Join Techtoyreviews for the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 2025 review, featuring the top configuration version, to see what we have to offer. It is a heavyweight gaming laptop, both literally and figuratively. Possessing a high-end configuration with Core Ultra 9 275HX and RTX 5090, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD, mini LED screen, and a series of other high-end equipment, is this laptop worth the price of up to $5,000?
Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 2025 Specs
- CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (8 P-Cores + 16 E-Cores), 24 cores, 24 threads, max clock speed 5.4GHz
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop, 10496 CUDA cores, 175W TGP (150W + 25W Dynamic Boost)
- RAM: 64GB DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM (2 x 32GB)
- Storage: 4TB (2TB + 2TB) PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 Performance SSD, RAID 0
- Screen: 18-inch, ROG Nebula HDR, Mini LED, 2.5K (2560 x 1600), 16:10, 240Hz, 1200 nits, 100% DCI-P3, G-Sync, MUX Switch
- Keyboard: Chiclet keyboard, with Per-Key RGB LED backlighting
- Sound: 4 speaker system
- Ports: 2 x Thunderbolt 5 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (10Gbps) 1 x RJ45 LAN 2.5Gbps 1 x HDMI 2.1
- Wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be), Bluetooth
- Battery: 90WHrs, 4-cell Li-ion, 380W power adapter
- Operating system: Windows 11 Home SL
- Dimensions: 39.9 x 29.8 x 2.35 ~ 3.20 cm
- Weight: 3.3 kg
Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 2025 Review
Design
The Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025) is a literal “heavyweight.” With a body weight of 3.3kg and a 380W power supply weighing an additional 1kg, the total weight you have to carry around is up to 4.3kg. This is not a laptop you can take to a cafe every day. To bring this device outside, you need not only money but also “weight training.”
The finishing material is a combination of metal and high-quality plastic. The lid and palm rest area are made of metal, providing a superb, sturdy, and high-quality feel. Meanwhile, the bottom frame is made of plastic to optimize weight.
The highlight of the ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025) is the extensive use of LED lighting. The lid showcases a glowing ROG logo, while the AniMe Vision LED display plays any content you choose. An RGB LED strip surrounds the laptop, and the Per-key RGB keyboard lets you personalize lighting effects. You can synchronize and customize all of these features endlessly using Aura Sync software.
To support the thick and heavy 18-inch screen, Asus has equipped an extremely sturdy metal dual-hinge system. This hinge is so strong that when opening the machine, it can slightly lift the lower body, ensuring the screen remains stable with minimal shaking.
One of the most innovative and valuable design improvements is the screw-free bottom cover removal mechanism. With just a lever, users can easily open it to admire the entire high-end “innards” inside: a huge Vapor Chamber cooling system, three cooling fans, two M.2 SSD slots running RAID 0, and two RAM slots with two 32GB sticks installed.
Asus has redesigned the heatsink cluster on this year’s version to create a seamless connection between the screen and the body instead of the “disjointed” feeling like previous generations. The lines are now neat, making the design more sophisticated while still maintaining outstanding heat dissipation performance. However, when looking at the whole, the gaming laptop looks thicker and “bulkier,” creating a feeling of solidity. However, this design somewhat reduces mobility compared to the previous generation.
Keyboard and Touchpad
Asus equips the ROG Republic of Gamers SCAR 18 with a full-size keyboard system featuring RGB LED backlighting that can be customized for each key (Per-key RGB). The Asus laptop keyboard quality is good but, of course, not as excellent as that of gaming laptops using mechanical switches.
The typing feeling is still incredibly comfortable, with clear bounce and reasonable key travel, providing an accurate and comfortable typing experience whether used for gaming or typing long documents. The per-key RGB LED system still gives the laptop its signature “gaming” vibe. ASUS has also expanded the RGB LED strip under the laptop to wrap around the entire frame, creating a brilliant lighting effect that stands out in any space.
The large touchpad provides a smooth mouse movement feeling.
Sound
In terms of sound, this is likely the most disappointing aspect of a gaming laptop that costs more than $5,000. Although equipped with a 4-speaker system (two tweeters facing directly at the user and two woofers below) and boasting a deafening volume, the overall sound quality is not good.
The bass range lacks power and solidity, while the mid and treble ranges are not clear and pleasing enough, significantly inferior to lower-end laptops such as the Zephyrus G16 (REVIEW) or MacBook Pro. If you have invested in the SCAR 18, consider preparing an additional set of external speakers or a high-quality headset for an enhanced entertainment experience.
Connectivity
Asus continues to refine the connection system of the ROG Strix Scar 18 2025 to meet the needs of modern users best. The biggest highlight is the presence of two Thunderbolt 5 ports, the latest connection standard with extremely high bandwidth, enabling image output to multiple 4K screens, super-fast data transfer, and connection to powerful eGPUs.
In addition, the gaming laptop features 3 USB 3.2 ports with a 10Gbps speed, a 2.5Gbps LAN port for the most stable wired network connection, and an HDMI 2.1 port.
However, the absence of an SD card reader may disappoint many people, as the laptop’s impressive power and excellent mini LED screen make it highly well-suited to film editing, 3D work, and a range of other multimedia tasks.
ROG Nebula HDR mini LED display
Asus equips the ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025) with an 18-inch ROG Nebula HDR panel that uses mini LED technology, delivers a 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution, and supports G-Sync at a 240Hz refresh rate to ensure smooth gameplay.
The most impressive thing is the screen brightness of up to 1200 nits when displaying HDR content. The experience of watching HDR content on YouTube is awe-inspiring, with the screen brightness being particularly notable. High brightness, combined with an anti-glare coating, allows the screen to be used effectively in most lighting conditions.
