Price of MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ laptop is revealed at US$1,799 and company predicts ‘difficult year’ with upside risks By Carolina Costa
3 min read
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The recently launched MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ notebook had its market value announced by the company at US$1,799. However, on other platforms such as Newegg, the same model can be found for US$1,699. The device stands out for incorporating the new Intel Arc G3 Extreme APU, an integrated Arc B390 graphics card and 32 GB of LPDDR5X memory. Taiwanese manufacturer MSI reported having made considerable efforts to contain expenses, warning that the next year will be challenging, with the possibility of further increases in product costs.
Andy Chu, MSI’s director of product marketing, stated in an interview that “this is a particularly difficult period for Intel and especially for original equipment manufacturers like us”, justifying that the company also needs to absorb increases in the values of essential components such as memory and storage. Unsurprisingly, DRAM and NAND prices have soared in recent months, and the supply chain has struggled to meet demand.
When comparing the current scenario, most consoles have reached the market with higher prices than at launch, including the Steam Deck, which was seen as a bastion of accessibility. The OLED version of Valve’s laptop, for example, costs US$949, even with previous generation hardware. The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ promises a significant improvement in performance, which, in a way, justifies its price alongside its competitors. The ROG Ally X, powered by the Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor, retails for $999 and positions itself as AMD’s strong rival to the Arc G3 Extreme in the flagship segment.
Chu reiterated that “all we can say is that we sought all alternatives to acquire memory and storage at lower costs. This included improving relationships with our suppliers and closing certain negotiations.” However, he considers that “we did everything in our power to make our system as accessible as possible.” This difficulty is accentuated when the so-called hyperscalers, large technology companies, monopolize the production of these components, offering more advantageous profit margins to manufacturers.
There is a certain irony in promoting a product with the “AI+” seal, at the same time that the company publicly laments the consequences of the artificial intelligence boom on production costs, but that is a digression. “Unfortunately, I believe the situation and the result are what you observe. So I would say yes, it will be a difficult year for us and the players,” warns Chu. Although we have received several warnings from different companies, it is disheartening to see that the situation seems to be becoming increasingly uncontrollable in the market.
The executive also warned about “a lot of room for another price increase”, indicating that the current price of US$1,799 could be increased in the coming months. To give you an idea, notebooks equipped with AMD Strix Halo processors cost more than US$2,000, being considerably more powerful machines. Although less common, there are also laptops with Panther Lake processors available for less than $2,000, offering a diverse competitive landscape in the segment.
It is important to highlight that the Claw 8 EX AI+ proved to be an efficient device and impressed during practical tests at Computex. As Intel is focused on launching the Arc G3 Extreme at the moment, there was no cheaper Arc G3 alternative to use in this notebook. While Intel has set specific memory speeds for Panther Lake, MSI could have considered reducing the capacity to 32GB to make the notebook cheaper, offering configurations with 24GB or even 12GB of RAM.
