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Asus ROG Strix Scar 18: One-minute review
A hefty laptop in every sense of the word, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 bolsters its beefy design with high-end componentry, including a flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and an Nvidia RTX 5090 GPU. It’s an 18-inch gaming machine that’s capable of running the latest titles at the best quality.
If this blockbuster performance comes at a cost, it’s portability: the ROG Strix Scar 18’s size and weight make it a desktop replacement rather than a lightweight travel companion, unless you have a big bag and a strong back.
The speakers and trackpad feel like they could be better, but this is otherwise a solid all-in-one package for gamers (and creators) who value performance.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 review: Price & release date
- How much does it cost? $6,299 / £5,699 / AU$8,379
- When is it available? Available now
- Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia
You’re not hallucinating: the ROG Strix Scar 18 really is that eye-wateringly expensive. For that price, you are getting a state-of-the-art gaming laptop, and it’s a perfect balance in terms of CPU, GPU, and display, delivering desktop-like levels of performance in a fairly portable unit. But it’s still just so much to spend on a computer, and you start to wonder where higher prices due to tech shortages end, and sheer profiteering begins.
You could buy a lesser model (a 5070 model with 32GB RAM and a 2TB SSD is about $/£2,000 less) and add more RAM and hard drive capacity when you’ve got enough in your pension to afford them, but the GPU is fixed here, and this is arguably the most important bang-for-buck component to upgrade.
So yes, it’s extremely expensive, and extremely powerful – but whether you’re getting what you’re paying for is debatable.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 review: Specs
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Price: |
$6,299 / £5,699 / AU$8,379 |
|
CPU: |
Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX |
|
Graphics: |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 |
|
Display: |
18-inch ROG Nebula HDR QHD+ (2560 x 1600), Mini-LED, 240Hz |
|
RAM: |
64GB DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM (Dual Channel) |
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Storage: |
4TB SSD |
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Ports: |
1x 2.5G LAN, 2x Thunderbolt 5 (Type-C), 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A. |
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Wireless: |
Intel Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) 2×2 + Bluetooth 5.4 |
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Weight: |
7.27 lbs (3.30 kg) |
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Dimensions: |
15.71 x 11.73 x 0.93 ~ 1.26 inches (399 x 298 x 23.5 ~ 32.0 mm) |
Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 review: Design
- Mammoth 18-inch footprint
- Droolworthy, pixel-packed high-contrast screen
- Fun AniMe Vision display
Let’s start with the obvious: this is not a small laptop. 18 inches is basically the most humongous laptop you can buy at the moment, and it’s not exactly portable. It won’t fit into a standard backpack, and it probably won’t leave your house outside of a suitcase.
At 7.27 lbs (3.3 kg), just lifting the unit is a workout in itself, and the power brick adds another 2.2 lbs (1 kg), so you’ve got a hefty unit that you won’t be pulling out in a café, unless it has very stable tables. But it’s a gaming laptop, and portability is at the very bottom of the requirements here.
As is subtlety. Instead of at least trying to design something that gives a lighter, airier impression, Asus has leaned into an angular, beefy design language. Add in the RGB LED lighting strip around the bottom edge, and the entire thing looks like it’s about to take off and become a new target for the Rebel Alliance.
That’s not the only lighting trick the ROG Strix Scar 18 keeps up its sleeve: on the rear of the screen, there’s what Asus dubs AniMe Vision, essentially a programmable Wall Street-style ticker tape readout for your laptop. It’s monochrome, and very low-res, but it’s actually really neat: you can use Asus’ software to customize what it says, so you can broadcast scrolling messages of love or hate, depending on who you’re sitting opposite.
On the other side of this screen is the main display itself, which is thankfully higher-resolution and more colorful. Much more colorful. While not full ultra-HD, its 2.5K resolution (2560 x 1600) and 240Hz refresh rate is a perfect match for an 18-inch screen. It’s also mini-LED, which makes colors utterly pop, even from oblique viewing angles.
Asus has included a keyboard replete with enormous trackpad and full-size number pad. There’s a decent amount of depth to the keys, and while there’s no mechanical clunk, they’re responsive and comfortable enough for long gaming and typing sessions.
The trackpad doesn’t quite meet Apple’s almost supernaturally interactive standards, and it’s prone to accidental touches, but most users will likely be pairing this laptop with a mouse. The speakers, too, are a little disappointing and tinny.
