ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II: At First Glance
In 2018, ASUS came up with the GL704GM variant of the ROG Strix SCAR II laptop. Shortly after that, ASUS redesigned this laptop and gave it the name ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II GL704GW.
This laptop boasts the world’s first gaming laptop to have up to 144Hz display. Considering its impressive features, its starting price of $1,425.55 is not too much.
Meanwhile, the price that I stated above was only applicable at the time this review was written in February 2022. Therefore, by the time you will be reading this article, there might be a change in price.
Now that you know the price of the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II, let’s proceed to the discovery of its performance.
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II: Design, Dimension, and Weight
The ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II has a sleek look that comes from its brushed, dark-gray aluminum chassis. With its aluminum chassis, you can expect a respectable level of durability from this laptop.
To give this laptop a more commanding look, ASUS has decided to adorn its lid with a glossy ROG logo on the left-hand side. Impressive enough, this logo emits an appealing RGB light when this laptop is on.
In addition to that, there’s also an RGB strip that glows in front of the laptop facing the user. With these RGB lights, no one will mistake the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II as a non-gaming laptop.
Having discussed the features on its lid, there are still more interesting features on this laptop when you open its lid. On opening the lid of this laptop, “you’ll be greeted” by a 17.3-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution display.
However, this laptop’s display is available in two options. The first display option on the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II offers 100% coverage of the sRGB color space.
For clarity, sRGB is the most commonly used color space both in browsers and photo viewers. Therefore, an 100% coverage of the sRGB color space implies that graphics colors will pop remarkably on this display option.
In addition to its impressive color coverage, this first display option also offers a 144 Hz refresh rate. With this refresh rate, the display can redraw an image up to 144 times per second.
This implies that your eyes won’t notice any motion blur at top-speed games.
Having said enough about the first display option, let me talk about the second display option. The second display option on the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II is a superfast 240 Hz display.
This display also covers 100% of the sRGB color space like the first display option. However, what makes this display option even more impressive than the first option is its 240 Hz refresh rate.
With this refresh rate, you should expect a very smooth flow when playing games on this laptop.
Furthermore, both display types offer 3 milliseconds response time thereby putting this laptop’s display among the fastest in its category. By response time, we mean how long it takes the display to change from one color to another.
Also, these display options use an IPS panel which gives them a great viewing angle. Therefore, sitting in a corner during a game session won’t be a problem because the screen will remain viewable from any angle.
Moving on, each of the two display options comes with an anti-glare coating. This coating helps to prevent reflections and make the display more legible even when you are outdoors.
Another display feature of this laptop that is worth being talked about is its narrow bezels. The slim bezels make the display content more immersive without distractions.
Despite the thinness of the bezels, ASUS was still able to put a ROG logo at the center of the bottom bezel. Not only that, but ASUS also puts an HD webcam on the bottom bezel by the right-hand side.
However, the webcam’s position is quite awkward. Hence, the camera will mostly capture the chin rather than the face during video calls.
On a good note, this laptop’s lid doesn’t wobble while turning the laptop around due to its sturdy hinges. But then, these hinges limit the opening angle of the lid to just 150 degrees.
Moving down to the base, you will find the keyboard. The keyboard has an appealing layout with four zones of customizable RGB color backlighting.
The quad-zone keyboard backlight makes night gaming feel superb on this laptop. Impressively, this keyboard uses anti-ghosting to ensure that no false commands are ever registered on keypress.
Furthermore, the Key travel on this keyboard is a decent 1.8 mm with good feedback. By key travel, we mean how deep the key goes when pressed and this has some effects on the key’s feedback.
Still, on the keyboard, the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II features transparent WASD keys for movement in games. These four keys can easily be identified on the keyboard due to their transparency.
The power button is also located at the top-right of the keyboard so you don’t mistakenly press it while gaming. Moreover, below the keyboard, there is a smooth textured touchpad with its own two dedicated buttons.
The touchpad measures about 10.7 x 5.9 cm and is responsive and decent in size.
Additionally, this laptop features two side-firing speakers. These speakers feature smart-amplifier technology that amplifies the sound for better quality.
The ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II also has a built-in microphone. The microphone is perfect for picking up your voice and reducing background noise during audio recording.
