Meet ASUS ROG Strix Scar 16 2024 - Well rounded gaming laptop?

Let's take a closer look at the recently launched ASUS ROG Strix Scar 16 2024 gaming laptop for only PHP 214,000 only.

ROG Strix SCAR 16 2024 with 2.5K Nebula HDR display

The new laptop is now available in the Philippines. The unit we received carries the Intel Core i9 14900HX, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, 16GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, a 16-inch 240Hz ROG Nebula HDR display and a 90WHrs Li-ion battery.

As mentioned above, it is priced at PHP 214,000 in the Philippines

Let's dive in.

Meet ASUS ROG Strix Scar 16 2024 - Well-rounded gaming laptop?

ROG Strix SCAR 16 2024 packaging

The laptop comes in a tall gray box with ROG Strix Scar branding, key specs, and regulatory information.

Box inclusions Part 1

Box inclusions Part 2

Inside the box are the laptop, ROG Gladius III Mouse P514, 100W USB Type-C AC adapter, 330W AC Adapter, Armor Cap, and documentation.

Top design

The first thing we noticed about the laptop is that it has that desk presence. 

It is made predominantly of a combination of metal and polycarbonate. The design takes advantage of its boxy design and its sharp corners by adding aggressive angular design elements to add texture while integrating ventilation, branding and regulatory information. 

It measures 13.94 x 10.39 x 1.2 inghes and weighs only 2.65Kg.

The top cover has the ROG branding in silver while majority of it is in black. It has a reflective diagonal line with republic of gamers on it. On the hinge area is the replaceable Armour cap.

Bottom view

At the bottom reveals the massive ventilation integrated with the diagonal pattern. It has a several raised areas that prevent the bottom from sitting flush on the desk or surface. This aids in ventilation.

Hinge design

Upon opening, we noticed that the hinge of this device was solid and reinforced. The top part opens smoothly with just enough resistance to not fold back down. It passed the one-hand opening test too.

The side and top bezel are the size we expect on a laptop in 2024. The chin bezel is thicker to accommodate the branding too. On the top bezel is a protrusion that has the 720p webcam.

ROG Strix Scar 16 2024's chiclet-style keyboard

It has a decent chiclet-style keyboard with a complete Function key row and extra keys for audio, fan control and playback. Each key has a decent enough travel and resistance that make each 'tock' somewhat satisfying.

Each key is also individually RGB lit which allows for a unique and mesmerizing light show.

Trackpad 

The trackpad is massive and it features ASUS's unique Numpad integration. It has the advantage of the large trackpad is that it'll be easier to do gesture controls.

It has four speakers, a Smart Amplifier technology and a built-in array microphone. It is Hi-Res certified (for headphones) and supports Dolby Atmos. The microphones also come with the ASUS AI noise-cancelling technology.

Left and right sides

On the left are exhaust ports, a power-in port, an ethernet port, an HDMI port, two USB-Cs, and the 3.5mm combo audio jack while on the right side are two USB-A ports and another exhaust port. It does not have a card reader.

This allowed us to plug in multiple devices at the same time including the wired mouse included in the box, external storage, ethernet cable and another Monitor via HDMI or via USB-C.

ROG Nebula HDR display

Talking about its screen, the laptop has a 16-inch Mini LED ROG Nebula HDR display with a 2,600 x 1,600 resolution, a 240Hz refresh rate, and a 3ms response time. It features anti-glare, G-Sync, Pantone Validated, and Dolby Vision HDR support.

This is one of the faster yet beautiful displays we've used that could be good for work and play. In a clutch situation, it can be good enough for content creation.

The colors pop. The text and icons are crisp. While the viewing angles are consistent too.

Multi-tasking

The 16-inch size allows for a decent split-window experience.

We noticed that the panel was comfortable after several hours of gaming. However, it is still best to game in a well-lit environment.

At 80 to 100 percent brightness, it is usable for outdoor use. The anti-glare was able to reduce the majority of the reflections but stronger light sources tend to overpower it.

For audio, the speakers are more than loud enough for a laptop of this size. There was distortion at maximum volume though.

Thankfully, it has a 3.5mm headphone slot that outputs a fairly neutral-sounding sound on my favorite headphones.

The brand claims that it has AI noise-cancelling technology for microphones allows for better call experiences. From our short experience with the laptop, it did a decent job of isolating our voice when in a call.

Intel and Nvidia-powered

In terms of performance, it is a powerhouse for a 16-inch laptop. It scored 8,771 in PCMark10 and 4,014/40.15 fps in 3DMark Steel Nomad.

