You can save £100 on this Ryzen Z2 Extreme-powered MSI Claw A8 handheld from Cyberpower

Currently the cheapest of its Z2E kind

MSI's Claw A8 was 1 of the archetypal handheld PCs to travel packing AMD's beefier Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, promising a comfy chassis, capacious RAM and retention arrangements, and a large 8-inch 1920x1200 IPS touchscreen connected top. It launched astatine £849, which portion cheaper than the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, inactive came successful alternatively expensive. However, a useful terms chopped down to £749 from Cyberpower has made this exemplary the cheapest of each the Z2 Extreme handhelds by a considerably healthier margin.

Although RPS hasn't tested the Claw A8 specifically - James did similar its Intel-powered cousin, the Claw 8 AI+ - I person enactment it done its paces elsewhere. In my review, I was near impressed by the grunt of the Z2 Extreme spot inside, though arsenic with immoderate portable PC, expectations for definite games' prime settings should beryllium tempered. If you bump the ocular preset down to 'High' successful Forza Horizon 5, I saw a coagulated 59fps effect astatine the handheld's autochthonal 1920x1200 resolution, portion Rainbow Six Extraction deed 64fps astatine its highest Ultra preset. More demanding fare, similar Cyberpunk 2077 and Returnal, lone provided 30fps oregon little astatine autochthonal solution and precocious settings, but toning their graphics down down comfortably yielded smoother framerates.

Alongisde the Z2 Extreme chip, this Claw A8 comes with 24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD that, weirdly, is overmuch brisker erstwhile the instrumentality is plugged successful alternatively than connected artillery power. On the constituent of artillery life, this handheld comes with an 80Whr compartment that matches the capableness of the ROG Xbox Ally X, and I managed conscionable shy of 3 hours successful a gaming benchmark trial astatine 150 nits of brightness. The 65W ceramic was decently speedy astatine getting complaint backmost into the device, though.

The 8-inch 1920x1200 120Hz IPS surface is agleam and connected the larger broadside for a gaming handheld, and it provides creaseless question and bully item successful conjunction with coagulated opposition and colours. This is besides a comfy handheld with sensible fastener placement and tactile controls; my existent downer connected it astatine the clip of reappraisal was the information it was moving full-fat Windows 11, which isn't a touch-friendly OS, dissimilar the Steam Deck's SteamOS oregon Bazzite flavours of Linux. The advent of Xbox FSE for Windows connected handhelds too the ROG Xbox Ally brethren volition supply you with a amended experience, though it isn't perfect.

If you've been aft a beefy Windows gaming handheld for less, this £100 discount connected the MSI Claw A8 from Cyberpower is simply a potent and uncommon discount to find.