Seriously: do not buy the original MSI Claw.
Share this story
See our ethics statement.
If you’re still under the impression that an original MSI Claw might be a worthy purchase, I beg you to reconsider. MSI has now announced not one but two successors to the embarrassing handheld that are coming this fall — and hinting it might show off yet another one at CES in January.
MSI already revealed an eight-inch Lunar Lake version dubbed the MSI Claw 8 AI Plus at Computex this week, but the company will put Intel’s Lunar Lake into a new seven-inch version at the same time. MSI Claw product management director Clifford Chun revealed the existence of that handheld in an interview with PCWorld and explained that both devices should arrive with the launch of Intel’s more efficient Lunar Lake chips this fall.
Lunar Lake not only has up to 50 percent more GPU performance than the current Meteor Lake — it requires substantially less power for the same performance. One early demo showed it drawing 10 fewer watts, which could translate to a notable increase in battery life. Plus, the Claw 8 can fit a far larger battery pack at 80 watt-hours vs. the 53-watt-hour pack of the original.
Every Claw 8 in the US will come with that 80-watt-hour pack, says Chun, though he says it’s optional elsewhere.
Both the new Claw 8 and Claw 7 will have revised bumpers, more responsive versions of their drift-resistant Hall effect joysticks, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and an easier-to-replace SSD, says Chun — still the small M.2 2230 type, but they’ve been moved out from under the fan. Chun says they’ll ship with better Intel drivers this time around. Chun did not clarify whether the new seven-incher will have the larger 80Wh battery as well.
Both will cost a similar amount to the current MSI Claw, says Chun, so expect them around $700–800.
MSI is completely committed to handheld gaming PCs, says Chun. “We’re already planning Claw 2, Claw 3, Claw 4. We have a long two-year roadmap down already. We’ll continue pushing new form factors, new ideas, maybe even new CPUs.”
But not necessarily AMD: “We’re not aiming to go to AMD yet, but you know, maybe in Claw 3, Claw 4?” He hints that future handhelds are likely to be a similar size or larger: it tried five-inch and 10-inch handhelds but found them too small and too heavy respectively, though a 6-inch is possible. “Six-inch, seven-inch — you can’t really tell the difference,” he told PCWorld.
Weirdly, Chun suggests the poor showing of the original Claw came as a surprise. “We thought the seven was perfect at launch,” he says, talking about how it was a surprisingly “steep learning curve.” But he says MSI is listening and wants to rapidly fix things.
“We really believe in handheld devices. Keep coming, keep letting us know, we listen, and we’ll improve.” That’s not much comfort to the original buyers who picked up a Claw mere months ago, but maybe it’ll mean good competition in the future.
