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ASUS thought it spotted a niche in the market building laptops specifically for First Person Shooter (FPS) gamers when it first released the ROG STRIX SCAR laptop. Fast forward through another generation of Nvidia graphics and now ASUS is back with an even better offering – a 144Hz & 3ms panel using with Nvidia's latest RTX 2070 mobile GPU and Intel's 6-core i7-8750H – meet the ROG STRIX RTX SCAR II.
The ASUS ROG STRIX RTX SCAR II comes flexibly equipped depending on the prospective buyer's budget. Configuration options include:
- either a 15.6 or 17.3 inch screen;
- an RTX 2060 or 2070, or older generation GTX 1060 or 1070 graphics also used by the first generation SCAR (all mobile variant GPUs);
- an Intel i7-8750H or i5-8300H
- Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro
- 16GB or 32GB of DDR4 memory
ASUS tailors it to FPS gamers with a number of tweaks including a low response time (3ms) and high refresh rate display (144Hz), a “WASD” illuminated keyboard, ROG Gladius II mouse and capable gaming hardware, including an ample-sized NVMe SSD for loading games quicker. In practice, the alignment to FPS gamers is more of a marketing spin as the tweaks that make it good for “FPS gamers” make it good for all gamers.
The design is noticeably improved over the first generation ASUS ROG STRIX SCAR that KitGuru tested which had a much chunkier display bezel, no keyboard backlighting and an inferior 120Hz 5ms display. Hardware specification improves too, but with the improved hardware comes an increased cost. Nonetheless, consumers looking for a high-performance and well thought-out gaming laptop will inevitably consider the ROG STRIX RTX SCAR II at some point – so let's check out how it performs.
| ASUS ROG Strix RTX SCAR II GL704GW (as tested) | |
| UK Price (as tested) |
£2,599.99 (accurate at time of writing) |
| UK Warranty |
2 Years |
| Operating System (OS) |
Windows 10 Home 1803 64-bit (freely upgradeable to 1809) |
| Central Processing Unit (CPU) | Intel Core i7-8750H |
| Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 8GB GDDR6 mobile GPU |
| Random Access Memory (RAM) | 16GB |
| Solid State Drive (SSD) | 512GB Intel 660P NVMe PCIe 3.0 |
| Hard Disk Drive (HDD) | Seagate FireCuda Solid State Hybrid Drive 1TB 2.5″ SATA III |
| Display | 17.3-inch non-glare, 1920×1080, IPS, 144Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, 100% sRGB coverage |
| Keyboard | Backlit chiclet keyboard with 4-zone RGB, 1.8mm travel distance and 0.25mm keycap curve |
| Audio | 2 x 3.5W speakers with “Smart AMP” technology, array microphones |
| Input/Output (I/O) |
1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps, Type-C) 3 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gbps) 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) 1 x mini Display Port 1.4 1 x HDMI 2.0b 1 x RJ-45 LAN 1 x SD card reader 1 x 3.5mm headphone and microphone combo 1 x Kensington lock port |
| Power | 230W power adapter |
| Networking | Intel Wireless-AC 9560 802.11ac 2T2R with Bluetooth 5.0 Realtek RTL8168 Gigabit Ethernet |
| Weight | 2.9kg (without power adapter) |
| Dimensions | Width: 39.98cm Depth: 27.35cm Height (closed): 2.49-2.64cm |
| Extras | Includes ROG Gladius II Gaming Mouse |
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