Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) review

The Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) is the largest, strongest gaming laptop computer within the firm’s arsenal, and it’s definitely not shy about its standing with its flashy exterior. Fortunately, it has loads of causes to be so proud beneath all that RGB, significantly in the case of its efficiency and show. That mentioned, a few of its flaws are arduous to disregard, even within the face of a stunning show and spectacular body charges.

For the previous a number of weeks, I’ve been testing the Scar 18’s credentials as a would-be greatest gaming laptop computer contender, and Asus has left me principally impressed. This is without doubt one of the few methods on the market that serves as a transportable desktop alternative, for higher and for worse, offering you may have the money and area for it.

ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) design

The design of the ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) is almost similar to that of final yr’s mannequin, save for a number of inconsequential aesthetic prospers. Naturally, this leaves the Scar 18 with the identical constructive and adverse qualities as its predecessor, leading to a typically good end.

Measuring in at 40cm huge, 29.5cm lengthy, and a pair of.3cm thick, the Scar 18 is an absolute unit of a system, and its imposing dimension is appropriately matched by its hefty weight of three.1kg. Nonetheless, it’s surprisingly one of many smaller and lighter 18-inch laptops to launch this yr, crushed solely by the Razer Blade 18 for the smallest desk footprint.

Regardless of its relative portability, although, you wouldn’t need to recurrently take the Scar 18 the transfer because it stays unwieldy to hold in a backpack or with naked arms, particularly with its massive A/C adapter. Its look additionally offers me pause on the concept of taking it wherever outdoors of a gaming atmosphere, because it’s nonetheless something however refined even with its RGB lighting turned off. This gained’t hassle everybody, in fact, however these after a extra refined look could be extra comfy with the corporate’s ROG Zephyrus G line of laptops.

Aesthetics apart, Asus has inarguably finished a stable job of placing collectively the Scar 18 with high quality supplies. Its aluminum lid and plastic base maintain quick towards flex and are nice to the touch, whereas its anti-fingerprint coating helps preserve smudges at bay. The semi-transparent end on the bottom is a cool contact, providing you with a peek on the internals for which you’re paying a lot, however I’d have most well-liked an identical piece of opaque aluminum or magnesium alloy for that additional premium really feel.

Whereas this materials selection is typical of cheaper 18-inch laptops, such because the Scar 18, you’re out of luck in case you’re after a fancier system, until you downsize to a 16-inch machine and swap to the Zephyrus G vary, or go for a dearer competitor.

In the meantime, typing and gaming on the chiclet keyboard is a good expertise, however I want laptop computer producers would abandon full-size keyboards in favor of a TKL structure. Doing so would liberate area between the keys for a extra comfy expertise and permit for a bigger trackpad that’s centered on the chassis. This design would additionally create room for added or alternate speaker placement, which the Scar 18 desperately wants.

Two downward firing woofers and two entrance firing tweeters make up the Scar 18’s speaker array. As a lot because the woofers ship satisfyingly thumpy bass in video games and music, the tweeters merely aren’t loud or well-rounded sufficient. This turns into extra of an issue when the fan speeds ramp up, because the audio system are positioned proper subsequent to the rear vent, muddying the already tepid-sounding tweeters.

Additionally, one minor criticism is the Scar 18’s lack of any biometric conveniences. The omission of a fingerprint scanner may very well be extra simply forgiven had Asus included a webcam able to supporting Home windows Hey, however the firm has as an alternative left the measly 720p digital camera unchanged.

ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) specs

Efficiency is the highest precedence for the ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) and it definitely doesn’t skimp on specs. It’s out there in three configurations, with the one main variations between them being the GPU and RAM. The baseline spec (G834JZR-XS96) nets you an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 and 16GB of DDR5 RAM, whereas probably the most highly effective configuration (G834JYR-XS98) doubles your reminiscence to 64GB and upgrades your GPU to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090.

For our evaluate, we’re utilizing the penultimate spec (G834JYR-XS97), with a GeForce RTX 4090 and 32GB of RAM. Identical to all the opposite configurations, although, now we have a top-of-the-line Intel Core i9 14900HX processor at our disposal (upgraded from final yr’s Intel Core i9 13980HX). The 14900HX has an similar core depend to the 13980HX, particularly 8 Efficiency cores and 16 Environment friendly cores, however all get pleasure from barely larger clock speeds to the tune of 100-200MHz.

