Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 2025 review - one scarily powerful gaming laptop

The Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 2025 brings the company's flagship 16-inch gaming laptop brand up to date with the addition of Nvidia's latest RTX 5000 series GPUs and Intel's Arrow Lake CPUs. At the top of the range is a model packing an RTX 5090 and Core Ultra 9 Processor 275HX, but our review model drops the GPU to an RTX 5080. That's still a mightily powerful combination that, when combined with this laptop's excellent cooling and very capable other hardware, makes for a seriously impressive gaming laptop.

Along with its sheer power and build quality, features such as a quick-access panel for upgrading components, a dazzling light show on the lid, and a superb 16-inch 240Hz IPS screen all add up to a laptop that is not just powerful but desirable. Indeed, it's enough to have this Asus machine leap straight onto our best gaming laptop guide as clearly the best option for those seeking a great balance of power and portability, but it does come at a high price.

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Specs

The Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 2025 specs pack a serious punch, with the range topped by the inclusion of the current fastest laptop GPU, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090. The laptop versions of GPUs are far less powerful than the desktop equivalents - the laptop RTX 5090 has just 10,496 CUDA cores compared to the 21,760 of the desktop card - but it's still a supremely powerful chip.

Our review sample is packing an RTX 5080, which nets you 7,680 CUDA cores (compared to 10,762 for the desktop card), for a still very capable GPU. For context, that's about 1,000 more CUDA cores than the desktop RTX 5070, which you can read more about in our RTX 5070 review.

Along with some solid graphics processing power, the move to an RTX 5000 series GPU also gets you Nvidia's latest RT cores (for ray tracing) and Tensor cores (for AI, among other tasks), with full support for DLSS 4, including multi-frame gen. This means it can use AI to insert up to three frames between every pair of genuinely rendered frames in your game, which can massively increase your frame rate in some circumstances.

As for that Intel CPU, it houses a massive total of 24 cores, made up of eight P-Cores - the powerful ones used for gaming - and 16 E-Cores - the efficient ones used for multi-threaded tasks.

The combination of these two chips, along with 32GB of DDR5 SODIMM memory, ensures this laptop has all the grunt you need for playing AAA games at high settings or delivering 240Hz+ frame rates in esports titles. What's more, the RAM can be easily upgraded too.

The same goes for the 2TB SSD. In fact, while this configuration only has a single 2TB drive, there's a second drive bay available for a quick upgrade, and some other versions of this laptop include two drives set up in a RAID 0 configuration for pointlessly blazing-fast (and high-risk) storage performance.

All the pixel-pushing power of this laptop can be aimed at driving its 240Hz screen that uses an IPS LCD panel and has a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600. That's a notably lower resolution than, for instance, the display on the Asus Zephyrus G14, which in fact has an OLED screen, but the logic here is that this is a laptop for serious gaming, rather than a swish work laptop with a pin-sharp screen that can also do some gaming.

Crucially, that 1,600 part of the resolution denotes that you get a slightly taller resolution than the typical 2,560 x 1,440 you'll find on the 1440p models in our best gaming monitor guide. That extra vertical screen space is particularly useful on a laptop where your screen is quite small, so you often have to use Windows scaling to make text readable. With a shorter vertical resolution, you end up working with very little screen space.

As well as taking advantage of the excellent viewing angles and reasonably speedy response time of an IPS LCD panel (you can read about the difference between LCD panel types in our IPS vs VA vs TN guide), this laptop also uses a multi-zone backlight to boost the contrast of the screen.

In terms of connections, this laptop has a decent selection, with plenty of ports being full-size versions, reducing the need to use adapters. On the left side is the proprietary power port, a 2.5Gb Ethernet port, an HDMI port, a USB-A port, two USB-C ports, and a combo-headphone jack. On the other side are two more USB-A ports.

Design

While it's not a super slim and sleek gaming laptop, Asus has gone to town with the design of the Strix Scar 16. To contrast with its moody all-black build, Asus has festooned this laptop with RGB lighting.

On the lid, there's an RGB-backlit Asus ROG logo and an angular streak of pinprick lights. By default, this matrix of lights shows an animation that occasionally flashes up the word STRIX, but you can also change its pattern via Asus' Armoury Crate software.