On the underside of the laptop is a grill of air intakes for cooling, and this whole panel can be detached without tools so you can upgrade the RAM and SSDs. Around the edge of the laptop there’s a gamut of ports: three USB 3.2, two USB-C/Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, Ethernet, 3.5 mm headphone jack, SD card slot — no, wait, not an SD card slot, just a vent that looks an awful lot like an SD card slot. Cheeky! I would have loved an SD card slot on a laptop of this size and price.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 review: Performance
- Nvidia RTX 5090 is an absolute beast
- Phenomenal DLSS support
- Gets crazy loud in Turbo mode
Having such a huge screen works wonders here; its slightly wider aspect ratio adds a movie-like expansiveness to more cinematic games.
The test laptop we received packs an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 laptop GPU with 24 GB VRAM. Memory weighs in at a substantial 64 GB DDR5 dual-channel, and I’m never going to come near filling up the 4 TB SSD.
It has the gaming panache where it counts. 007 First Light hits 62 FPS on ultra graphics settings, with Bond’s glassy eyes melting my heart at any given opportunity. Lower the quality and the frame rates hit new heights — up to 170 FPS in 007, and it still looks really good, if a little last-gen.
Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 Benchmarks
3DMark: Night Raid: 84,346; Fire Strike: 41,166; Time Spy: 21,574; Port Royal: 14,368
Geekbench 6: Multicore: 26,101; Single-core: 2,340
Total War: Warhammer III: Mirrors of Madness (1080p, Ultra): 176.7 fps; (1080p, Low): 411.7 fps
Cyberpunk 2077: (1080p, Ultra): 129.8 fps; (1080p, Low): 149.9 fps
Dirt 5: (1080p, Ultra): 197.2 fps; (1080p, Low): 296.0 fps
PCMark 10 Battery Life: 3 hours and 3 minutes
Likewise, the hard, ray-traced light of Pragmata looks gorgeous when it hits those solid surfaces, and I was able to turn ray tracing on and hit 60 FPS at full res, which is just right. Diana’s flowing locks alone are worth the price of admittance.
Asus includes preset modes (Silent, Performance, Turbo), which can be toggled in-game with a handy function key, making it easier to unlock higher frame rates — I watched 007: First Light jump from 100 to 150 FPS (at low settings). However, Turbo also makes the fans kick in and, despite Asus’ vapor chamber cooling the whole thing becomes a bit jet engine-like.
Raw settings are only half the story now, though. Nvidia’s 5090 includes DLSS, and this is a quick and easy shortcut to match the 240hz refresh rate of Asus’ glorious panel. In 007: First Light, I can bump the settings all the way up and hit an epic 225 FPS, bringing it back to cinematic life.
I also had a quick dabble in my interminable Adobe Premier/After Effects project, and this is a laptop that’s as suited to creators as it is to gamers. 3D tracking, which was a stumbling block for my 2023 MacBook Pro, is almost instantaneous here, and it can take on 8K video timelines without missing a beat. Its game-centric looks may not please all designers, but for streamers and YouTubers it’s good to know it’s got the graphical grunt where you need it.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 review: Battery life
- Expect five hours-ish for general computing
- Drops substantially when gaming
For a high-performance gaming laptop, battery life is actually pretty impressive. PCMark 10’s battery life benchmark, which simulates general day-to-day computer use like you’re some idealized executive who’s on Zoom calls that decide the fate of the planet, came in at five hours and three minutes. Running a 1080p video on a continuous loop in VLC gave a five-hour and 18-minute result — exactly enough time to watch all three Venom movies, and, wait, there’s a third Venom movie?
Heavy gaming sessions inevitably drag the battery life down to the sub 90-minute duration, so you’re never going to want to be far from a wall socket.
Should I buy the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18?
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Attribute |
Notes |
Score |
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Features |
Outstanding display tech, with easy upgrade potential |
4.5 |
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Performance |
Desktop-grade productivity and gaming frame rates |
4.5 |
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Design |
Bold, heavy aesthetic that trades portability for performance |
4 |
|
Value |
You’ll need a wallet as large as the PC itself |
3 |
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Also consider
How I tested the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18
- Used as my daily driver computer for a month
- Tested according to TechRadar’s guidelines
- Put through its paces with games including 007 First Light, Pragmata, and Forza Horizon 6
To truly put the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 through its paces, I lived with it as my main computer for several days, testing it both as an everyday workstation and a high-end gaming battlestation. I made sure to test the system in various power profiles, monitoring the thermal performance and fan volume during long gaming sessions.
All benchmarks were run using TechRadar’s standardized testing parameters—V-Sync was disabled in the Nvidia control panel, the power mode was set to “Best Performance” in Windows, and the laptop was fully charged and plugged into its massive 450W brick to unlock its maximum potential.
