MSI unveiled its Claw 8 EX AI+ handheld at Computex earlier this month, and it has just appeared on the company's website for $1,799, while Newegg has it listed for $1,699. It features Intel's new Arc G3 Extreme APU with flagship Arc B390 integrated graphics and 32GB of LPDDR5X memory. MSI says it tried everything to keep costs as low as possible, and that it'll be a tough year ahead with chances of even more price hikes.
Andy Chu, the brand's product marketing lead, told FRVR that "it’s a really difficult year for Intel and especially the OEM like us [...] because we also need to take those cost hikes for those key components like memory and also storage.” It's no secret at this point that DRAM and NAND prices have skyrocketed over the past few months, and even major vendors are struggling to keep up.
Every console is now more expensive than it was at launch, including the once bastion of affordability: the Steam Deck. The OLED version of Valve's handheld retails for $949 despite featuring last-gen hardware. The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ brings a huge performance boost over it, so the price almost looks justified in comparison. The ROG Xbox Ally X with the Ryzen Z2 Extreme is available for $999 everywhere, and that's AMD's mainstream rival to the Arc G3 Extreme at the moment.
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"All I can say is we have tried every approach to get the memory and also storage at a lower cost. Like, deepen the relationship between us and also those suppliers, like to have some deals… and I think we have done everything we can do to make our system as affordable as possible," continued Chu. Not much you can do when hyperscalers annex all the production lines, offering fatter margins to these manufacturers.
It's a bit ironic to explicitly market your product as "AI+" while publicly complaining about the very consequences of said AI boom, but we digress. "Unfortunately, I think the situation, the result is what you see right here. So, I would say, yes, it will be a tough year for us and for the gamers,” warns Chu. We've already heard plenty of admonitions from various companies, but it's disheartening nonetheless to see the situation perpetually spiral out of control.
The executive goes on to say that "there’s much room for another price hike," so even the $1,799 price tag could go up in the following months. For context, you can find AMD's Strix Halo-equipped handhelds above the $2,000 mark, and they are significantly more capable machines. Even though they're far and few in between, let's not discount laptops either that have Panther Lake silicon and cost less than $2,000.
To be clear, the Claw 8 EX AI+ is a competent device that we were impressed by in our hands-on at Computex. Since Intel is only launching the Arc G3 Extreme right now, there was no cheaper base Arc G3 to put inside this thing either. Intel has mandated memory speeds for Panther Lake, but MSI could've surely cut down on the 32GB pool to save costs and make the handheld more affordable overall with 24GB or even 12GB configs.
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