ASUS ROG Strix Scar II GL504GV Review

With the ROG Strix Scar II GL504GV Asus focuses on delivering maximum performance at a competitive price, even if that means pushing portability, loudness, and other inhibiting factors down the priority line. (ROG Strix Scar II GL504GV review हिंदी में)

The ROG Strix Scar II is still a good looking (albeit familiar) FPS games-centric laptop with narrow bezel screen and it’s stuffed with RGB LEDs and high-end specs to the brim, and that isn’t something you can say for many other 15-inch display laptops.

The starting price of Rs. 1,64,990 is pretty reasonable for a high-end NVIDIA RTX graphics machine, but are there any catches involved? Let’s elaborate further in our ROG Strix Scar II review.

Page Contents:

• ASUS ROG Strix Scar II GL504GV Review: Specification
• ASUS ROG Strix Scar II GL504GV Review: Design and Build
• ASUS ROG Strix Scar II GL504GV Review: Keyboard, Trackpad and Ports
• ASUS ROG Strix Scar II GL504GV Review: Display
• ASUS ROG Strix Scar II GL504GV Review: Performance and Battery
• ASUS ROG Strix Scar II GL504GV Review: Verdict with Pros and Cons

ASUS ROG Strix Scar II Specs

ASUS ROG Strix Scar II Review: Design and Build

On the outside, the design remains the same as the last generation models that had GTX1060/1070 graphics. The body is essentially made of plastic, but there is no flex on either the keyboard or the lid, and the Strix Scar II doesn’t feel cheap at all.

The lid has a two-tone brushed metal finish and a glowing RGB ROG logo. On the front too, Asus uses a camouflaged design. Also on the front, you will find a flashy keyboard and flashy light bar. Even with all those gaming-enhancements, the ROG Strix Scar II doesn’t feel gaudy to someone like me with an understated taste.

The always-lit power button and status LEDs placed right below the screen can be a bit distracting. The webcam is also placed on the screen frame at the bottom right, which is perhaps the absolute worst position for it.

It’s not a particularly slim machine, but the thickness gives more room to add proper cooling mechanisms in order to not stifle GPU and also for a full set of ports – mostly on the left edge.

Also Read: ASUS ROG GL552VW Review

The hinge is pretty solid and lets the screen lean by 145-degrees. The rubber padding at the bottom holds the laptop firmly in place. Cooling vents are present on the left, right and back edge, at the bottom, and also at the top of the keyboard. This makes using an external mouse a bit uncomfortable.

Overall, the ROG Strix Scar II GL504GV looks appealing even when the design approach gives precedence to function over form. The use of narrow bezels around a 15-inch screen helps keep the machine compact.

ASUS ROG Strix Scar II Review: Keyboard, Trackpad, and Ports

Asus has managed to house a full keyboard with cramped Numpad. The average size of most frequently used keys hasn’t been reduced, but the arrow keys are narrower. The marked WASD keys are transparent and let the light through, which makes it really easy to locate them.

Key travel isn’t perfect, but the keyboard is still great for office work as well as gaming. All keys have RGB LEDs and are grouped in four glow zones. You can control zone-wise lighting from the Aura controls in the Armoury crate app.

There are no biometric unlock options on the trackpad or anywhere on the laptop. The trackpad with Windows precision drivers is spacious-enough, sensitive and has clickable buttons at the bottom. Most dedicated gamers will be using a mouse anyways.

Set of input-output ports include 3x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, USB Type-C port, HDMI 2.0, Mini Display Port 1.2 that can drive 4K monitors @60fps, and also an SD card slot.

ASUS ROG Strix Scar II Review: Display

The 15.6-inch Full HD screen on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 2 has 144Hz refresh rate and 3ms response time. The IPS LCD display maps 100 percent RGB gamut, which is to say that this machine is fit to use for content creators who often pick gaming laptops for the want of high processing power to fuel demanding creative apps.

So, this is a great panel for daily use or multimedia consumption, and an excellent one for gaming. The NVIDIA RTX2060 on board can’t push games to full 144fps, but the frame rate is really high, especially when you are playing less demanding gamers or more demanding ones at moderate settings.

Also Read: Computex 2019 – ASUS Introduces ROG Gaming laptops with 4K AMOLED Displays

ASUS ROG Strix Scar II Review: Performance and Battery

The performance is what stands out on the ROG Strix Scar 2. We tried a lot of games on the machine and weren’t disappointed at all. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since the new Strix Scar 2 is powered by six-core Intel Core i7-8750H (8th gen), assisted by 16GB of high-quality RAM (2666MHz) in dual channel mode and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphics.

We played a lot of games including Battlefield 5, PUBG, Quake, Final Fantasy XV, CS GO, and Metro Exodus.

Playing games with RTX features enabled, incurs a steep drop in frame rates. We got the highest frame rates (110 – 125) while playing games at less than maximum settings.

In Battlefield V we could manage around 60fps with ray tracing and DLSS enabled to compensate. Quake 3 ran at similar fps with RTX enabled. PUBG PC and CS Go ran higher than 110fps at all times at maximum settings. The Metro Exodus ran at around 30fps at extreme settings with RTX features disabled. At high settings and DLSS turned on, the game averaged at around 45fps.

The ASUS ROG Strix Scar II was also able to run 4K and 1080p video edits without breaking a sweat.

With long gaming sessions, temperature and noise get to an uncomfortable level, but the performance doesn’t throttle.

The laptop has a fairly decent 66Whr battery that switches to Intel Graphics when on battery in order to conserve power. With normal usage, the battery can last for around 3.5 hours on a full charge which is a tad below average. For gaming, you will naturally need to keep that charger handy.

ASUS ROG Strix Scar II Review: Verdict

The Asus ROG Strix Scar II is an impressive gaming laptop for a starting price of Rs. 1,64,990. The Nvidia RTX 2060 is what takes center stage here and the new Asus laptop outperforms last generation models with GTX graphics by a healthy margin. You get to enjoy Ray Tracing supported titles with high visuals or switch to lower settings for higher frame rates.

Overall, we would say that Asus ROG Strix Scar II strikes the right balance for a gaming laptop, is future proof and makes for an easy recommendation.