I have used Raycast since its early beta, recommended it enthusiastically to coworkers, and helped bring new users to it at my tech company. I happily pay for Pro because Raycast is genuinely useful, and I want the team behind it to succeed.

I would like to discuss how BYOK, local models, and custom providers should be packaged across Raycast's free and Pro plans.

The decision to make all three exclusive to Pro feels frustrating to me (even if I'm already paying for Pro). It has created a surprising amount of hostility and negative sentiment around an otherwise excellent product, leaving a sour taste in many people's mouths. However, I think there is still a straightforward way for Raycast to change course and rebuild that goodwill before it is too late.

Why this particular BYOK paywall backfired

Multiple reasons, unfortunately.

For those unaware, Raycast's official explanation for including BYOK only with Pro is that the company believes Raycast's value is as an inference layer.

While that may be true, it does not establish that every feature within that layer should require the full Pro subscription. That remains a product and packaging choice made by Raycast.

The tension becomes clearer when looking at the target demographics. BYOK primarily appeals to people who are cost-conscious, technically inclined, privacy-conscious, already paying an AI provider, or using keys supplied by their employer. These users are choosing to supply and pay for the underlying intelligence themselves.

To make this worse, Raycast Pro already includes access to Raycast-hosted models. That is exactly what makes placing BYOK inside the same bundle feel so controversial and contradictory: someone choosing to fund their own inference must still buy a subscription whose major benefits include bundled inference.

Mind you, I'm someone who actually appreciates and occasionally uses the AI models included in Pro. I consider them a major selling point. I am not asking Raycast to stop offering them, although I agree with the many people who believe there should be a cheaper Pro subscription without AI included. (Albeit I'd like to stay on topic with BYOK as Raycast team insists they don't want to do that for reasons unknown to me)

I am simply explaining why placing BYOK inside that same bundle creates a conflict in its pricing and positioning.

Finally, what made this already bad situation into the marketing disaster: BYOK was previously available to free users in v1. Because of that, this does not feel like Pro gaining new value. It feels like a previously free workflow now requiring a paid subscription. It is easily the worst possible upsell strategy Raycast could have chosen, with examples such as Pushbullet (1, 2) showing how quickly this approach can trigger public outrage and permanently damage user goodwill. "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it" - George Santayana

Free BYOK could create a BETTER path to Pro

Today's current BYOK paywall is driving users who could have upgraded in the future away to alternatives. Either because they tried it and lost it, or just seeing all the negativity/hostility around a product you worked hard to build.

The solution to this is probably a hybrid somewhere in the middle: Make BYOK partially-free. Allow Free users to use BYOK for local models/providers for basic everyday functionality such as Quick AI, chat, simple agent actions, limited screen context, and basic tool use.

Pro could unlock the more advanced interface: projects, memory, automations, advanced agent actions, cross-device sync, multi-model comparison, fallback routing, and more powerful integrations. Basically, anything that power users who are not using BYOK purely to save money would want.

This would let cost-conscious BYOK users adopt Raycast as an everyday tool, including people who might never purchase Pro merely to access their own models. As they begin relying on Raycast, the advanced features would create natural reasons to upgrade.

That seems like a healthier path to Pro than requiring the full subscription at the point of entry.

Changing course would be a sign of strength

It is okay to make a pricing decision that does not land as expected. I do not think most users would hold it against Raycast if the team said it had listened, reconsidered, and found a better division between free and paid functionality. If anything, that would restore trust.

My objection is not that Raycast cannot charge for its interface. It is that basic BYOK is probably the worst possible place to charge for the entire interface subscription.

Let essential and basic functionality drive adoption. Then charge when Raycast makes that functionality substantially more useful for Pro and power users.

I would genuinely like to hear what the Raycast team and the rest of the community think. Which BYOK capabilities should be available for free, and which advanced capabilities would make Pro worth paying for?

edit: tagging u/thomaspaulmann (Raycast co-founder). You seem like a genuinely good guy open to feedback looking for a solution to me, and as someone who loves your product, I felt it'd be better to reply your comment in proper post form to get feedback from the community as well. I put in a lot of effort, hope its useful.

Quick context so you know where I am coming from.

