ROG Strix Scar 15 (2021) review: ASUS’ most psychedelic-looking gaming notebook yet

Note: This review was first published on 22 April 2021.

Leading the charge for 2021 gaming notebooks

There are gaming notebooks, and then there are gaming notebooks like the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15 series. While most of today’s gaming notebooks have eschewed over-the-top designs of yesteryears for muted and understated ones, the ROG Strix Scar 15 fully embraced its identity as a mobile gaming powerhouse – it has even got a funky RGB light band around it.

With the 2021 version, the Strix Scar 15 (model G533) just got a whole lot more powerful. Released at this year's digital CES 2021 show, it's part of ROG's first salvo of gaming notebook options for 2021. You now have a choice of the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series Laptop GPUs (up to GeForce RTX 3080) as well as AMD Ryzen 9 5000 series mobile processors to pick from. In fact, the test model that ASUS sent over would put most gaming desktops to shame with its GeForce RTX 3080 graphics processor with 16GB VRAM, Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU and a 15.6-inch FHD 1080p display with a speedy 300Hz refresh rate.

It’s a real beauty that’s bound to raise eyebrows wherever it goes – be it at a café, school or workplace - as long as you're ready to flaunt it. Provided you have got deep enough pockets for it, of course, which I will get to it later. But let’s take a closer look at the Strix Scar 15.

It’s kinda huge – for a reason

It’s fair to say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and not many will agree that the ROG Strix Scar 15 here – with its unwavering shamelessly loud RGB lights that just screams “gamer notebook!” – is easy on a layman’s eyes. But you know what? I kind of like its unbashful gaming charm. It’s certainly a big leap in design aesthetics over the once-upon-a-time ROG “Mayan-inspired” design style. The notebook’s build is largely plastic in construction, with only the lid clad in cold metal and a lovely silken satin finish to the keyboard deck. Overall, it’s a very solid build all around and what I would have come to expect from an ROG gaming notebook.

But it’s fairly chunky too, with a body frame measuring 354 x 259 x 27mm and weighing 2.3kg. But the big chassis is necessary for a reason – even though it must also be said that the new Strix Scar is noticeably smaller than last year’s model.

You see, the combination of AMD's topflight Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, 32GB of RAM and the 16GB variant of NVIDIA's flagship RTX 3080 GPU means that the Strix Scar 15 can run incredibly hot. All this heat needs to be dissipated efficiently, and the size of the notebook allows larger (and therefore more efficient) heatsinks and fans to be used than those on ultra-slim notebooks.

In any case, the 240W power adapter is a rather hefty 768g, so that means a total combined carrying weight of just over 3kg. As such, the ROG Strix Scar 15 is really more suitable as a desktop replacement (considering how common ultraportable notebooks are these days), with the occasional non-gaming productivity work, that you take on the go.

Clickity Clickity Clackity

Special mention must go to the Scar 15’s excellent RGB-backlit keyboard. In what I think is a first for the ROG Strix Scar family, this year’s model comes with optical-mechanical key switches, giving everything a lovely tactile feel that’s absent in most non-desktop replacement notebook range. Each key also has loads of travel, making them just as pleasurable for typing up long documents for work as they are for playing games.

It also comes with per-key customisation and an LED RGB light bar stretching around the front edge of the laptop that can be set to match it. There’s even a short RGB strip set into the underside of the display, shining down on the vents at the rear of the notebook. If you’re an RGB freak, you’ll adore this Scar 15 to bits. The notebook even comes with “Customisable Armor Caps” that allows you to add your own personality on the top left corner. ASUS has included two additional Armor Caps in “Translucent Black” and “Spangle Silver” out of the box, but you can also 3D print your own with a template provided.

On the touchpad side, ASUS has made it 85% larger than previous Strix Scar model and is a glass pad coated in matte finish. This gives it added strength alongside a silky-smooth feeling when in use. One potential issue with such a large trackpad that edges a little too close to the keyboard (under the “Space” key) is the possibility of it getting in the way of one’s palm when typing, resulting in annoying accidental clicks or swipes. I faced no such issues, but if you have larger-than-usual hands than most, this could be a problem and your best bet is to stick to a mouse as an accompanying accessory and disable the trackpad.

Connectivity is substantial and quite standard fare for a 2021 gaming notebook. There’s a pair of USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports on the left edge, and a single USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 at the rear alongside another USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, plus a Gigabit Ethernet socket, one HDMI 2.0b port and the system’s DC power input. For wireless connectivity, there’s Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1. There’s no built-in webcam due to the ultra-thin display bezel but ASUS has bundled in an external USB camera as part of the standard package – and it’s way superior to your run of the mill built-in webcam.

What about the Display?

I’ve reviewed many ROG gaming notebooks, and one thing that’s always consistent across these notebooks is the quality of the display on them – they are always top-notch. The same goes for the newest Strix Scar here. The G533 variant, the one that I’m testing here, comes with a 15.6-inch 300Hz/3ms panel that essentially allows you to game at tournament-level fluidity. This is one heck of a speedy display. Peak brightness level, low black level and colour performance are top-notch too.

There’s no HDR support though, and the biggest bummer here is that the display can only support up to FHD resolution, aka 1080p. You are probably thinking that an RTX 3080 is crazy overkill for 1080p gaming, and I absolutely agree. A more sensible 1440p panel option is available in other markets, but unfortunately not in Singapore.

Now, let’s go through the most important part of my review on the next page: does it deliver on performance?

