ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) Gaming Laptop, 18” Nebula HDR 16:10 QHD 240Hz/3ms, GeForce RTX™ 4090, Intel® Core™ i9-14900HX, 32GB DDR5-5600, 2TB PCIe SSD, Wi-Fi 6E, Windows 11 Pro, G834JYR-XS97

Alright alright, if you’ve made it to the reviews for this machine then you may be considering spending the insane amount of money it costs to buy it. I figured I’d leave a non bias and straight forward review. I’ve been building PCs for two decades, and have had gaming laptops on and off for travel. It’s safe to say I know how the tech works on desktops and laptops. I’ve also used parts from essentially every manufacturer at this point, so I’m not here for cherry pick brands. With all that said, let’s get into the review.Design 4.5/5- The laptop is made primarily of very high grade ABS plastic that is incredibly durable, and feels good. The RGB accent bars around the laptop, keyboard, and logo are nice and have great brightness. The weight is heavy for a laptop, but that’s to be expected at 18 inches. It’s not as heavy as other top gaming laptops, but it definitely isn’t the lightest. Port access are in the expected areas (power is on the left, where as USB in on the right). So why the 4.5? Honestly it’s the ABS plastic. Sure it feels very durable and looks really nice, but compared to the metal on the Legion series, it’s not as nice. At this price point, having all plastic seems a tad cheap.Keyboard/Mousepad 5/5- Both of them feel and respond wonderfully. There is no noticeable input delay with either, and the keys, while not being mechanic, still feel exceptionally good. Typing it very easy, and I instantly found myself sinking right into the keyboard. This is by far one of my favorite keyboards in a laptop.Screen 5/5- If you’ve done your research then you know that this monster packs the best MiniLED out of any laptop into it. The only rival is the Legion 9s 3.2k miniLED and MSI Titans 4k MiniLED. However, neither of those screens having the brightness peak in HDR/SDR, and the Asus has the most backzones. Another perk is the resolution. At QHD+ (2560x1600), you are able to run games maxed out and get much more frames, and honestly, at 18 inches, you are not seeing a difference in detail between QHD+ and UHD. At 240hz and Gsync, this thing is unbelievable paired with the CPU and GPU. Honestly, at this point I am probably rambling about how good this screen is, but I must add one more thing. This is the first non OLED screen I’ve ever seen that looks better. That’s thanks to no aggressive ABL, nearly the same perceiving contrast, and ridiculous brightness. Also, I’m not sure how ASUS did it, but there’s nearly zero MiniLED blooming.GPU/CPU 5/5- This is self explanatory. I don’t feel like I need to explain why the 14900HX and mobile 4090 got 5/5 here. This machine can run any modern game maxed out and get great frame rates, that’s to be expected. I’ll add one thing in the event people are wondering. The GPU in this machine maxes out at 150w, but still pushes the same frames as other top end contenders who push there’s to 175. You can overvolt/overclock if you’d like but it’s not necessary.Temps 5/5- This laptop runs markedly cooler than its rivals (especially the Titan Pro), and it impressed me. As a desktop builder im used to the beauty of low temps thanks to AIO cooling and fans. I was surprised when I saw temperature under stress stay between the high 60s and low 80s. I have yet to see temps on either the CPU or GPU go above 90, unless I’m benchmarking.Battery 3.5/5- unfortunately the battery in this beast isn’t the best, even under lite loads such as simply browsing or doing office work. You can tweak power settings in windows and armoury create, but it doesn’t help much. Average battery life without gaming and lite work is around 1.5 hours with moderate screen brightness. If you dim it down to 20% you’ll get an extra thirty. I wouldn’t even consider doing any demanding gaming without being plugged in, unfortunately with great hardware counts great power drain. This is issue with all current top end gaming laptops, not body this one. However, it could be better while doing simple work.There you have it. Hopefully this helped you either buy it out decide to go elsewhere. For me, this thing is exactly what I want out of a mobile gaming machine.

Pros: The screen clarity and incredible color is to die for.There are so many key board command keys to adjust all kind of settings not found in regular laptops.They save time from not opening menus to make the same adjustments.Reference Info:Keyboard lighting doesn't run in all modes.This can be adjusted any way you want in the Armor Crate app which controls pretty much gaming operations. If located in a dark corner of a room, you will want to change some of the following settings below. For a beginners this would be hard to find.In Armor Crate go to: Device\Rog Stix Scar 18.Then click lighting and then settings. This brings you to "General Settings"Here will be all exterior lighting controls where you can set it up anyway you want.Cons: The keyboard lights seems to be centered on the keys which causes the upper(CTRL, SHFT & Function) characters not to be well lit. Even in the highest light settings.This should be addressed by the manufacturer.Note: This has the same footprint as a Dell 17+ laptop.So if you have that size case, you won't have to buy one.Would repurchase again if destroyed? OH HECK YES!!!

The worst out of box experience I've ever had with a new laptop. BSOD on start up, re-installation of windows was a complete PITA (disable VMD if you want your drive to be recognized), and black screens from 5090. I don't game much and was using this laptop for AI related things. I have an external monitor that is 240hz, but the screen would randomly black out. I disabled G-SYNC etc., but would crash often and freeze. I tried rolling back NVIDIA drivers etc. but still sucked. Unfortunate.

Coming from a Zephyrus M15 with a 2070 in it, this laptop blows it out of the water. It did however cost more than double, totaling at just over $4,100 after taxes. My only gripe is that their thermal paste (liquid metal) job is horrendous. After extensive research, I learned that before I even use my new laptop I should fix their job. So almost $60 later of Liquid Metal Extreme and Kryonaut Extreme (for the surrounding Vram and other chips that are cooled by the heatsink) I opened the laptop immediately after unboxing. I cleaned their mess, applied a consistent proper amount of thermal materials, and put it back together. Windows setup was a breeze with this space-shuttle of a speed laptop, and very soon I was off to enjoyment. Gaming is super smooth. Cooling thermals, and fan noise is very good I would say. The 3 system fans and massive heatsink also help immensely with quiet and efficient cooling. That's about it. Everything I've thrown at it was handled with ease. Fps on ultra everything has never dipped below 100fps on anything. So if you can swing it, this is a very nice laptop.

I've been using this laptop for nearly a year, and it's a beast. It has taken every game thrown at it and runs it with perfection on Ultra settings. It's also great for work. I can have multiple programs open and run them simultaneously without slowing down performance. The heating vents are also well placed and function efficiently. I've never had a game overheat the laptop.You may be wondering why four stars and not five, with how much I love the laptop. The screen is NOT UHD. It is QHD. They put the best video card available (at the time it was made) but then skimped out on the monitor. Why put in an 8K video-capable card but only make the monitor able to run 2560 x 1440 pixels? If we spend this much on a laptop, give us the best monitor. Also, the ten key is narrow and could have been spaced out more. I have a wireless ergonomic keyboard that handles this issue, though.