I shook the hand of the next generation

Intel couldn’t catch a break. Getting fired. Shakedowns. CPU damage tarnishing its reputation, sending computer gamers fleeing to AMD. Apple and Qualcomm are pushing Intel out of several popular laptops. Game graphics card go MIA. But its Panther Lake laptop device, the first in its all-important 18A line, it turned out great – and the manual version can be made by Intel and a leader in portable gaming chips.

On Monday, I spent two hours with MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus hands up Intel’s new Arc G3 Extreme. I walked away thinking the handhelds of the future had arrived. The real leap in performance and battery life we’ve been waiting for.

For example, Intel claims that its Arc G3 Extreme can bring the same performance on half AMD’s top-of-the-line device control, where the MSI Claw only consumes 17 watts to perform what it takes 35 watts for the Xbox Ally X with AMD Z2 Extreme:

Or, it can run about 42 percent faster at the same 35 watts – making games like Battle 6, Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, Returningand Forza Horizon 6 it can be played at 1080p above and 60fps. (That’s 2x upscaling, mind you, so we’re talking 960×540 rendering resolution, but that’s how I play challenging games myself.)

Intel says the Arc G3 Extreme is very efficient, you can play at 1080p with low settings and only 12 watts of power, head and shoulders above the AMD chip there:

And, Intel says the chip can only draw 4 watts of power during less demanding games – about 12 hours of battery life per charge.

We haven’t seen this kind of leap in mobile computing until now.

The Steam Deck set the bar in 2022 with an unbeatable combination of price and performance. By 2023’s $549 Steam Deck OLEDyou can freely play modern AAA games at a low setting for two hours for a fee, with up to eight minimum games. Windows competitors can run games very well or at higher settings, but at a cost away more electricity. It has been true of almost every handset since then, regardless of whether it was powered by the AMD Z1 Extreme, Z2 Extreme, 7840U, 8840U, HX370, or especially AMD “Strix Halo” AI Max Plus 395.

Fewer and more power-hungry chips, companies have found different ways to improve: Asus ROG Ally X double Ally’s battery to 80 watt hours, stretching up to 3 hours of moderate exercise or 9 hours of light gaming in my tests. Xbox Ally added large, gamepad style which makes the heavier handle more comfortable.

But the MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus, which has a new Intel chip, seems to have it all: an 80-watt-hour battery, prongs, power, power, smooth Hall effects, and smooth games on an 8-inch 120Hz VRR screen.

Intel didn’t let me play all the games I would have liked, but I came prepared and knew Forza Horizon 6 will be displayed. Before the show, I played the first hour of trip to Japan on Xbox Ally X, Steam Deck, and SI Claw 8 AI Plusthe previous Intel Lunar Lake handheld.

At native 1920 x 1200 and medium settings, I saw 40-45 frames per second on the Lunar Lake MSI Claw with its standard chip. I got maybe 50fps from the Xbox Ally X at its lowest setting of 1080p. The game doesn’t even feel playable on Steam Deck at its 800p resolution, I’m afraid – the game often turns into a mess even at the lowest settings.

But the new MSI Claw with Arc G3 Extreme gave it to me 60-73 minutes in Forza Horizon 6 at 1200p resolution, without Intel’s “false frames” enabled. It’s only one data point, but it fits well with what Intel is doing, and clears my doubts.

And, the new Claw is said to use only 43W of total system power, according to MSI’s specs – meaning up to 1.8 hours of running on an 80 watt battery. The Xbox Ally X consumes about 50 watts of total system power in its 35W turbo mode, for 1.6 hours of the best performance you’ll find.

Intel can give you more smoothness and power savings if you don’t mind false frames. Battle 6 I was looking pretty good at 110-140fps with 4X frame gen, not that I could hold my own in most games without opening the mouse, keyboard, and big screen, to say nothing of latency. But that was a new Intel chip set to 25W TDP and a total power of 38W, meaning I could get two full hours of gaming on an 80Wh battery. After my two-hour session (which included filming, mind you), the new Claw had 29 percent left in the tank.

The new Claw is also the most comfortable hand grip I’ve ever held, with excellent weight and incredible grip. It’s big, but it seems lighter than I expected, and I’m not worried about it slipping out of sweaty hands. I’m a little unsure about the controls – the 8-way D-pad is very much the shocks, the bumpers feel hollow, the sticks and triggers are still as cheap as the previous Claw – but everything feels better than I can handle even in the models I tried.

If you think “What’s the point of clapping if you can’t do it, Sean??” you are reading my mind. Last week, I wrote how the best years of mobile gaming are long gone because of the price hike, and we don’t expect this MSI Claw, either Acer Predator Atlas 8 or OneXPlayer 3 with the same chipbeing cheap.

Then, more sources have confirmed (and we can confirm) that MSI is targeting a $1,500 price tag for this mobile device when it launches on June 23rd.

One way to look at it: It’s a lot of money, time. Games shouldn’t be this high!

Another thought: Compared to the $1,000 Xbox Ally X, this is a price increase of 50 percent to 42 percent in terms of frequency, which doesn’t make sense?

But in any case, it looks like handhelds are finally making a comeback. I wouldn’t be surprised if my next device has Intel Inside – when or if Ramageddon finally it ends.