MSI Claw A8 Handheld Goes Ryzen For The First Time, Rocks 24GB Of RAM

Have you read our review of the MSI Claw 8 AI+? If you haven't, please do! We were quite fond of the machine and had a lot of nice things to say about it, although one of our complaints was about the aesthetics; the odd beige color that MSI chose for the system's handgrips gave it a very unusual vibe. Well, MSI's fixing that with a new version that comes with a simple black-and-white scheme that we like better, but that's not the big news today.

Indeed, the big news today is that the rumors were right, and MSI is introducing a new model of its Claw handheld with an AMD Ryzen processor. Where the Claw 8 AI+ was in large part a sized-up version of the original 7-inch MSI Claw, the MSI Claw A8 (also known by its "BZ2EM" designation) is a fully new design with a fresh visual style and a brand-new Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor under the hood.


The Ryzen Z2 Extreme is an eight-core processor that we believe is based on AMD's Strix Point silicon. AMD hasn't been clear on this point yet, but leaks have indicated that it enables three of the chip's Zen 5 cores and five of its compact Zen 5C cores. It also clocks to 5GHz, at least on the standard cores, and it includes the full 16-CU RDNA 3.5 GPU. That should make it considerably faster in games than the Claw 8 AI+, although it's worth noting that the AMD version takes a hit to both memory speed and capacity with its 24GB of LPDDR5-8000.


Other specifications of the Claw A8 BZ2EM seem very similar to the Intel-powered system, including the 8" FHD+ screen that supports a 120Hz refresh rate, VRR, and a 500 nits peak brightness. Like the Claw 8 AI+, the Claw A* will use an M.2-2280 SSD connected over PCIe 4.0 x4 to the SoC, and it will include the same 80-Whr battery, too. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth each drop down a notch to 6E and 5.3 respectively, but few users will probably notice the difference.


Meanwhile, the new Claw 8 AI+ Polar Tempest edition upgrades the Claw 8 AI+ with a 2TB SSD and a sleek white design that apparently comes with a "glittering UV coating." MSI says it has redesigned the MSI Center application for these systems, although we found the utility to be perfectly acceptable in our testing. MSI hasn't confirmed pricing for either model, but the Claw A8 could end up close to the Claw 8 AI+ in cost, since AMD's new mobile silicon carries a premium—even with a few spec trade-offs.