This week, sales of the MSI Claw 8 AI+ portable set-top box based on the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor started. The author of the YouTube channel Dave2D shared his impressions and tests after a month of active use.
Judging by the blogger’s tests, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ is superior in performance to other portable consoles, including the ASUS ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go based on AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme. However, it should be borne in mind that this chip is almost two years old. Plus, the difference is not too big. For example, in Cyberpunk 2077, at low settings and at 1080p resolution, the new MSI Claw 8 AI+ produces 48 fps against 44-45 fps for competitors.
When upscaling is activated, the frame rate rises to 62 and 59 fps, respectively. In some games, like F1 2024, the difference is more significant and is about 15 fps. At the same time, the blogger notes that Intel XeSS technology works much better compared to AMD’s FSR, since the picture is obtained with fewer noticeable artifacts. But the problem is that XeSS now supports very few games — about 200 pieces from the Steam catalog.
In terms of battery life, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and ASUS ROG Ally X, which have the same 80Wh battery, show similar results. They are highly dependent on the task being performed and the game. For example, YouTube videos can be played for about 15 hours, while Hades can run for more than 8 hours. At the same time, in Cyberpunk 2077, the console from MSI lasted 2 hours 22 minutes, and from ASUS – 2 hours 3 minutes.
The blogger shared a few more of his own impressions:
- the MSI Claw 8 AI+ has a completely uncomfortable crosspiece;
- ergonomics of the console is better than that of ASUS ROG Ally X and other competitors, but worse than that of the Steam Deck;
- the sound from the speakers of the MSI Claw 8 AI+ is the best among all portables.
However, he notes that the price of $899 for MSI’s set-top box is very expensive. Therefore, he cannot recommend it now, despite all the advantages.
