The first-ever portable gaming laptop which never holds back when it comes to capturing gamer’s attention, The Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 is a new exciting model that embraces gamer aesthetics. After putting out a series of such laptops offering a sleek, even bland style – which means you can still use them as a serious take-it-to office laptop without getting to worry about whether you are going to look ridiculous while carrying it or not – well, this one though is strictly a gaming laptop in terms of power and looks.
Having at first glance you will instantly notice the beautiful RGB lights, faceplates which can be customized, as well as a portion that is see-through just like those 90s gaming consoles. The Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 carries a big arsenal with some of the most powerful hardware used for gaming, among them a super-powerful AMD Ryzen 9 5900 HX 8-core processor which is overclocked – for power, Nvidia RTX 3080 GPU – for graphics, and a 300Hz 1080P screen panel – for display. These are some of the fastest and finest specs for a laptop!
With great specs comes a great price. A very great and rather high price. This machine will cost you a whopping 2,999 bucks. It is straight away unaffordable for most of us but for those who want the killer specs – this laptop is the one.
The ROG Strix SCAR 17 from Asus, however, is a whole wonderful gaming package. It is not as sleek and compact as the Razer Blade Pro 17, but it surely comes packed with state-of-the-art portable hardware. This one has a swift 1080p display with a 300Hz refresh speed and 3ms processing time. It is vivid and colorful. The screen is not 4K compatible, but 1080p is a decent call here, we think. The RTX 3080 laptop GPU cannot smoothly run the graphically-intensive 4K games with the ray tracing feature turned on. However, at 1080p, it is a piece of cake for this laptop.
Its mechanical optical keyboard is also one of the finest we’ve seen on a laptop. It makes typing on this computer not only a delight, but while playing games you can also see the benefit.
All in all, the performance of this gaming laptop is fantastic – one of the finest gaming experiences nowadays is offered by this laptop. It’s awesome to be able to play every new game and peddle down each set to the max. Be warned though because when the fans kick in – things do get loud.
The battery life is not perfect, of course, not an enormous surprise here. but, nowadays we have been expecting more battery timing from gaming laptops.
To sum it all up, for those who can afford the soaring price tag of this laptop, without a doubt this might be the best gaming laptop for them.
Given below is the full spec sheet of this beast:
- Connectivity: Intel Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax); Bluetooth 5.1
- CPU: 3GHz AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX (8-core, 16MB cache, up to 4.6GHz)
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU (16GB GDDR6)
- Ports: 3 x USB 3.1 Gen 1, HDMI 2.0b, Gigabit Ethernet, 1 x USB-C, 1 x Mic-in, 1 x Headphone-out
- RAM: 32GB DDR4 (3,200MHz)
- Screen: 3-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) IPS, 300Hz
- Size: 55 x 11.10 x 0.92 inches (39.5 x 28.2 x 2.83 cm)
- Storage: 1TB SSD (PCI-e)
- Weight: 95 pounds (2.70kg)
Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 – Price and Availability
As soon as we got our hands on this machine, we knew that a lot of people won’t be able to buy it easily. The AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, Nvidia RTX 3080 16GB laptop GPU, 32GB RAM, and optical-mechanical keyboard are amazingly impressive, and it also has a 17.3-inch 1080p display with a 300Hz refresh rate. This beautiful blend of power comes at a hefty price tag of 2,999 bucks.
We just can’t recommend it to most people at this price, though. It should also be noted that RTX 3000 laptops are currently difficult to buy due to the shortage issues and therefore this pushes the price bar for the laptop even higher.
But with specs like this, know that you are about to have one of the most elite-level gaming laptops in the whole wide world right now – this is worth the money for some people. It is also a perfect laptop for creating content and post-editing stuff, with this kind of arsenal alongside 32GB RAM. The high price gets leveled out if you perceive this laptop not for only gaming but for professional work too.
However, you should know that the display of this laptop like the Razer Blade Pro 17 – lacks the hundred percent Adobe RGB coverage. If you are a budget-oriented gamer, we will frankly recommend you to stay away from this laptop because even the variants having RTX 3060 and RTX 3070 GPUs are still pretty expensive.
Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 Design
The design and look of the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 is indeed the USP of the laptop. The word ‘gamer’ comes to your mind as soon as you look at it. The design speaks for the product. In this case, the design is open and obnoxious, full of RBG lights, blunt edges, and a personalized ‘Armor Cap’ in the left corner. This armor cap can be replaced for other colors too, or you can just print your own 3D armor cap design and have whatever logos or titles you want.
