After its big reveal earlier this week, listings for the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ are now live on Best Buy, but the price point is higher than many potential users expected. Retailing at $1,699.99 at Best Buy, this device is more than twice as expensive as the 512GB Steam Deck OLED, even after the Valve handheld shot up in price last week, making it a real commitment for anyone considering picking one up, including me.
For those that don't know, the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is the latest in a long line of Steam Deck alternatives from MSI. It boasts some seriously impressive specs, including 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and Intel's new Arc G3 Extreme processor, which Intel claims makes this handheld capable of outperforming any AMD handheld. Simply put, it sounds like an absolute beast of a device and the ideal upgrade for anyone struggling to run some triple-A games on the Steam Deck or Asus ROG Ally. The problem is the price.
Multiple outlets first reported that the Claw 8 EX AI+ would retail for around $1,500, so this higher price point is a bit of a surprise. At the time of writing, none of the picks from our guide to the best handheld consoles, including the Asus ROG Xbox Ally or Nintendo Switch 2, are over $1,000, so $1,699 feels particularly pricey. In fairness, some of the alternatives are getting more expensive, thanks in part to the rising costs surrounding RAM, but that doesn't make the $1,500+ price point any easier to swallow.
Worse still, while some were hoping for a cheaper configuration with the regular Arc G3 chip, rather than the Extreme, MSI told PC Gamer it wasn't planning on offering that alternative, at least not for the first wave. If you read between the lines, it seems that MSI wants to capture the top of the market, those consumers who are happy to spend over the odds if it means owning a handheld with the best possible performance capabilities. It's a risky move, but given the rising price of handhelds in general, it could pay off.
Finally, it's worth noting that Best Buy is technically a third-party retailer, and given there's still a couple of weeks until the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+'s June 23 release date, there's a small chance the current listing could be a placeholder. The product listing is also slightly wrong, detailing the screen as a 144Hz panel, not 120Hz, so that suggests Best Buy might not have all the details. At the time of writing, we're still waiting for MSI to update the listing on its official site with the price point, so we'll have to wait and see.