The gap between generations is not marginal. The Verge found frame rates roughly doubled in many games versus the original Claw, with post-launch driver updates pushing GPU performance up as much as 30 percent beyond launch-day results. In synthetic graphics benchmarks, Notebookcheck found the Claw 8 AI Plus outperformed its predecessor by 25 percent and edged past the ROG Ally X by roughly 10 percent. That combination of architectural gains and driver maturity explains why reviewers who dismissed the first Claw are now recommending the second.

Performance held up under sustained load. Gaming results remained completely stable across longer sessions and on battery power, with no meaningful throttling observed in Notebookcheck's testing. That consistency matters more in practice than peak benchmark numbers.

The "AI Plus" branding warrants a quick note. The AI Engine uses Intel's NPU to automatically configure the chip's power limit based on workload, settling at a 17W default for gaming, as The Verge explained. It is a sensible automation, not a transformative feature. The name should not factor into a buying decision.

Battery is where the Claw 8 AI Plus makes its clearest case against the competition but the story has a catch.

In demanding workloads, the device holds up well. Club386 recorded just under three hours of general gaming at the 17W default setting, with Cyberpunk 2077 specifically lasting 1 hour 40 minutes under those conditions. Notebookcheck logged just under 3.5 hours in Cyberpunk running in AI Engine mode. For lighter titles that drop to 8W, Club386 projected roughly five hours of playtime based on observed drain rates.

The catch arrives when workloads ease off. Even running a lightweight card game like Balatro, total system drain never fell below 11W, yielding around seven hours maximum at minimum brightness with wireless off, The Verge reported. Under the same conditions, the Steam Deck OLED reached nine hours and the ROG Ally X managed ten. The Claw 8 AI Plus leads on battery when the hardware is actually being pushed; rivals reclaim that ground when it isn't.

The 8-inch 1920x1200 IPS display is the most immediately obvious hardware advantage. Notebookcheck measured average brightness of 524 cd/m² with a contrast ratio above 1,500:1, full sRGB coverage, 120Hz refresh, and variable refresh rate support. The Verge called it more colorful and more spacious than the ROG Ally X's 7-inch panel, with noticeably smaller bezels. HotHardware named it the "star of the show" and flagged its native landscape orientation as a meaningful edge over devices like the Steam Deck and Legion Go, which use portrait panels rotated in software.

The controls are also a differentiator. The Claw 8 AI Plus ships with Hall Effect sticks and triggers, which are not susceptible to drift over time. The ROG Ally X does not include Hall Effect inputs, a distinction that Notebookcheck, HotHardware, and the Nsane Forums comparison all flagged as notable.

Connectivity is unusually complete. Dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, each supporting display output and power delivery, put the Claw 8 AI Plus in a different category from rivals that ship with a single USB-C or one Thunderbolt port, HotHardware noted last April. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 round out the wireless stack.

The size is worth stating plainly. At 1.75 pounds (795g) and nearly a foot wide, this is one of the largest and heaviest mainstream handhelds available roughly 200 grams heavier than the ROG Ally and Steam Deck OLED, per HotHardware. The bigger screen requires a bigger chassis. Buyers who prioritize portability or extended handheld sessions should factor that in directly.

Better hardware does not solve the friction problem. The Verge described Windows 11 on the Claw 8 AI Plus as cluttered with upsells and AI features, unreliable when waking from sleep, and poorly suited to controller-only navigation.

MSI has improved the setup experience considerably. First boot now takes roughly seven minutes rather than the 45-minute ordeal typical of Windows handheld setups, The Verge noted. That is a real improvement. But Intel graphics drivers still required a manual download, they did not appear in MSI Center's update tab, and the Game Bar widget was sluggish and unreliable until the power mode was switched from Balanced to Best Performance.

Because Microsoft has not built a console-style interface for handhelds, MSI constructed its own Center M overlay and Quick Settings panel as a workaround, Club386 noted last August. Notebookcheck found MSI's software works adequately but is occasionally laggy and falls short of Asus's equivalent stack in responsiveness and feature depth. The gap is structural, not something a firmware update will fix.

Buyers coming from a Steam Deck or console should expect to spend real time on driver maintenance, software configuration, and an OS that was not designed for thumb sticks. Not a dealbreaker, but it belongs in the price calculation.

At $899.99, the Claw 8 AI Plus sits $100 above the ROG Ally X's starting price. The original ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go can both be found for around $650, Club386 reported last August. Club386 concluded that a $100 discount would make the pricing defensible; at full price, it requires a clear preference for what this specific device offers. Notebookcheck viewed the $899.99 price as justified given the performance and features, while acknowledging it is far from a bargain.

The premium buys specific things: a larger, higher-quality display; dual Thunderbolt 4 versus single-port competitors; Hall Effect controls with better long-term drift resistance; Intel Lunar Lake's efficiency advantage in demanding workloads; and 32GB of on-package LPDDR5X RAM. Those are real hardware differences, and they will matter more to some buyers than others.

The competitive context has also shifted since the reviews above were published. The Microsoft-Asus Xbox Ally launched last October with a redesigned OS interface built specifically for handheld gaming. The Verge described it as capable of reshaping the Windows handheld market. Anyone evaluating the Claw 8 AI Plus now is buying into a category where the software problem it suffers from may already have a better answer from a direct competitor.

The hardware case for the Claw 8 AI Plus is strong. Intel-based handhelds, written off after the first Claw's failure, are now genuinely competitive. Whether that translates into a purchase depends on whether a larger screen, drift-resistant controls, and class-leading performance in demanding titles are worth $900 to you and whether the Windows experience, still unresolved, is something you can tolerate.