MSI’s newest gaming handheld, the Claw 8 EX AI+, has been a thing for some time. Pressures from the ongoing artificial intelligence situation and a fondness for higher sales may have prompted the Taiwanese company to make a more affordable version.
The beefier, pricier version of MSI’s latest uses Intel’s Arc G3 Extreme chipset. The recently spotted ‘budget’ version swaps that out for a standard Intel G3. It gets a slightly confusing designation to set it apart — it’s the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3M.
Extending the Claw 8 EX AI+
Visually, the two handheld gaming consoles shouldn’t look dissimilar. Several key specs are shared across both. The 8in 1,920 x 1,200 touchscreen panel and 80Wh battery are found in both. MSI’s design for the CG3M, while unseen for now, probably won’t deviate much, if at all.
The internals are the largest differentiator. Videocardz reports that the CG3M has 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD in addition to that Intel Arc G3 chipset. It’s mostly similar to the Extreme version, only stepping down GPU functions from the 12-core Arc B390 GPU to an Arc B370, which features ten Xe3 GPU cores. There’s less performance here, sure, but the price will also be lower.
The R30,000 ($1,800) MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ has yet to launch in South Africa. When it does, hopefully it’ll bring the CG3M version along. Approximate launch pricing would put it around R25,000. That’s still not cheap, especially for South African buyers, but it’s better than the higher price.