I have had the Clicks Power Keyboard for a while. I did not even buy it for phones, I bought it for typing on my TV and on my Windows handheld while gaming, and it is decent for that. I also tried it on my Galaxy S24 Ultra, which I think is the common case in here, and I agree with the community consensus on that: it is too heavy, the balance is bad, and it gets uncomfortable too quickly. The typing feel on its own is not good enough to pay for that, and the screen real estate you get back on a phone that size is not a big enough win either. So the tradeoff never made sense to me and I mostly stopped using it.

Then I put it on a Z Fold 8 Ultra I just purchased... and I have not taken it off.

The real estate thing is a completely different conversation on a foldable. (see pictures) On a normal phone, hiding the software keyboard gives you a strip back. On a big square screen, that keyboard was covering a gigantic chunk of the exact area I bought the phone for. I write documents on this, and I write a document while reading another one next to it. Getting that space back was a SIGNIFICANT productivity jump, not a nice to have. This is the first time I have actively wanted the Clicks attached.

Another huge surprise were the ergonomics. I was fully expecting this to be horrendous (its a huge phone, right?). If you have seen sliding keyboards on wide style foldables like the Z Fold 8 or the leaked iPhone foldable, the problem is obvious: those devices are so wide that any magnet offset from center makes them impossible to balance, and they are top heavy to begin with in portrait unfolded usage where the offset problem is least critical.

Turns out two things saved it on a square foldable though.

1. Because the magnets are in the middle of the device, there is no offset to fight.
2. Because the device is so wide when it is open, a lot of the weight actually sits over the keyboard rather than hanging off the top of it. And the part that is floating in mid air is stupidly thin and light thanks to the Z Fold 8 Ultra's design.

I want to be clear that I am not saying it feels like air. You can absolutely feel that there is a keyboard attached. But it is nowhere near as unmanageable as the S24 Ultra, where it is uncomfortable almost immediately. On the Fold it is genuinely tolerable, and combined with how much screen I get back, it turns into a no brainer for me. That is the part I did not see coming.

Things I want to be honest about:

• Qi charging is barely a feature. It works, it is just slow enough that I would never rely on it, and it is the reason for the battery, which is the reason for the weight. That is a fair complaint.
• The magnets are strong. I have a lot of confidence in them and that was never my concern.
• This probably only works because the Z Fold 8 Ultra is so thin and light. I would not expect the same on a Z Fold 6 or a Pixel Fold, which are much thicker and heavier. The Clicks Power Keyboard is already heavy on its own, so stacking it on a heavy foldable would likely bring the balance problem right back.
• The Fold has no MagSafe magnets, so you need a magnetic case for this to work at all. I use a Torras case with a magnetic ring and it holds solidly.
• I rarely use the Clicks Power keyboard if the phone is closed. It "works", but its weight distribution is way worse and there's no added screen real estate benefit. Its in the pictures for reference.

I posted this because I was fully prepared to dislike it and I ended up loving it, which is not what I expected to be writing. I still think the criticism in here is correct for regular phones. I just think this thing was quietly built for a form factor almost nobody is testing it on.

“PC is digital too” misses the entire point. PC isn't perfect, but at least it gives you options

• Multiple competing publishers (Steam, GOG, Epic, Humble, publisher stores)
• Better Prices due to Competing Storefronts
• DRM-free options and Direct Downloads
• Mods and Community patches for old/unsupported games
• Backups and Game Preservation
• Free Online Play
• Hardware continuity

Meanwhile PlayStation digital-only leaves you stuck with zero options. The console is a closed platform. Once discs are gone, Sony controls the main purchase path, the license, the account, the downloads, the enforcement, the pricing environment, the online paywall, and the future compatibility path.

That is why physical still matters. Not because discs are magical. They are not. Modern discs can be incomplete and patches matter.

But discs create consumer leverage on locked down consoles: used games, resale, lending, gifts, retailer competition, clearance sales, offline circulation, and preservation outside a single company’s store.

The problem is not digital games. The problem is digital-only with one gatekeeper.

PC has problems, but at least it has options. PlayStation digital-only removes options.

