ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 16 (2025) Gaming Laptop, 16” ROG Nebula HDR 16:10 2.5K 240Hz/3ms, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, 32GB DDR5, 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD, Wi-Fi 7, Win 11 Pro, G635LX-XS97

Good

So far, so GOOD! I've had my G635LX for just about a month now, so this review is primarily my 1st (maybe 2nd) impression. Easy to set up. install programs and import files from my desktop. In fact, my MS account made it especially quick, as it did a lot of the work automatically. I dumped the McAfee almost immediately, as I have never required anything more than Windows Defender and my properly set up ASUS GT-AC5300 router for protection. The G635LX is heavy, but considering the RTX-5090, it is what I expected. As a professional photographer, lighter is often not better, even when transportation is a factor ... it is a trade-off I'm willing to make. It is still lighter than my Nikon Z9 with 24-70mm f2.8 lens attached. The screen is gorgeous, and the GPU will run programs like Adobe Lightroom Classic without any problem ... which is a big deal for me! My old laptop, just could not handle Lightroom ... it would completely stall doing tasks that the G635LX does in seconds ... thanks to the RTX-5090. So far, the cooling works well, and I've had no issues. Also, it is not too loud, as a few others have indicated in reviews. I added a ROG Keris II Ace wireless mouse and ROG Cetra True Wireless SpeedNova ear buds. Both synced easily using Armoury Crate, and all functions, including updates, are easy to handle. I'll review both of these accessories next. Her upgradeability is wonderful, possibly the easiest of any laptop. I can (and will) pop in an additional 4T M.2 drive soon. I've built several ASUS motherboard-based desktops over the years, and I fully enjoy their products. I also performed a BIOS update. which went as expected. Sure, there are occasionally small issues, but typically nothing I cannot figure out. I will continue giving her a full test using Lightroom, which can really extend the abilities of a GPU. And also, my favorite games (CounterStrike 2 and CyberPunk 2077), which play well thus far ... before adding to this review. Bottom line is I am quite happy with my purchase. I love the typical ASUS light shows!! UPDATE ... Mar 2026 After 4 months ... I'm really happy with the 635LX!! It is powerful, fast and easy to use. The battery is fine for shorter sessions, but when the RTX 5090 kicks in, 2 hours may be all you'll get. I DO NOT feel this is a weakness, as the RTX 5090 is a powerful GPU and demands much more current. When I'm doing graphics-oriented work (photo processing, gaming), I expect to plug it in. Keep in mind that this unit also has an on-board GPU, to which it defaults when the RTX 5090 is not required. In this state, the battery lasts much longer. However, when I'm traveling, I expect to plug in the G635LX most of the time. BTW ... I love the light show!!

I ate it with coffee.... it is tasty indeed! If you like crunchiness then definately worth to try. But you need blender first to chop it down before you make soup or slush depending on your taste. For metaly part was bit difficult to consume. However, I make lithum soup with battries, which goes well with its metal part. Well you can marinate battry cells in vodka for 24hrs for the best taste!!

It works as advertised, and I have not found any real problems with it. I do wish that I had gotten it with 64 gig RAM, today even 32 gigabytes is not enough.

As far as I'm concerned, the seller is not responsible for any of what I'm writing here, it's ASUS that could definitely do much better... Performance: 5* Quality: 3* Bad: For the price of this laptop, and its hardware specs, I did not expect it would randomly freeze for 2-4 seconds when launching applications, or when a UAC prompt closes. The event log was filled with warnings and errors from RestartManager about SID mismatch, Secure Boot Keys needing to be updated but never actually updating, and countless others. 6 keys on the keyboard have one of the RGB leds broken (on a brand new latop... seriously?) so I disabled animations because it looks horrible. Quality Assurance at ASUS is definitely not doing its job very well, in my opinion. Good: When properly configured by removing all the bloatware that comes preinstalled, replacing Armoury Crate with G-Helper, disabling the RGB animations, disabling Optimus mode (quite bad MUX switch implementation), it performs fantastically well to run games that require high-end specs. Recommendation: If you are saavy and know your way around configuring computers: I recommend but beware you'll have some work to do for a good experience. If you do not know how to edit a registry, update or rollback a BIOS, or even installing Windows, do not buy this unless having problems, that ASUS does not consider as problems, is fine for you.

Occasional Nvidia display driver crashes, doesn't seem to matter what driver version. Sometimes it's just a momentary black screen, sometimes it's a full BSOD from a TDR. Kind of concerning for a computer I've only had for 6 months. Also the preinstalled Armoury Crate software for switching performance modes is absolutely terrible. It frequently just doesn't let you switch modes until you restart the program, restart the computer, etc. And trust me, you will want to switch modes when not gaming because the high performance mode is very loud and therefore only makes sense for gaming with headphones on, whereas for everything else you'd basically want to keep it on silent mode. I don't really care much about all the fancy keyboard/chassis lighting, but it's worth noting that Armoury Crate is also incredibly bad and inconsistent for controlling that as well. It will display lighting effects that you never told it to. Those lighting effects will also often persist even when the computer is sleeping, draining the battery needlessly. At least the Armoury Crate issues are partially fixable by just uninstalling it and using G-Helper instead.