The ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 18 is the latest iteration of the Strix lineup from Asus. Brimming with the latest hardware from Intel and Nvidia, it’s an impressive laptop. Featuring the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (2.70 GHz), GeForce RTX 5090, 64 GB of DDR5 RAM and 4 TB of storage, it’s perhaps one of the most powerful gaming laptops I’ve worked with. While it’s a far stretch from being the most portable unit I’ve reviewed, the Strix SCAR 18 offers a true desktop replacement solution—for a price.
The SCAR 18 follows the design structure of many modern premium gaming laptops, offering beautiful wraparound RGB lighting, dedicated control buttons, a nearly full-size keyboard and an impressive 18-inch display. The system also supports per-key RGB lighting, allowing for next-level customization.
In true ASUS ROG fashion, the Strix stands out in design thanks to its AniMe Vision LED array affixed to the top panel. This 810-LED display shines through 9,152 pre-milled holes on the top cover and provides a unique visual experience. Whether leveraging the preloaded animations, importing your favourite GIFs or creating your own, you’ll have the freedom to build a personalized panel display to show off. It’s a fun and creative way to add some uniqueness to the laptop experience.
“The Strix SCAR 18 is the modern muscle car of gaming laptops—it maximizes sheer horsepower while infusing it with the latest in AI processing efficiency.”
As an 18-inch laptop, the Strix SCAR 18 is a hefty computer to carry in your bag, weighing 7.28 lbs and measuring 15.71 x 11.73 x 1.26 inches. That said, these dimensions allow it to maximize keyboard and trackpad spacing, with the former providing a nearly full-size typing experience. The trackpad, likewise, is incredibly large, offering plenty of travel distance to navigate the expansive 18-inch display.
Speaking of the display, the SCAR 18 has shifted away from OLED and instead opted for a 2.5K (2560 x 1600), 16:10 Nebula HDR Mini LED panel. This design choice surprised me, especially considering that many competitors in this premium laptop space lean toward OLED. While I’m a bit disappointed not to see OLED included—particularly at this price point—I’m nonetheless impressed with ASUS ROG’s Nebula HDR display.
For starters, the Nebula display delivers a beautifully bright and detailed visual experience, with far better anti-glare properties than any of the OLED panels I’ve tested. This is most noticeable when working on the SCAR 18 in bright rooms with natural sunlight—where, dare I say, it really shines (see what I did there). With 1,200-nit peak brightness and over 2,000 dimming zones, brightness and colour management are impressive. Additionally, with full HDR and G-Sync support, along with an impressive 240Hz refresh rate, this Mini LED display packs a serious punch. While not quite at the level of OLED in terms of pure picture quality, the Nebula panel is a work of beauty and a delight to game on.
Shifting to I/O, the Strix SCAR 18 provides an excellent selection of ports to accommodate a wide range of peripherals and multi-display setups. On the left side of the unit, you’ll find a 2.5G LAN port, HDMI 2.1 FRL, a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, two Thunderbolt 5 ports with DisplayPort, power delivery and G-Sync support, and a 3.5 mm combo audio jack. Rounding out the I/O, the right side contains two additional USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports. It’s a solid offering that easily accommodates most setups.
Along with the 2.5G LAN connection, the Strix SCAR 18 also supports the latest in wireless technology. A triple-band 802.11be Wi-Fi card with Bluetooth 5.4 ensures blazing-fast speeds during gaming and general use.
Looking under the hood, the ROG Strix SCAR 18 is an impressive piece of technology. The model reviewed came equipped with Intel’s latest Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, clocked at 2.7 GHz and capable of boosting up to 5.4 GHz. With 24 cores (eight performance cores and 16 efficiency cores), the SCAR 18 handles both single- and multi-core processing with ease. In our internal Cinebench tests, the Core Ultra 9 275HX produced a multi-core score of 29,449 and a single-core score of 2,121—putting it among the fastest CPUs I’ve benchmarked.
