Asus Strix Scar 17 SE G733CX Review — A Gaming Rig Experience in Your Backpack

There’s just something about playing on a high-powered desktop gaming rig that is so slick, beefy, and vividly-lit that it would put your Christmas tree to shame. While many gaming laptops try to emulate that experience, many fall short, and understandably — being able to cram enough GPU power under the hood, while also offering a truly immersive experience can be tricky. Asus’ Strix Scar 17 G733CX may just be that device to bridge the gap, though, and even with its hefty price-tag, it delivers something that is not only a jumping-on point for many looking to transition into the PC gaming space, but even attract hardcore veterans too.

So, regarding that hefty price-tag we speak of — the Asus Strix Scar 17 SE will set you back R75,999, and while that’s nothing to scoff at, it will get you up and running straight out of the box, and with some seriously impressive specs, world-class design, and some bells and whistles too.

The Strix Scar 17 SE comes packed with the brand-spanking new 12-gen Intel Core i9-12950HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, gorgeous 17-inch display making it an incredibly powerful laptop that has the ability to pull double duty as a powerful content-creation machine when the GPU is disabled.

The Scar 17 SE also features 64 GB 4800 MHz DDR5 RAM and 1TB PCIe Performance SSD.

Performance-wise, the result is that you get something that can essentially keep up with (or even defeat) some of the more high-end desktop gaming PCs on the market, especially given how difficult it is to get graphics cards currently. The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is essentially the new flagship card which makes 4K gaming a breeze if you connect to an external monitor, and will give more than enough juice to play anything on the market without a hiccup in framerate.

And playing (or watching any media) in 4K or embracing the stellar WQHD (2560 x 1440) display, it looks damn good. The screen is bright and crisp, while still having some very dark light capabilities to accurately capture the denser lighting in modern games.

The way in which the Strix Scar 17 is able to do this flawlessly is also thanks to the use of a MUX Switch, which Asus has integrated into all 2022 ROG laptops. For competitive games, you can switch to a direct GPU mode that reduces latency and boosts performance by an average of 5-10 percent, rather than routing the visuals through the CPU.

Of course, adding more powerful components is only half of the equation, as these high-end parts require powerful cooling to operate at peak performance. Thankfully, the Strix Scar 17 SE includes some snazzy cooling tech to keep up with the action taking place under the hood. ROG has used Thermal Grizzly’s liquid metal compound in various laptops for the last three years, which reduces CPU temperatures by up to 10°C compared to traditional thermal pastes. With the Scar 17 SE, ROG’s engineering team collaborated with Thermal Grizzly again to develop an even higher performance liquid metal formula called Conductonaut Extreme, which the Scar 17 SE uses on both the CPU and GPU, knocking off another 5-degrees.

This, along with the well-oriented heat sicnks and Arc Flow Fans allow the laptop to remain at an optimal temperature rather than sounding like a jet hitting the runway — something many other gaming laptops struggle with.

While the hardware in the machine is impressive, the design of the laptop itself is also worth noting and makes the additions a whole lot more than simple aesthetic gimmicks. There’s a serious dose of backlighting under the keys, along with some RGB lighting elements around the chassis, really capturing that gaming set-up feel of a man-cave or gaming room, no matter where you’re actually sitting.

And as an added wow-factor, the metal lid of the Scar 17 features a hidden feature: a design only visible to UV light. ROG’s research and development team painstakingly created a substance that perfectly blends in with the lid. In normal lighting, this substance has a matte metallic texture, but with a UV flashlight, the ink appears green and blue. It’s a small touch, but something that’ll make your laptop shine at LANs.

Carrying around such a device can also be cumbersome, despite it actually only weighing in at around 3kgs, but Asus has thought of this and included a ROG backpack, which is durable, full of additional pockets and spaces, and stylish to help you take your Scar whenever you go.

Of course, it’s hard to overlook the price. However, given everything the Scar 17 SE does, along with its accessories and unique approach to essentially inject a full gaming rig experience into a laptop, it may just be the easier and more convenient option for those who have the budget and don’t want to tinker around too much.