I held the next-gen handheld

我上手了下一代掌机

The MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus — and its Intel chip — are pushing handhelds forward again. MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus 及其搭载的英特尔芯片，正在再次推动掌机行业向前发展。

Intel couldn’t catch a break. Layoffs. Shakedowns. Crashing CPUs torpedoing its reputation, sending desktop gamers fleeing to AMD. Apple and Qualcomm pushing Intel out of multiple flagship laptops. A gaming graphics card going MIA. But its Panther Lake laptop chip, the first on its all-important 18A process, turned out excellent — and a handheld version might make Intel the leader in portable gaming chips. 英特尔近来可谓流年不利：裁员、勒索、CPU 崩溃导致声誉受损，迫使桌面玩家纷纷转向 AMD；苹果和高通将英特尔挤出了多款旗舰笔记本电脑；游戏显卡也销声匿迹。但其基于至关重要的 18A 工艺打造的 Panther Lake 笔记本芯片表现出色，而其掌机版本或许能让英特尔成为便携游戏芯片领域的领跑者。

On Monday, I spent two hours with an MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus handheld atop Intel’s new Arc G3 Extreme. I walked away thinking that next-gen handhelds have finally arrived. The true leap in performance and battery life we’ve been waiting for, but at a high price. 周一，我花了两小时体验了搭载英特尔全新 Arc G3 Extreme 芯片的 MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus 掌机。体验结束后，我认为下一代掌机终于到来了。这是我们期待已久的性能与续航的真正飞跃，但代价也相当高昂。

For example, Intel claims that its Arc G3 Extreme can deliver similar performance at half the wattage of AMD’s flagship chip, with the MSI Claw consuming just 17 watts to do what takes 35 watts on the Xbox Ally X with AMD Z2 Extreme. 例如，英特尔声称其 Arc G3 Extreme 芯片能在仅需 AMD 旗舰芯片一半功耗的情况下提供相似的性能。MSI Claw 只需 17 瓦的功耗，就能达到搭载 AMD Z2 Extreme 的 Xbox Ally X 在 35 瓦功耗下的表现。

Or, it can run an average of 42 percent faster at the same 35 watts — making games like Battlefield 6, Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, Returnal, and Forza Horizon 6 playable at 1080p high and 60fps. (That’s with 2x upscaling, mind, so we’re talking 960x540 render resolution, but that’s how I play demanding handheld games myself.) 或者，在同样的 35 瓦功耗下，它的运行速度平均提升了 42%——这使得《战地 6》、《博德之门 3》、《赛博朋克 2077》、《荒野大镖客 2》、《死亡回归》和《极限竞速 6》等游戏能够在 1080p 高画质下以 60fps 运行。（当然，这是在开启 2 倍超分辨率的情况下，即 960x540 的渲染分辨率，但这正是我玩高负载掌机游戏时的设置。）

Intel claims the Arc G3 Extreme is so efficient, you can even game at 1080p and low settings with just 12 watts of electricity, head and often shoulders over the AMD chip there. 英特尔声称 Arc G3 Extreme 的能效极高，甚至可以在仅 12 瓦的功耗下以 1080p 低画质进行游戏，在这一点上它远超 AMD 芯片。

And, Intel says the chip can sip as little as 4 watts of electricity in the least demanding games — for nearly 12 hours of battery life on a charge. 此外，英特尔表示，在运行负载最低的游戏时，该芯片的功耗仅为 4 瓦，单次充电续航可接近 12 小时。

We simply haven’t seen this kind of a leap in handheld gaming PCs so far. 到目前为止，我们还从未在掌机领域见过如此巨大的飞跃。

The Steam Deck set the bar in 2022 with an unbeatable combination of price and efficiency. By 2023’s $549 Steam Deck OLED, you could comfortably play modern AAA games at low settings for two hours on a charge, and weaker games for up to eight. Windows competitors could run games more smoothly or at higher settings, but only by consuming far more electricity. That’s been true of almost every handheld since, regardless of whether it was powered by an AMD Z1 Extreme, Z2 Extreme, 7840U, 8840U, HX370, or especially the AMD “Strix Halo” AI Max Plus 395. Steam Deck 在 2022 年凭借无可匹敌的价格和能效比树立了标杆。到了 2023 年售价 549 美元的 Steam Deck OLED，你已经可以舒适地以低画质游玩现代 3A 大作两小时，轻量级游戏则可达八小时。Windows 阵营的竞争对手虽然能提供更流畅的体验或更高的画质，但代价是消耗更多的电量。自那以后，几乎每一款掌机都是如此，无论是搭载 AMD Z1 Extreme、Z2 Extreme、7840U、8840U、HX370，还是特别是 AMD “Strix Halo” AI Max Plus 395 的机型。

