The Windows handheld segment has been growing faster than anyone ever thought possible over the last few years, but the final boss of handhelds has arrived in the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+.
The big core difference with this handheld is the introduction of the Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor which has been designed specifically for handhelds and pushes graphics performance as well as power efficiency forward hugely. With the increased power of the G3 Extreme, you can run games at much higher frame rates at lower TDPs meaning that you’ll get more performance whilst using less battery.
You also get support for XeSS 3 which allows for better AI Upscaling and multi-frame generation in addition to low latency, which again, is just another way to get more performance out of the handheld whilst consuming less power as you’re not needing to render every frame natively.
Whilst the internals are hugely improved here, the entire handheld has been rebuilt essentially as well. There’s now Xbox inspired flared grips that make it much more comfortable to hold and the hall effect analogue sticks and triggers feel a lot more solid, in addition to the re-designed d-pad that feels more accurate as well. The back buttons have been improved to fit more naturally to your hands and in addition to a lovely shimmering purple colour, the screen now hangs over the bottom of the handheld in a way that differentiates the handheld to any other on the market.
The display hasn’t been hugely changed from the other Claw models with it being an 8-inch 120hz VRR display that is 16:10 and looks glorious on the new handheld design. It’s still not OLED but it’s hard to fault it with how big and vibrant it is.
The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ can now take advantage of Xbox mode which is a huge boon for the Claw. Rather than having to mess around with Windows, you’re put in a much more familiar closed off setting that resembles a console experience and it easily pulls in Steam and all of your other launchers in addition to your Game Pass games.
The good thing about this is that it pulls in MSI Center M as well, so you can quickly launch the quick menu within Xbox mode to change your TDP settings, turn on FPS monitoring and a bunch of other settings that you might want to quickly change on the fly.
With the increased power and the dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, you can also easily plug this into your TV or monitor to play games on the big screen, or use this as a fully fledged computer, which is why it’s still great to have access to the full Windows experience as well.
Overall, the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ does a really great job at showing what a handheld with no compromises what looks like. It’s available for $2,899 and until September 30th you can get a bonus 40th anniversary bundle including the MSI Claw Travel Case II, MSI Claw Lanyard and MSI Claw Grip Caps right HERE.