Claw A8 BZ2EM 8" 120Hz FHD+ 1200P Gaming Handheld - Ryzen Z2 Extreme - AMD Radeon Graphic - 24GB - 1TBSSD

Disclaimer: I had an issue where the first one I bought was having power issues. It would reboot randomly and it made me genuinely mad, like the device would be perfect if it worked. I ended up returning my first unit, luckily BestBuy has a pretty fair return policy so I didn't have to deal with any warranty stuff. I bought a new one after the refund cleared and have been loving the device for 3+ months now. This pc handheld is my favorite out of all the ones I've owned. I've tried the Steam Deck, both Rog Allys, Xbox Ally X, Legion Go 2, Ayaneo 2s, and the Ayaneo Air Pro 5825u. I also used to own the Ayn Odin 2 mini and the Retroid Pocket Flip 2. All of these devices have things about them I like and things I don't but the MSI Claw A8 is my favorite of them all. It isn't perfect which is why the title I typed has the flaw joke in the name but it has most of the features I need to genuinely enjoy a pc handheld. The flaws would be the fan noise only if you're sensitive to it, it isn't super loud and is usually drowned out by game audio. Especially with games that have wind audio. The software is similar to very early ASUS Rog Armory crate software but the simplicity has grown on me. I just leave it in AI ENGINE mode which auto adjusts tdp. The screen, grips, and back buttons are the highlights of this device for me. 8inch is the perfect size for me. The grips feel good in the hands, kinda like shortened steam deck grips. There are only two back buttons which isn't ideal, I'd prefer four but the two on it are placed so perfectly that it doesn't bother me anymore. The battery life is on par with the Xbox Ally X since they share similar chipsets and battery sizes. The bumpers and triggers are like my beloved Xbox 360 controller's. Face buttons feel good. I don't want this to be much longer so to cut it short. Do I recommend the device for someone looking for a handheld pc? Yes. The device is fun to play on, it's light enough in the hands to not be a strain.

I really love my Claw A8, the screen, performance, battery life and speakers are all fantastic. A few things I think could use some work are the comfort of the grips as they are incredibly uncomfortable especially coming from a Steam Deck. Also, Windows Full Screen Experience is terrible and I installed Bazzite after a day and it's so much better. Overall, I'm really happy with the system.

I wanted something slightly larger and more powerful than the Steam Deck OLED, which led me to the Claw A8. I immediately installed Bazzite. I noticed TDP controls were wonky so I installed SimpleDeckyTDP and now its awesome. Great battery life and performance.

The device performs really well. The windows experience can be a bit cumbersome even with FSE. It runs smoothly with Bazzite. Wish the rumble motors were better. The grips are good but I’ll be getting silicone grips from better ergonomics.

Had to run a windows repair on it because I was getting some issues with it. If you’re getting the dx12 error you might decrypt the bitlocker key and run the windows repair and that should fix it. Overall I’m really enjoying it and is working great now! Love using it with my Xbox gamepass with the Xbox full screen experience. This product is probably for someone that has experience with windows.