Benchmarks and Performance

To compare the ROG Strix Scar 15 at hand, I have opted to refer these 15-inch notebooks :

• ROG Zephyrus S15
• Razer Blade 15
• HWZ PC Test Rig

From a specification’s perspective, the comparison is lopsided as the notebooks used are outdated models now – the ROG Strix Scar 15 is just the first gaming notebook with AMD and NVIDIA’s latest and greatest processors to arrive at our lab. For good measures, I’ve also thrown in our Test PC rig, which comes with the desktop versions of the RTX 3080 and AMD Ryzen 9 5900X processors. So, take these results as an indication of how a high-end gaming notebook for 2021 will perform.

These are the games and benchmarks used:

• PCMark 10
• 3DMark
• SYSmark 25
• MobileMark 2018
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider

How good is it for work?

PCMark 10 Extended evaluates systems based on workloads that can be categorized into four distinct groups, comprising Essentials, Productivity, Digital Content Creation, and Gaming. This includes tests such as app start-up times, web browsing, word processing and spreadsheets, photo and video editing, and rendering and visualization tasks. Finally, gaming performance is evaluated using the Fire Strike benchmark that's part of 3DMark. 

That the ROG Strix Scar 15 outperformed the other two gaming notebooks in gaming isn't a surprise, after all it does come with a more powerful GPU in the form of the GeForce RTX 3080. What's a lot more curious to note here, is that in terms of Productivity and Content Creation, both ROG gaming notebooks are quite on par here - relatively to their respective specifications. For the rest of 2021, it will be interesting to see if the ROG Strix Scar 15 will be the gaming notebook to beat.

Unlike PCMark 10, which is a synthetic benchmark tool and the results are great as a reference point of a computer’s performance, SYSMark 25 is an application-based benchmark that reflects “real world” usage patterns of business users in the areas of Productivity, Creativity and Responsiveness. This means using popular Microsoft and even Adobe applications rather than less obscure options used in PCMark 10. 

Interestingly, we see the Strix Scar 15 trailing behind the older-gen Zephyrus S15 in Creativity and Responsiveness tests. There are two possible explanations here: one being that the Zephyrus S15 comes with a slightly quicker SSD than the Strix Scar 15 and the other being that the Intel processor throttles less under high loads.

(Note: SYSMark 25 scores are not available on the Razer Blade 15 as the notebook has long been returned to Razer).

How about play?

In our gaming benchmarks, the Strix Scar 15 pretty much ate up the other two gaming notebooks. But some context needs to be explained here. You see, the Zephyrus S15 and Blade 15 gaming notebooks are powered by older GeForce RTX 20 Series graphics processors - unlike the latest GeForce RTX 3080 mobile GPU on the Strix Scar 15. It's still a good comparison though, if just to show how much more power you can get from a gaming notebook with an RTX 3080 this year, over one with a last-gen RTX 2080 Super graphics processor.

In any case, it is a lot of excess power to play games at 1080p resolution, and if specs-friendly games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or League of Legends are the only games you play all the time then the Strix Scar 15 is obviously an overkill - although you do get the luxury of turning up most games' graphics settings to the highest.

Performance on Battery mode

MobileMark 2018 runs a similar set of tasks as SYSMark 25, but using the notebook's battery. This helps to measure the gaming notebook performance when not connected to a power source, which is important to understand as notebook and processor optimisation differ when unplugged from the wall socket. All the notebooks were set to 100 per cent display brightness and had Wi-Fi enabled. Battery mode was also set to default, and no overclocking was done. The keyboard backlight was also left on as well. 

Performance when running on battery leaves much to be desired for the Strix Scar 15, when compared to the Zephyrus S15 and Razer Blade 15. But this is compensated by a superior battery life. Now that's not to say that the Strix Scar 15 is inferior - it isn't and we can infer that from our PCMark and SYSMark 25 benchmark results above. Rather, it seems like ASUS has tweaked, or throttled if you will, the notebook's AMD Ryzen 9 processor when not running from a power source to preserve battery life. This may not even be ASUS' way of handling, but how mobile AMD Ryzen processors are designed to work in general where they sacrifice some performance in exchange for a longer uptime.

That's not a bad thing because overall, battery life was actually pretty good for a gaming notebook. It certainly helps that the Strix Scar 15 comes with battery with a large 90Wh capacity. For its size and weight, it's not the most portable notebook around (and it isn't meant to be one) but it's always good to know you can still get a good six to seven hours of battery life to work on your emails, Internet surfing and other work productivity done.

Conclusion and Verdict

The ROG Strix Scar 15 for 2021 is a gaming powerhouse in the mobile segment. It may only be the first gaming notebook with a GeForce RTX 3080 graphics processor to be tested - and with more to come in the coming weeks and months - but combined with the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, and based on the performance in our benchmarks, I reckon it's going to be the gaming notebook to beat this year.

So who is the ROG Strix Scar 15 targeted at? Quite simply, hardcore gamers who want the best possible hardware built into a gaming notebook. I've reviewed plenty of ROG gaming notebooks and the new Strix Scar 15 is essentially the embodiment of what the Strix series means in the ROG family: gaming notebooks built for the best, raw, gaming experience. Every aspect of it is designed with the gaming enthusiast in mind, and there are certainly plenty of unique features built for these users. Of course, these also comes with a few trade-offs. For one, the Strix Scar 15 comes with a very heavy S$4,798 price tag. Then there's the astoundingly mind-boggling 1080p display resolution cap for the screen it is endowed, which is almost criminal of ASUS.

But if you want a gaming notebook that isn't subtle and holds nothing back, then the Strix Scar 15 is about as powerful a gaming notebook as you can get right now.

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