🟢 Easier to Run 2D/Less Demanding (Great for mid-range chipsets, or if battery life and thermals matter to you)

• Mina the Hollower, Gothic action-adventure with whip-fast dungeon combat
• Mewgenics, Chaotic tactical cat breeding and battle roguelike
• Hyper Light Drifter, Gorgeous neon action RPG with tight combat
• Crypt of the NecroDancer, Rhythm-driven dungeon crawler with killer beats
• Shovel Knight Treasure Trove, Epic retro action-platforming with treasure-packed quests
• Rhythm Doctor, One-button rhythm healing with infectious precision
• Animal Well, Surreal puzzle adventure full of secrets
• Scott Pilgrim EX, Stylish co-op brawler with arcade chaos
• Patapon 1+2 Replay, Rhythmic tribal warfare with infectious beats
• Minishoot Adventures, Bullet-hell twin-stick quest with Zelda charm
• Streets of Rage 4, Slick brawling with modern arcade fury
• Freedom Planet, High-speed platforming with fierce combat flair
• Disney Illusion Island, Charming co-op platforming with Disney magic
• Shantae Half-Genie Hero, Flashy shape-shifting action platforming adventure
• Skullgirls 2nd Encore, Stylish tag-team fighter with deep combos
• Bits & Bops, Snappy rhythm mini-games with playful charm
• Dave the Diver, Relaxed deep-sea sushi and adventure loop
• Fight N Rage, Brutal pixel brawler with combo-heavy mayhem
• FUMES, Muddy combat racing in a wasteland
• Spark the Electric Jester 3, High-speed 3D platforming with flashy combat
• MARVEL Cosmic Invasion, Superhero beat-'em-up across the cosmos
• Pseudoregalia, Dreamlike 3D platforming with fluid movement
• Sonic Mania, Classic Sonic speed, remixed and polished
• Easy Delivery Co, Cozy delivery runs through a surreal world

🟡 Slightly More Demanding Still Very Runnable (Should run fine on mid-to-high chipsets without needing flagship hardware)

• Dredge, Haunting fishing, cosmic mysteries, and perilous nights
• Absolum, Stylish roguelite brawling with arcane co-op chaos
• BlazBlue Entropy Effect, High-speed anime roguelite with deep combo mastery
• Cult of the Lamb, Cute cult sim with roguelike dungeon chaos
• Distance, Anti-gravity racer with precision and atmosphere
• Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Stylish graffiti skating and soundtrack-fueled rebellion
• Risk of Rain 2, Chaotic roguelike runs with escalating mayhem
• BallisticNG, Hyperfast anti-grav racing with brutal precision
• Little Kitty Big City, Charming catventure in a playful open city
• ULTRAKILL, Ultraviolent boomer shooter with relentless speed
• No Straight Roads: Encore Edition, Rhythm-fueled action adventure against a music empire
• Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, Retro boomer shooter in grimdark 40K
• Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus, Flashy ninja brawler with outrageous style
• Tunic, Charming fox adventure with cryptic secrets
• Dead as Disco, Rhythm-fueled neon brawler with undead flair
• Outer Wilds, Time-loop space mystery of cosmic discovery
• Teardown, Voxels, explosives, and ingenious heist destruction
• Superliminal, Mind-bending perspective puzzles that defy reality
• Skate Story, Skate through hell in a glass body

Edit: in the interest of transparency since people are quick to dismiss effort, no the list was not AI-generated. I actually dare you to try to come up with something like this with AI. You'll note that most of the recommendations tend to be either incredibly generic and boil down to the same exact games that everybody constantly recommends or they tend to be longer, long-form games that don't really work as great on handheld or might not be as performant. I know since I tried that. The recommendations are not games I played but games I've been adding to my wish list over the past several weeks of watching game aggregators' rankings, sales, and reviews for use on the next Steam sale. The only use of AI was to clean up some of the game descriptions and I realized that a lot of the games I was describing them as very generic terms like "action brawler" or "classic platformer", which say nothing about the actual game. As for the grading criteria of why a game made it into the list, I only considered games that were overwhelmingly positive or very positive on Steam and felt like they would feel right at home in a handheld with short game sessions. They felt like they would be power efficient to run and that they felt either underappreciated or that they belong to a gaming genre that was underrepresented. If it's a really popular game that most people know about, then it must be a game that there is a good chance people haven't tried yet because they felt that it doesn't appeal to them. I think some good examples like that are Outer Wilds or Tunic, which despite being recommended constantly, I'm still pretty sure a lot of people refuse to try them out, thinking that they're probably nothing special when that couldn't be less true. Anyway feel free to think whatever you want. Downvote if you dislike it, upvote if you find this useful. I honestly couldn't care less as long as it helps some people because I know that there's a lot of people like me that are similarly just browsing top 50 indie games of all time lists for the Steam sale and trying to find the gems that actually feel worth getting that would actually feel right at home on a handheld.