A part of the keyboard surface is transparent, which allows you to look down at the components. It recalls certain consoles from the 1990s and early 2000s – the special edition ones. It’s bold, nerdy, perhaps a little tacky – but, we know you will love it!
The Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 is not ashamed to show itself as a gaming laptop. Just pull it out at a party or an event – people will instantly turn their head towards it, they will know that you mean business! In terms of ports, the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 G733 is well-equipped. There are two USB-A ports and an audio jack on the left, but no ports on the right. Instead, there’s more RGB lights and a flashing ‘Keystone‘ port. The ROG Keystone is an NFC stick that holds personalization settings and can open an encoded and protected ‘Shadow Drive’ for you to store your data in a secret space on your laptop.
This would only be of concern to those who are deeply involved in the ROG community and have a variety of compatible tools. But for those who are not – they might view this feature as nothing but a waste of space.
Also, the majority of the ports are mounted on the rear side of the machine. So, a USB-A port, a USB-C port, HDMI, and Ethernet can be seen clearly at the back. The power source slot is also situated at the backend of the laptop.
There is a decent range of ports that are provided in this model, but the positioning of all the ports around the rear end isn’t ideal, particularly for the USB-C port. It almost seems that the design decision was taken in a hurry – without being pro-consumer like the other models in the market.
This time the design team has made the RAM and memory upgrades of Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 much easier than any other gaming laptop – It’s amazing. So, in a couple of years, you will be able to install new memory components if you find that the output of your current one is lagging – or you run out of disc space and do not want to uninstall any of your old games.
The Asus ROG Strix 17 does provide a certain degree of versatility to improve the performance of the laptop, though you cannot change/upgrade the GPU or the CPU, arguably the two most critical components for gaming performance.
The keyboard is another aspect of architecture that we loved. It is definitely by far one of the finest we have ever seen on a gaming laptop – with switches that are optical-mechanical and 1.9-millimeter travel, which makes it satisfying and responsive to type on the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17.
Naturally, you would probably play more and type less with Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17, which also works well. The keyboards on several other gaming laptops kind of blowback, which sometimes sound like an after-thought decision. But, you will love Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 if you’re somebody who has found yourself plugging an external keyboard on a gaming laptop.
The laptop screen is shiny and vivid and the bezels are impressively slim. However, these thin bezels come at a price; no integrated webcam exists. An external webcam with your favorite features can be brought and installed.
The absence of a webcam is normally not a problem and even though streaming live is becoming common nowadays while playing games, you will still buy a better webcam for the best possible output.
However, it’s not just gaming alone. Now we live in a world where we work and learn from home and stay in touch through video conferences. The absence of an integrated web camera would prevent many of the users from using the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17. You can surely buy one, but it is not as practical as the built-in one, and it proves to be an unnecessary cost while buying it. keeping in mind the fact that this thing costs around 3,000 bucks.
In all, the Asus Rog Strix SCAR 17 fascinates its users by its design elements and we’re not only talking about the RGBs and aesthetics but the optical-mechanical keyboard that can make a difference in gaming will be appreciated by many gamers.
However, it is difficult to attract several people since certain ports are placed at the rear side of the laptop and the webcam is missing.
Here’s how the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 scored in the benchmark tests:
- 3DMark Night Raid: 45,116; Fire Strike: 23,950; Time Spy: 10,740
- Battery Life (movie test): 4 hours 43 minutes
- Cine-bench R20: 4,261
- Geek-bench 5 Single-Core: 1,008; Multi-Core: 6,882
- Metro Exodus: 84fps (1080p, Low), 84.62fps (1080p, Ultra)
- PC-Mark 10 Battery Life: 4 hours 11 minutes
- PC-Mark 10 Home: 7,198
- Total War: Three Kingdoms: 9fps (1080p, Low) 87fps (1080p Ultra)
Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 Performance Review
The Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 is one of the first gaming laptops to come loaded with the RTX 3000 Nvidia’s recent laptop GPU series, and the variant we have been reviewing comes with the RTX 3080 Laptop GPU.
When paired with a Ryzen 9 5900 HX and 32GB overclocked 8-core RAM processor, theoretically, this is by far the fastest and the most powerful machine that you can buy from the market right now.
The best part is that now the output of the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 is up to its promised standards, and it smoothly plays with all the graphics settings turned up to the max.
On average, a whopping 84.62 fps on Ultra settings was scored while trying out the Metro Exodus which is perhaps a graphically challenging game for laptops. This beast, however, delivers a marvelously stable and visually stunning gameplay performance. The Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 features an Nvidia RTX GPU, hence, it also allows you to achieve advanced lighting effects with the help of ray tracing. But remember this feature might affect the overall performance of the laptop.
