Supporting Intel with its first handheld console, MSI couldn't miss the Lunar Lake generation, but the timetable is faster than expected.
Just over a year ago, MSI was the first to integrate an Intel chip into its handheld console. The Claw "1" thus stood out from all the other machines on the market, which were then running on AMD. The success of the Claw "1" may not have lived up to the expectations of both MSI and Intel, due to its somewhat lacklustre performance, despite the progress made in recent months, both in graphics drivers and in the machine's BIOS. The Claw 1 isn't a bad console, far from it, but it's still a notch behind the best.
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Far from being discouraged, MSI now intends to take advantage of Intel's new Lunar Lake range. These chips, originally designed for laptops, could indeed change the game on portable consoles, thanks to their powerful graphics circuitry and excellent power management. While rumors were pointing to an announcement at CES 2025 in Las Vegas (January 7 to 10), MSI has even "gone ahead": the Claw's replacement will arrive in December... well, THE Claw's replacements, since this time MSI is launching two machines at the same time.
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Rumors have been circulating for several months now: MSI is preparing the release of the Claw 8 AI+, designed around a new chassis and featuring Intel's Lunar Lake processor, the Core Ultra 7 258V with its 4 Lion Cove cores and 4 Skymont cores. It also features a Battlemage graphics solution with 8 Xe2 cores. To round things off, MSI offers a choice of 16 or 32 GB LPDDR5X-8533 memory and 512 GB or 1 TB SSD. The display panel is clearly improving, even if OLED doesn't seem to be on the menu: we're talking about an 8-inch diagonal screen with 120 Hz refresh rate and 500 nits maximum brightness. Last but not least, MSI has included a long-life 80 Wh battery to keep all these little people going.
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The surprise comes rather from the leaks surrounding another console, christened Claw 7 AI+. This takes the Core Ultra 7 258V puse from the Claw 8 AI+, but integrates it into the previous-generation chassis, no doubt to cut costs. This does not prevent it from offering up to 32 GB of LPDDR5X-8533 and a 120 Hz panel with a maximum brightness of 500 nits. On the other hand, MSI wasn't able to keep all the elements of the Claw 8 AI+ and this Claw 7 AI+ has to make do with a 512 GB SSD as well as a 7-inch diagonal screen and, perhaps most embarrassingly, a "mere" 53 Wh battery. We await confirmation from MSI, but this would reduce the cost of the console to $799 when the Claw 8 AI+ comes in at $899. Two fine machines in prospect, if Intel's efforts have borne fruit.
