MSI Claw A8, Gaming Handheld Launched with AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme and 8-inch Display: Here’s What We Know

MSI, a Taiwanese electronics company primarily known for its PC components, laptops, and other hardware products, has launched its new gaming handheld dubbed Claw A8. The newly launched MSI Claw A8 is packed with several powerful features and enhancements. It is powered by the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme CPU and comes with an 8-inch display.

Here’s Everything We Know About MSI Claw A8:

MSI Claw A8 has been unveiled with an 8-inch IPS display that features 1920×1080 resolution and a 120Hz FHD refresh rate. It has touch and variable refresh rate, along with peak brightness of 500 nits. The gaming handheld is powered by the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme CPU with up to 24 GB of LPDDR5X-8000 RAM.

MSI’s taking handheld gaming to new heights with the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme-powered Claw A8 and a fresh white “Polar Tempest” edition of the Claw 8 AI+ https://t.co/XGj6R98tv9 pic.twitter.com/f4YIodphF3

— RetroHandhelds.gg (@RetroHandhelds) May 19, 2025

One thing that’s bit off with this latest launched MSI Claw A8 is that it doesn’t support as much memory as its Intel counterparts and hence it is capping out below the 32GB that Intel versions allow. Nevertheless, unless you are doing heavy task or running some demanding non-gaming software, most of the games simply won’t make use of that much RAM. But if we talk about the real-world gaming scenario then this limit probably is not a dealbreaker for most people.

However, MSI counter this fact and didn’t compromise with the battery and equipped this Claw A8 with the 80Whr battery and that’s a big win. Given that AMD’s chip is more power-efficient, it should squeeze out slightly longer battery life. It means the company os striking a smart balance by stabilizing the cost effectiveness, decent performance, and enough battery power. It’s not a perfect trade-off, but for a handheld gaming device, it’s a move that makes sense.

The MSI Claw A8 is available in two color options including white and lime green. It runs on Windows 11. Other than MSI Claw A8, the tech giant also unveiled the Claw 8 AI+ Polar Tempest Edition with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V chipset.