MSI Claw A8, powered by AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, showcased at Computex 2025

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Until now, MSI's Claw gaming handhelds have been a rarity in the portable gaming space, with previous iterations shipping with Intel Meteor and Lunar Lake chips with integrated Arc graphics. At Computex 2025, MSI unveiled the new MSI Claw A8, powered by AMD's latest Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip for PC gaming handhelds.

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The AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip powers the new MSI Claw A8 (Lime Green Edition pictured).

We got to go hands-on with the MSI Claw A8 at AMD's product and technology showcase and were impressed with its performance in Final Fantasy XVI and Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. The new handheld sports the same 8-inch Full HD 120 Hz, VRR, touchscreen display and 1TB of internal M.2 SSD storage as the Claw 8 AI Plus we saw last year.

Shifting to an AMD APU brings MSI's Claw handheld more in line with the competition, such as Lenovo's Legion Go series and ASUS's ROG Ally. On the plus side, the MSI Claw A8 features the latest Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip with integrated Radeon 890M graphics, making it one of the first handhelds to sport AMD's latest flagship portable PC gaming hardware.

There is one difference between MSI's new AMD-powered Claw A8 and its previous Intel-powered variant: the handhelds featured 24GB of memory instead of 32 GB. That said, 24GB is still plenty for 1080p gaming using low to medium settings on modern titles.

Outside of the hardware, MSI will release the Claw A8 in two color variants: White and funky Lime Green. The latter will definitely stand out in a sea of mostly black or dark portable PC gaming handhelds. There's no pricing or release date info yet, but with models already finished and playable, we're assuming it's on the horizon.