Handheld Console Prices Skyrocket: MSI's New Claw is a Rip-off
Steam Deck
was only a harbinger because, as suspected during Computex, the new portable consoles with Intel's G3 chips will have an exorbitant cost, making Valve's offer seem almost reasonable in comparison, despite the list price having soared disproportionately.
MSI, Intel's main partner, has announced that the new Claw 8 EX AI+ with the Arc G3 Extreme chip will have a starting price of $1,799 (probably equivalent to the exchange rate in euros), a figure that, just under a year ago, opened the doors to the mid-high range of the desktop segment.
With this debut, the new console positions itself directly among the most expensive ever marketed so far. The announced configuration integrates 32 GB of LPDDR5X memory, a 1 TB SSD, and the new Intel chip in its most powerful variant, the G3 Extreme, which promises a remarkable generational leap even compared to the old generation AMD counterpart installed on the Steam Deck.
However, the remaining hardware reproduces a technical sheet already seen on previous models. We find an 8-inch IPS display with 1200p resolution, a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, and a brightness of 500 nits, an 80 Wh battery, along with Hall Effect joysticks and triggers and two Thunderbolt 4 ports. The weight remains unchanged at 795 grams.
MSI is among the manufacturers that have strongly believed in the Intel platform for the handheld segment. The new Claw 8 EX AI+ indeed represents the third generation of Intel hardware adopted by the company. The first MSI Claw used Meteor Lake processors, while the previous Claw 8 AI+ was based on Intel Core Ultra 200V 'Lunar Lake'.
The innovations of the new model focus almost exclusively on the processing department. The aesthetics and most of the components have not undergone substantial changes.
The price requested thus represents an important scenario change for the market of portable gaming PCs. The first MSI Claw based on Meteor Lake debuted at €699 and is now available starting at €549, while the current MSI Claw 8 AI+ with Core Ultra 7 258V, 32 GB of RAM, and 1 TB SSD starts at €926. The new generation thus registers a price that has practically doubled compared to the Lunar Lake model, while many other hardware elements remain unchanged.
The comparison with the AMD offer is equally significant. The MSI Claw A8 with Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor, 24 GB of memory, and 1 TB SSD starts at €888, less than half the price requested for the new model with Intel Arc G3 Extreme. Of course, this comes at the cost of sacrificing 8 GB of RAM.
At this point, it becomes difficult to consider Windows 11-powered handheld consoles as complements to a traditional desktop or notebook. Many users with a not-so-large budget will likely face a crossroads where such an offer will represent an alternative and not a complement to their setup.