I just tested the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ — Intel Arc G3 is a breakthrough for handheld gaming, but at what cost?

Intel Arc G3 handhelds are the talk of the town here at Computex 2026, and I just got an early hands-on with the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+. In short, believe the hype — this is the next generation of gaming on-the-go unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Of course, a lot of this comes from that new silicon, which copies a lot of Panther Lake’s homework including that monster integrated GPU with XeSS 3 support to deliver some blistering frame rates (more on those later) while being much more power efficient than any AMD-filled handheld I’ve tested.

But the secret sauce here is MSI’s DNA — learning from previous Claws and dramatically upgrading the design, vastly improving airflow to keep it cool, bringing a gorgeous new display, tweaking the ergonomics and tactility of the vibration, and making it even easier to upgrade.

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What’s the price? I asked MSI and the answer was “stop asking about it,” which does make me nervous in the current state of RAMageddon, but I can’t deny this is utter brilliance.

MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ specs

Raiders of the lost Arc

The key ingredient is that shiny new Panther Lake chip: Intel Arc G3 Extreme. This is tailored more to a gaming-centric workload with a reduced amount of CPU cores while maintaining that same Arc B390 integrated GPU with the 12 Xe3 cores.

This GPU ticks off a lot of the boxes of what I wanted to see come to the handheld space: a wide versatility of power settings from the 17W endurance mode all the way up to 45W, native ray tracing support and all the XeSS 3 AI trickery goodness.

And the results are…well if you’ve been used to seeing AMD handhelds getting good frame rates, you ain’t seen nothing yet. I can’t give you specifics with benchmarks, but here’s what I got from the 3 games I was allowed to test.

And this is kept cool by MSI’s new Cooler Boost HyperFlow tech — based on two fans and two pipes to deliver five watts higher cooling and 25% higher pressure for the fans. That keeps those temperatures nice and well maintained in the various scenarios, including two that are often overlooked but significant.

First, I’m talking about the Switch’s bread and butter in docked mode. You already saw a bit of this with Panther Lake laptops being able to offer a fantastic experience on a massive screen. XeSS 3 is the key to that fluid big screen gameplay with minimal ghosting, and you’re getting the exact same thing here. F1 25 at 4K with XeSS 3 set to performance mode (so upscaled from 1080p) ran at a silky smooth 90 FPS in my time testing.

Throw in the better cooling too, and you can pump a massive 45 watts of power through this tiny shell, which gets you some speedy, smooth gameplay on the big screen when plugged in.

And the second scenario is one of the main reasons why I love my gaming PC: being able to play but also get stuff done. With the dual Thunderbolt 4, you’re able to have your own mini PC setup that can multitask effectively between pretty intense apps like Photoshop and many Chrome tabs.

Of course, these technically are possible on AMD handhelds, but nowhere near at the levels of performance and power efficiency you’re seeing on-board here.

Feeling great in your hands

I could go on about the chip inside, but there’s a whole handheld built around it, and it’s looking gorgeous in this Void Purple finish. And as you can tell, there are some significant changes being made here to the

One of the most noticeable upgrades you’ll feel is in the ergonomics. Whereas previous claws had a slightly flatter, more blocky appearance, the grips have much more definition and curvature to them to fit nicely into your hands.

MSI set on a mission to achieve the same level of ergonomics as the Xbox controller, and it shows with that dot texture eliminating any slip, the flared design of the grips and huge button upgrades.

Triggers and analog sticks are hall effect now, and now the D-Pad + ABXY buttons feel a lot snappier without any spongeyness like previous Claws thanks to being based on a metal dome.

But the biggest change you’ll feel is in the haptics. There’s a new 6-axis IMU vibration motor running on a new software algorithm to deliver what is called HD Haptics — allowing them to simulate much finer details like different textures of surfaces you walk on.

It’s hard to explain, but MSI’s basically done for gaming handhelds what PS5 DualSense did for controllers. It feels truly phenomenal.

Not forgetting the fundamentals

But of course, a PC handheld like this has more to nail than just performance and design. MSI's ticking off these boxes nicely here with a vivid, bright, smooth screen, surprisingly beefy speakers and quiet operation.

That 8-inch 1200p touchscreen may be IPS (so no OLED color waterfalls here), but it's still decently colorful. And with a variable refresh rate from 48 all the way up to 120Hz, gameplay feels more reactive here.

Dual speakers on here have a surprising amount of bass and don't distort at all at max volume, and alongside this, the cooling system doesn't get loud at all!

A pricey upgrade?

I can’t deny that this is a fantastic handheld — one of the best I’ve ever tried. Intel Arc G3 is the key to unlocking some stellar performance, with XeSS 3 being almost like a cheat code to frame rates unlike anything you’ve seen in a portable device like this.

Throw in a gorgeous screen and a real attention to the ergonomics, then you’re onto a winner here. But just like a lot of companies here at Computex, price is the terrifying question, as the entire market is fluid based on RAM prices.

Speaking to MSI, they are targeting $1,500 for this machine (less than the $2,000 rumor that panicked us all). But Intel and MSI's confidence is well-placed here, as this is an incredible piece of hardware.

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