For most of my gaming life, indie games just didn't do it for me. Every time I'd fire one up on my big monitor or TV, I'd get this gnawing voice in the back of my head: why am I playing this when something actually visually impressive is right there? It's basically the same energy as Scott the Woz in his Emulation video playing SNES's Super Mario Kart on a Wii U and going "Man, I could be playing Mario Kart 8 right now and instead I'm playing this piece of sh*t." (timestamped video — trust me it's worth the watch.) That feeling of hardware/software mismatch is real, and for me it extended to indie games on any "serious" display setup.

But all that changed recently as I picked up an android handheld and started running Steam games through PC game emulation using Game Native/Gamehub...

Then Something clicked.

Indie games no longer feel like they're apologizing on a handheld screen. The pixel art and stylized 2D graphics that felt "small" on a 27" monitor look crisp and intentional on a 6" display. They feel like they were literally made for this density. And the short session structure that always made me feel like I wasn't making progress, now feels PERFECT for pick-up-and-play. I no longer get that whiplash feeling of "this looks dated compared to what this hardware could be running," because a handheld fits the vibe of the game.

What surprised me the most though: This used to only be accessible on expensive PC handhelds. But Android PC emulation in 2026 has gotten shockingly good, even out of the box with zero configuration. On a well-supported chipset (Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, 8 Elite, 865) you can expect 50–75% of your indie Steam library to boot and run flawlessly out of the box, no config tweaking. Push that to 75–90% if you're focusing on popular titles with strong community support behind them. Which I get it, its no 100%, some games will still fail to run, but its still an AMAZING starting point, and reminds me of the early days of the Steam Deck when many games didn't run but people still LOVED the device.

So!... with the Steam Summer Sale going live later today, here's my wishlist for anyone else having this same late-game realization on how great indie games are. Split by how demanding they are, since not everyone has the same chipset or thermal tolerance:

🟢 Easier to Run 2D/Less Demanding (Great for mid-range chipsets, or if battery life and thermals matter to you)

• Mina the Hollower, Gothic action-adventure with whip-fast dungeon combat
• Mewgenics, Chaotic tactical cat breeding and battle roguelike
• Hyper Light Drifter, Gorgeous neon action RPG with tight combat
• Crypt of the NecroDancer, Rhythm-driven dungeon crawler with killer beats
• Shovel Knight Treasure Trove, Epic retro action-platforming with treasure-packed quests
• Rhythm Doctor, One-button rhythm healing with infectious precision
• Animal Well, Surreal puzzle adventure full of secrets
• Scott Pilgrim EX, Stylish co-op brawler with arcade chaos
• Patapon 1+2 Replay, Rhythmic tribal warfare with infectious beats
• Minishoot Adventures, Bullet-hell twin-stick quest with Zelda charm
• Streets of Rage 4, Slick brawling with modern arcade fury
• Freedom Planet, High-speed platforming with fierce combat flair
• Disney Illusion Island, Charming co-op platforming with Disney magic
• Shantae Half-Genie Hero, Flashy shape-shifting action platforming adventure
• Skullgirls 2nd Encore, Stylish tag-team fighter with deep combos
• Bits & Bops, Snappy rhythm mini-games with playful charm
• Dave the Diver, Relaxed deep-sea sushi and adventure loop
• Fight N Rage, Brutal pixel brawler with combo-heavy mayhem
• FUMES, Muddy combat racing in a wasteland
• Spark the Electric Jester 3, High-speed 3D platforming with flashy combat
• MARVEL Cosmic Invasion, Superhero beat-'em-up across the cosmos
• Pseudoregalia, Dreamlike 3D platforming with fluid movement
• Sonic Mania, Classic Sonic speed, remixed and polished
• Easy Delivery Co, Cozy delivery runs through a surreal world