Asus has clocked the GeForce RTX 4090 and Core i9 14900HX within the Scar 18 to run at their full TDPs, 150W and 55W respectively, for a complete mixed energy draw of 205W. Nonetheless, activating the ‘Turbo’ efficiency profile within the laptop computer’s Armoury Crate software program will feed the GeForce RTX 4090 an extra 25W to spice up clock speeds, bringing its draw to 175W and whole energy consumption to a whopping 230W. With nice energy comes nice efficiency, in fact, as we’ll talk about as soon as we get to the benchmarks.

Whereas the Scar 18’s CPU and GPU combo is implausible, although, its body charges are all the better to understand taking part in out on its new Mini LED show. That is the one different main improve from final yr’s mannequin, together with the Core i9 14900HX, and it can’t be overstated simply how a lot of an enchancment it makes in comparison with the earlier era’s IPS panel.

It is a critically gorgeous display screen to stare at for hours on finish, with the show’s splendidly huge and correct colour gamut protection of sRGB and DCI-P3 giving video games, movies, and no matter else a wealthy palette. The Scar 18 now helps HDR too with this Mini LED show, packing over 2,000 dimming zones into its 18-inch display screen, and whereas blacks and distinction aren’t fairly at OLED ranges they’re shut sufficient and far brighter to the purpose of not mattering. Mix all this with a 1600p decision and 240Hz refresh fee, and also you’re taking a look at a strikingly sharp and clean display screen.

Turning our gaze to the aspect of the Scar 18 reveals a sturdy set of ports that present loads of ports for peripherals, exterior shows, and extra. The two.5Gb Ethernet and three.5mm combo audio jack are welcome additions for many who desire a wired connection in favor of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, whereas the laptop computer’s two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-A and singular Sort-C port are prepared and ready to attach your peripherals. Pop in an HDMI or USB Sort-C DP Alt. cable and also you’ll be capable to join the Scar 18 to a second display screen.

ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) benchmarks

Our ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) benchmarks reveal that that is one critically highly effective gaming laptop computer, able to body charges that put it in the identical ballpark as a desktop Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Tremendous graphics card paired with an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

In Cyberpunk 2077, utilizing the sport’s ‘RT Extremely’ high quality preset, the Scar 18 musters sufficient efficiency to push previous the 30fps threshold with out the help of upscaling or body era. Enabling DLSS 3, nevertheless, sees the laptop computer’s minimal and common body charges skyrocket, with the latter virtually tripling from 37fps to 97fps. CD Projekt Crimson’s world additionally regarded implausible in HDR on the Scar 18.

Complete Warfare: Warhammer 3’s ‘Mirrors of Insanity’ benchmark sees the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 cell GPU and Intel Core i9 14900HX combo contained in the Scar 18 intently mirror the midrange desktop as soon as once more. The laptop computer achieves a median body fee of 68fps utilizing the sport’s ‘Extremely’ preset, proving itself greater than able to dealing with heavy simultaneous masses on each the GPU and CPU.

F1 23 unusually breaks the streak established by the earlier two video games, with surprisingly low however nonetheless repeatable ranges of efficiency. These body charges are nonetheless greater than playable and may very well be boosted additional with DLSS Tremendous Decision, however our expectations had been a lot larger than this for the Scar 18 given the opposite outcomes.

With 3DMark benchmarks additional cementing the similarities between the Scar 18’s efficiency and that of the GeForce RTX 4070 Tremendous, I’m inclined to place the onus on F1 23 on this occasion somewhat than the laptop computer. Whether or not this was a recreation or driver problem is unclear, however I’d count on to see larger ranges of efficiency following an replace to both.

Exterior of those gaming benchmarks, the Scar 18 continued to push body charges befitting its specs, with fashionable and demanding releases like Tekken 8 sustaining a rock-solid 60fps utilizing the sport’s highest settings. I additionally spent a while taking part in older video games, together with Half-Life 2, to correctly pattern its 240Hz show and the outcomes had been expectedly silky clean. The 3ms response time provided by the Mini LED show isn’t fairly as quick as what you’ll discover on an OLED, however it’s nonetheless a lot quick for aggressive gaming on the go.
With a minimum of 230W of energy working by way of the Scar 18 beneath load, temperatures naturally get slightly on the toasty aspect however by no means trigger the chassis to turn into harmful or uncomfortable to the touch. The noise ranges from the followers in ‘Turbo’ efficiency mode, although, did depart me reaching for my gaming headset so the sound of video games didn’t all blur into the identical whooshing wind tunnel.

Noise complaints apart, the Scar 18 was capable of deal with just about no matter I threw at it, and any native body fee shortfalls, as skilled in Alan Wake 2 utilizing the sport’s path tracing choices, may very well be alleviated by way of the usage of DLSS. In truth, efficiency was ok that the Scar 18 did largely exchange my desktop throughout this evaluate interval, which has a full-fat desktop GeForce RTX 4090 in it.

