I played on MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ while traveling around the world, and it is a true next generation gaming handheld with one fatal flaw

Taiwan, Shanghai, Shenzen, Long Beach, London. It’s been a busy three weeks for me, as I traveled around the world in 20 days (suck it, Phileas Fogg). With that comes a lot of long haul air flights, but with the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ in hand, I was never worried about being bored.

As you saw back at Computex, I tested it and saw the first true glimpse of a next generation handheld — thanks to that Intel Arc G3 Extreme superpower. Throw in real attention to the ergonomics; a bright, vibrant display, and a real PS5 Dualsense-esque upgrade to the haptics, and you’ve got a phenomenal handheld.

On the road (and in the air), real-world testing shows just how massive of an uplift this system can provide over any handhelds with AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme packed into it. It’s really comfortable in the hands with tactile buttons and a massive uplift in battery life. Docking it into hotel room TVs was a real showcase of how XeSS 3 can unlock that Nintendo Switch experience of great gaming both on-the-go and at home.

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Plus, the CPU side of it is strong enough that I was able to handle my work in China easily with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse attached. Throw in Xbox mode that does a much better job of tying things together into a console UI (not all the way there yet), and this is a dream start.

There’s just one thing, though… $1,799. Yep, you read that right. I was ready for a big price given what MSI told me (they were “targeting $1,500”). But as I told the boys on the 128kb podcast, the word “targeting” doesn’t mean “is,” and was doing a lot of heavy lifting to cover a drastic price increase.

RAMageddon has sent prices spiraling out of control, and it leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth — conflicted that this handheld is so good, but also so expensive. It makes it a tough one to recommend to anyone other than the handheld pros and enthusiasts with deep pockets.

But to those of you who fit these criteria, make no bones about it: you’re getting the best gaming handheld I’ve ever tested.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+: Cheat Sheet

• What is it? This is a PC gaming handheld, and one of the most powerful you can buy right now.
• Who is it for? This is for the gaming enthusiasts who are always on-the-go.
• What does it cost? Brace yourself — it’s $1,799.
• What do we like? Intel Arc G3 Extreme delivers as the most powerful handheld gaming chip, which is packed into a real nice-feeling handheld shell with a great display and impressive button ergonomics.
• What don’t we like? XeSS 3 game support is limited (though the raw horsepower of that GPU can overcome those obstacles), and charging $1,799 for a handheld is crazy.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+: Specs

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+: The ups

I picked up the Claw 8 EX AI+ from MSI and my first full two days involved flying from Taipei to Shanghai, and then to Shenzen. It’s a hectic schedule, but the Claw kept up with all of it.

The chinniest handheld feels great

Now, I know that chances are the very first thing you noticed is its Crimson Chin-looking aesthetic — that is a big protrusion from the bottom to house that 8-inch display. But as I found out from talking to MSI, that’s by design as a year of iterative design inspired by the ergonomics of the Xbox controller brought them here.

In the real world, those contours fit into my average-sized hands almost perfectly. I can see how small hands may have a struggle with this, but for most of you, those grips feel great with a grooved texture and the buttons are really well-placed.

Not only that, but there's two drastic improvements you won’t be able to see in these photo: the button feel and the haptics. The triggers have a supple smoothness to them in their travel, and the D-pad and face buttons have such a nicer tactility to them thanks to that metal plating beneath them.

As for the vibrations, they always felt a little weak and almost vague in other MSI handhelds. Now with that new haptic motor in here, vibrations are snappy, specific and add a real immersion level to each game you play. It’s a night and day difference.

Also, shoutout to that bright, vibrant IPS panel with variable refresh rate — would’ve loved OLED but this is more than good enough here alongside some crispy, clear speakers that may be tinny but don’t distort at max volume.

Intel’s eating AMD for breakfast

Arc G3 Extreme is quite the mighty chip on paper — taking that 12 Xe3 core GPU I fell in love with on Panther Lake laptops, trimming the CPU fat and shifting the focus to graphics. The end result? A monster of a performant and power efficient chip with some AI tricks in its back pocket to take on AMD’s stranglehold on gaming handhelds.

Team Blue made some mighty claims: 44% higher frame rates than AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme at the same wattage, and the same FPS as the Z2 Extreme when at half the power consumption. Putting it to the test, I’m honestly floored.

Without any of the XeSS 3 features turned on, you can see Intel’s claims backed up (and then some) but then you turn on the resolution scaling and multi-frame generation and you realize this is what PC handheld gaming has been missing.