“ASUS ROG has completely redesigned the cooling for the 2025 launch—and it shows.”
When paired with the GeForce RTX 5090 24 GB GPU, the results are absolutely incredible. ASUS ROG has prioritized power efficiency under standard loads for both the processor and GPU, but still allows users the freedom to push performance further using Turbo and Manual mode configurations within Armoury Crate. While Turbo mode delivers some of the best performance I’ve ever seen on a gaming laptop, Manual mode offers what is essentially controlled overclocking of the Strix SCAR 18.
The results were impressive in game testing. Titles such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Hogwarts Legacy both performed impeccably—and looked gorgeous doing it. Classics like DOOM Eternal and Diablo IV ran smooth as silk, with all titles pushed to their maximum settings. While DLSS 4 was on full display during testing, even when disabled, the raw power of the RTX 5090 carried each game with ease. The reality is that the Strix SCAR 18 is the modern muscle car of gaming laptops—it maximizes sheer horsepower while infusing it with the latest in AI processing efficiency. The result is a beautiful and powerful gaming experience.
For content creators, the Strix SCAR 18 is specifically designed to leverage AI acceleration in many industry-standard creation apps. As for streaming or recording, the SCAR 18 can handle both with ease—without breaking a sweat. Editing in DaVinci Resolve, for example, was consistently smooth, with no slowdowns in real-time render previews. Navigating the timeline, editing Fusion transitions and applying colour correction all worked seamlessly and provided a fluid, professional experience.
“Featuring the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, GeForce RTX 5090, 64 GB of DDR5 RAM and 4 TB of storage, it’s perhaps one of the most powerful gaming laptops I’ve worked with.”
Powering all of this is a 380-watt AC adapter (Rectangle CONN), the most powerful I’ve seen bundled with a laptop. For those working away from an outlet, the SCAR 18 also houses a 90Wh, 4-cell Li-ion battery. While gaming on battery is not recommended—as the system automatically throttles performance and still drains power quickly—I was impressed by how well it handled general productivity tasks. Though it won’t compete with ultraportables for longevity, the Strix SCAR 18 managed around five hours of battery life while running apps such as Microsoft Office or Google Workspace.
While all of this is impressive, the most remarkable aspect of this latest iteration of the Strix lineup is its cooling system. ASUS ROG has completely redesigned the cooling for the 2025 launch—and it shows. Leveraging a new exhaust vent layout, the SCAR 18 effectively keeps heat away from the user. Even under stress testing, I never experienced any discomfort while using the mouse and keyboard.
The vapour chamber has also been repositioned and essentially sandwiched between two heatsinks, further enhancing the SCAR 18’s cooling capabilities. When paired with ASUS ROG’s Tri-Fan setup and the use of a new Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal compound for both the CPU and GPU, the result is an impressively cool and, by extension, quiet gaming experience. During testing, I was genuinely surprised by how quiet the unit remained. Despite its sheer power, the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 18 is one of the quietest high-performance gaming laptops I’ve tested.
As with all ASUS ROG laptops, the SCAR 18 is managed through ASUS ROG’s Armoury Crate software. While I’ve been critical of Armoury Crate in desktop environments, I have to admit it functions exceptionally well on a laptop. Along with performance profile controls, Armoury Crate offers a robust suite of customization and monitoring tools. It strikes a solid balance between ease of use and advanced system management.
The ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 18 is a powerhouse of gaming potential. It delivers some of the most robust hardware and software I’ve seen in a laptop. And while I was initially disappointed by the absence of an OLED display—especially at this price point—the overall performance speaks for itself. It truly is a desktop replacement in every sense of the term. As one would expect, this level of power comes at a premium. At $6,499.00 CAD, the Strix SCAR 18 is firmly positioned in the high-end gaming laptop market, but it delivers the kind of performance and engineering that justifies the price.
