I held the next-gen handheld

The Verge spent two hours with MSI’s upcoming Claw 8 EX AI Plus handheld, powered by Intel’s new Arc G3 Extreme graphics. The early hands-on suggests Intel’s Panther Lake platform may deliver the performance and battery-life jump portable PC gaming has been waiting for.

If Intel can turn this demo into shipping products, it could regain credibility with gamers after recent CPU issues and competitive losses. The bigger trend is that gaming handhelds are becoming a key battleground for chipmakers, where efficiency may matter as much as raw performance.