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Asus Republic of Gamers just announced the ROG Strix Scar 17 SE gaming laptop. Here is everything you need to know.
Asus just updated its ROG Strix and ROG Flow lines, with the new ROG Strix Scar 17 Special Edition and ROG Flow X16 laptops. Both of these high-end devices have been designed with gamers in mind, though we’re going to be specifically focusing on the Strix Scar 17 in this article.
The ROG Strix Scar 17 was originally launched back at CES 2022, but Asus has released the Special Edition laptop with even more power than its predecessor.
Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about Asus’s latest gaming laptop.
Pricing and release date
The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 SE will start at £3,999.99 and will be available from Amazon in the third quarter of this year. We will update this article when we know more about the American and European pricing, as well as the exact release dates, so be sure to check back.
Design
The chassis features the same RGB lighting and customisable Armour Caps as the original Strix Scar but with specially developed invisible ink which has been created to blend in with the Scar 17 SE’s metal lid. In normal lighting, the substance has a matte metallic texture, but with a UV flashlight, the ink appears as a striking green and blue.
Asus also claims that the cryptic text on the lid holds clues to help beat Scar Runner, which is a standalone first-person parkour game that is set in the ROG Saga universe. The rest of the laptop is a matte black, with a raised backlit chiclet keyboard that has per-key RGB lighting that can be configured with Aura Sync.
Asus has also packed this machine with Thermal Grizzly’s liquid metal compound called Conductonaut Extreme, used on both the CPU and GPU, which the company claims offers around five-degrees lower temperatures than standard liquid metal compounds. Moreover, there is a custom vapour chamber which covers 48.8% of the mainboard, which should allow for better thermal transfer from the CPU, GPU and power delivery components.
This is paired with four heatsinks, which are lined with ultrathin copper fins that are as slim as 0.1mm and updated Arc Flow Fans.
Screen
There are two different panel options on the Scar 17 SE. There is a 17.3-inch FHD display with a 360Hz refresh rate and 1920 x 1080 resolution which Asus claims has 100% sRGB accuracy. The other option is also 17.3-inches, but with a QHD display, a 240Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 2560 x 1440, with 100% accuracy for DCI-P3, according to Asus.
Both displays also feature a 3ms response time and pack an IPS-level panel with Adaptive Sync and Dolby Vision, which should ensure that media and TV shows look crisp and vibrant.
Specs
The ROG Strix Scar 17 SE is powered by the new 12th-Generation Intel Core i9-12950HX processor and will have a boosted frequency of up to 5.2GHz in the Performance cores. Asus claims that when in Manual mode in Armoury Crate, the 65W CPU can boost to a maximum power of 175W for a limited time, which allows the Scar 17 SE to double as a powerful content creation machine while the discrete GPU is disabled. The battery is 90Wh and the laptop runs on Windows 11 Pro.
According to Asus, the laptop scored 22,257 in the Cinebench R23 multithreaded test when in Turbo mode, which should ensure a speedy and smooth performance. While we can’t confirm these scores, if true, then this laptop should be able to take on a number of high-intensity tasks, which is perfect for anyone hoping to play triple-A or competitive games.
In terms of graphics, the Scar 17 SE comes with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU that has a maximum TGP of up to 175W with Dynamic Boost, which is designed to offer the highest number of frames per second.
This machine can be configured with up to 64GB DDR5 RAM and up to 4TB PCle Gen 4 storage. There is Wi-Fi 6E and a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port which will help gamers get online, as well as next-generation I/O connectivity, including dual USB-C ports – one of which supports Thunderbolt 4 – and a full HDMI 2.1 port that offers 4K video output at 120Hz.
Trusted Take
The latest ROG Strix Scar 17 SE laptop looks like a great choice for anyone hoping to engage in triple-A or competitive gaming. The inclusion of the 12th-Generation Intel Core i9 processor should ensure speedy load up times and the Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti will open the doors to high-end features such as ray tracing.
While we haven’t been able to test out this laptop, the Cinebench R23 scores suggest that this machine will be more than capable for most gamers and potentially some content creators, especially since you can boost the CPU to 175W.
By
Gemma Ryles
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