ASUS showcased its latest (and possibly greatest, in my opinion) flagship gaming laptop on Thursday evening – the 18-inch ROG Strix Scar 18.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, ROG (Republic of Gamers) pays attention to detail when designing a device, but more on that in The Citizen’s upcoming review.
ROG Strix Scar 18 launch
This bad boy has been totally redesigned with a stunning 18-inch display, as well as the latest components and cooling.
The Citizen’s Tech Check Crew was invited to the media launch held at Mettlestate in Fourways. Say hi, Lyle!
Let’s take a peek at what’s happening under all the RGB illumination and laser-etched styling.
Key features
These features stood grabbed my attention:
Precision power
The Scar 18 is powered by Intel’s 13th Gen Core i9 (with more than enough cores and threads), as well as the GeForce RTX 40 series (4080 with 12GB of GDDR6 memory and 4090 with 16GB.
If these specs mean nothing to you, just remember this: The ROG Strix Scar 18 has enough processing power to easily handle even the most demanding games and tasks.
Memory-wise, you’d get up to 64GB of DDR5 4800MHz memory with a 50% faster data rate for seamless streaming, chatting and gaming. Simultaneously.
What sets the RTX 40 series apart from its power-hungry predecessors, is the tri-speed memory control which allows the GPU to switch to low-power RAM modes, making it as energy efficient as possible.
Overheating for what?
The upgraded cooling system features tri-fan tech with full-surround vents to endure even the most strenuous of gaming sessions.
The new, enlarged heatsink built specifically for the 18-inch laptop along with seven heat pipes increases the surface area for heat dissipation by up to 92.23%.
And like the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16, the Scar 18 is fitted with Thermal Grizzly’s Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal, but with one adjustment: the compound will keep the Strix 18’s CPU and GPU in check.
It’s all about appearance, baby
Other features include the 18-inch Nebula panel and QHD 240 hertz display for a vivid and immersive gaming (or viewing) experience.
Sadly there’s no OLED panel on this bad boy, but it has all the other good stuff: Pantone validation, DCI-P3 wide colour gamut, G-Sync, Dolby Vision HDR, etc.
And of course, this gaming laptop has enough RGB customisation options to light up a disco on the Moon, and we wouldn’t settle for anything less.
The Strix Scar 18 features a brand new light bar at the rear of the chassis by the air vents, which is of course coordinated with the per-cap keyboard lighting and the ROG slash design on the cover.
Pricing and availability
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18 will available in stores from 20 February 2023. Snag yours from the selected retailers: Evetech, Wootware, Takealot, Incredible Connection, and the ASUS eShop.
The starting price for the RTX 4080 is R79 999, and you’d need to fork out R87 999 for the RTX 4090.
There is of course so much more to discuss, but you’ll have to wait until our full review and podcast goes to live.
NOW READ:
