Lighting up the way to victory
Sleekness, strength and stealth...does this flagship gaming laptop have it all?
Gaming is bigger than ever and is transitioning from what was a very niche market to a segment that’s in demand by more consumers. So, it’s no wonder that legacy gaming lineups such as Asus’ Republic of Gaming (ROG) lineup is having its moment in the spotlight. I’ve been hooked on to its latest laptop — AsusStrix SCAR 16 and here’s how it fares.
DESIGN
Gaming vibes are on from the getgo! The RGB lighting touches all over the laptop making it look really edgy. The aluminium lid has a ROG staple slash motif and an RGBbacklit logo.
The chassis is made from light, durable plastic and feels sturdy enough to handle the daily wear and tear of commuting. Weighing in at 2.65 kg, the laptop is by no stretch of imagination light or portable. Coupled with a hefty power brick, it fares better as a gaming workstation on my desk rather than a portable gaming laptop. I personally found it hard to find a backpack that was able to accommodate this laptop with the other gadgets I carry — a wireless mouse, an SSD, plus chargers.
DISPLAY
The laptop features a 16inch QHD+ 16:10 (2560 x 1600) antiglare Mini LED display with a refresh rate of 240 Hz and a response time of 3 milliseconds. Out of the box, colours looked great with 100 per cent sRGB coverage and a Pantonecertified display to boot. Watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix was the best multimedia experience I’ve seen on a gaming laptop, with wellsaturated, crisp contrasts on the screen.
SOUND
The laptop features quad speakers with Dolby Atmos support. The two tweeters and two woofers onboard were great during gaming, giving a sense of immersive eeriness while playing in dark areas in Resident Evil 2. When it came to ingame vocals, background sounds were clear and audible making the Strix SCAR 16 an ideal laptop for gaming. However, the laptop does fall short when it comes to audio output of multimedia content. While listening to songs like Maroon 5’s Sugar and Ed Sheeran’s Shape of
You on this setup, the acoustics felt a bit shallow with low vocal volume on the builtin speakers. With gaming, it didn’t sound so shallow and the overall experience was a mixed bag.
PERFORMANCE
The Asus Strix SCAR 16 features the latest Intel Core i9 processor 14900HX 2.2 GHz (36M cache, up to 5.8 GHz, 24 cores/32 threads) at up to 65W TDP along with a 16 GB RTX 4090 laptop GPU and 32 GB of RAM, and this is the best configuration one can get at this price range.
On CineBench R23, it scored 1,990 points topping the CPU (Single core) and 24,729 on CPU (Multi core) placing it second before AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX. This by no stretch is an underpowered machine.
The 16 GB 4090 laptop GPU represents the crème de la crème of gaming GPUs and delivers the best performance while gaming on ultra settings. I was able to get a steady 5060 FPS at 4K resolution on Halo Infinite and 30 FPS on Sniper Elite.
BATTERY PORTS
The AsusROG Strix SCAR 16 has the right assortment of ports including a Thunderbolt 4, a DP1.4 for external displays, a USB 3.2 Gen2 TypeC, an HDMI 2.1, a 2.5G RJ45 Lan jack, an audio combo jack on the left and two USB 3.2 Gen2 TypeA ports on the right side of the laptop.
One good thing is that the USBC ports support output from the dedicated GPU. So you would be able to make the best use of the dGPU to output to a 4k monitor and enjoy gaming in 4K. The keyboard with its RGB zones and key travel of 2mm was ideal for strafing runs while fighting the Covenant on Halo Infinite. The trackpad was just adequate in the time I used it and does feature a virtual number pad. The laptop was able to last about 3.54 hours when running basic tasks and browsing YouTube videos and social media. On the other hand while gaming, it lasted for about 1 hour unplugged.
The device has a 330watt power brick which can charge the laptop’s 90 Wh battery in two hours. There is also an instant charge feature that let me quickly charge the laptop from 0100 in an hour, once a day, which could be useful before a lastminute road trip.
CONCLUSION
The AsusROG Strix SCAR 16 offers the best when it comes to performance and specs. My review unit with its particular specs comes with a price tag of nearly ₹3,29,000, although the series begins at a lower price point mentioned below. However, with an average sound system, it also faces competition from the likes of the Dell Alienware m16R1 and the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i which offer similar specs in the same price range.
SNAPSHOT
Price: ₹2,89,990 onwards Pros: Ultimate performance, great display, extensive port options
Cons: Not lightweight, average sound