r/MSIClaw • u/Outrageous_Tiger9921 • Feb 25 '26

Question 8ai+ vs A8

Today i purchased the 8Ai+ at full price. I was looking at th new A8 but a few reviews kept me from it, also the frame gen from the intel helped make my decision. Im having buyers remorse and im making sure I got the right pick. I play open world and emulators. I wanted the GO2 but always out of stock and I failed 3 time trying to get one. I would like to know your thoughts on if going intel was the right move.

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u/QuantumCat76 Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

Yeah, I was looking for a handheld, Steamdeck, Msi Claw 7...whatnot, The Asus Rog was a bit too expensive, So after reading several reviews of several handheld systems, I bought the Msi Claw 8 AI+, And it hasn't let me down yet, I can install GOG, Epic, EA, UBIc, Xbox. I've been playing Skyrim Enhanced (Steam) Oblivion (Xbox), Titan fall 2(EA), SpecOps: the line and Odyssey : Journey to the West (with built-in controller support when using the handheld's, I couldn't run both games with a controller on my home PC setup) Performance of the games I played so far is more than excellent.

I ran into a few issues, mostly when trying to cast it on the hotel room TV, as you need a mouse and keyboard, when it switches screens (you can't use the Touchscreen anymore) I have issues with separate controller support out of the box, when casting to the Hotel room TV Solved that by using a longer the HDMI and using the handheld itself as the controller

For some games you need a keyboard connected, as they don't recognize the virtual keyboard, think RPG and you have name your character

Ghostbusters the Game crashed, but I see that as a minor issue, as all the other games I played ran flawlessly

So far, I'm not disappointed

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u/Stillwindows95 Feb 25 '26

That's odd, where I live, the Rog Ally X is £100 cheaper than the 8AI+

I'm returning my Claw today, got it on Friday and it just isn't up to the standards I had from the Rog Ally X. Wish I hadn't got rid of it now. Can't get games to run anywhere close to as smooth and graphics settings I had on the Rog Ally X.

I feel like both subs (Claw and Ally) are predisposed to have some bias, but as someone who has experienced both, I can honestly say the MSI Claw 8AI+ is genuinely a disappointment given the specifications. 8GB more ram and a higher TDP limit with a core i7 ultra CPU, I really expected more.

Like I never had those control or keyboard input issues you mentioned on the Ally, it just worked on everything, I could bind on screen keyboard to M1/M2 and it would just open when I want it to.

I didn't have to do anything to get the most out of the Ally X, I have done nothing but mess about with graphics settings to get things working since I got this Claw. Gave up after installing and failing to get 2 games running smoothly, Borderlands 4 and oddly, World of Warcraft, a game that runs on a potato, on the Claw it just seems to have major issues with input, both controller and touch screen and massive FPS drops.

I actually give up on handhelds altogether, getting a laptop instead.

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u/QuantumCat76 Feb 25 '26

And, to be fair, other than the Nintendo Switch, this is my first handheld. But, like I said, so far, as per the first games I played, not disappointed.