Meanwhile, on the underside edge of the laptop is a ring of RGB lighting that wraps all the way around the base, providing a skirt of light, the pattern of which can again be controlled via software. All that, and of course, you get RGB backlighting on the keyboard too.

It's honestly all a bit much, and is the sort of thing I'd just turn off if I owned this laptop. While a large chunk of the cost of a machine such as this one comes from the price of high-end components, if ditching all the external RGB could save even $100, I'd rather save the money, but if you love RGB, you may well think differently.

Crucially, the flashy design of this laptop is backed up by excellent build quality. Its soft-touch black chassis is certainly on the chunky side, but it feels really well made, with stiff panels, little flex in the keyboard, and a sturdy lid.

What's more, we have nothing but praise for the fact that Asus has added a quick-access panel to the bottom of this laptop. With the slide of a clip, the whole bottom of the laptop lifts away to reveal the two M.2 SSD slots - the two angled cutouts above each outer fan, and the SODIMM memory - under the black rectangle of plastic film just to the left of the central fan.

As well as providing a means for easily upgrading these components, this panel also gives you access to the battery, which isn't user serviceable as such but would make for an easy swap. Access to clean out the cooling system and its three fans is also made effortless.

A few usability points to note are that, by default, this laptop doesn't boot up when you open the lid, so you always need to press the power button. I also found it would go into standby mid-benchmark on occasion. As a default experience, both these behaviors are slightly odd when set against most laptops.

Also, upon trying the BIOS option to disable the RTX 5080 - in order to test the integrated graphics of the Intel CPU, the system wouldn't reboot. I had to remove the boot SSD and install a spare in order to get back to the option to turn the 5080 back on. In case you were wondering, the Intel CPU's internal GPU will get you a 4fps average in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with high settings and ray tracing enabled. This rises to 18fps without ray tracing and at medium settings, and 24fps if you enable FSR quality upscaling. It's safe to say that trying to game without the RTX 5080 engaged is a pointless endeavor, outside of simple 2D games.

Display

The display on the Strix Scar 16 is fantastic. As an IPS LCD panel, it lacks the ability to have each individual pixel show complete blackness, as with an OLED panel, but thanks to the inclusion of a miniLED backlight with 2,000 dimming zones, it still brings incredible contrast to most content. It even boasts a DisplayHDR1000 rating, which is effectively the highest standard of HDR rating for LCD panels. You can also turn the backlight to a uniform/one-zone mode, which is useful for image and video editing.

What's more, its 100% DCI-P3 color space coverage allows for seriously punchy colors, yet these aren't presented in a way that can look unnatural. There's a smoothness and accuracy to colors that is totally engaging.

The one key area where this display can't compete with the likes of the high-resolution screen on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is in offering a truly pin-sharp 4K resolution. Here, the 2,560 x 1,600 resolution still looks decently sharp on a 16-inch panel - you'll still need to use Windows scaling to make text a readable size, for instance - but it can't offer that sense of the pixels being completely invisible.

Crucially, though, along with great colors, decent resolution, and great contrast, this display's 240Hz refresh rate means it's fantastic for gaming too. For some users, a 16-inch panel is still going to feel a little cramped for longer gaming sessions - as compared to a truly giant 18-inch gaming laptop or a typical 24-inch or larger gaming monitor - but it's still a big step up in comfortable viewing compared to an even smaller, sub-14-inch laptop. I played many an hour of CS2, The Finals, Warzone, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 on this laptop quite comfortably.

Keyboard and trackpad

As a mid-sized gaming laptop, the Asus Strix Scar 16 doesn't quite have room for a full-size keyboard with a numpad. However, it does have a trick up its sleeve, which is that the trackpad can turn into a numpad. Tap the Numlk symbol in its top right corner, and a grid of numbers and symbols appears on the trackpad.

The virtual numpad isn't as easy to use as the real deal, and using it mid-workflow (particularly if you're not using a mouse and you're relying on the trackpad for pointer movement) can be a bit awkward, but it's great to have the option. Another benefit of not squeezing a physical numpad into the design is that it leaves room for the rest of the keyboard to breathe, allowing for full-size keys and spacing throughout.

