The MSI Claw A8 arrives this month for £850, but I'm fearful of its US price

The MSI Claw A8 officially has a release date, or at least that's the case for the UK. While there are no US listings for the best gaming handheld contender yet, British retailers now have pre-orders live for the portable. That's great news, right? Well, maybe, but only if you're cool with paying £850 for one.

Available to pre-order now for $849.98 at Scan UK, the MSI Claw A8 is one of the first "next-gen" handhelds with a Ryzen Z2 Extreme to hit the scene. The fact that it's set to launch on September 17 means it will beat the ROG Xbox Ally X to market, and could be worth a look if you're looking for a Windows 11 handheld that'll gain the same console perks.

MSI Claw A8 | £849.98 at Scan UK
Scheduled to launch on September 17, Scan UK is one of the first retailers with pre-orders live. The US should eventually get some listings, and I'd personally keep an eye on Best Buy, but global pricing is still somewhat of a mystery.

US: Check stock at Best Buy

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The Claw A8 is pretty beefy in terms of specs, packing that aforementioned AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme, 24GB LPDDR5X, and a 1TB SSD behind an 8-inch 1080p 120Hz display. Premium touches like hall-effect joysticks and an 80Wh battery also help put it on par with the Asus ROG Ally X. But, £850 isn't a price trend I remotely want to see continue, and the US equivalent could be way too expensive for most players.

I am fully aware that the Claw A8's US MSRP will likely not simply be the US price converted to dollars. That would result in the handheld coming in at around $1,150, which would be frankly bananas. However, since the existing MSI Claw 8 AI+ comes in at $999 in the US and £899 in the UK, we might end up looking at similar figures for the Ryzen Z2E version.

Grumpy pricing observations aside, the Claw A8 is set to be a pretty punchy portable that'll absolutely take the fight to the Xbox Ally X. Theoretically, both handhelds should be serving up similar frame rates since they're rocking near identical specs, but the Asus device will have day one access to Microsoft's new Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR) tricks that'll leverage the Ryzen Z2E's Neural Processing Unit (NPU).

I'd say the real kicker here is that gaming handhelds are simply getting more expensive. You have options like the Steam Deck OLED still shadow boxing in the sub-$500 corner, and the closest it ever gets to a price punchout is when the Asus ROG Ally gets and the Lenovo Legion Go S gets a price cut.

What I will say is that if you're itching for a new handheld that's under $500 and is pretty close to the base Xbox Ally, I'd seriously consider the Legion Go S right now. It's down from $729.99 to $499.99 at Best Buy right now, but the price cut applies to the model with 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD. Therefore, it already has Asus' console-flavored device beat on raw specs, and it should eventually end up with the same optimised Windows 11 perks.

• More gaming handhelds at Best Buy
• MSI Claw Claw A1M | $649.99 $389.99 at Best Buy
• Legion Go 8.8-inch | $699.99 at Best Buy

Already go Valve's portable? Swing by the best Steam Deck accessories and best Steam Deck docks to improve your handheld setup. Alternatively, take a peek at the best retro consoles if you'd rather stick to the classics.