Limited by relatively power-hungry chips, companies found different ways to improve: The Asus ROG Ally X literally doubled the Ally’s battery to 80 watt-hours, stretching to 3 hours of medium-weight gameplay or around 9 hours of the lightest play in my tests. The Xbox Ally added large, gamepad style prongs that make a heavy handheld more comfortable. 受限于相对耗电的芯片，各厂商找到了不同的改进方法：华硕 ROG Ally X 将电池容量翻倍至 80 瓦时，在我的测试中，中等负载游戏续航可达 3 小时，轻量级游戏约为 9 小时。Xbox Ally 则增加了类似游戏手柄的大型握把，让沉重的掌机握持起来更舒适。

But the MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus, the one with Intel’s new chip, seems to have it all: an 80-watt hour battery, prongs, power, efficiency, drift-resistant Hall effect joysticks, and remarkably smooth gameplay on an 8-inch 120Hz VRR screen. 但搭载英特尔新芯片的 MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus 似乎集所有优点于一身：80 瓦时电池、人体工学握把、强劲性能、高能效、防漂移霍尔摇杆，以及在 8 英寸 120Hz VRR 屏幕上极其流畅的游戏体验。

Intel didn’t let me play all the games I’d like to, but I came prepared knowing Forza Horizon 6 would be on display. Before my demo, I played through the first hour of the virtual road trip to Japan on the Xbox Ally X, the Steam Deck, and the MSI Claw 8 AI Plus, the previous-gen Intel Lunar Lake handheld. 英特尔没有让我玩所有想玩的游戏，但我有备而来，知道现场会展示《极限竞速 6》。在演示之前，我分别在 Xbox Ally X、Steam Deck 以及上一代搭载英特尔 Lunar Lake 的 MSI Claw 8 AI Plus 上体验了前往日本的虚拟公路旅行的前一小时内容。

At a native 1920 x 1200 resolution and medium settings, I saw around 40-45 frames per second on the Lunar Lake MSI Claw with its chip set to maximum. I got maybe 50fps from the Xbox Ally X at its lower native screen resolution of 1080p. The game doesn’t even feel playable on Steam Deck at its native 800p resolution, I’m afraid — the game frequently turned into a jerky mess even at lowest spec. 在原生 1920 x 1200 分辨率和中等画质下，Lunar Lake 版 MSI Claw 在芯片满载时帧率约为 40-45fps。Xbox Ally X 在其较低的原生 1080p 分辨率下帧率约为 50fps。遗憾的是，Steam Deck 在其原生 800p 分辨率下几乎无法流畅运行——即使在最低画质设置下，游戏也经常变得卡顿不堪。

But the new MSI Claw with Arc G3 Extreme gave me 60-73 fps in Forza Horizon 6 at 1200p resolution, without any of Intel’s “fake frames” frame generation turned on. It’s just one data point, but it lines up neatly with Intel’s performance claims, removing some of my doubt. 但搭载 Arc G3 Extreme 的新款 MSI Claw 在 1200p 分辨率下为我提供了 60-73 fps 的帧率，且没有开启英特尔的任何“伪帧”帧生成技术。这虽然只是一个数据点，但它与英特尔的性能声明完全吻合，消除了我的一些疑虑。

And, the new Claw did so while consuming just 43W of total system power, according to MSI’s overlay — meaning up to 1.8 hours of runtime on an 80 watt-hour battery. The Xbox Ally X consumes closer to 50 watts of total system power in its 35W turbo mode, for more like 1.6 hours of the highest performance you can get. 此外，根据 MSI 的监控显示，新款 Claw 在实现这一表现时，系统总功耗仅为 43 瓦——这意味着在 80 瓦时电池下可运行长达 1.8 小时。而 Xbox Ally X 在 35 瓦增强模式下，系统总功耗接近 50 瓦，在最高性能下续航仅为 1.6 小时左右。

Intel might offer even more smoothness and power savings if you don’t mind fake frames. Battlefield 6 looked positively buttery at 110–140fps with 4X frame gen, not that I could hold my own in multiplayer without plugging in a mouse, keyboard, and larger screen, to say nothing of latency. But that was Intel’s new chip set to 25W TDP and total power draw of just 38W, suggesting I could get two full hours of gameplay on the 80Wh battery. After my two hour session (which included some still photography, mind), the new Claw still had 29 percent left in the tank. 如果你不介意“伪帧”，英特尔或许能提供更流畅的体验和更显著的节能效果。《战地 6》在开启 4 倍帧生成后，帧率达到了 110-140fps，画面极其丝滑。当然，如果不外接鼠标、键盘和更大的屏幕，我无法在多人模式中获胜，更不用说延迟问题了。但当时英特尔的新芯片 TDP 设置为 25 瓦，总功耗仅为 38 瓦，这意味着在 80 瓦时电池下我可以获得整整两小时的游戏时间。在我两小时的体验（包括拍摄照片）后，新款 Claw 依然剩余 29% 的电量。