ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 16 G634JZR 16.0″ WQXGA 240Hz 500nits Gaming Laptop (Intel i9-14900HX, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD, Windows 11 with 3 Months Game Pass)

4.0 out of 5 stars Best 16″ gaming laptop with an RTX 4080 GPU, but associated Amazon promotion not fulfilled
I only have positive things to say about this laptop:
– best display you can ever get on a laptop in 2023: QHD+ minLED 1100 nits HDR with G-Sync and 240Hz
– very good cooling system: 3x fans setup with liquid metal on both CPU and GPU
– high spec: 13th i9 Intel CPU (they could have went with a lower tier CPU, as this one gets quite hot), RTX 4080 175W (12GB memory, MUX switch to easy switch to the Intel GPU), 32GB RAM (4800MHz), 2x 1TB nVME SSDs in Raid 0 (write speed of 8250 MB/s), Wi-Fi 6E, BT 5.2
– good selection of ports, but no SD card reader: 2.5G Lan, TB4, USB-C, USB-A, HDMI 2.1, headphone jack
– web cam is only 720p, they should have went for a better one at this price
– fan noise is decent, with 50 dBA at Turbo mode and 52 dBA at max fans
– virtual NumPad is handy
– very good per-key RGB keyboard and touchpad
– very good quad speakers setup
– quite good portability for the size and performance you get, weighting at 2.48 kg

Aside from the lack of an SD card reader and not having a 1080p camera with Windows Hello, there is a slight coil whine that it should go away in time.
As stated before, they could have went with a lower-tier CPU to minimize temperatures a bit, something like maybe the i7-13650hx or an AMD CPU.
There are status leds that should have been smaller in size and positioned in a better place, as it can be bothersome for some people.
These negatives don’t bother me, but for this price they are not acceptable.

My only really negative thing I have is with Amazon as even now, after 2 weeks of having the laptop in my possession, they still have not sent me the game code in order to fulfill the associated promotion they have with a free Alan Wake 2 game.

5.0 out of 5 stars Quality and Value
Pony Express Delivery Thank You

5.0 out of 5 stars Stop worrying about weather or not your laptop can play that new game you just bought
ASUS ROG Strix G16 G614JZ 16.0 WUXGA 165Hz Gaming Laptop
Intel i7-13650H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Windows 11

These builds are seriously amazing, great value for price and the overall quality of Asus is so far unparalleled in my experience.
The Intel processor/Nvidia graphic card combo is the most powerful I have seen on a laptop with an affordable price(below 3k pound/euro).

Temperature control is flawless, fans are almost really silent despite being 3 and components have a special paste to further reduce overheating.
This is the first laptop I ever owned that doesn’t actually overheat on me after a few hours of intense activity, and without a pad underneath, the Nvidia latest 40xx graphics card series offers incredible performance, control and customization features, so far all the AAA games I played on it at max setting with ray tracing(like Elden Ring to name one, which my last laptop used to struggle with) had a stable framerate and dashing lighting particles effects.

The 16” size and the light weight are just perfect to truly benefit from portability, this machine can follow you in your backpack and operate literally everywhere for a few hours, I’d recommend keeping it plugged in to avoid energy saving modes which are anyway great for any activity on the go other than gaming.

Get something similar in the 3k pound/euro range, if you want to stop worrying about weather or not your portable rig can play that last game you purchased or pre-ordered in 2023.

4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful laptop, but not perfect.
Performance wise, this laptop is very powerful. Absolutely great for gaming. However, it does have some issues.
My issues with it are:
1. The Touchpad is not a numpad as it is on *literally every single other model of this laptop*. (According to the ASUS Website at least. Even the cheaper models, and even the model with everything the same except a 1080p 300hz panel has a numpad in the touchpad).
2. The laptop screen doesn’t go back very far.
3. The laptop doesn’t have Advanced Optimus, which is mostly fine, but at this price point I would expect it.
4. No Webcam. Again, I would expect one at this price point.
5. When I tab out, the tab that is minimized sometimes loses internet connection? Pretty weird, and not repeatable with videos, but it happens with some games. I tab out to skip an ad on whatever music I’m listening to, grab some water, come back and tab back in, and no internet to that one specific tab. I need to either restart the application or pray it returns. Discord works fine, Chrome works fine, Steam works fine, etc.
6. You have to be very careful taking the back panel off to upgrade/clean anything. There is a ribbon cable for RGB control connecting the board to the case. Unplug it and its all fine, but don’t forget to plug it back in.
Now on to the main bits I like.
1. Highly customizable power limits, and overall good software for managing the laptop.
2. Great specs. I compared the 12900h and 12900hx (the newer and supposedly better version) and chose to keep this laptop. Why? Because the 12900h has: A better iGPU, higher clocks on e-cores, lower minimum power limits, etc. Also, the 3070ti is at 150w, putting it very close to a desktop 3070 for performance.
3. Max load temps for the CPU were 75c at the highest for me.
4. Great panel. 1440p 240hz with great colours.
5. Nice trackpad, even though it doesn’t have the ASUS “Numberpad” feature. (asus please)
6. Nice keyboard. Feels alright to type on.
7. Feels fairly sturdy. Little to no flex on the keyboard, and it all feels pretty nice.
8. It doesn’t get uncomfortable to have on your lap while gaming. At least for me.
9. Media keys! And as an added bonus they also have Print Screen. So even though there’s no numpad, you still get Print Screen.

Overall, I would give this a solid 7.5/10. It has problems that do need work, hopefully they will be fixed in a future model, but I’m not planning on changing laptops for the next few years. Great performance, great screen, nice features, good software. Just remember to uninstall Norton immediately.
I didn’t mention the battery life as I have it capped to 60% for longevity, but it seems alright to me.
I would recommend this laptop. I’ve been using it for over 3 weeks with no major issues.

However, if you read this review and thought “I don’t want this laptop due to X or Y”, I highly recommend *avoiding* PCSpecialist. I bought a laptop from them over a year ago, and it was plagued with issues. They replaced it after 2 months of it being lost in RMA (which I had to chase daily), and that had all the same issues plus some. They also nearly refused to give me a refund, however thanks to consumer protection laws I had to send to them, I did get a refund after 3 months of agony. Just don’t go PCSpecialist for your next laptop or PC.

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible performance in a laptop for those who travel a lot.
The media could not be loaded. I have the RTX 4080, 2TB SSD, 32GB Ram version.
Incredible laptop overall. Really blown away by the performance! The screen quality and brightness is fantastic. The keyboard is so nice to type on. Easily runs AAA title games, Power BI and Revit.
Some complaints are: the right enter key is small and I still regularly hit the # above it. The trackpad isn’t as sensitive to tapping as I am use to, but I rarely use it so not a big deal for me. The touch numpad on the trackpad is handy to have but sometimes misses taps. The power cord is an L shape so depending how you orientate it, it will be in the way of some ports or will be blasted by heat coming from the vents. The speakers are not terribly loud, especially when the fans are on high speed.