The device in my hands feels like the standard all new handheld gaming PCs will be judged by

From my time playing around with the new Panther Lake-powered MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ I've found some seriously extreme things about this handheld gaming PC. Mostly that's a good thing, but it being 2026—and the fact I'm talking about a new gaming handheld mere days after the Steam Deck price hike—you can probably already guess what the not-so-good extreme thing is…

• It's powered by the new Intel G3 Extreme processor
• It's extremely quiet
• It's battery life is extreme
• It feels extremely good in the hands
• And the price is obviously extreme

Yeah, that. There isn't yet a final price for the handheld yet, and there is likely only going to be one model at launch towards the end of June, but we've been told today at a pre-Computex hands-on event with the Claw that we're looking at $1500. So long as MSI can maintain production costs and keep it at that price point. Which is maybe a tiny bit concerning.

It is worth re-iterating that the

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3. The device in my hands feels like the standard all new handheld gaming PCs will be judged by