PCMark10 Benchmark results

3DMark Benchmark results

Based on our experience with the Scar 16, the laptop handled all of our content consumption, research, writing, image processing, video editing and gaming without a hitch when plugged to the wall. The graphics and video editing take a hit when running on battery.

SSD Read and write speeds

The internal SSD also yielded peak speeds of  7.15GB/s in reading and 6.53GB/s in writing speeds.

It is safe to say that you can probably throw demanding games and tasks on the Scar 16 and it will be able to take it. We played Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and Helldivers 2 on the laptop and we were getting consistently 60 to 120+ fps. The laptop's temperature did get warm. We recommend playing in a cool environment and placing the laptop in a well-ventilated position to keep the temperatures at acceptable levels.

We even tried running apps like Discord, Google Chrome with multiple tabs, and Spotify while playing a game. The 16GB DDR5-5600 RAM is fast and plenty enough so we were transitioning between apps nearly instantaneously. If you will be handling heavier files for video editing or mass photo processing, you may need to upgrade the RAM capacity.

This overall performance is great. One of the better ones we've tried this year yet.

The laptop's network performance is generally stable and fast since it uses WiFi 6E. When connected to my WiFi 6, download and upload speeds are impressive.

The range is also good with a minimum of 4 signal bars in our house with a near whole home WiFi mesh setup.

Up to about 1.5 hours of battery life when gaming!

For battery, it uses a large 90WHr 4-cell Li-Ion battery. In our tests, it can last for about 1.5 hours of gaming. It will last longer with lighter tasks such as web surfing and music streaming.

It comes with two wall chargers. The main 330W wall charger and the 100W USB-C travel charger. With the 330W power adapter, the laptop can get 50 percent of charge in 30 minutes. It will take longer for the 100W charger.

Keeping its performance in check is a combination of the Tri-Fan technology, Full-Surround vents, 7 heat pipes, Full-width heat sink, and Conductonaut Extreme Liquid Metal that the brand claimed to be up to 15 degrees cooler CPU and GPU temperatures. In our experience, when playing the heavier games, the temperature area around the keyboard warmed up minimally but the bottom area of the laptop was noticeably warmer. The fans do get loud when the workload causes it to get really hot.

Windows Desktop with ROG wallpaper

The device runs with Windows 11 Home with Office Home and Student.

Armory Crate PC status gauges

Aura Sync settings

Preinstalled is ROG's Armory crate all-in-one app where relevant metrics performance and quality-of-life settings can be viewed and tweaked.

It also has the granular controls for ROG's RGB Aura Sync.

ASUS ROG Strix Scar 16 2024 Specs

Display: 16-inch ROG Nebula HDR WQXGA Display w/ 2,560 x 1,600 resolution at 188 ppi, 240Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time and Dolby Vision HDR support

CPU: 2.2GHz 10nm Intel Core i9-14900HX 24-core 32-threads processor with up to 65W TDP

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU with 175W ROG Boost and 12GB GDDR6

RAM: 16GB DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM, expandable up to 64GB and with Dual Channel support

ROM: 1TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD

Selfie Camera: 720p AI

Battery: 90WHr 4S1P 4-cell Li-ion Battery w/ 330W AC adapter and 100W USB Type-C AC travel adapter

OS: Windows 11 Home

Connectivity: WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 1x USB-C 3.2, 2x USB-A 3.2, 1x RJ45 LAN, 1x HDMI 2.1, and 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack

Others: AURA SYNC, Power button, face unlock, Backlit Chiclet Keyboard Per-Key RGB, Touchpad, Support NumberPad, 4x speakers with Smart Amplifier Technology, Built-in array microphone, AI noise-cancelling technology, Hi-Res certification for headphones, Dolby Atmos, ROG Intelligent Cooling (TriFan technology, Full-surround Vents, 7 heat pipes), and Microsoft Cortana near field/far field support

Dimensions: 35.4 x 26.4 x 2.26 cm

Weight: 2.65 kg

Price: PHP 214,000

Quick thoughts

ROG Strix Branding

The ROG Strix Scar 16 2024 is a beautiful laptop with a futuristic and aggressive design while having some heavy firepower performance.

In particular, it has high-performing hardware like a fast, immersive, and non-fatiguing display, specs that can handle heavy work and hard playing games.

The addition of RGB LEDs adds to the overall feel. The ability to customize the lighting through AuraSync is great too.

So far, my concern is the pricing. It is not for everyone at PHP 214,000. But if you want one of the better performing 16-inch gaming laptops with a sleek profile, RGB, powerful raw performance and dual 100W/330W wall chargers, then there isn't a lot that can compete with it in the Philippines currently.

What do you guys think?