Earlier this year, we surprised you with a Panther Lake-equipped MSI Claw at CES, poking around where we shouldn’t have put our noses… A few days ago, this “discovery” took on more substance as we told you about Intel’s G3 chips, derived from Panther Lake and destined for portable PC consoles. An arrival on MSI-branded products was now increasingly likely, with Computex the target. Things seem to be moving ahead quickly, with leaks confirming these hypotheses.
The MSI CLAW under Arc G3 Extreme is here (Panther Lake)
Indeed, a reference bearing the name MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, has just shown up ahead of time at an Italian retailer calledOllo Store. The price may seem steep, as it’s listed at €1,599, with availability as yet unspecified. However, we all know that we’ve entered another dimension when it comes to RAM and storage. This portable console, referenced as CG3EM-013IT Void Purple, is said to be the first machine of its kind equipped with an Intel Arc G3 Extreme, a Panther Lake chip as yet unofficialized by Intel.
In terms of specifications, MSI is clearly aiming for the top of the range: 8-inch 16:10 touchscreen, 1920 x 1200 definition, 120 Hz refresh rate, 500 nits brightness, 100% sRGB coverage, Wi-Fi 7, 80 Wh battery, 32 GB memory and 1 TB SSD. In short, Claw would continue along the path laid out by its big sister, but with even more vitamins.
The most interesting part remains the capabilities of this SoC. Precisely, the Arc G3 Extreme already appears in PassMark with 14 CPU cores, divided into 2 Performance cores and 12 Efficient cores, backed up by 12 MB of L3 cache. The score reached 29,622 points in CPU Mark and 4,288 points in single-thread, but only on a single sample, so handle with care. An official presentation is expected around Computex 2026.
However, we’ll have to wait until we have the product in our hands to get a real idea of Intel’s chances against AMD’s Z2 chips.
