A new Steam Deck rival just made the handheld war interesting

At Computex 2026, MSI announced the Claw 8 Ex AI Plus, powered by the Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor, which promises exceptional AAA gaming on handheld devices while maintaining strong power efficiency for extended play sessions. There’s support for up to 32GB LPDDR5X dual-channel RAM and one PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe M.2 2280 SSD.

The handheld features an 8-inch FHD+ (1,920 x 1,200) IPS-Level touchscreen display with 48-120Hz VRR. Thankfully, there are hall-effect triggers and sticks on the handheld, coupled with ergonomic grips and a D-pad. There’s a claimed high-end linear motor on board for refined haptic feedback.

For ports, we get two Thunderbolt 4 (with DisplayPort and Power Delivery 3,0 capabilities), a microSD card reader, and an audio combo jack. There are also two 2W speakers on board, with DTS Audio Processing and Hi-Res Audio support. There’s also Intel Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 on board, and the power button houses a fingerprint sensor. Rounding up the package is an 80Whr battery to power the Windows 11 Home experience.

The MSI Claw 8 Ex AI Plus handheld features Xbox Mode, which enables quick game launches and seamless resume. There’s also a redesigned Quick Settings, which lets users easily adjust features such as Multi-Frame Generation and in-game frame control.

The MSI Claw 8 Ex AI Plus comes in a distinctive Void Purple colorway. The company hasn’t shared any pricing and availability details yet. We expect to hear more about this handheld in the coming days, but don’t expect it to be cheap though.