The keys themselves are classic scissor switch laptop ones - not low-profile mechanical - but they're rated to 20 million clicks and feel fantastic. The backlighting also shines through strongly, and you get a decent selection of multimedia buttons. The font isn't the most readable, but largely it's a great keyboard overall.

As with the exterior RGB lights, the keyboard backlighting is impressive and fully controllable via software, but you may want to turn it down or off completely to get the most battery life from the laptop.

Likewise, when not in numpad mode, the trackpad is excellent. It's very large and has a smooth glass surface that's hardwearing, provides a smooth glide, and is very responsive. You can turn it off completely, though, if you like, via Asus' Armoury Crate software.

Performance

I tested the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 2025 for a few weeks, using it as much as possible for daily tasks such as writing and watching video, along with having plenty of gaming sessions. I also ran it through a range of benchmarks for both productivity and gaming.

I ran the gaming tests at three main settings. Firstly, games were run at the native 2,560 x 1,600 resolution of the screen, to see if gaming at this quite high resolution is feasible. Then, I dropped settings to 1200p (1,920 x 1,200), which is effectively 1080p but with the slightly taller aspect ratio that matches the screen size. I also ran tests at 1080p to give us a figure that can be more directly compared to our graphics card reviews and other laptops with 16:9 ratio screens, rather than the 16:10 ratio screen used here.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 remains a tough challenge for any graphics card, especially when you crank up its ray tracing options. However, thanks to support for all the latest upscaling and frame generation technologies, it makes for a useful showcase of how you can tweak settings to get the most from your hardware.

At 1600p with no ray tracing but the game otherwise running with ultra detail settings, this laptop delivered a smooth 86fps average frame rate, with a 1% low of 64fps. Engaging ray tracing has its usual effect, though, with frame rates dropping to just 38fps average and 27fps for the 1% lows. This improves at 1200p to 58fps average but you need to drop to 1080p for the average to hit above 60fps.

Take advantage of DLSS, though, and you can easily get a playable frame rate at 1600p out of this laptop. With just upscaling set to quality mode, it hits a 60fps average, while engaging 2x frame gen gets us to 107fps, and the game feels decently smooth at this setting. Jumping up to 4x frame gen, though, ruins the feel of the game - there's just too much of a disconnect between the ~50fps base frame rate to which your mouse inputs are responding and the 187fps reported frame rate. All told, though, this laptop can easily run Cyberpunk 2077 at a level that looks fantastic.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Our next gaming benchmark is Bethesda's recent Indiana Jones adventure, which forces you to use ray tracing at every setting. This makes it a good gauge of how future AAA games are going to perform on current hardware, with more and more titles requiring ray tracing. It also has a very challenging path tracing mode that looks stunning but can bring even the most powerful GPUs to their knees.

Running this game in its normal mode, though, proved no issues at all for the Strix Scar 16 2025. At 1600p with settings set to ultra and using DLAA anti-aliasing (no upscaling), the game delivered an 81fps average with a decent 42fps 1% low. That's smooth enough for playing the title with a mouse and more than enough for playing it with a controller, as the game recommends.

Turning on that demanding Supreme mode with the path tracing lighting, and it's a different story. Even at just 1080p, you're getting only 37fps average, and while engaging DLSS upscaling and 4x frame gen can get the reported frame rate to 123fps average, the game feels awful. Again, it's the underlying frame rate of under 35fps that is what you feel with your mouse or controller movement, and it simply isn't enough. It's great that this laptop has the power to at least try the mode, but you'll want to turn path tracing off to actually play this title.

F1 24

F1 24 still makes for a demanding test of PC graphics, despite being superseded by the latest F1 25, thanks in part to including ray tracing support.

Despite the inclusion of ray tracing, this laptop coped easily with this game, delivering a smooth 69fps average at 1600p with the game set to high settings with ray tracing and using DLAA anti-aliasing. As a game where high speeds are involved, it does benefit from an even higher frame rate than this, but you absolutely can play at this frame rate.

Meanwhile, simply engaging DLSS upscaling at quality mode gets you to 91fps for an even smoother feel with image quality that is still excellent.

Cinebench

Cinebench is a stalwart of the CPU-benchmarking industry that provides a great indication of the overall power of any modern CPU.