🟡 Slightly More Demanding Still Very Runnable (Should run fine on mid-to-high chipsets without needing flagship hardware)

• Dredge, Haunting fishing, cosmic mysteries, and perilous nights
• Absolum, Stylish roguelite brawling with arcane co-op chaos
• BlazBlue Entropy Effect, High-speed anime roguelite with deep combo mastery
• Cult of the Lamb, Cute cult sim with roguelike dungeon chaos
• Distance, Anti-gravity racer with precision and atmosphere
• Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Stylish graffiti skating and soundtrack-fueled rebellion
• Risk of Rain 2, Chaotic roguelike runs with escalating mayhem
• BallisticNG, Hyperfast anti-grav racing with brutal precision
• Little Kitty Big City, Charming catventure in a playful open city
• ULTRAKILL, Ultraviolent boomer shooter with relentless speed
• No Straight Roads: Encore Edition, Rhythm-fueled action adventure against a music empire
• Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, Retro boomer shooter in grimdark 40K
• Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus, Flashy ninja brawler with outrageous style
• Tunic, Charming fox adventure with cryptic secrets
• Dead as Disco, Rhythm-fueled neon brawler with undead flair
• Outer Wilds, Time-loop space mystery of cosmic discovery
• Teardown, Voxels, explosives, and ingenious heist destruction
• Superliminal, Mind-bending perspective puzzles that defy reality
• Skate Story, Skate through hell in a glass body

And if you found this helpful, return the favor! What games are YOU looking forward to getting on this Steam sale that work best on handhelds?

Since I know people will inevitably get confused by this or ignore the comments which clear things up, the QCS8550 in the Nova/Odin 2 has the same exact CPU layout/cores and GPU Adreno 740 GPU as the SM8550 (Snapdragon 8 Gen 2), but lacks the Celular Modem of the 8 Gen 2 while conserving the same exact Wi-Fi/Bluetooth capabiities. But because they have functionally the exact same architecture/performance, its commonly confused with the 8 Gen 2.

For context on why, the QCS8550 was designed as a enterprise IoT (Internet of Things) with cleaner, more long term support that's also likely cheaper to produce without the power hungry/expensive celular modem internals.

Hope this clears things up for anyone else confused. Also, for anyone else interested in the device, here's everything officially confirmed so far

• 4.5" OLED 120hz 960p screen, https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/comments/1ud2qyr/retroid_pocket_nova_specs_reveal/
• Device will use Stacked Triggers, not Inline (confusing from the pictures, but was confirmed by Retroid's Official Community Manager Representative) https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/comments/1uch2b3/comment/ot3rl0z/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
• Color Options, https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/comments/1udcdut/retroid_pocket_nova_colors/
• On Price, the most they could mention is it won't have "Second Mortage" pricing, interpret that as you will, https://www.reddit.com/r/retroid/comments/1udjeut/retroid_says_pocket_nova_has_oled_screen_without/

Hell of a generational leap... And those numbers are without Intel's superior upscaling tech (Xess 3.0 + 3-4x Multi Frame Gen + XeLL low latency) which would make double/triple any framerate number on those charts.

Also, is anyone else blown away by that 10 watt performance? Its so weird how little Intel marketed 10w numbers. Battery life will probably be absurd on this thing while playing older/indie games.

edit: In case I might be sending the wrong message: this is still a $1,800 handheld. And even if it somehow broke the laws of physics and had the performance of a PS5 Pro or RTX 5090, realistically its still way too much money for a gaming device and not even being on people's radar if you already own a Z1E/Z2E. Though the Intel Arc G3 + OLED $1,399 ONEXPLAYER 3 poses a wildly different value proposition that does completely shake up the market for devices like the Legion Go 2.

Having said that, regardless of what your feelings are towards price, Intel game compatibility or Frame Gen, it is impossible to deny how impressive Intel's achievements are in the hardware/software space of handheld gaming are as of late. Despite being so late to the party. And that despite AMD had such an early strong lead, their rate of innovation in the hardware/software side compare to Intel leaves a lot to be desired.

