I think that's awesome, I like Intel ARC GPUs, yes its very expensive this new MSI handheld, unlike the Intel ARC B580 is cheap in the DIY Desktop PC gaming market, but its shows that intel still betting in the gaming market now.
This is indeed good new or at least a good trend!
Keep in mind that BOTH Sony & Microsoft have consoles that essentially have "iGPUs" stuffed into custom AMD APU's.
(like the Steam Desk that kicked off the whole handheld PC gaming market)
However unlike AMD, Intel has no Sony or Microsoft contracts that might limit what APU's they offer for OTHER consumer products that might compete with the consoles.
While a ~$1700USD handheld gaming system does not attractive at all to me if a Panther Lake APU (with a B390 iGPU!) made it into ~$800-1200USD 13-16" LAPTOP(s) they might be VERY attractive!
Surely as some of the AMD APU's with 'decent' iGPU's are making their way into inexpensive "mini-pcs" a < $500USD "mini-pc" powered by Panther Lake APU (with a B390 iGPU!) would be very attractive!!
Seems the sticks are a little on the loose side (common complaint of capacitive hall effect joysticks)
The dpad isn't the greatest but is serviceable.
The msi software is a little alpha / beta. Hope someone makes an open source equivalent similar to g-helper for Asus devices.
Let's not call consoles igpus. People might get the wrong impression. They're closer to dgpus with an icpu attached.
Originally, it was probably meant to be closer to $1.2k before the prices for everything spiraled out of control.
Despite price, it's probably still worth the premium over any z2e handheld, where driver updates are not handled by AMD or Microsoft but OEM and could be discontinued early.
You cannot get anything decent for $500. Those days are long gone and not coming back. Even heavily subsidized consoles that sell in much larger volume are around $1k now.