Thursday, April 30th 2026
Intel "Arc G3 Extreme" Makes It to Handhelds in Leaked MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ Retail Listing
MSI's Claw line-up of gaming handhelds has gone from being overpriced and underperforming in the original Intel-powered Claw 8 A1M to being widely regarded as solid performers in both the new AMD- and Intel-powered variants. Now, however, an Italian retail listing on Ollo Store has tipped an updated version of the Intel-powered Claw handheld, this time appearing as the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ for a price of €1,599, which is €300 more than the current-gen Claw 8 AI+ A2VM with the same memory and storage specs on the same site.
[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the MSI Claw 8 AI+ A2VM can be found here]
The new Claw 8 EX AI+ will feature Intel's new Arc G3 Extreme CPU, which has been reported to be a 14-core (2× P-Core, 8× E-Core, 4× LPE-Core) CPU. The G3 Extreme's graphics will rely on the Intel Arc B380 iGPU, which is slated to have 12 Xe3 cores at 2.3 GHz. The only real difference between the B390 and the B380 is the GPU core clocks, which are 200 MHz lower on the B380, so performance shouldn't be too far off what we've seen on the flagship Intel Core Ultra X9 388H in our recent Intel Panther Lake review. The rest of the Claw 8 EX AI+ looks to be pretty standard fare for MSI's gaming handhelds these days, with 32 GB of RAM, an 8-inch, 16:10 IPS display with 500 nits of brightness and 100% sRGB coverage, an 80 WHr battery, Wi-Fi 7, and an included carrying case.
Sources:
Ollo, x86deadandback on X
[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the MSI Claw 8 AI+ A2VM can be found here]
The new Claw 8 EX AI+ will feature Intel's new Arc G3 Extreme CPU, which has been reported to be a 14-core (2× P-Core, 8× E-Core, 4× LPE-Core) CPU. The G3 Extreme's graphics will rely on the Intel Arc B380 iGPU, which is slated to have 12 Xe3 cores at 2.3 GHz. The only real difference between the B390 and the B380 is the GPU core clocks, which are 200 MHz lower on the B380, so performance shouldn't be too far off what we've seen on the flagship Intel Core Ultra X9 388H in our recent Intel Panther Lake review. The rest of the Claw 8 EX AI+ looks to be pretty standard fare for MSI's gaming handhelds these days, with 32 GB of RAM, an 8-inch, 16:10 IPS display with 500 nits of brightness and 100% sRGB coverage, an 80 WHr battery, Wi-Fi 7, and an included carrying case.
9 Comments on Intel "Arc G3 Extreme" Makes It to Handhelds in Leaked MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ Retail Listing
24 GB for the OS and game, 12 GB for VRAM.
Not even close according to ComputerBase (unless you were talking about the 5050 Mobile, in that case my bad).
Intel themselves compared it to a 4050 Mobile (the B390, not even the B380).
And I thought Asus ROG Xbox Ally X was bad.
Damn, I was hoping the Arc G3 Extreme was going to be 4P/4E/4LPe (compared to 258V/288V with 4P/4LPe), but I guess 2P/8E/4LPe should be fine too. The E-cores in Panther Lake seem to be just as powerful as desktop Coffee Lake or Zen 2 cores but with a lower power consumption, so that would be welcome.
My Claw 8 AI+ is the only device that can surpass the Steam Deck in low-power gaming efficiency with 2D and older 3D games. ~6 hours of battery life in Dark Souls 2 and 9 hours of battery life in Terraria is seriously impressive. No Nintendo Switch can ever achieve that without a big battery mod. If the Steam Deck (LCD or OLED) had an 80Wh battery, it can match or exceed those battery runtimes.