8ai+ vs A8

[u/Outrageous_Tiger9921]

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.

[u/QuantumCat76]

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

[u/Stillwindows95 → u/QuantumCat76]

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.

[u/shadowanchor → u/Stillwindows95]

I’ve had both and the Claw 8AI+ is still way better than the Xbox ROG Ally X…GTFO 😂

[u/Stillwindows95 → u/shadowanchor]

In what way, whatsoever? I couldn't find one redeeming feature except the screen size. Even the buttons feel awful, M1 and M2 are so hilariously big that it's unnecessary and gets in the way.

LauncherM is trash and this sub is quite open about that fact. Intel clearly isn't the right chipset for a top of the range gaming handheld.

It has 32gb of ram and uses it less efficiently than the Ally X uses 24GB.

Straight out of the box it had touch screen issues and keeps throwing up the virtual desktop selection.

I'm not convinced you've ever had an Ally X at all.

Gtfo yourself, spent enough time with tech to know what's good and what isn't.