Moving to the bottom plate, the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II doesn’t have many openings for ventilation. However, its super-cooling system can deliver a stronger airflow to cool the processor and the graphics card under heavy load.
This HyperCooling system comprises two 12V fans with 0.1mm thermal fins, along with five heat pipes to spread heat evenly.
Moving on to the ports, the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II has sufficient ports. Its left-hand side is crowded with a charging port, one RJ-45 port, a mini display port, and one HDMI 2.0b port.
Also on the same side, you’ll get three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, and a headset jack. Turning to the left-hand side, there is one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, one USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port, and a 2-in-1 card reader slot.
Away from the ports, this laptop also features Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 5 802.11ac for wireless connectivity. With this WiFi card, this laptop became the first in the world to feature multi-antenna Wi-Fi.
For more detail, the WiFi uses the RangeBoost technology to combine four antennas for higher performance and fewer connection drops.
Coming to the dimension and weight, the Strix SCAR II GL 704 measures 399 x 273 x 26.4 mm (W x D x H). Meanwhile, it also weighs 2900 g.
In comparison, this laptop is more portable and lighter than the Acer Predator 15. The Acer Predator 15 measures 391 x 299.5 x 38.5 mm (W x D x H) and weighs a massive 3700 g.
Also, the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II is more portable than the HP Omen 17t which measures 422 x 304 x 33 mm and weighs 3700 g.
Considering the many remarkable design features of the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II, I will conclude this design review section by rating it a nine out of ten.
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II: Processor (CPU) Performance
The ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II runs on a six-core Intel Core i7-8750H processor. This 8th generation of the Intel CPU has 9 MB of cache memory.
Note that Intel manufactured this CPU using the Coffee Lake H microarchitecture which was built after the Whiskey Lake architecture. The Coffee Lake H architecture is Intel’s most up-to-date technology which delivers immersive graphics and media performances.
ASUS really understands that a gaming laptop’s CPU should run at a high speed. Thus, the CPU on the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II has a base frequency of 2.20 GHz and a boost frequency of 4.10 GHz.
Impressively, this SCAR II GL 704 becomes faster at its boost frequency than the Acer Predator 15 with a boost frequency of 3.80 GHz.
This processor speed indicates that the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II will be good for running demanding applications and games.
For a performance assessment of the processor, let’s consider this laptop’s result in a Cinebench R15 benchmark. Cinebench R15 tests a CPU’s ability by utilizing all the CPU cores and threads.
Hence, a high score in this test indicates a better performance of the processor. Commendably, the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II got a total of 174 points in the single-core 64-Bit test.
It also recorded 1,227 points in the multi-core 64-Bit test.
In comparison, the HP Omen 17t got a total of 165 points in the single-core test and 1,047 points in the multi-core. However, these scores are below that of the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II.
To satisfy your curiosity, a single-core score tells you how fast the CPU is when only one core is utilized. Conversely, a multi-core score shows how fast the CPU is in multi-processing tasks that utilize all of the available CPU cores.
Based on the processor’s performance in the benchmark test, it is obvious that the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II is really up to any task.
Therefore, I believe that it deserves a nine out of ten points in this CPU review section.
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II: Memory (RAM) Performance
The ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II comes with 16 GB DDR4-2666 SO-DIMM RAM. Better still, you can upgrade this laptop’s RAM to a maximum of 32 GB, by employing its two RAM slots.
In general, 16 GB RAM should give your computer enough power to perform extensive multitasking. Meanwhile, with 32 GB RAM, the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II should be able to open up to 40 Chrome tabs at a time.
At this point, let’s go deeper into this laptop’s memory performance. To deliver on this, I will share with you the laptop’s result from a PC Mark 10 benchmark.
PC Mark is a benchmark tool that is used to evaluate the overall performance of a laptop. In this test, the higher the score, the better performance of the computer.
Well, it’s a bit disappointing that the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II scored just 5,555 points in this test. That’s because the class average score for this test is 6,210 points.
Also, the HP Omen 17t got a total of 5,939 points in the same test indicating better performance.
Nevertheless, the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II performed better than the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i in this test. To be specific, the IdeaPad Gaming 3i got a total of 4,692 points in the same test.
Looking at these test results, I now have enough information to rate the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II. Therefore, I will rate this laptop an eight out of ten in this memory review section.
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II: Storage Options and Performance
Basically, the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II comes in two storage options.
