WITH BOTH INTEL and Nvidia’s latest mobile chips, plus a price tag of $2,549, Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 generates very high levels of expectation. That doesn’t just apply to gaming performance, but to the general user experience. It’s all very well stuffing in an RTX 4080 and Core i9 13980HX, but how well engineered and optimized is this thing?
Before we get into the numbers, the Scar 16 is off to a good start with its aesthetic. There’s an industrial flair to the design without being edgy or over styled. It’s reminiscent of the resurgent retro console trend, with asubtle translucent plastic RGB strip around the chassis edge and front.
The Scar 16 is a thick old thing, raising hopes of amechanical keyboard under the lid. No such luck, sadly, though the chiclet board has a pleasantly tactile bounce. Along those beefy edges, you’re looking at a couple of USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports on one side, and a pair of USB Type-C ports on the other, one Thunderbolt 4 with DisplayPort, the other for display and/or power delivery to peripherals. There’s an HDMI 2.1 port as well as 2.5G ethernet. In other words, high-spec connectivity isn’t going to be a problem.