MSI Unveils AMD Gaming Handheld and Upgraded Mid-Range Laptops at Computex

Alright, so imagine this: I’m wandering around Computex in Taipei, and MSI’s got this crazy new thing. I mean, MSI is finally mixing it up with AMD in their gaming handheld, the Claw A8 BZ2EM. It’s a mouthful, I know, but bear with me. Picture their move as bringing a mysterious dish to a potluck—‘cause guess what? They were all about Intel before. Like, I guess they’re not ditching Intel or anything dramatic, but now it’s all about having both AMD and Intel join the party.

Anyway, they slapped in an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip. And then there’s this Xbox-y controller vibe—right stick hanging below the buttons and all. I overheard someone saying the joysticks use Hall Effect magic to stop ‘stick drift.’ Never knew I needed that in my life, but hey, here we are.

They made the handheld all green too—if that matters to anyone. Oh, and the corners are rounder now with bigger grips. Probably to make it all cozy for your hands during those late-night gaming sessions. No more claw hands (ha, the irony).

Now, get this—24GB of RAM. Are you serious, MSI? That’s some fast LPDDR5x-8000 goodness, man. But nobody’s spilling where it’ll hit the shelves with all that memory. Like, really? Don’t leave us hanging like Asus did with their ROG Ally X.

Oh, wait—got sidetracked! There’s an 80 WHr battery that’s just chilling there, matching the Ally X. The original Ally had a smaller one, so bigger is obviously better, right?

Okay, moving on to the ports at the top. Standard stuff—headphone jack, microSD—blah blah. But apparently, you could just open it and pop in a fresh M.2 drive if you feel like it. Like upgrading your old bike with some fancy gears.

MSI’s tweaking their software—MSI Center—is now a Game Bar thing. Maybe it’s leaner now, but Windows 11? Not holding my breath for gaming. They haven’t even told us when or how much this beast will cost.

Now, let’s flip over to their gaming laptops. MSI crashed Computex with some mid-rangers, added Nvidia’s new RTX 5060 and RTX 5070. And they’ve got their Crosshair laptops, which are a mess of naming conventions, like CSI laptops or whatever. Intel’s models say HX AI, while AMD’s are A18HX. I’m not even trying to figure out the naming logic here.

More randomness: These laptops have Nvidia GPUs and go up to about 115W. Though, MSI is playing coy with the full specs. The Crosshair 18HX AI model? It’s kicking off at $1,699 at Costco—32GB of RAM, an RTX 5070, and a 1TB storage setup.

Oh, and what’s with the Cyborg series? Translucent plastic edges and metal lids—like some failed stealth fighter look. I saw they use both Intel and AMD chips too.

MSI is also showing off their like fancy limited edition stuff. They’ve got this Prestige 13 AI+ “Ukiyo-e Edition” with “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” design. Kind of makes you want to frame it instead of using it, doesn’t it?

So yeah, no pricing on a bunch of stuff—typical mystery move. Just keep your wallet ready, I guess.