IMHO that is what we should be focusing on, how much this innovation will improve affordable handheld options in the future once prices come down, and how this heat could finally force AMD to treat its users better and innovate (Just like Valve forced Microslop to improve Windows after decades of enshittification with Xbox FSE with Steam OS).

Are we finally getting a new ultimate EDC, actually pocketable handheld?!

One thing this hobby doesn't talk about enough is how rare it actually is for a handheld to get better after launch in any meaningful way. I own a LOT of these things: Retroid, AYN, Anbernic, a couple of Windows handhelds, a Steam Deck, etc. And the pattern is almost always the same. Device drops, community figures out what it is, it finds its place, and that's it. The version that shipped is the version you own. Meanwhile the next wave of releases is already being announced and the cycle starts over.

Which got me thinking... actually, that's not quite true. There are exceptions. Devices that broke that rule so hard that looking back at their launch discourse almost feels surreal compared to where they sit in recommendation threads today. I want to talk about three of them, because I think the stories are genuinely fascinating and don't get nearly enough credit in a hobby that's always already moved on to whatever dropped last week

Apologies ahead of time for the wall of text or lack of formatting, I preferred to go with this rather than use AI to butcher its content or my writing style.

The TrimUI Brick

Nobody would have blamed you for passing on the Brick at launch. Stock OS was functional but frankly... kind of ugly? Reviews called its buttons and ergonomics everything from "imperfect" to "awful." It ran warm enough that some people listed heat as a dealbreaker. And for a device that wasn't dirt cheap at launch, it was easy to look at it and think: not yet.

What saved it was that none of those problems lived in the hardware. The hardware was always solid (specially that sharp/vibrant/bright screen and industrial people loved enough to ignore its ergonomics), it just needed the software to catch up. And catch up it did, in ways that honestly nobody could have predicted at launch. NextUI started as a humble MinUI fork and then just... kept going. We're talking a built-in artwork scraper, cover art display, a game switcher, theming support, an internal updater so you barely need to touch the SD card anymore, RetroAchievements support (offline, no less) overlays, shaders, Wi-Fi integration, dynamic CPU scaling, game time tracking... At some point it stopped being a MinUI fork and became a genuinely serious contender for the best custom firmware you can put on a small handheld, full stop. People who were asking "does this thing even have a good OS?" in late 2024 are now having nuanced debates about the OG Miyoo Mini has been dethroned as the ultimate EDC handheld.

The AYN Thor

The AYN Thor had a very particular problem at launch that most handhelds don't have to deal with: the thing that made it interesting was also the thing people were most afraid of. A dual-screen Android clamshell from a company that is totally not related to a certain other company (Retroid) with a history of cracked hinge handhelds. Hell, people weren't asking whether the performance was there or whether the price was fair, they were asking whether it would physically survive six months of use. And underneath that was the quieter discourse: what if you don't care about DS/3DS games? Won't the second screen be just a gimmick?

Thankfully, neither of those fears really materialized. The hinge catastrophe that dominated pre-launch discourse never became the defining story (for now). But what nobody anticipated about the AYN Thor is that the "gimmick" turned out to not be a gimmick. Before it shipped, the assumption was that you'd buy it, use the dual screens for DS and 3DS emulation, and eventually realize you were carrying around extra hardware for a niche use case. That's not what happened. What actually happened is that people got it in hand, started using both screens, and had the kind of realization that's genuinely hard to walk back from. A game guide permanently open while you play. A map/keyboard that doesn't cover the game. A video running in the background during slower sections of an RPG/turn based game. These aren't DS features, they're quality of life upgrades that work on literally everything, and once you've had them it's almost impossible to go back to a single screen without feeling like something's missing.

The community around the Thor has been one of the more remarkable things to watch in this hobby over the past several months. Custom launchers, dedicated companion apps, tool ecosystems built specifically around the dual screen workflow, the kind of community infrastructure that only appears when people are genuinely invested in a device long term. Hell, even the clamshell feature which people dismissed as a durability concern became its defining feature offering the protection it needed to be a device you can just chuck anywhere without the bulk of a case.