DLSS assistance from Nvidia uses artificial intelligence to improve the image cleverly so that you can gain much higher efficiency without noticing significant effects on graphics quality.
Moreover, with the 1080p display, you will be able to play almost every new game at the highest possible setting and still have a maximum of 60 fps with the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17. For those who don’t know, when the frames are higher per second, it makes the game more fluid and responsive.
A 300 Hz refresh rate screen is provided for the system we tested. As such, you can even reach higher frame rates in older or less graphically extensive titles, enjoying smoother, more reactive gameplay. This is particularly essential for intense multiplayer games, and we believe that this machine will help you in improving your gaming skills with the 3ms response time, and the beautiful optical-mechanical keyboard.
The Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 delivers one of the best gaming experiences on a laptop as of right now. Bear in mind that the systems within the laptop work tirelessly while you are enjoying your games and that the cooling fans spin up to keep it all calm. The sound of the fans can be somewhat distractive.
We have found that once the laptop lid is closed after a gaming session if the laptop is plug-in the LEDs would continue to blip. It may be distracted too, but it’s nothing that cannot be fixed with a few tweaks.
Windows 10 works brilliantly daily. The 32 GB of RAM makes this an amazing multi-tasking laptop, so it is perfect for content developers or people who want to play while streaming live. Although if you are buying this laptop only to play games, the excessive amount of RAM might be overkill.
The Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 comes with Crate’s Armoury features like other Asus ROG laptops. This application helps you to adjust different settings, including RGB lighting, fan speeds, and electricity usage of your system. As a result, if the fans get too loud or if your hardware needs a boost to create some more frames, you can do so by tweaking around in the application. It is one of the best examples of pre-installed apps and can be very helpful.
Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 Battery Life
Battery life has always been found to be the desired factor in gaming laptops, especially in Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 models that give priority to output above all else. This is because of the energy which is used by the state-of-the-art components; nevertheless, we have lately seen some models that last nearly an entire day on a full charge.
Regrettably, one such variant is not the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17. The Laptop just gave us 4 hours and 43 minutes as we evaluated our battery test with a looped 1080p video at 50 percent brightness. Even though you are using it for a comparatively non-intensive job like enjoying a movie while you’re on a flight – the laptop’s battery will not last long enough and you will have to plug it in.
We just never felt comfortable while running Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 G733 for some amount of time away from the wall sockets. Even after adjusting some preferences, namely shifting to the optimized AMD Radeon visuals, this laptop’s battery capacity still drained easily.
It shouldn’t come as a shock and in certain ways, it’s the cost of owning such a strong, powerful, and versatile laptop. That being said, there are brands available that demonstrate that low battery capacity is not a trade-off you would make for new gaming laptops.
Final Thoughts
The Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 has become one of the most versatile gaming laptops available right now, capable of handling any modern game. Its style is unabashedly bold – and while it will not attract each and everyone, if you’d like a gaming laptop that could draw attention with its vibrant RGB lighting, this may be the one. Consequently, the price is outrageously high and would be difficult to explain to certain consumers.
PROS
- Brilliant mechanical keyboard
- Cool design
- Excellent performance
- Very powerful
CONS
- Design won’t be for everyone
- Expensive
- Poor battery life
Buy this if and only
- You’re looking for one of the most efficient gaming laptops. Hitting with an overclocked 8-core AMD Ryzen 9 processor and Nvidia RTX 3080 laptop GPU (plus 32GB of RAM), the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 provides the performance that other gaming laptops cannot match.
- You place a premium on keyboard quality. The keyboard on the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 is one of the finest we’ve ever seen on a laptop. Mechanical keyboards aren’t popular in gaming laptops, but this makes us wish they were.
- You adore your gaming accessories. We know that the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 style isn’t for everybody, we adore its overtly ‘gamer’ appearance. If you feel the same, go for it!
Don’t buy it if
- You have a narrow budget. The Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 is not only one of the best and efficient gaming laptops available, but it is perhaps one of the costliest. There are several less expensive versions available.
- You need a laptop with good battery life. The Asus ROG Strix SCAR 17 has a battery life of fewer than 4 hours. It does not apply to many people, but if you want a laptop that you can work on without being plugged in, this isn’t the laptop for you.
- You want a silent laptop. This laptop produces a lot of noise, particularly when executing intense tasks or playing games. You can adjust the configuration to reduce fan sound but you might want to avoid the system getting too hot and clamping of output.