Firstly, it can come with a 2.5-inch SATA FireCuda SSHD storage with a speed of 5400RPM. Secondly, it can come with an M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD storage.
For clarity, an SSHD (solid-state hybrid drive) storage is a hard disk that has spinning plates and also a solid-state portion inside it. Thus, it is a hybrid storage device that is faster than the usual hard disk drive.
However, SSD drives are still the fastest storage drive available. Hence, for the second storage option, a faster speed is always a guarantee.
Interestingly, the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II supports a maximum of 1 TB of SSHD and 512 GB of SSD storage.
Furthermore, you also get a 2-in-1 card reader for storage expansion if your games require more space.
At this point, let’s talk about this laptop’s performance in a CrystalDiskMark 5.2 test. CrystalDiskMark is a benchmark that measures the speed with which a storage drive saves or opens files.
Hence, a higher score in this test means a better performance of the storage drive. Note that the result given below is for the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II with an SSD storage option.
In the test, this laptop saved files at the rate of 972.1MB/s and opened files at the rate of 1,515 MB/s. Meanwhile, the HP Omen 17t saved files at the rate of 1,665 MB/s and opened files at the rate of 1,284 MB/s.
Thus, this means that the HP Omen 17t saves files faster while the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II opens files faster.
In conclusion, considering all I have said in this section, I will rate the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II a nine out of ten in this storage review section.
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II: Graphics Card Performance
The ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II offers two GPU options to choose from. Firstly, you can have the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU.
Secondly, you can have the upgraded NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 GPU on this laptop. Both GPU options have a dedicated graphics interface which implies that they have dedicated VRAM.
Precisely, the RTX 2060 GPU has a dedicated GDDR6 VRAM with a capacity of 8 GB. Moreover, this GPU has a base frequency of 1410 MHz which can overclock to 1,365 MHz.
On the other hand, the RTX 2070 has a dedicated GDDR6 VRAM of 6 GB. Also, its base frequency of 1620 MHz can boost to 1,680 MHz.
With this GPU, the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II can play Hitman 2 at above 50 FPS.
For a clearer picture of this GPU’s performance, let me discuss its result in a 3DMark 11 test. Specifically, the test measures how well a GPU can emphasize particles and light on 3D graphics.
Therefore, a higher score on the test indicates higher graphics power. Meanwhile, this test will be based on the SCAR II GL 704 with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 GPU.
Commendably, the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II is leading with a total of 24,172 points in this test. Meanwhile, the Acer Predator 15 and the HP Omen 17t followed with a total of 22,246 and 21,380 points respectively.
In light of the above result, I’ll conclude this GPU review section by rating ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II a nine out of ten.
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II: Battery Life and Performance
The ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II comes with a 4-cell, 66WHrs Li-ion battery. However, ASUS did not say how long this battery lasts per charge.
Therefore, let’s discover that on our own by using a battery run-down test performed by notebookcheck.com. This test measures how long it takes the battery to run down completely when the laptop is idle and when you’re browsing the web.
Well, this laptop lasted for 6 hours, 12 minutes while idle but 3 hours 55 minutes during web surfing using WiFi.
In comparison, the HP Omen 17t lasted 4 hours, 28 minutes on idle. Meanwhile, it lasted 4 hours 13 minutes during web surfing.
Comparing the two laptops, we can see that the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II lasts longer when idle. Also, it is clear that the HP Omen 17t lasts longer when it’s being used.
Thus, considering the battery life of the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II, I will rate it an eight out of ten in this section.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Strix SCAR II comes with powerful dedicated GPUs which makes it capable of playing most modern games.
Yes, the ASUS ROG Strix II features a high-end graphics card which makes it capable of playing graphics-intensive games.
Yes, it does. However, its webcam is located at the bottom bezel which may not be ideal for many users.
Yes, you can. This laptop comes with two RAM slots to make RAM expansion easier.
ASUS announced the release of the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II in 2018.
Conclusion
The ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II is an elegant and solidly built laptop. It offers excellent display options and enough port selection
Additionally, it features powerful CPUs and GPUs whose performances are hard to beat. Equally important, is this laptop’s wireless connectivity which can only suffer very little connection drop if at all.
In conclusion, the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR II is a remarkable gaming laptop. Hence, any gamer who can afford it should not hesitate to go for it.
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