MSI lists pre-order price for Claw 8 EX AI+ at $1,799

MSI has put the Claw 8 EX AI+ up for pre-order with a listed price of $1,799. The handheld houses Intel's Arc G3 Extreme GPU, and the previous MSI Claw 8 AI+ A2VM earned positive impressions; one reviewer who tried the new unit at Computex said it "feels like the standard all new handheld gaming PCs will be judged by." Earlier leaks suggested an MSRP well north of $1,500, and a 32 GB/1 TB configuration paired with a Panther Lake–based chip made a high price likely.

Some retailers show similar pricing: Best Buy has a listing at $1,700 but currently marks it unavailable, and other high-powered handhelds have climbed in cost — the Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS, once commonly seen around $750–$800 in deals, now appears at more than $1,500.

Handheld pricing has shifted rapidly; the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X's $1,000 launch MSRP now looks comparatively strong, and the Steam Deck OLED 1 TB is listed about $50 lower.

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