This laptop's Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU makes mincemeat of this benchmark, with it topping our charts for laptops we've tested so far this year. In both the single-threaded test and multi-threaded test, it leads the pack. This is a seriously powerful laptop.

Cooling and noise

One of the huge benefits of this laptop over smaller machines - in particular, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2025 - is that its relatively thick chassis allows for some serious cooling capacity. Not only does this allow the CPU and GPU in the Strix Scar 16 to run at consistently high speeds for reliably fast performance, but it also means the whole machine doesn't get too hot or too noisy.

While the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2025 regularly became too hot to handle and sounded like its fans were ready to take off, the Strix Scar 16 remains reasonably cool to the touch on its base and keyboard. There's still some very hot air being blasted out of its vents, but it's not heating the whole machine.

Likewise, when running at full tilt while gaming, the cooling system is still noisy, but it's not quite as frantic and high-pitched a level as some machines, and this laptop copes far better with occasional spikes in CPU or GPU temperatures without having to spin up the fans.

Battery

We tested the battery life of the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 using two different runs of the PCMark 10 battery tests. The first is the general office test that simulates having video calls, looking at spreadsheets, and other light tasks. The other test is a gaming test, which is much more challenging as it ramps up the usage of the laptop's battery-draining main GPU.

In that gaming test, we can see from the chart below that it doesn't exactly excel. It only just creeps over the line to get an hour's gaming on battery, which effectively means this isn't a machine you can actually use for proper gaming away from a plug socket. Notably, it falls well behind the Razer Blade 16 2025, and that laptop housed an RTX 5090.

In fact, comparing the couple of Asus gaming laptops we've reviewed this year to the Razer ones we've tested, Razer seems to be doing a far better job of eking out longer battery life. We see this reflected in the office productivity battery test, where the Scar 16 lasts a decent four hours and six minutes, but the Razer Blade 16 keeps going for more than twice as long.

One factor to note here, though, is that we ran these tests with default configurations, so the RGB lights were on and the power settings weren't tweaked to custom settings. As such, it's possible that you'd be able to get a reasonable amount more life out of this machine, but not without some effort, and it's no guarantee.

Price

The Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 2025 price starts at $3,299 for this version of the laptop, with the RTX 5090 version adding another $1,000. That clearly makes for an expensive machine, but any laptop with this caliber of GPU is expensive. The Razer Blade 16, for instance, costs $200 more for the equivalent specs, although that machine is available at far lower starting prices with lower-spec GPUs. The Scar 16 is only available in the above two configurations, with lower-spec GPUs only available in the slightly more basic ROG Strix G16 chassis.

Alternatives

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 2025

We're yet to test Asus' latest slim and sleek 16-inch laptop, but we have reviewed its 14-inch predecessor. It's the obvious alternative if you're seeking a lighter, slimmer, more luxurious-looking laptop instead of the chunkier Strix Scar 16. Like the G14, though, it's unlikely to handle heat as well as its larger counterpart.

Read our full Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2024 review for an idea of how Asus' latest slim and light laptops perform.

Razer Blade 16

Right now, our go-to recommendation for a 16-inch laptop is the Razer Blade 16, and despite the Strix Scar 16 outgunning it slightly for raw performance, it remains our top choice. It's a fantastic-looking machine that's slim and light, but still packs a great screen and loads of performance, along with incredible battery life.

Read our full Razer Blade 16 review.

Verdict

The Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 2025 is one seriously impressive gaming laptop. It's incredibly powerful, it has a great screen, it's built like a tank, and it copes well in terms of cooling. If you're after a gaming laptop that focuses first and foremost on power and a fantastic gaming experience, but still with a bit of a nod towards portability, it's a magnificent machine.

However, it is very expensive and its battery life is merely passable rather than particularly impressive. It's also inherently somewhat compromised when compared to even larger 18-inch laptops that get you an even bigger screen and a full-size keyboard, yet it's not as slim and light as some other competing 16-inch machines.

Still, assuming the high price of such a powerful machine is within your grasp, it's one of the better options on which to spend that money.

For more portable gaming ideas, check out our guide to the best laptop games, as well as our guide to buying the best gaming handheld, where we take you through all our recommendations at a range of prices.