What simply occurred? MSI is now not completely utilizing Intel’s chips for its Claw sequence of PC gaming handhelds. The corporate has introduced a brand new model of the Claw 8, and it options an AMD Ryzen APU. The agency additionally revealed an up to date model of the Intel-powered Claw 8 AI+.
MSI confirmed off the Claw A8 BZ2EM at Computex 2025. Observe that the Ryzen Z2 Excessive it makes use of is totally different from the Ryzen Z2 Go discovered within the Legion Go S, which gives decrease efficiency than the Z1 Excessive.
Credit score: PCWorld
MSI’s first Ryzen-powered handheld packs an 8-inch, 1,200p (16:10) LCD display with a 120Hz refresh price, 100% sRGB protection, and 500 nits of typical brightness. MSI says there shall be “as much as 24GB” of DDR5x-8000 RAM, which is lower than the 32GB discovered within the Lunar Lake-powered MSI Claw 8 AI+.
The Claw A8 BZ2EM, which follows MSI’s pattern of utilizing catchy, memorable names, additionally has a single PCIe 4 x4 M.2 slot for storage, a fingerprint reader, a MicroSD card reader, and two USB Kind-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports. It comes with a 6-cell 80Wh battery and weighs 1.6 kilos.
The hand-held shall be accessible in each white and lime inexperienced colours. It helps Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
The Ryzen Z2 Excessive, which was listed as powering the upcoming Asus ROG Ally 2 in leaked specs earlier this month, is alleged to supply three Zen 5 and 5 Zen 5c cores and 16 threads, together with Radeon 890M graphics (16 RDNA 3.5 Compute Items).
MSI is not transferring away from Intel for its handhelds. The corporate is releasing an up to date model of the MSI Claw 8 AI+ known as the “Polar Tempest Version.” It comes with as much as an Intel Core Extremely 7 258V processor, a 2TB NVMe SSD, and Wi-Fi 7. The hand-held additionally has what the corporate calls a “glittering UV coating.”
MSI by no means revealed the costs for both gadget. The present Claw 8 AI+ goes for $1,000 within the US, so it is anticipated that the 2 new fashions shall be someplace round this determine.
The hand-held PC gaming market is a crowded one. Zotac is about to unveil the Zotac Zone 2 at Computex, which can run an all-new working system based mostly on Linux distro Manjaro.
