Design and Build Quality

The MSI Claw 8 doesn't follow an aggressive design characterized by sharp angles, as found on the ASUS ROG Ally or the Claw 8's AMD Z2E-powered successor, the Claw A8. Instead, the handheld embraces gentle curves that fit impeccably into most hands.


As you can see, the grips are pretty thick and wide, resulting in a surprisingly high level of comfort.


The plastic used is of high quality, and the two gray plastic panels sit flush with the rest of the body. While the grips aren't textured, they're still very grippy when held, justifying the handheld's "Grip and Game" slogan. The only thing we don't like is the color of the two panels that cover the face buttons and thumbsticks, but that's an entirely subjective pet peeve.


We very much like what MSI did with the bezels. While the two side bezels, along with the top one, are quite thin, the bottom bezel is a chonker. That's actually an outstanding design choice because, due to the massive 8-inch screen, you'll rarely notice the bottom bezels when gaming, thus making it look like the screen is taking up almost the entirety of the front side. A tiny detail that goes a long way in improving immersion.


On the flip side, we don't like that there isn't even a single trackpad, which is a shame considering the price of the Claw, and the fact that there's a lot of free real estate under the D-pad and the right thumbstick. That said, the super-accurate hall effect thumbsticks are great at emulating mouse movement in desktop control mode.


Another minor pet peeve is that both Thunderbolt 4 ports are located at the top of the device. We'd prefer if one of the two were placed at the bottom. Also, while we won't complain about dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, a single 80 Gbps Thunderbolt 5 port would've been nice to see, considering the price point. 64 Gbit/s of bidirectional bandwidth would do wonders for eGPU performance.


While the Claw 8 doesn't look that much larger next to an ASUS ROG Ally X, the size difference is more noticeable in person. The two devices have about the same thickness and width, with the MSI handheld being noticeably longer.


Compared to a Steam Deck LCD, the Claw 8 looks relatively compact, which is only amplified due to the Claw's massive screen and thin bezels. Even though it has a smaller screen, the Deck is much wider than the Claw 8, but the Claw is taller.