Asus also says the display reaches 100% DCI-P3. Real-world experience indicates that the color accuracy of the ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025) is relatively high; however, since it is still a gaming laptop, you may still need to recalibrate it for precise color correction tasks.
Not only that, the gaming laptop is also equipped with a screen featuring a refresh rate of up to 240Hz and a response time of only 3ms, which brings the ultimate gaming experience with the Scar 18 screen. Every movement in FPS games or high-speed action is reproduced smoothly, without tearing, giving a “satisfying” feeling like participating in an authentic FPS buffet. This is truly a great advantage for those who want to optimize their reflexes and experience professional competition.
The Armoury Crate software also allows you to customize the display mode, from “One-zone” to save battery like a regular LCD screen to “Multi-zone” to enjoy the highest contrast of Mini LED.
Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 2025 review test
Powerful Performance
Asus sent us the ROG Strix SCAR 18 2025 review unit, which features an Intel Core 9 275HX processor — a top-tier chip with 24 cores (8 performance and 16 efficiency cores), 24 threads, and a maximum clock speed of 5.4 GHz. It comes equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 laptop GPU featuring a TGP of up to 175W (150W + 25W Dynamic Boost).
To harness the full potential of this powerful CPU and GPU duo, 64GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and two 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSDs, configured by Asus for RAID 0 operation, are utilized. Currently, PCIe 5 SSDs are still quite hot, and almost all need separate heatsinks to ensure stable operation and not overheating. The RAID 0 solution is extremely reasonable, as it still provides very high bandwidth without overheating.
Here are some real-world performance tests of the ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025).
CPU Performance
The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX has removed the hyperthreading feature, which means we are left with 24 cores and 24 threads, including 8 P-cores and 16 E-cores. In the Cinebench R23 test, the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025) achieved a multi-core score of nearly 40,000 points, a number that not only surpasses its direct competitor, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950HX (with approximately 38,000-39,000 points according to reference) but also significantly outperforms previous generations of laptops.
Even in CPU-Z’s test, its performance was only slightly behind the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K desktop CPU.
However, performance is not everything; what really impressed me about the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is the performance at lower power levels:
In terms of power efficiency, while still falling a bit behind AMD’s Zen 5 architecture in terms of performance per watt, Intel’s low-power performance has improved impressively this year, delivering nearly 20,000 Cinebench R23 points on just 37W of power.
GPU Performance
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop, with a 175W TGP, is extremely powerful; however, in reality, it doesn’t offer much improvement in raw power compared to the previous generation RTX 4090 laptop. Here are some GPU performance tests of the ROG Strix SCAR 18 2025:
Gaming Tests
One issue to note at the moment is the stability of the driver for the RTX 50 series. During the ROG Strix SCAR 18 2025 review, several games, including Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon, consistently crashed with the latest driver. I had to use DDU to uninstall and reinstall the older version (572.83 or 576.52) to achieve stability.
Black Myth: Wukong: At the highest Cinematic setting, with 2K resolution, Ray Tracing, and Frame Generation enabled, the gaming laptop achieved 90 FPS. With ray tracing disabled, this number jumped to 114 FPS. When switching to a High setting, the fps reached over 170.
Cyberpunk 2077: This is where the power of Frame Generation is most evident. When the 2K resolution setting is enabled, the RT Overdrive preset is enabled, and if Frame Gen is disabled, the FPS only reaches around 50. However, when Frame Gen (MFGx4) is enabled, the FPS increases to 160, representing an improvement of more than three times the original value.
Forza Horizon 5: With maximum settings, 2K resolution, Ray Tracing, and Frame Gen, the laptop easily reaches over 200 FPS.
Creative Performance & AI
SCAR 18 2025 is extremely powerful in video rendering tasks with Adobe Premiere, far surpassing the MacBook Pro M4 Max. However, with Photoshop, the M4 Max is really out of the game.
With 24GB of VRAM, it can run large language AI models smoothly in situ. In testing with the DeepSeek R1 model, the laptop achieved speeds of up to 78 tokens per second, more than double the results I obtained on the ROG Flow Z13 with AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395.
Heat dissipation
Although the total capacity of both the CPU and GPU is enormous, I was surprised by the cooling capacity of the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025). The GPU temperature while playing games is only around 70 degrees, while the CPU exceeds 80 degrees. However, most importantly, the case temperature remains very cool, and the keyboard and palm rest stay cool after a few hours of gaming. Of course, to achieve this, the noise of the laptop is also relatively large.
Battery life
With a high-performance gaming laptop like SCAR 18, battery life is not a strong point. The 90WHr battery has a large capacity, but with excellent performance and an 18-inch mini LED screen, the device only lasts about 2-3 hours when doing office work.
Final Line
The Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025) isn’t a laptop for everyone. It’s a product for a particular audience: hardcore gamers, professional content creators, and tech enthusiasts who want the most powerful device that’s still portable, at least more portable than a desktop.
However, if you prioritize the highest possible performance, installing a desktop computer remains more cost-effective in terms of temperature and noise during use.
After getting hands-on with the ROG Strix Scar 18 and Scar 16 2025 this time, ASUS has also announced the prices for both versions. The ROG Strix Scar 18 (2025) will cost $4,499.99 on Amazon.com, B&H Photo, and Amazon.co.uk, featuring a configuration with an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor and an RTX 5090 GPU.
While the price tag might be steep for some, the sheer power of the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor and RTX 5090 graphics card makes it a worthwhile investment.
Not only does it deliver a smooth gaming experience, but it also handles heavy creative tasks, such as video editing, graphics editing, or 3D simulation. Coupled with a top-notch display, an efficient triple-fan cooling system, and advanced features like easy upgradeability, the ROG Strix Scar 18 2025 is well worth the value users receive.
