MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ Review: Great Power, Shocking Price
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ Review: Great Power, Shocking Price
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ 评测：性能强悍，价格惊人
THE GOOD Powerful chipset delivers phenomenal results. Endurance Mode delivers hours of gaming without a major performance hit. Sturdy build quality. Excellent ergonomics.
优点 强悍的芯片组带来了卓越的性能表现。续航模式（Endurance Mode）可在不牺牲太多性能的情况下提供数小时的游戏时间。机身做工扎实，人体工学设计出色。
THE BAD It costs how much?! Same endless barrage of updates as most Windows-based gaming handhelds. Conflicting OS interfaces need streamlining. No OLED screen.
缺点 价格竟然这么贵？！与大多数 Windows 掌机一样，需要面对无休止的系统更新。操作系统界面存在冲突，亟需优化。没有配备 OLED 屏幕。
How much do you love high-end PC gaming on the go? Can you put a price on that love? Is that price $1,800? If so, MSI has the handheld for you: the Claw 8 EX AI+, an all-powerful addition to the Taiwanese manufacturer’s Claw range.
你有多热爱随时随地进行高端 PC 游戏？你能为这份热爱标价吗？这个价格是 1800 美元吗？如果是的话，微星（MSI）为你准备了这款掌机：Claw 8 EX AI+，这是该台湾厂商 Claw 系列中性能极其强悍的新成员。
It’s unusual to lead a review on price, but at that figure, it dominates the discussion. It’s so expensive that it makes the premium ROG Ally X, which I knocked for its $1,000 MSRP, look like a bargain. You could buy three regular ROG Ally units for the price of one MSI Claw 8 EX AI+. It even blows past the launch price of the Lenovo Legion Go 2, a previous contender for “most expensive handheld” with its then-$1,350 MSRP.
在评测开头就谈论价格并不常见，但在这个价位下，它成为了讨论的焦点。它实在太贵了，以至于我之前批评过定价 1000 美元的 ROG Ally X 在它面前都显得像个“便宜货”。买一台 MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ 的钱足够买三台普通的 ROG Ally。它甚至超过了联想 Legion Go 2 的首发价格，后者曾以 1350 美元的定价被视为“最贵掌机”的竞争者。
The Claw 8 EX AI+’s price isn’t (purely) due to the greedy jaws of capitalism gnashing down on poor, innocent gamers. Like everything else in tech this year, the extraordinary sum is down to the AI bubble constraining component supplies and driving up prices even on existing hardware (the aforementioned Lenovo is now close to $2,000). An MSI spokesperson confirmed this, telling me the MSRP was “based on component and production cost considerations.” When a gaming handheld is as powerful as this, those components don’t come cheap.
Claw 8 EX AI+ 的高昂定价并非（完全）是因为资本的贪婪在压榨无辜的玩家。和今年科技界的其他产品一样，这个惊人的价格归因于 AI 泡沫导致零部件供应紧张，进而推高了现有硬件的价格（上述联想掌机现在的价格也已接近 2000 美元）。微星发言人证实了这一点，并告诉我其建议零售价是“基于零部件和生产成本考量”制定的。当一款游戏掌机拥有如此强悍的性能时，其内部组件的成本自然不菲。
Portable Powerhouse
便携性能怪兽
So, what do you get for your nearly two grand? Quite the beast. The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ (hereafter referred to as the Claw) is a flagship for Intel’s powerful new Arc G3 Extreme chips. It packs a whopping 32 GB of LPDDR5x RAM, 1 terabyte of SSD storage, and an 8-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS touchscreen with a 120-Hz variable refresh rate (VRR), all powered by a massive 80-watt-hour battery.
