TL;DRMSI’s Claw 8 EX AI+ launches June 23 at $1,699 with Intel Arc G3 Extreme, 32GB RAM, and an 8-inch 120Hz display.
MSI’s Claw 8 EX AI+ will launch on June 23 at $1,699, making it the most expensive handheld gaming PC ever sold at retail. The device is the first to ship with Intel’s Arc G3 Extreme processor, built on the Panther Lake platform with 12 Xe3 GPU cores and a 14-core CPU. It is also $500 more than the Lenovo Legion Go 2, which was already the priciest handheld on the market.
The $1,699 figure comes from listings on Newegg and Best Buy, both of which went live this week. MSI’s own online store lists the same configuration at $1,799. The spec sheet includes 32GB of LPDDR5X memory, a 1TB NVMe SSD, an 8-inch 1920×1200 120Hz IPS touch display, and an 80Wh battery.
The Arc G3 Extreme is Intel’s most powerful handheld chip. Its integrated Arc B390 graphics use the Xe3 architecture with support for hardware ray tracing and XeSS 3, Intel’s AI-powered upscaling technology. Intel claims a 44 per cent generational performance improvement over its Lunar Lake predecessor at 1080p with XeSS enabled.
Early simulations suggest the chip can hold 60 frames per second in Spider-Man 2 at 900p medium settings and above 60fps in Cyberpunk 2077 on the Steam Deck graphics preset, both at a 25-watt power envelope. Those numbers, if they hold in retail units, would represent a genuine leap over current handhelds. Intel has not published independent benchmarks, however, and simulated performance frequently overstates real-world results.The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
