Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 & Strix Scar 17 (2022)
Quality oozes out of the Strix Scar range to match the blistering frame rates – it’s the ideal choice for gamers
SCORE
PRICE Scar 15 (G533ZW-LN148W), £1,999 (£2,399 inc VAT)
SCORE
PRICE Scar 17 (G733ZW-LL093W), £2,166 (£2,599 inc VAT) from scan.co.uk
Asus loves to give its gaming laptops a fresh injection of blood every year, and 2022 is no different. Last month, we saw the 19.9mm-thick and 2kg Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 ( see issue 331, p59), and this month Asus delivered up a double treat with the 15.6in and 17in versions of its ROG Strix Scar.
Some scene setting. The Strix Scar sits at the top of Asus’s laptop gaming tree, which means no compromises. If a laptop needs to be a few millimetres thicker to squeeze in the most powerful graphics card, then so be it. That’s one of the reasons why the 15.6in version of the Strix Scar weighs 2.3kg despite containing a smaller screen than the 16in Zephyrus.
The other notable difference between the Zephyrus and the Scar is the abundance of RGB lighting that Asus scatters around each edge. Together with a Cyberpunk-style design, it’s an in-your-face machine that makes a clear statement of intent. If you can’t match that statement with your gaming skills, you may well be accused of being all style and no substance.
Take your pick
Both the Strix Scar 15 and 17 come with a choice of graphics cards. Look for a ZX suffix in the part code if you’re after a 3080 Ti, ZS for 3080, ZW for 3070 Ti (the editions we test here) and ZM for the 3060. Naturally, these scale up in price as they increase in power. For example, Scan sells the 3080 Ti version of the Strix Scar 17 for £3,399, which is a colossal £800 jump compared to the 3070 Ti.
All the new models include an Intel Core i9-12900H chip, which also featured in the ROG Zephyrus we tested last month. That’s excellent news, as this 14-core, 20-thread processor packs staggering amounts of power. Together with 16GB of DDR5-4800 memory in the Scar 15 and 32GB in the Scar 17, both machines hurtled their way through every benchmark available.
Well, they do if you activate Turbo mode, and that means plenty of fan noise. You can see the difference this makes compared to the normal Performance mode in the graphs opposite. And just to show how close these laptops are pushing desktop PCs, we print the scores from this month’s Labs-winning Chillblast Fusion Vanguard desktop PC ( see p83) for comparison.
The only blight on the Strix Scars’ copybook is the incredible speed of the M1 Ultra in the Mac Studio ( see p60), which scored over 30,000 in the multicore segment of Cinebench. However, considering the fan arrangement Apple squeezed into that machine I doubt we’ll see an M1 Ultra in a MacBook this year. Besides, the ROG Strix Scar family is built for games, and while the M1 Ultra provides phenomenal 3D acceleration, there are far fewer games available on macOS to take advantage. Yet.
Gaming gumption
The Zephyrus included a 115W GeForce RTX
3070 Ti graphics card with an extra 20W boost when needed, but the Strix
Scar range goes 15W better by including a 150W card. While this
11% advantage didn’t universally translate into a 11% increase in frame rates, there was a big jump in Metro Exodus and 3DMark Time Spy.
The graphs opposite tell that story well, but again I must flag the importance of Turbo mode if you want to extract every last ounce of speed from the silicon.
Drop the Strix Scars into Performance mode and you’ll see a significant drop-off in frame rates, although they still hold a lead over the Zephyrus.
The bigger challenge for these laptops is battery life. The best result we saw came for the Strix 17 in PCMark 10’s modern office test, which rolls machines through lightweight tasks. With the screen set to half its maximum brightness and Wi-Fi kept on, it lasted for 7hrs 42mins. That was with the screen set to 60Hz rather than its maximum of 240Hz, but this made only 11 minutes of difference so isn’t worth the sacrifice.
The Strix 15’s battery lasted for a similar time, which isn’t surprising as they both include a 90Wh unit.
Finally, on the subject of battery life, it really isn’t worth launching intense games when away from the mains, as both the Strix 15 and 17 only lasted for around 90 minutes here.
Super screens
The screens themselves are gorgeous. Some of the jungle scenes in Shadow of the Tomb Raider look genuinely realistic, such is the richness of the colour. It was little surprise to see that both panels covered 98% of the cinematic DCI-P3 space, and with phenomenal accuracy, too: an average of 0.27 for the Scar 15 and similarly exceptional 0.35 for the Scar 17.
