Daily Use Impressions

During the testing period, the MSI Claw 8 was my main handheld, and I didn't miss my other handhelds at all. The massive, bright, and vivid screen, coupled with superb low-power performance and a terrific level of comfort, made me forget about even my desktop PC.


Thanks to the large battery capacity, I was able to play indie games and locally stream AAA titles for hours upon hours without needing to reach for the charger. Being able to manually set the power was most welcome, and despite the shortcomings of MSI's Center M app, it worked decently enough. I even managed to play demanding AAA games on the device at playable frame rates and with high textures, without having to keep the handheld plugged into a charger all the time.

Sure, more options would be welcome, such as a power slider located in the Quick Settings menu, the ability to remap keys in Desktop control mode, or the ability to assign keyboard and mouse buttons as secondary functions to buttons in Gamepad control mode. Still, the overall software experience wasn't flat-out bad, only somewhat disappointing.

ASUS still has, hands down, the best software on the Windows handheld market, so it would be great if other brands finally take the software portion of the equation seriously and equip their handhelds with reliable software that's packed with features. I hope MSI will bring some of the aforementioned features in future Center M updates.

Despite its flawed and limited software, I find the MSI Claw 8 to be a terrific Windows PC handheld. It's got performance to spare and access to AI-based upscaling that puts older versions of FSR to shame image quality-wise, its screen is phenomenal, the device is super comfy, you've got long-lasting battery life, the controls feel great, and despite being a bit too large, you can use the two grip buttons instead of bumpers, which completely solves that issue.