ASUS ROG Strix Scar 16 (2024) Gaming Laptop, 16” Nebula HDR 16:10 QHD 240Hz/3ms, 1100 nits, Mini LED Display, GeForce RTX 4080, Intel Core i9-14900HX, 32GB DDR5, 1TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro, G634JZR-XS96

Decent, if overpriced laptop. This 2024 version has an Intel 14900HX CPU and the nVidia RTX 4080 laptop GPU w/12GB DDR6 video memory, 32 GB DDR5 SO-DIMM system memory; comes with 1TB SK hynix NVME SSD, I added a second NVME myself (Samsung 990Evo 2TB) for storage. The screen is nice, high refresh rate but only 16" so a come down from my desktop system's large 4K. Nonetheless, it looks great. Some minor scaling issues, but that was software based and seems to be solved. Heat has been an issue, so I got a laptop cooling 'pad' w/ 2 fans and it's doing better. Seems to run cooler, just noisy (but wearing headphones I hardly notice it). If it's throttling at the higher temps, I haven't noticed it in performance during gaming. I used it a lot at the beginning, but then switched to my desktop when I upgraded that (finally). Still, I'm glad I have it for when I have to travel. I've not had any failure so far.

EDIT: The issue of the keyboard that I mentioned below turned out to be catastrophic. To summarize a long story, the CPU area overheats which overtime melts some parts of the keyboard above it causing the middle keys around D-F and 5-8 to become dysfunctional. Then you go to ASUS official repair places listed on their website but they cannot fix it because the assembly palmrest top + keyboard is no longer available. And the keyboard itself cannot be replaced without the whole assembly due to being attached together by melted plastic rivet pillars. If you cut these to put the new keyboard in place nothing will hold that keyboard. CONCLUSION: you buy an amazing pricey laptop only for it to become unusable and unrepairable due to a few $1 keys. Outrageous! Don't make the same mistake. - This is a great laptop with potential issues because it packs A LOT of power in very little space, and at that point it starts to push the limits of physics in terms of cooling and even interference! I run it on Linux Slackware and managed to put 2x48GB of DDR5 in it, and 2x8TB NVMEs. 96GB of ram is beyond the specs and I originally wondered why they only support 64GB officially. You won't believe what I discovered after WEEKS of struggling with memtest86... The reason why only 64 is supported is because the 2 dimms are too close from each other and you sometimes get a single bit-flip due to interferences between the 2 dimms! I know this seems insane but I reproduced that many times. Then I placed a thick piece of copper between the 2 dimms and I could never reproduce. Just imagine how far we've come with speed so that bits can jump from a dimm to another... Then there's the heating of the CPU/GPU, and yes you have to be careful and things can easily get unstable if you don't have the right combination of kernel and drivers, which personally took me forever to figure out, with all sorts of strange bugs and crashes under load. So overall, I would only recommend it if you actually need that performance, because if you don't you may want to buy something more forgiving that will be easier to keep stable under load. CONS NUMBER 1: The keyboard cannot be replaced. Mine started having trouble with the keys 7 & 8 (registers multiple times or none when I press them). I found the keyboard online and ordered it from China, only to realize that the keyboard in this laptop is held in place with a metal plate that has plastic rivets melted to the front plastic panel, so yes you could replace the keyboard but you could never hold the new one in place correctly. This is VERY unfortunate because you end up with an insane laptop ruined by 2 keyboard keys worth 20 cents each... CONS NUMBER 2: ASUS has issues with their BMS/PSU system so that sometimes you end up throttling down the CPU to unusable performance for no reason at all (it tries to limit the power even though everything is cold so your CPU stays at 800MHz at all times). After loads of research I finally understood that bug and the way to get out of it is to (surprisingly / counter-intuitively) unplug the PSU to let it run on battery for a few seconds, then replug it, and BAM the limit is removed. I updated the BIOS/firmware but this did not solve it. In conclusion, know what you're buying. A laptop that is very difficult to get right, that you can eventually get right (stable) with a lot of effort (is it worth it?) and that might still have a tiny issue that ruins it all. Obviously terrible battery capacity since TSA limits batteries to 100Wh and this laptop is absurdly power-hungry due to GPU and CPU, even this super bright screen too (great screen).

Runs fast and stays cool. Fans aren't too loud. Beautiful and bright display. It's very well built using high quality plastic. Super easy to expand storage and memory. Lots of RGB to play around with. Performs great even when running on the battery. Battery can last up to 6 hours with things like web browsing. Nice built in speakers, they get pretty loud for a laptop and have decent bass.

The whole machine looks awesome, it's a joy of colors especially in the dark, I got the scar 16 with the i9 14th gen and the 4080, it can handle everything, in games I play everything at max, I don't even bother to lower the settings, nvidia dlss and frame generation takes the experience to another level, the only game that I touch settings is fortnite so I can play always at 240fps, the screen looks amazing, it is very bright, even at daylight you can see it perfectly, at night I always have it at minimun since it's very bright, I know there is certain concern about coil whine in some units, but on mine there is not such thing, I kinda heard it a the very first days of owning it but now it is kind of heardless or gone. Recently I have seen some videos of complaints about asus's warranty and their products, but also they have some of the nicests and top notch devices, and they are always trying to be at the top along with other companies. So far I haven't have any issues with it, I used to have another asus laptop which I got like 10 years ago, and I never had any problems with it aside from getting outdated for the new games and programs. This new laptop it's quite expensive but the effort was totally worth it.

This review is not about the laptop but about Asus customer service. One the fans the bearing went out about a month or so after purchase. The fan is still operational but noisy. I contacted Asus and I was advised that fans are not covered under the 1 year warranty. For the price of this laptop this is BS. The laptop is not even 3 months old when this occured. It's a gaming laptop so it sits in a clean well ventilated area. Asus emailed me a link to buy the fan which was marked up already and with the shipping the replacement fan ended up being close to $60.00 to get the exact part from their recommended parts distributor. Just know, I will keep this in mind for future purchases from Asus. I own Asus monitors, routers, previous gaming laptops from Asus. So if you want to repair the damage done, Asus can send me a check for the cost of replacement fan. If not, that's okay to there are plenty of other manufacturers out there.

Great PC, powerful some overheating problems, and for Renders and Graphic dependent Games you have to keep it plugged in so it gets enough juice to run them properly. Overall its a fast reliable Pc with good storage.

1/- Watch out for a vulnerable (weak) adapter cable contacts. Its sturdiness isn't so durable, in cases, of mobility maneuvers! Good screen nits (brightness). 2/- I was underwhelmed by the fact that Adobe illustrator gives it a bit of a hard time - uneven performance smoothness. Creative users might encounter a few hiccups! 3/- Battery life is even better if you turn off some aura/animation Housing LED lights! It has never heat up that much, except for the adapter! 5/- A great relief - with quieter fans. My old gaming laptop was too loud! 6/- No laptop lock port! Which was a bit of a bummer to me, given the investment size. Hence, low physical securing convenience! I always prefer locking my laptop to my desk, while away. Coz, I really hate surprises! I had to improvise! 7/- Great Face ID capabilities though!👌🏽

The laptop runs extremely fast, stays cool, screen is sharp, build quality is excellent, very satisfied with the purchase.