A great option in terms of power and price, but not looks
Asus always finds a way to surprise me. It's a company that can produce the elegant ROG Zephyrus G14 and G15 gaming laptops — up there with the best in the business in terms of design and thinness. It can also make the Flow Z13, a thin gaming tablet with powerful specs inside. Then, it can go completely in the opposite direction to make something like the Strix Scar 17, a powerful but far less refined laptop that starts at $1,999 and goes up from there. I would say that it's a device made explicitly for gamers, but I know plenty of gamers who wouldn't want to be seen using this thing. Its thick chassis is partially translucent, with multi-colored LEDs shining through, and the enclosure for its display has an angular cut out — just because! You can even swap between a few included "armor caps" to give your laptop a different look from the back. The 2022 model of the Strix Scar 17 is merely a refresh, with very little of its exterior changed from its predecessors (it still doesn't have a webcam, for example). Most of the focus was on making significant upgrades to its internals. It's a speed machine, with 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM, a powerful Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti graphics card, and Intel's Core i9 12900H processor built-in. And to see all of that power on display (well, depending on the games you play), its 17.3-inch QHD panel has a fast 240Hz refresh rate. Our review of Strix Scar 17 (2022) Verge Score 7 out of 10 Good Stuff Excellent performance at a good price Surprisingly good speakers Among my favorite laptop keyboards Bad Stuff Plastic chassis flexes and creaks Lack of a webcam is a miss Derivative (and divisive) design Buy for $2,299.99 from Newegg Buy for $2,299.99 from Micro Center This is a laptop where you can easily see the perks of having the latest Intel and Nvidia hardware built in. The Strix Scar 17 can be relied upon to play any game at a respectable frame rate. While not necessarily unique to this model, this laptop was more than capable enough…