那么，花近两千美元你能得到什么？一台真正的性能怪兽。MSI Claw 8 EX AI+（以下简称 Claw）是英特尔全新强悍 Arc G3 Extreme 芯片的旗舰载体。它配备了惊人的 32GB LPDDR5x 内存、1TB SSD 存储空间，以及一块 8 英寸 1920 x 1200 分辨率、支持 120Hz 可变刷新率（VRR）的 IPS 触摸屏，并由一块巨大的 80Wh 电池供电。
It’s practically covered in ports—two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, a microSD slot, and even a 3.5-mm audio jack. It’s relatively future-proof, allowing you to upgrade the SSD (if they’re ever affordable again), with Wi-Fi 7 support.
机身接口非常丰富——两个雷电 4 (Thunderbolt 4) USB-C 接口、一个 microSD 卡槽，甚至还有一个 3.5mm 音频接口。它具备相对较好的未来扩展性，支持更换 SSD（如果未来价格回落的话），并支持 Wi-Fi 7。
It’s all crammed into a “Void Purple” shell that impresses with a premium feel. An etched micro-texture offers a secure grip, while the Xbox-standard control layout is within easy reach for most players, although the four menu and system buttons flanking the screen may require a stretch. Analog sticks (encircled with LED light halos, naturally) and shoulder triggers are built with Hall effect sensors for improved accuracy and long-term resilience and offer a nice degree of resistance when pressed. The chunky, angular D-pad feels great too, although its concave shape may take a moment to get used to, and its glossy plastic picks up microscratches easily.
所有这些硬件被塞进了一个“虚空紫”（Void Purple）外壳中，质感高级。蚀刻的微纹理提供了稳固的握持感，Xbox 标准的按键布局对大多数玩家来说触手可及，尽管屏幕两侧的四个菜单和系统按键可能需要稍微伸展手指才能按到。摇杆（自然带有 LED 灯环）和肩键采用了霍尔效应传感器，提高了精度和耐用性，按压时手感阻尼适中。厚实且棱角分明的十字键手感也很棒，尽管其凹陷的形状可能需要一点时间适应，且其亮面塑料材质容易产生细微划痕。
Although it’s running Windows 11 under the hood, the full-screen Xbox Mode takes the lead, giving a unified view of games installed from any storefront. The Claw lacks a dedicated Xbox system button, but with two mappable rear grip buttons, it’s easy enough to assign one. Given that you can install any other client, I set the other as a Steam menu button, useful for shortcuts when running Steam’s Big Picture Mode.
虽然底层运行的是 Windows 11，但全屏的 Xbox 模式占据了主导地位，提供了一个统一的视图来管理从任何平台安装的游戏。Claw 缺少一个专门的 Xbox 系统按键，但由于有两个可映射的背部按键，分配一个功能非常简单。考虑到你可以安装任何其他客户端，我将另一个按键设置为 Steam 菜单键，这在运行 Steam 大屏幕模式（Big Picture Mode）时非常实用。
Despite the Claw’s 785-gram heft, its ergonomics and weight distribution compensate wonderfully. It outweighs both the Steam Deck and the ROG Ally X, but I found it much more comfortable to use, even for protracted play sessions. Advanced haptics also impress, with a nice sense of feedback accurately representing on-screen action.
尽管 Claw 重达 785 克，但其人体工学设计和重量分布极好地弥补了这一点。它的重量超过了 Steam Deck 和 ROG Ally X，但我发现它用起来反而更舒适，即使是长时间游戏也不易疲劳。先进的触觉反馈系统也令人印象深刻，能够精准地模拟屏幕上的动作反馈。
The screen is great, but not amazing. The IPS panel delivers a crisp, clear image with brightness up to 500 nits, but at this price, I’d hope for an OLED panel to make colors really pop. That 120-Hz VRR ensures a smooth image at least, and the 16:10 aspect ratio gives a subtle but noticeable bit more real estate to your games.
