This Might Be the Best Gaming Handheld of 2026! | MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ FIRST LOOK

I've been testing and reviewing every MSI Claw ever since the original Claw 7 years ago

but with the new Claw 8 EX AI Plus, I think this is the biggest upgrade we have ever seen to this

series. Now here's why I think this handheld is definitely going to be one of the more interesting

choices in 2026. It's the design. It's basically copying the ROG Xbox Ally, which introduced deeper

and rounder grips on the back, giving you that more full-size Xbox-like controller with a screen

wedge between it. But unlike the ROG Xbox Ally, which only has a 7-inch screen, this still has

a massive 8-inch display. 1920 by 1200, so it's even taller. You can actually see that little bit

of a bump at the bottom there, which I think is pretty cool. Testing it out, the flare grips feel

about the same size, and the button layout feels very familiar. And with the new dot texture panel

on the back, it helps prevent slipping. But they also made a few other refinements. The triggers

and sticks are now hall effects same for the d-pad and the abxy which are built on a metal dome

mechanism so there's less of that spongy mushiness that we had on previous claws and here's also

another update that you can't see but i can definitely feel under the controls here we have

upgraded haptics giving you more of that rumble experience that you do get with a traditional

xbox controller so yeah it's not just asus now msi is coming after that portable xbox experience

And when you combine those new controls, which allow you to play your games for much longer

along with a larger display you are getting the best of both worlds As far as colors go right now you only have this darker purple which personally I am a fan of I think it stands out from the sea of other black and white devices

But I know a lot of gamers do prefer those more traditional colors. But as you can see, MSI is definitely experimenting with cooler and more out-there colors

So it's not really much of a surprise that they're also bringing it to their handhelds

So the NuClaw 8 can be configured up to 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM with up to a 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD

But besides that, you get two 2W speakers, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a microSD card slot along with a 3.5mm jack on the top

Inside, there's Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, and all of this comes in a package that weighs 1.7 pounds

With the new Intel Arc G3 Extreme Processor here, this has been tuned specifically for gaming handheld workloads

Fewer CPU cores than a typical laptop chip, but we're getting more headroom for the GPU

along with better efficiency and smoother sustained frame rates. The new chip supports real-time ray tracing and XeSS3, which combines AI-based upscaling

multi-frame generation, and Xe low latency for reduced input lag. Now, to keep all this performance sustainable, MSI has also upgraded the Cooler Boost Hyperflow system

We have two fans with two heat pipes and five watts more of cooling headroom versus the previous generation

What that translates to is up to 45 watts of sustained power in this chassis when you're plugged in

which for a handheld is a very serious number So far there are only a few games that I could test out but here are the results that I saw Hogwarts Legacy at 1200p medium with ray tracing

XCSS 3 set to balanced with multi-gen set to four times. We were getting 160 frames per second

On a handheld, that's pretty impressive. Battlefield 6 at 1080p high, XCSS 3 performance

no frame gen, about 65 frames per second. And then F125 at 1200p high with ray tracing XCSS 3 set to auto, multi-frame gen set to four times

We were getting about 180 frames per second. And with all these tests that we're showing you here, the important thing is that you want to have a solid base frame rate

With single-player games like Hogwarts Legacy, 30 frames per second is a good base

But with faster-paced games like Battlefield 6 like we're now showing, you're going to want to get at least 60 frames per second

And of course, the other thing that you can do is pair this with a wireless controller and use this as your docked console with a large screen setup like this

So this is running 4K, high settings, no ray tracing, with XSS running on performance, and you're getting around 85 to 90 frames per second

So yeah, obviously not to the level of like an Xbox Series X, but for something this portable, this small, they can basically take anywhere, that's still pretty impressive

But you know what your Xbox can't do? Productivity. You can use this as a mini PC and right now we've got it running and connected with two external monitors

You know, you could have your Photoshop over here on the left. You could run your Steam games on the other monitor And thanks to the added processing power and the 32 gigabytes of ram you can actually get a lot of multitasking done with the small little pc now here what interesting

besides the mcyclaw 8 ex that i saw the other first devices confirmed to ship with the new

arc g series chips also include the acer predator atlas 8 and the 1x player 3 more models are

anticipated to be announced later this year but for now of these three that i've tested i think

the claw 8 ex has the best bounds of screen size and ergonomics and it's probably going to be the

handheld most people gravitate towards but you know what else is also important besides your

actual gaming performance battery life obviously you want to take this and play this on the go for

as long as possible inside we still have the 80 watt hour battery but because this chip is more

efficient now we could see the squeeze out a couple extra hours depending on the game and settings

you're playing on all right so that's all pretty good but one important question remains pricing

well when i was speaking with their team they said they were targeting 1500 with a release date of

june 23rd given that the rumors were suggesting that this could cost upwards of two thousand

dollars this is a relief that said it's still a very expensive device but i think we have a lot

of new upgrades here that if you've been holding on to a handheld from maybe two or three years ago

not only are we getting the performance improvements we're getting a great combination

of ergonomics screen size and weight that i think this might be one of the best handhelds of 2026

but let me know your thoughts in the comments down below and make sure you're subscribed for more gaming handheld content and until the next one i'll catch you later