Taking a quick have a look at the Core i9 14900HX outdoors of gaming, its 24 cores and 32 threads make brief work of multithreaded workloads, as proven within the Cinebench 2024 benchmarks above. You’ve basically acquired a transportable Core i5 14600K in your arms right here, utilizing these scores as a measuring stick. As such, it’s an excellent stand-in for a desktop CPU if it is advisable get some substantial compute work finished on the transfer.

Simply keep in mind that extended masses will trigger the processor to thermal throttle, as Cinebench 2024 pushed the Scar 18’s processor temperature all the way in which as much as 100°C.

ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) battery

Working the ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) on battery energy is doable however not for lengthy, and we definitely don’t suggest it. Nonetheless, that is true of all laptops of an analogous caliber, whose highly effective internals can’t assist however devour even the best capability batteries.

Within the PCMark 10 ‘Gaming’ battery stress take a look at with display screen brightness set to 50%, the Scar 18 lasted a meager 53 minutes earlier than tapping out. If it wasn’t already apparent, this metric clearly illustrates that efficiency is the highest precedence for this laptop computer, effectivity and all the pieces else be damned.

Naturally,the laptop computer’s ‘Efficiency’ and ‘Silent’ modes will enhance battery life in comparison with ‘Turbo’, and the Scar 18 will final for much longer in less-demanding duties resembling watching movies or typing up paperwork.

ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) worth

The value of the ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) begins at $2,999.99, however our evaluate pattern’s configuration prices one other $900 for an eye-watering whole price of $3,899.99.

There’s no denying that the Scar 18 is dear, no matter which mannequin you select. Spending this sort of cash on a gaming laptop computer solely is smart in case you completely want a transportable powerhouse rather than a desktop. Even then, don’t overlook that choosing an 18-inch show will balloon the price even additional, and comparably specced 16-inch choices, such because the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16, will make an excellent compromise if you wish to save a number of hundred bucks.

All that mentioned, the Scar 18’s pricing places it in direct competitors with the likes of the Dell Alienware M18 R2, which prices $2,699.99 for a mannequin outfitted with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 and Intel Core i9 14900HX. Whereas the M18 R2 is cheaper than the Scar 18, the Alienware lacks a Mini LED panel and its refresh fee is way decrease, making the additional $300 for the Asus ROG Strix value spending.

ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) conclusion

Video games look and run fantastically nicely on the ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024), due to its bleeding-edge specs and wonderful Mini LED show. Had Asus put as a lot care into the standard of this gaming laptop computer’s audio, the Scar 18 would make for an audiovisual feast. Whereas this may be remedied by pairing it along with your gaming headset of selection, the poor speaker placement critically hampers the all-in-one expertise this gadget ought to competently supply.

Take your eyes off its display screen, although, and the Scar 18 feels extra antiquated than superior. Its aesthetics are divisive, significantly as extra gaming laptops lean in the direction of a extra skilled picture devoid of sharp edges, plastics, and RGB so far as the attention can see. I sincerely hope that the following iteration of the Scar 18 receives a severe makeover that trades within the gamer look of outdated for yet another becoming with the current day.

18-inch gaming laptops are sometimes described as ‘desktop replacements.’ and the Scar 18 definitely fulfills that description. Nonetheless, it’s unwieldy and beastly sufficient in each its look and stature which you can’t assist however query the worth of creating methods like this rather than extra moveable PCs. Nonetheless, in case you merely can’t abdomen the thought of downsizing to a 16-inch system, you’ll discover loads of relative bang to your buck right here.

ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) alternate options

If the ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) isn’t the precise gaming laptop computer for you, try these alternate options:

Dell Alienware M18 R2 (2024)

The Alienware M18 R2 prices lower than the Strix Scar 18 for a similar CPU and GPU specs, which means efficiency between the 2 laptops ought to be related. Nonetheless, the M18 R2 doesn’t include a Mini LED show and is accessible as an alternative with an FHD+/480Hz or QHD+/165Hz IPS panel with no HDR help.

MSI Titan 18 HX (2024)

If cash is not any object, the MSI Titan 18 HX is a decidedly extra premium gaming laptop computer than the Strix Scar 18. Its Mini LED show clocks in at a better UHD+ decision, albeit with a 120Hz refresh fee, and its total chassis is produced from magnesium alloy rather than plastic. It’s a match by way of spec too, boasting as much as an RTX 4090 GPU, however it additional enhances your gaming expertise with the inclusion of a mechanical keyboard that includes Cherry MX switches.