The 7-inch MSI Claw will get Lunar Lake, too — and Claw 2, Claw 3, Claw 4 are coming

Jun 08, 2024 12:50 AM - 5 months ago 60829

If you’re still nether nan belief that an original MSI Claw mightiness beryllium a worthy purchase, I request you to reconsider. MSI has now announced not 1 but 2 successors to the embarrassing handheld that are coming this autumn — and hinting it mightiness show disconnected yet different one astatine CES successful January.

MSI already revealed an eight-inch Lunar Lake type dubbed nan MSI Claw 8 AI Plus astatine Computex this week, but nan institution will put Intel’s Lunar Lake into a caller seven-inch type astatine nan aforesaid time. MSI Claw merchandise guidance head Clifford Chun revealed nan beingness of that handheld in an question and reply pinch PCWorld and explained that should get pinch nan motorboat of Intel’s much businesslike Lunar Lake chips this fall.

Lunar Lake not only has up to 50 percent much GPU performance than nan existent Meteor Lake — it requires substantially little powerfulness for nan aforesaid performance. One early demo showed it drafting 10 less watts, which could construe to a notable summation successful artillery life. Plus, nan Claw 8 tin fresh a acold larger artillery battalion astatine 80 watt-hours vs. nan 53-watt-hour battalion of nan original.

Every Claw 8 successful nan US will travel pinch that 80-watt-hour pack, says Chun, though he says it’s optional elsewhere.

Both nan caller Claw 8 and Claw 7 will person revised bumpers, much responsive versions of their drift-resistant Hall effect joysticks, 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, and an easier-to-replace SSD, says Chun — still nan mini M.2 2230 type, but they’ve been moved retired from nether nan fan. Chun says they’ll vessel pinch amended Intel drivers this clip around. Chun did not explain whether nan caller seven-incher will person nan larger 80Wh artillery arsenic well.

“We’re already readying Claw 2, Claw 3, Claw 4.”

Both will costs a akin magnitude to nan existent MSI Claw, says Chun, truthful expect them astir $700–800.

MSI is wholly committed to handheld gaming PCs, says Chun. “We’re already readying Claw 2, Claw 3, Claw 4. We person a agelong two-year roadmap down already. We’ll proceed pushing caller shape factors, caller ideas, possibly moreover caller CPUs.”

But not needfully AMD: “We’re not aiming to spell to AMD yet, but you know, possibly successful Claw 3, Claw 4?” He hints that early handhelds are apt to beryllium a akin size aliases larger: it tried five-inch and 10-inch handhelds but recovered them excessively mini and excessively dense respectively, though a 6-inch is possible. “Six-inch, seven-inch — you can’t really show nan difference,” he told PCWorld.

Weirdly, Chun suggests nan mediocre showing of nan original Claw came arsenic a surprise. “We thought nan 7 was cleanable astatine launch,” he says, talking astir really it was a amazingly “steep learning curve.” But he says MSI is listening and wants to quickly hole things.

“We really judge successful handheld devices. Keep coming, support letting america know, we listen, and we’ll improve.” That’s not overmuch comfortableness to nan original buyers who picked up a Claw specified months ago, but possibly it’ll mean bully title successful nan future.

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