ASUS ROG announces trio of new Strix gaming laptops

As part of its global press conference held last week, ASUS ROG announced a slew of new gaming laptops. Among these were three new entries to the Strix laptop family, each aimed at a slightly different market segment.

With prices varying from £1400 all the way up to £2800, there's a fair bit of difference between some of these Strix laptops. We'll start with the cheapest and work our way up to the most expensive entry within the series.

Strix G

The first of three new Strix laptops, the Strix G comes in two sizes – 15.6in and 17.3in. As ROG laptops go, both are relatively affordable, with the smaller unit set to cost £1399.99, while the bigger model is £100 extra. The price means you aren't getting a load of fancy bells and whistles, but the Strix G is all about the ‘fundamentals', as ASUS ROG describes it.

What that means is you are simply getting a solid gaming laptop with a modern design without the unnecessary extras which might drive the price up. Gaming hardware comes in the form of the Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti graphics, with an i7-9750H mobile processor. Alongside this we find 16GB of DDR4 memory and a single 512GB NVMe SSD. Both laptops have IPS displays, too, but do note the 15.6in model sports a 120Hz refresh-rate, while the 17.3in ups this to 144Hz.

As laptops go these days, neither is particularly thin or light, but considering the pricing that isn't really an issue. The 15in model weighs 2.4KG and is 25.8mm thick, while the 17in model weighs 2.85kg and measures 26.5mm thick.

Strix Hero III

KitGuru readers will be familiar with the Strix Hero and Strix Scar families. Both models have generally been very similar in look/feel but the Hero was aimed at MOBA gamers, when Scar was meant for FPS. That distinction is less relevant now, however, as the internal components clearly set these two laptops apart from each other. The Hero III is still available in both 15.6in and 17.3in models, but both feature the i7-9750H processor with RTX 2060 graphics. Alongside that, there is 16GB of DDR4 memory and a 1TB SSHD + 512GB NVMe drive. Both displays are also IPS 144Hz panels.

Pricing for the 15.6in model is set at £1799.99, while the bigger version will cost £1899.99. The 15in model weighs 2.57KG and measures 24.9mm thick, while the 17in model weighs 2.85KG and is 26.2mm thick.

Strix Scar III

We mentioned that the internal hardware is now quite difference between the Hero and Scar laptops, and it becomes clear that the Scar is being positioned as a higher-end model. This is made clear by the use of RTX 2070 graphics in all of the Scar models – so if you want a better GPU, you want Scar and not Hero. On top of this, there will also be two 15.6in Scar models, both with 240Hz IPS displays. One comes with the i7-9750H and will cost £2199.99, but you can get an i9-9980HK CPU instead for £2799.99. Both also ship with 16GB RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD.

If you prefer a 17.3in laptop, however, there are another two Scar models in this size. Both have 144Hz displays instead of the faster 240Hz panels, but the cheaper model – at £2199.99 – comes with an i7-9750H and 16GB RAM. The top-end model costs £2799.99 and again steps the CPU up to the i9-9980HK, but also comes with 32GB RAM. Again, both 17.3in models ship with 1TB NVMe SSDs.

Lastly, dimensions are the same across both the Scar and Hero models – so the 15in models weigh 2.57KG and measure 24.9mm thick, while the 17in models weigh 2.85KG and come in at 26.2mm thick.

ROG Keystone

The last feature to touch on is the new ROG Keystone. This isn't a laptop but rather is a feature of both the new Scar and Hero III devices. It is essentially a small key which slots into place on the side of the new laptops, and uses NFC to transfer saved profiles and system settings from the Keystone to the laptop itself. For most people this may not sound too useful, but ASUS ROG says it could be a lifesaver for esports teams who regularly use different laptops but want to keep their RGB lighting and other settings consistent.

On top of that, Keystone also lets users access a secret ‘Shadow Drive' where you can safely store encrypted data on a HDD partition, which would otherwise remain locked without Keystone. ROG is aiming to add a lot more functionality to the Keystone in the future, so we will have to wait and see how that pans out.

Availability

We have been told by ASUS that pre-orders for these laptops will be going live today, with the devices shipping early May – starting with Amazon and the ASUS E-Shop.

KitGuru says: The new Strix laptops have covered a lot of ground for ASUS ROG – from the Strix G with its GTX 1660 Ti, all the way up to the Scar III with an i9 and RTX 2070. Do you have your eye on a particular model?

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