More from Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and more: all the news about the handheld PC gaming revolution
That’s according to Best Buy’s listing for the MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus — and it’s “early bird” pricing, MSI’s Anne Lee tells The Verge. After retailers run out of their first batches of units, MSI expects them to sell the handheld for $1,799, like MSI’s US store already is.
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“I did not say it’s coming,” AMD VP David McAfee tells Tom’s Guide, regarding FSR 4.1 with INT8 for RDNA3 iGPUs. In plain English? The graphics boost in this video may not actually come to today’s AMD gaming portables, even though it clearly works and is coming to older desktop cards:
This one’s going to cost some serious cash, but it seems to finally be moving handheld chips forward! Intel handhelds went from an embarrassment to pretty good in a little over a year; at this rate, they might be the leader once RAMageddon is over.
Minutes after I published my story below, eagle-eyed commenter P_Devil pointed out the price is $200 more than journalists were told. $1,699.99 for an Intel Arc G3 Extreme with 32GB of RAM, according to Best Buy. Perhaps an unfortunate typo? The listing does say 144Hz when the screen is actually 120Hz… either way, it’s coming June 23rd.
I held the next-gen handheld
In December, we explained how Valve architected a push for Windows games on Arm — the Steam Frame is just the tip of the iceberg. Now, Valve’s released a public beta of Steam for Arm+Linux (download link) — and one person’s already got it running on a rooted Switch! Can’t play games yet, though.
Any Xbox Insider PC can opt into Microsoft’s new “postgame recaps,” but the Xbox Ally X handheld’s integrated NPU takes it further with Copilot-generated “highlight reels.”
To start, it’ll only work with Among Us, Elden Ring, Fortnite, Forza Horizon 5, Lies of P, Overwatch, and Palworld. Let me know if it’s better than a normal recap?
The 1TB version also reappeared this morning, but was gone before I could get up a Verge Quick Post. I’m moving faster this time! Here’s the store page. Valve warned on February 16th it’ll be intermittently out of stock because of RAMageddon. Wednesday was the Deck’s fourth anniversary. (Update: 1TB is back too, and hearing Canada has stock as well!)
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Today is the fourth anniversary of Valve’s gaming handheld, which has been out of stock for weeks due to RAM... but when I set my VPN to the UK, I see some available now! Not in the US, EU or Asia, though.
Last February 25th, I wrote how the Deck had dominated handheld sales; recently, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella shared that the Asus ROG Ally still hasn’t made a dent.
Microsoft also said that “more than 85% of the Game Pass catalog is compatible with these PCs,” now, after a rocky journey for ARM gaming support on PC.
Other new Xbox app updates, like the new Game Save Sync Indicator and Handheld Compatibility Program labeling, also seem to be well-timed ahead of a possible Qualcomm PC gaming handheld launch in March.
What’s more powerful than an AMD Strix Halo handheld? One with liquid cooling! OneXPlayer brought the Apex handheld and the Super X tablet to CES, both of which attach to this external liquid cooler. (They’re still technically portable once you disconnect.) Nelly has the best look and some benchmarks; I only had time to snap these photos.