Making sure you start with a stable base rate (as you should always do with AI tricks like this), the latency is not noticeable when on a controller like this. I saw as much in the games I’ve been playing on my travels, and also at MSI’s HQ when testing this thing.

F1 25 feels buttery smooth when connected to the TV upscaling to 4K, Battlefield 6 doesn’t miss a step, and on a smaller 8-inch display like this, some of that telltale ghosting of frame generation is hard to spot.

And for those moments when you're plugged into the big screen and flipped to desktop mode with a keyboard and mouse, its productivity chops are admirable. With the reduced core count, you’re getting similar speeds to the Ryzen Z2 Extreme, which means you’d be surprised at just how much work you could get done on this thing.

Of course, the 32GB of DDR5 RAM helps with the multitasking chops here for sure (and in this economy, that comes at a steep cost…but more on that later), but being able to use the Claw for both portable play and as a mini PC of sorts for work is a real value unlocker.

Stamina champ

So you’ve seen the goings on when it comes to the raw power efficiency of the Arc G3 Extreme. How does that translate to actual battery life? Well by the rudimentary test we do to compare, it’s head and shoulders above.

But that’s only half the story. Lab results are good and all, but my lived experience gives you much more context. Looking back at the notes I rapidly took on my phone shows that this big number above is just a slither, because that CPU wattage can be taken all the way down to 8 watts.

Doing so while playing Dispatch (given it’s cartoon-animated, you don’t need anything more than that), 1.5 hours of use while travelling to the first hotel in Shanghai took me down to 89%. Then I put it on standby while I went to sleep — usually disastrous for an x86 CPU like Intel’s chip. But the smart hibernation here means I woke up to just a 4% loss in stamina.

Then came my next flight to Shenzen, and I was keen to finish Dispatch (it’s a great game if you’re into Telltale Games-style choose-your-own adventures), and 3 hours on that endurance mode shaved another 29% off. Now we’re down to 56%.

Once I checked into the next hotel, I fired up Forza Horizon 6 and got acquainted with the manual power controls. I turned it down to 720p at low to medium fidelity settings, and the TDP of that chipset was set to 8-15 watts. Framerate-wise, I was getting about 50 FPS without any XeSS on top, and after an hour, the battery went down to 44% before going to sleep.

This kind of longevity is extraordinary while still giving you a strong gameplay experience is extraordinary. You’ll see a lot of people talking about the performance uplift, but the stamina is the real talking point here.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+: The downs

As we closed in on the launch (and many fellow nerds on these flights stared at this new hardware with glee in their eyes — sorry for leaking it a little early, MSI!), I’d been hearing rumors about what the final price would be. Once it was revealed, it turned out the rumors were right and my hopes were dashed.

$1,799 is crazy

Let’s talk about it. I remember over a year ago when I said a thousand bucks was pushing it for the ROG Xbox Ally X… Now we’ve fully closed in on 1,800 smackeroonies and that’s a damning statement on the side effects of this AI boom (or bubble if you’re nasty).

I can’t deny that this is the best PC handheld I’ve ever used, and looking at the other Intel Arc G3 Extreme handhelds, this isn’t the worst-priced either. But are those generational improvements over what’s come before worth that drastic uplift in price? It’s touch to say.

If you’re a PC gaming enthusiast and you need an ultraportable to take your library with you at the best fidelity, provided you’ve got the deep pockets for it, this is the one to go for.

If you already have a handheld, hold onto it — wait for that AI bubble to pop to drag down the price of RAM.

For the rest of you, I’d wait for a sale to see how far this price can come down.

XeSS 3 compatibility isn’t all the way there

Now I know this is something that is on the up and up — Intel’s XeSS 3 supported games list is growing gradually. But at around 50 titles, you can’t ignore that the list is pretty small.

Luckily, there’s enough under the hood of that GPU to brute force some smooth frame rates across games, and with AMD’s FSR being technically open source, you could use this with the Arc G3 Extreme on-board to fill in some gaps.

However, I always felt a little sad when I opened a game and there was no XeSS option in sight. Hopefully as this platform alongside Panther Lake in laptops and future chips grow in user base, more developers get on board.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+: Verdict

And that’s the story of the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ — easily the best PC gaming handheld I’ve ever tested, but I’m conflicted by that price.

It’s a tall order at $1,800, but it’s also the generational leap I was hoping for. So really it’s going to come down to that price. To be honest with you, I’d wait for a sale price on this to make the most of your investment.

Because this is a mighty system as both a beastly gaming handheld and a mini PC to get stuff done on.