I've used MSI's beefy new Claw handheld, and it's a screamer, but there are some asterisks
The Claw 8 EX AI+ has oodles of power
Gaming handhelds are clearly one of the big stories at this year's Computex – I've been roving around the showfloor and digesting keynotes all week, and all the big gaming brands seem to have arrived with a handheld up their sleeve. In plenty of cases, they aren't brand new, but rather revisions of what's come before.
That's MSI's approach for the Claw 8 EX AI+, with that "EX" basically nodding to the fact that this is an upgrade on the Claw 8 AI+ that I reviewed last year. I liked the power that handheld brought to the table, but didn't fancy the blocky design, and that's one thing that's obviously changed with the EX version.
The Claw 8 EX AI+ can be easily told apart from its sibling because it has more of a chin – the display now extends a little bit on a shelf at the bottom of the handheld, pointing to the fact that the grips to either side of it are now more ergonomic and shaped. I think that chin looks a little odd since it's so small, but I'm nonetheless confident after about 20 minutes of playtime that the EX is the more comfortable machine to hold.
Still, though, that display is also still an LCD, which is a bit of a shame – an OLED upgrade would have been a lovely bit of extra generosity. I say "generosity", but while MSI wasn't willing to say anything about pricing, other sources have indicated to me that it might land around the $1500 mark, which could make it a staggeringly expensive new option (and one that definitely merits an OLED panel).
That's completely unconfirmed for now, though, so back to my actual impressions, eh? The really big inclusion in the Claw 8 EX AI+ is Intel's new handheld chip, one that Intel itself says is more like a GPU with a CPU attached than the traditional other way around.
The Intel Arc G3 Extreme is a bit like if you took a Panther Lake chip and stripped it down to fit a smaller device, taking out some IO capabilities and reducing its CPU capacity, but leaving the Arc B390 GPU untouched. That makes it a beast by current market standards, and the performance offered by the Claw 8 EX AI+ will be untouchable by handhelds from even a year or two ago.
I played a bunch of Forza Horizon 6 on the machine, along with the surprisingly taxing Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, and both ran super smoothly, taking advantage of XeSS compatibility to offer both sharpening and multi-frame generation if you want it for more smoothness.
At 1900x1200, the screen can be super sharp for its 8-inch size, and it on a High preset in Forza I was getting a very steady 60-70fps with the game looking gorgeous. Where things really get impressive, though, is when you turn away from raw FPS and look at power stats.
The superpower of the Arc G3 series might just be the fact that it can throttle its own performance at a toggle, using an "endurance mode". You can customise what this entails but it'll generally mean a lower framerate cap is enforced (like 30fps or 60fps depending on the game). This will drastically lower the power consumption of the handheld, and Intel told me that using the endurance mode it got nearly 12 hours of playtime in Team Fortress 2.
Sure, that's a very old shooter at this point with unremarkable graphics – but over 11 hours of playtime from a top-end PC gaming handheld is the stuff dreams are made of. Extrapolate that out to less visually-demanding indie games and the Claw 8 EX AI+ starts to look like it has a crucial advantage compared to most of the competition.
Intel says the Arc G3 Extreme can match the performance of AMD's previously class-leading Z2 Extreme chip, but at half the power draw, which is a simply massive difference. That unknown pricing is a huge caveat, of course, and we also don't have a release date, so there's plenty still to be confirmed.
The fact is, though, that this might be the new high-water mark in PC gaming handhelds. You get a 80Wh battery with the most efficient chip to go with it, a big high 120Hz VRR screen, Hall Effect joysticks, all in a more comfortable design. It might be eventually priced at a wince-inducing level, but for now this is looking like a nearly perfect step up for PC gaming handhelds.
