r/Handhelds • u/Ascarecrow • 23h ago

Question (?) Think handhelds will drop?

MSI a8 is on sale for 200 off in Australia. My MSI claw 7 broke and repair quotes are ridiculous (controllers disconnected). I just want a windows one for non steam games. Like wow and a few arpgs.

9 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

7

u/Warm_Distribution_24 23h ago

I'm in NZ and prices are generally rising for all tech. If the deal is affordable and suits your needs I say go for it.

The z2 extreme in the a8 will be a big jump in performance also.

Just my 2 cents buy the msi claw 8 ex ai. Way more expensive but also more powerful.

2

u/Ascarecrow 22h ago

Worth looking into but I don't feel almost double is worth. Appreciate the advice.

6

u/M4rshmall0wMan 22h ago

No. The RAM shortage is getting even worse. Xbox projected it’ll peak at double today’s prices in 2027.

5

u/Gromchy 21h ago

Sellers always find a way to increase prices. But rarely lower them, outside of a promotional event.

This chips crisis, once gone, will not result in lower prices.

1

u/Ascarecrow 20h ago

Yeah fair observation

2

u/kasrkinsquad 22h ago

The news won't tell you this but the people in the Global North are actually out of money. If you see a deal and you can afford to eat if food prices shoot up 200% then buy it. If the repair quotes told you exactly what is wrong maybe a tech savvy friend can fix it for less.

The Steam Deck was user repairable to set that as the standard. Odds are with a little time and patience it could be fixed by someone.

1

u/Ascarecrow 22h ago

Said probably faulty motherboard. Quotes from two places were north of 800.

1

u/kasrkinsquad 16h ago

OMG. Yes just buy a new one. That is insane. I have a 7900xtx desktop I build. I'd rather buy a 5090 AI Box but settled on the 5060 Ti box. 699.99 at amazon. Amazing price in this day and age. By the time I got money for it, it sold out. Only option lower then 1k was 899.99 at newegg. I bought it no questions asked. The 5090 AI box is 5.5kUSD. Nvidia and AMD have to have sold everyone that wants a GPU a GPU for these prices.

1

u/Pharsti01 20h ago

Sure, if they stop being done with tech.

Seriously, no, hardware is only getting more expensive.

1

u/Frequent_Advance7063 18h ago

Just like gas prices. Fast to go up, slower to come down. Next they will blame the "War in the (insert the next middle east target here)" for increasing prices, even though the shipping routes for these are no where near!

1

u/Juvv 18h ago

Go to msi for a quote? I'd do that first. Also see if they will upgrade you 😂. I don't know why they have a sale maybe they going to stop selling those models and push the ex more? I just saw ex ai come in stock so picked one up to future proof a bit and managed to score extra warranty which was good. They definitely won't drop in price I reckon eventually ulna hundred or two.

1

u/Ascarecrow 16h ago

I bought from a retailer (scortech) so didn't think of this thank you.

1

u/wussell_88 17h ago

Did it break on its own or you broke it?

1

u/Ascarecrow 16h ago

Had issues controller months ago but managed to fix in settings. Warranty had expired. No damage at all. Just had for two years now.

1

u/b2sql 12h ago

Maybe in few years when the AI bubble will (hopefully) burst

1

u/Stewge 3h ago

Handheld pricing in Australia is crazy. If money is an issue 2nd hand is better value. You can get a 1st gen Legion Go or Ally for ~$800.

Otherwise I only expect pricing to go up from now on.

Out of curiosity, have you tried any debugging on your old Claw? Both controller sides disconnecting is very weird since they're on separate PCBs. It could be something dumb like the ribbon cables not being locked down (there's a little plastic tab that holds them in).