屏幕表现不错，但称不上惊艳。这块 IPS 面板提供了清晰锐利的图像，亮度高达 500 尼特，但在如此高的价位下，我更希望看到 OLED 面板以获得更鲜艳的色彩。120Hz VRR 至少保证了画面的流畅度，而 16:10 的长宽比也为游戏提供了额外的一点显示空间。
I wasn’t initially a fan of the screen extending below the “shell” of the unit, but it’s a clever design, serving as a kickstand to let the handheld stand vertically. This is surprisingly useful if you want to connect the device to an output dock for TV play. I used an OWC Thunderbolt Go dock, and while it’s not as elegant or secure as sliding a Nintendo Switch 2 into its caddy, it means the Claw can fit neatly into a media unit. Just pair a game controller and you’re good for big-screen gaming.
起初我并不喜欢屏幕延伸到机身“外壳”下方的设计，但这是一个巧妙的构思，它充当了支架，让掌机可以垂直站立。如果你想将设备连接到扩展坞进行电视游戏，这非常有用。我使用了 OWC Thunderbolt Go 扩展坞，虽然它不像将 Nintendo Switch 插入底座那样优雅或稳固，但这意味着 Claw 可以整齐地放置在媒体柜中。只需配对一个游戏手柄，你就可以在大屏幕上畅玩游戏了。
Arc de Triomphe
凯旋门（Arc 芯片的胜利）
The real star of the Claw is Intel’s new Arc chipset, which delivers phenomenal results. The Arc G3 Extreme is built around Intel’s Panther Lake architecture, which offers a massive performance increase over the preceding Lunar Lake chips. It’s significantly faster than pretty much any other chip in a PC handheld, and Intel’s XeSS—Xe Super Sampling, its answer to Nvidia’s DLSS or AMD’s FSR—can improve performance further with smart upscaling and frame generation.
Claw 真正的明星是英特尔全新的 Arc 芯片组，它带来了卓越的性能表现。Arc G3 Extreme 基于英特尔 Panther Lake 架构打造，相比之前的 Lunar Lake 芯片性能有大幅提升。它比目前几乎所有其他 PC 掌机芯片都要快得多，而英特尔的 XeSS（Xe 超级采样，即英特尔对标 Nvidia DLSS 或 AMD FSR 的技术）可以通过智能超分辨率和帧生成进一步提升性能。
The result is that the Claw offers notably better performance than the ROG Ally X—although some fiddling with settings may be required. On Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered in handheld mode, with graphics settings at High, I could get 90 to 120 frames per second (fps) with XeSS enabled at full 1920 x 1200 resolution, with no discernible impact on latency. Docked and outputting to a 4K OLED TV, I managed to get a reliable 60 fps at 4K resolution.
结果就是，Claw 的性能明显优于 ROG Ally X——尽管可能需要对设置进行一些调整。在掌机模式下运行《漫威蜘蛛侠：重制版》，将图形设置调至“高”，在开启 XeSS 的情况下，以 1920 x 1200 全分辨率运行，帧率可达 90 到 120 fps，且对延迟没有明显影响。连接扩展坞输出到 4K OLED 电视时，我成功在 4K 分辨率下获得了稳定的 60 fps。
Performance varied on a few other demanding games. Crimson Desert yielded about 65 fps without XeSS—entirely playable and a testament to the handheld’s power—but well over 100 fps with the feature enabled. Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight surprisingly turned out to be the most volatile title tested; with settings at High played in handheld mode, I got roughly 100 fps with XeSS on, but as low as 20 fps during speedy driving sections of the game. Docking the Claw for TV output again, it nosedived to an unplayable five frames per second.
在其他几款高负载游戏中，性能表现各异。《红色沙漠》（Crimson Desert）在不开启 XeSS 的情况下约为 65 fps，完全可玩，证明了该掌机的实力；开启该功能后则超过了 100 fps。《乐高蝙蝠侠：黑暗骑士遗产》出人意料地成为了测试中最不稳定的游戏；在掌机模式下开启“高”画质和 XeSS，帧率约为 100 fps，但在快速驾驶场景中会掉到 20 fps。再次连接扩展坞输出到电视时，帧率更是暴跌至无法游玩的 5 fps。