NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, 16GB GDDR6 with ROG Boost up to 1645MHz at 115W (130W with Dynamic Boost)
Latest AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX Mobile Processor 3.3 GHz (16M Cache, up to 4.6 GHz)
360Hz 3ms 17.3" Full HD 1920x1080 IPS-Type Display
64GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM, 2TB RAID 0 (1TB + 1TB) PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD, Windows 10 Professional
ROG Intelligent Cooling thermal system with Thermal Grizzly Liquid Metal Thermal Compound
Opti-mechanical per-key RGB keyboard
Wi-Fi 6 with RangeBoost & Bluetooth 5.1, ROG Keystone II, ROG Easy Upgrade Design
AI Noise Cancellation Technology, Dolby Atmos
Bundle: Get 30 days of Xbox Game Pass for PC with purchase (* Active subscription required; continues until canceled; game catalog varies over time. Requires Windows 10; see details at xbox.com/pcgamesplan.)
*The Windows 11 upgrade will be delivered to qualifying devices late 2021 into 2022. Timing varies by device. Certain features require additional hardware (see aka.ms/windows11-spec)
Pros: Boots up almost instantly.
Plays all games flawlessly at max settings with more than 100fps.
Honestly doesnt get that hot or loud when playing on turbo fan setting.
Cons: Had to spend 2 hours trying to figure out why the keyboard lights stopped working. Turn out they got set to minimum brightness somehow.
Overall Review: If you have the funds buy it. It's awesome. If you dont have funds, I would say a lesser 3060 laptop would be fine. I dont think the price is going to go down for a long time.
Great laptop, few nitpicks that have me slightly concerned3/28/2022 6:34:40 AM
Pros: -Much faster, cooler, and quieter than my Zephyrus S15 I bought last year (2020, i7 10875H, 2070 super) even though that had a mux switch (this doesn't). Very satisfied with the performance despite not having a mux switch. I don't play ESports titles much, but some retro FPS games can easily hit 300fps which works for me.
-Screen colors and 300hz is still awesome, 1080 seems perfect for a 15" screen.
-Love the design and aesthetics of the Strix Scar laptops and Asus in general. The optomechanical keyboard is fun to use.
Cons: -Left corner IPS backlight bleed (not super noticeable but much less worse than what my S15 had). Rest of the panel looks really good though! It's always a gamble with how much you'll end up with but some backlight bleed is normal on these kinds of displays.
-Some coil whine under heavy load (there's a slight buzz but honestly can only hear it if the laptop is muted in a quiet room, so not really a huge issue and doesn't affect performance, etc.)
-I have the exact same bulge in the same spot (not as pronounced though) on my trackpad as Carlos Perez Arques does in his review, though my chassis on the bottom seems more aligned. Not sure if this is just a case defect or potential battery bulge, which is my only real concern.
Overall Review: Despite some minor setbacks, this is my favorite laptop I've owned so far, second being a G14 I had for a brief time before I ended up getting an S15 and selling the G14 to my sister as she needed a decent laptop and I wanted to upgrade. Performance is stellar, it looks and runs great, and stays cool and quiet while doing so. I got it for $400 off which made the purchase a bit more justifiable, and I can easily live with the cons, as long as the bulge isn't a swelling battery. I could only find one or two other users that said anything about this bulge, and one had it above his trackpad, but no complaints about batteries like I've seen with some of the Razer Blade's. I'll have to inspect it to be sure.
Beautiful laptop design and exceptional screen! Waiting on replacement though...3/2/2022 9:30:55 AM
Pros: 1) Beautifully built machine
2) 300Hz screen is amazing
3) The keys feels great but... (see cons)
4) Full speed fans are quieter than my Alienware M15R2
5) Easy one handed opening
6) Very thin and light for a gaming laptop. Mind you, I have experience with gaming laptop screen sizes ranging from 11-18". So this is thin/light to me.
7) Ryzen CPU will work wonders for multimedia work. Check out YouTube videos and you will see.
Cons: 1) No MUX switch. You cannot disable nVidia Optimus. You will get a slight drop in FPS, but it can be bypassed by hooking up to an external monitor via USB-C. I currently use a ROG XG16 because I am usually on the go.
2) The keys feel great but they will be noisy. Not really suitable for libraries or the like.
3) Fingerprint magnet
4) Other 3080 laptops are better performing such as the Legion 7 or Alienware m15 with a higher watt GPU/PSU, but this also helps with thermal/performance.
5) Unable to tweak many options in the BIOS.
Overall Review: If you are in the market for a solid performing laptop with a Ryzen processor, this is for you. For multimedia work on the go, you cannot go wrong. If you are an FPS junkie, I would highly recommend going with the 2022 version. The new ones come with a MUX switch and Intel graphics which tend to be better suited for gaming. 3080 Ti anyone?
The price to performance cannot be beaten for what you get. Only the Lenovo Legion 7 can come close to this, but you will drop to a 3070.
After about a week of receiving this laptop, I started to get white lines/artifacting across my display. I thought maybe the new RAM I installed may have caused an issue, but after a few troubleshooting fixes did not work, I had to send it back in for a replacement.
Steps taken
- Removed newly installed RAM, reseated, and restarted. Nope
- Re-installed original RAM. Nope
- Fresh install of Windows. Nope.
Overall Review: Super good laptop. I bought this because Im moving and had to downgrade. Before I had a I9-10900k and a 3090. This laptop can keep up just about as well as my old build. It can display games just as good. The only downside to it in my opinion is not enough USB ports but thats common for a laptop. Overall its great and I recommend it
Anonymous
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
Verified Owner
Very amazing but may throw customers off1/20/2022 7:22:53 PM
Pros: Rtx 3080
Rgb
Very good Fps on all games (above 100)
Very Portable
Very portable and good battery life (10-12 hours eco mode, brightness 50, and discrete gpu disabled from the asus software)
No mux but still provides good performance(2022s version gives us mux)
Cons: I had a stripped screw in the second m.2 slot. I thought I was not going to be able to put in my ssd, but I came across a very good idea by using a saw and sawing the m.2 screw to turn it into a flat head screw. I was very happy because I was able to put in my ssd in the end.
Pros: Excellent for gaming, the 300hz is a huge difference from average 144hz. Super fast and hasn't overheated on high settings for processor heavy games.
Pros: Boots up almost instantly. Plays all games flawlessly at max settings with more than 100fps. Honestly doesnt get that hot or loud when playing on turbo fan setting.
Cons: Had to spend 2 hours trying to figure out why the keyboard lights stopped working. Turn out they got set to minimum brightness somehow.
Overall Review: If you have the funds buy it. It's awesome. If you dont have funds, I would say a lesser 3060 laptop would be fine. I dont think the price is going to go down for a long time.