'Inspired by wind-sculpted desert rocks' and bestowed with Intel Lunar Lake, the new MSI Claw handhelds might actually be worth a look

If you find the concept of MSI's Claw alluring but aren't very impressed with its power and software, the new Claw 7 AI and Claw 8 AI might be worth a look, even with the annoying AI namedrop in there.

Officially announced today, the 7- and 8-inch handheld gaming PCs have upgraded batteries and, being Windows devices, come with Copilot+ integration. This explains the 'AI' part of the name, though it's not quite clear how Copilot will help the average handheld gamer. The larger of the two models is "inspired by wind-sculpted desert rocks" and it comes with a near khaki colour scheme.

Though the price and ability to buy the handheld have since disappeared, Videocardz reports the khaki-coloured 1 TB Ultra 7 258V model with 32 GB of RAM is selling for $899, and the black 512GB Ultra 7 258V model with 32 GB of RAM is selling for $799.

This places the cheaper model at the same price as the Asus ROG Ally X, which we reckon is currently the best handheld gaming PC. The original Amazon listing for the new Claw models is still live, though "temporarily out of stock".

It's worth noting that this is the first major handheld to ship with Intel's Lunar Lake, which has pretty great stats so far. In our Ultra 7 258V testing, which is the exact same CPU found in the handheld devices, we found it performed incredibly well, even managing mid-30 fps playing Cyberpunk 2077 on medium settings. That's pretty impressive performance, and it also delivers solid battery life for its size.

Even though AMD's Strix Point has a better integrated GPU on paper, we found the 258V held its own in preliminary tests. Of course, we'll have to get hands-on with the two Claw models to see if they deliver that performance long term, but early signs are positive.

On the new device's performance, MSI says "Running at 17W for longer battery life, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ & Claw 7 AI+ still outperform competitors, boasting a remarkable 113% higher peak FPS and an average 20% higher FPS under identical power conditions."

One of the bigger criticisms of MSI's Claw is its software, but this new line comes with a "brand-new, updated MSI Center M software, offering a more intuitive interface". This supposedly makes the device easier to navigate, which, alongside a great price point, is what makes the Steam Deck still a viable handheld choice years later.

Notably, the new Claw devices come with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and MSI pitches it as a "perfect Mini PC with Copilot+ capabilities". This may go some way to justifying the noticeably high price point. It can also play Android titles with its App Player software, which could mean cracking packs in the Pokemon TCG app or attacking others in Clash of Clans, all without having to grab your phone.

If you are interested in getting the device yourself, preorders are due to start rolling out at retailers now, though I haven't had much luck finding one so far.

As has seemingly always been the case for the MSI Claw, MSI is making a few interesting choices here and I'm looking forward to seeing how it performs in a real-life environment.