Their only downside compared to the Zephyrus is brightness, with the 15.6in panel peaking at 343cd/m2 in our tests and the bigger panel reaching a maximum of 314cd/m2 . The Zephyrus managed 480cd/m2 . Then again, the Scar panels not only have a higher frequency (240Hz versus 165Hz) but also include a matte finish to counteract the potential distractions of overhead lights.
Both Strix Scar machines support
HDR. When they need to push up to maximum
“The Strix Scar provides no-compromise gaming power to extract every last frame from whichever graphics card you choose”
brightness for effect – in films or games that support it – then they will. You’ll have no complaint about the richness of onscreen explosions. They support Dolby Vision Atmos, too, and films look great.
It helps to have a powerful sound system to match. Effects-heavy Hollywood films squeeze every last hertz out of the subwoofers, and they’re just as happy playing violin concertos. They are loud enough to fill a small room without difficulty.
Key facts
Aside from the screen and weight, there is one other notable difference between the Scar 15 and Scar 17: the keyboard. Asus exploits the extra width of the Scar 17’s chassis to fit in a slimline number pad, with keys that are approximately two-thirds of normal width. This inevitably shifts the main keyboard to the left, with the gigantic trackpad marginally left of centre as a result. Some people find this irritating, but it didn’t bother me when typing.
It helps that the keyboard is right up there with the best you will find on any laptop. Better than modernday ThinkPads, even. This isn’t simply due to the 2mm of travel or the subtle concave finish on each key top, but the way they hit the backplate with a satisfying thunk. And there’s an ever-so-subtle cushion to their action that makes them a joy to use. My sole criticism is of the single-height Enter key.
This quality extends to the chassis, which feels as tough and rugged as you would hope for in laptops costing north of £2,000. Only the lid is made from metal, with the wrist rest a sturdy polymer – complete with a translucent diagonal cutout so you can peek at the motherboard beneath – and the bottom of the chassis a more mundane plastic.
The bottom is easy to remove (although don’t be too hasty, as two delicate strips connect the LED light bars), and doing so reveals a spare
M.2 slot. Not that you’ll have any need for immediate upgrades, with a 2TB PCIe 4 SSD in place. This tore through our benchmarks, with 5,000MB/sec reads and 2,000MB/sec writes in both laptops.
Our test Strix Scar 17 included two 16GB SODIMMs of RAM, but the Scar 15 only includes one stick. Fortunately, a SODIMM socket lies waiting if you wish to double that to 32GB at some stage.
Nor do these machines lack for connectivity. Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 connectors and a 3.5mm jack sit on the left, with the remaining key ports on the rear: DC input, 2.5Gb Ethernet, HDMI 2.1, one Thunderbolt 4 and one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port. And, on the right-hand side, Asus’s curious Keystone slot for transporting your lighting and sound effects via a physical key. It’s great to see Wi-Fi 6E here, too.
Conclusion time
It should be clear by this point that this 2022 update to the ROG Strix Scar range delivers on its promises. It provides no-compromise gaming power to extract every last frame from whichever graphics card you choose. Match that with a gorgeous screen and you have an on-the-move gaming system that will surely be the envy of every gamer you meet.
Asus then backs up these fundamentals with quality in all areas: the keyboard, the speakers, the storage setup, the networking capability.
You can only criticise these laptops for three things, and that’s their price, their size and their battery life. The first two must surely be met with a Gallic shrug – what do you expect? – and the third is an inevitable side effect of physics. A 90Wh battery can only keep going for so long.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 keeps its place as our A-List gaming laptop because it’s slimmer and lighter and costs a similar amount, but both ROG Strix Scar models are obvious alternatives if frame rates are your priority. TIM DANTON
SPECIFICATIONS
Shared: 14-core 2.5GHz (5GHz boost) Intel Core i9-12900H processor 8GB GDDR6 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti graphics 2TB M.2 PCI-E 4 SSD Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.2 Thunderbolt 4 USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2; HDMI 2.1 2.5GbE Ethernet 3.5mm combo jack 90Wh battery Windows 11 Home 1yr RTB warranty
Scar 15 (part code G533ZW-LN148W): 16GB DDR5-4800 RAM 15.6in non-touch IPS display, 240Hz, 2,560 x 1,600 resolution
354 x 259 x 27.2mm (WDH) 2.3kg
Scar 17 (part code G733ZW-LL093W): 32GB DDR5-4800 RAM 17.3in non-touch IPS display, 240Hz, 2,560 x 1,600 resolution
395 x 282 x 28.3mm (WDH) 2.9kg