter 6.

All in all, MSI has managed to close the gap that once existed between the company’s portable console and the Asus ROG Ally. However, the Claw 8 AI+ is considerably more expensive which, perhaps, is the handheld gamer's Achilles heel at the moment.

While the MSI Claw 8 AI+ packs a big 8-inch IPS display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 32 GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory, the $899 asking price is a pretty penny when we consider the competition. At the time of writing, you can get the Lenovo Legion Go with 16 GB of RAM and a 144 Hz display for just $549.99 on Amazon. The ROG Ally with the Ryzen Z1 Extreme and 2 TB of storage only costs $749.99, whereas the ROG Ally X can be yours with 24 GB of RAM for $799.

So, until MSI brings the price down, which will happen at some point, the Claw 8 AI+ is a pretty hard recommendation even if the console is impressively powerful.