The MSI Claw 8 AI+

This is IMHO the most dramatic case here by a mile. At launch, the Claw 8 AI+ didn't just have to be a good handheld, it had to rehabilitate Intel's entire handheld reputation while people still had the first Claw's failure fresh in their memory. All while launching at an eye-watering $1,199. Credit where credit is due, The spec sheet was legitimately impressive. But almost EVERYTHING around it wasn't. MSI Center M was a consistent buggy and prone to crashes. Intel drivers caused constant game compatibility and performance issues. And almost everyone buying it based on the impressive spec sheet alone would quickly return it with an accompanying post on why the software experience was abysmal. So what changed?

Well...what actually changed the Claw's story isn't one update, but the RATE of updates. Intel has been shipping driver fixes at a pace that genuinely has no comparison in this space. GamersNexus tracked the numbers in late 2025 and found Intel pushing roughly double AMD's driver output in the same window, sometimes with hotfixes dropping just days apart targeting specific bugs. For a company that was a total laughingstock in GPU drivers just a couple of years ago, that cadence is almost hard to believe. And it wasn't just volume, it was intent. Each update was closing SIGNIFICANT gaps: game compatibility, stability, crashes, the control software going from genuinely embarrassing to something you can actually use without wanting to throw the device across the room. The people sitting on AMD Z2 Extreme devices in 2026 waiting months between meaningful updates are watching Intel ship what amounts to a new and improved product every few weeks.

The other thing that almost nobody is talking about is that Lunar Lake basically predicted the future at launch. Intel built this chip obsessing over performance per watt at low power limits, specifically in that 17W range where most handheld gaming actually lives. At the time, people compared it to AMD's Z1 Extreme and said "it's fine, nothing special." Then the Z2 Extreme launched and AMD's entire marketing pitch was how dramatically it improved 17W efficiency. Essentially validating everything Intel had already designed around. And as if that was not enough, Intel just kept going, shipping XeSS 3 with multi-frame generation as a free driver update to first-gen Intel Handheld owners, meaning Claw 8 AI+ buyers got 2x, 3x, sometimes 4x frame multipliers dropped into their existing device at no cost, in games that already supported XeSS 2, with no hardware change required. You're talking about potentially doubling your framerate by downloading an update. AMD has nothing close to that on the Z2 Extreme right now and won't for a while (even more so with the news FSR 4 might not be coming to handhelds). Saying the Claw 8AI+ is aging like fine wine would be the understatement of the century, even more so now that the EX version is releasing and Intel's software update strategy shows no signs of slowing down with an upcoming UI redesign and who knows what other things in their pipeline.

The End

Anyways, that's it for me. Are any of these devices perfect? Course not! There's plenty of excitement and situations where I would still consider a Retroid Classic, Xbox Ally X and Odin 3/RP6 a way better buy than those. I just found it incredibly neat that these 3 completely different devices all shared one thing in common: the version that exists today is nowhere close to what shipped, and the people who stuck with them got considerably more than they paid for. In a hobby that moves this fast and forgets this quickly, that's genuinely rare. Worth appreciating when it happens.

So I'll throw it back to you: what handheld has genuinely shocked you with how much it's improved since launch? What device are people sleeping on right now that deserves a second look?

Its a much simpler + enjoyable life, really.

Even if the chipsets in my devices are capable of so much more (Snapdragon 8 Elite + 8 Gen 2), its so much more fun to stick to to playing popular indie/older 3D games than recent ones.

Processor runs cool, battery life is amazing, fans are silent, and games run out of the box by default with zero tweaks due to overwhelming community support.

Like...I know I could be running way better looking games, but its always at the cost of some janky a** experience with framedrops and Android UI freezing due to a lack of resources, horrible battery life + thermals + fan noise, alongside even more bugs/crashes due to straining the device by running things that it clearly wasn't designed for.

Bro forgot the cameras were live

Nothing celebrates loyal consumers more than anniversary editions priced so expensive only scalpers and rich people who won't even play them will buy.

Source: RIP AMD ROG Ally: Intel Handheld G3 Technical Discussion, ft. Tom Petersen | Gamers Nexus - YouTube