This brings us to one of the main attractions of any handheld gaming device: the screen. Let’s start by getting the spec sheet out of the way first… because everything interesting about this panel falls into the gaps of what it is, what it offers, and what it costs… in both time, patience and money.
The new beastly Claw 8 EX AI+ boasts of having an 8-inch IPS-based touchscreen running at 1920×1200. Not 1920x1080P. A row of 180pixels high running the full length does not sound like much but this takes the ordinary and adds in that little bit ‘extra’ to make it an extraordinary 16:10 form-factor. For many, including ourselves, 16:10 is the superior form-factor as that little bit extra grants you not only about 38% more usable screen area than a 7-inch 16:9 handheld but over 11pecercent greater pixel density than a 16:9 8-inch 1080P panel (~283PPI vs ~275PPI). Meaning it doesn’t take up much more room than a typical 7’inch but is noticeably sharper than the typical 8inch. Which is a win-win in our books.
Which, of course, leads one to ask a simple question. If 1200P is better than 1080P, wouldn’t 4K be even better? Well, yes and no. In a perfect world, it would be, and 8K would be even better still… but we do not live in a perfect world. Here in the real world, when dealing with handheld devices, pixel density is indeed king… but the queen is assuredly FPS. Basically, you want your handheld device to have a “razor-sharp” image (i.e. resolve above 1 arcminute of detail at “arm’s length”)… but you also want it to offer real-world, AAAA game frame rates high enough that you are not trying to play a PowerPoint presentation. That is the game of give & take; all handheld devices must not only play, but play to win… as 2nd place is just another way of saying first loser.
This is a game that is rather tough to succeed at, as it uses a rulebook which is the literal definition of ‘shifting goalposts’. Most people start playing with their handheld closer to their faces… and then as time goes by their arms get tired, and they naturally drop the handheld down to their lap… then after their neck gets sore they move it back up and closer to their face. Rinse and repeat, and you have most non-couch-related handheld gaming marathons in a nutshell. This well-known “ping-pong” effect means a screen has to resolve 1 arcminute at 12inches (women) to 14inches (men) on the close side and blow past it at the 15 to 20inch+ “lap” range. Thus making the 12-inch(ish) 1 arcminute requirement pretty much the worst-case scenario for these devices.
This 16:10, 1200P 8-incher resolves above 1arcminute all the way down to a rather close 12.15inches away from your eyeballs. A 16:9 its closer to 12.5inches. Allowing even most women the luxury of not seeing a real-world image difference between this 1200P vs. what a 4K screen would offer… while at the same time offering a major improvement on the frames-per-second front to everyone.
