The first thing you notice about the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 is the AniMe lights. The pixelated LEDs (also found on devices like the ROG Phone 9), flowing in a rhythm from a back strip like a scar streaked dashingly across a warrior’s eye, let you know what you’re in for before you even crack open the lid. The Strix Scar 18 is a fine gaming laptop with plenty of enticing qualities and one major flaw. But what makes it so appealing isn’t the dancing lights that are only attractive to moths or gamers; it’s what’s underneath the chassis that makes this 18-inch laptop so damn accessible.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 18
It will distract you with all the gamer lights, but the Strix Scar 18 has some great thermals and repairabilty features that puts it over the top.
Pros
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Solid performance for specs and price
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Repairability enhanced with toolless bottom panel
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Thermal design keeps heat away from hands
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Nice, glare-resistant display
Cons
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Keyboard flex is a concerning design flaw
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Smudge-prone palm rest
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Like most gaming laptops, battery life sucks
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Higher MSRP compared to last-gen model
The $3,400 laptop model Asus sent me for review included the top-end Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 laptop GPU. With 32GB of DDR5 5600 RAM, I didn’t encounter an application this desktop replacement-sized mobile PC couldn’t handle at the max resolution of 2,560 x 1,600. Performance was exactly what I expected from the CPU and GPU combo with the device plugged in. At its suggested retail price, it’s a little more expensive than the HP Omen Max 16 I recently reviewed, which has the same screen resolution in its slightly smaller frame. The refreshed Strix Scar 18 is also more expensive than the last-gen model, a change that likely came after Trump slapped his tariffs on imported goods earlier this year.
I saw the refreshed ROG Strix Scar 18 when Asus showed it off at CES earlier this year. More than that, I’ve felt it with the ROG Strix 17 laptop with an Nvidia RTX 3070 that I use at home. Each key is familiar. The chiclet keyboard doesn’t have the feel anywhere close to a mechanical typing machine, but there’s enough travel to make each press substantial. Even the palm rest has that same satin, smudge-prone texture that’s neither uncomfortable nor particularly pleasant to lean on. If I had one big complaint, it’s the amount of keyboard flex I could feel toward the center of the device, especially nearest to the trackpad. It makes the device feel far more brittle than it actually is. Thankfully, the rest of the chassis makes up for that flaw through smart engineering.
What’s most impressive about the laptop is its ability to stay cool under pressure. The Strix Scar 18 makes use of three fans and an end-to-end vapor chamber. The air gets pulled in from the bottom and sides and is expelled out the rear of the chassis. The keyboard remained at a perfectly reasonable temperature even when running multiple games for hours on end. The only area of the device that could get warm was closest to the screen, where no reasonable gamer would stick their fingers. Under load, the Strix Scar 18 will sound like a box fan running on high speed next to your ear. It’s not loud enough to totally eclipse the laptop’s speakers, but the hum will be noticeable enough without a good pair of noise-canceling headphones at the ready. The placement of the I/O ports also meant my mouse hand never felt toasty. The device comes with just enough I/O to save you from immediately jumping for a port dock. There are three USB-A 3.2, a LAN port, and two Thunderbolt 5 ports that support DisplayPort to accompany the single HDMI 2.1. The only thing missing is an SD card slot for all the creative types who—for some reason—want dancing LEDs on the back of their laptop lid.
See Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 at Amazon
© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo
© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo
Most gaming laptops of this size demand to be plugged in constantly, and the Strix Scar 18 is no exception. Even while on silent mode doing casual work, I only got a little less than four hours before the laptop was begging me for more juice. Off power, running the machine on performance mode for the sake of gaming, you’d be lucky to get two hours of battery life, or closer to one hour for games that demand higher power draw. The 90Wh battery proved it wasn’t enough for a beast of this size, and you’ll need to lug around the 380W power brick if you plan to take the device from room to room.
Asus spent most of its engineering time developing the Strix Scar 18 refresh, focusing on what was happening underneath the big keyboard. Asus secretly made the Strix Scar 18 one of the more easily customizable gaming laptops available today. The bottom panel comes off with a single switch to reveal the battery, RAM, and SSD. The motherboard and other components are still concealed with a plastic frame that is held on by screws. My model had an easily accessible second slot that would only require me to plug in another solid-state drive to potentially double my storage.
I’ve had to open up previous ROG Strix laptops after I encountered a fault that wouldn’t boot the laptop, and that proved an hour-long chore just to unseat and reattach the battery. The quick-release switch will make it easier to clean out dust and keep your device running better for longer. Sure, it’s not as customizable as a Framework laptop that lets you replace the entire motherboard if you so choose. But compared to most other gaming laptops, this design is so enticing; I wish all other laptops would go this route.
That won’t necessarily mean you’ll be able to replace other CPU components sometime in the future, but with the specs on my review unit, I wouldn’t imagine needing any kind of CPU or GPU upgrade for a long while. I ran my usual benchmarks across the usual gamut of synthetic tests, games, and rendering tasks. The laptop performed exactly as expected. It was worse than the Omen Max 16 when using that laptop in its overclocked mode, but the Strix Scar 18 will grant you more than playable frame rates in demanding games from Cyberpunk 2077 to Lake’s with a bevy of ray tracing options enabled. You won’t get the absolute peak of performance without an RTX 5090 installed, but considering those prices, I still believe the RTX 5080 is the GPU gamers really want.
The rest of the specs are exactly what you expect from a modern $3,400 gaming laptop. The mini-LED display is plenty bright and colorful. The display has a special layer that keeps reflections and glare to a minimum, even in direct sunlight. Even with Dolby Vision for HDR support, for the amount you’re paying, I still miss the inky depths of an OLED display. The display can support up to a 240Hz refresh rate, which means that your games playing at up to 240 fps will look their best, though it lacks variable refresh rate, or VRR, to ensure there won’t be screen tearing issues or other visual glitches in games running far below that.
I’ll admit, the ROG Strix Scar 18’s overt lighting and huge, empty keyboard didn’t leave the best first impression. Once I dug into it—literally—I discovered this may be one of my favorite laptops of the year and a contender for your best choice of an 18-inch desktop replacement device. It’s got the screen, sound quality, and feel you need to contain your gaming all-in-one. More than that, it shows Asus is pushing repairability a little further through small innovations to the rear panel. Let’s keep pushing in that direction, and maybe we’ll come to a point where we can buy a single laptop and not have to spend another $3,400 a few years down the line.
See Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 at Amazon
