ASUS ROG Launches Strix Hero II And SCAR II Coffee Lake Gaming Laptops
ASUS unveiled a barrage of new products at Computex today, including a couple of gaming laptops under its enthusiast Republic of Games (ROG) brand. The new ROG Strix Hero II (GL504) and Strix SCAR II are built around a powerful combination of six-core Intel 8th generation Core i7 (Coffee Lake) processor options and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10 series (Pascal) graphics, with the former taking aim at MOBA players and latter targeting FPS players.
Unlike their predecessors, these refreshed models aren't using twisted nematic (TN) panels, and instead have been upgraded with higher quality 15.6-inch in-plane switching (IPS) displays, both with a 1920x1080 resolution, fast 144Hz refresh rate, and 3ms response time. There's also a 60Hz panel option for the Strix Hero II, presumably for gamers who want to save a few bucks. Either way, ASUS claims each of the panel options offer 100 percent coverage of the sRGB color space.
Other than the additional panel option, there are two main differences between the two laptops. The first is that the Strix Hero II offers a GeForce GTX 1060 GPU underneath the hood and the Strix SCAR II adds an upgraded GeForce GTX 1070 GPU options for gamers who need a bit more muscle. And the other difference is a slight variation in styling.
"The Strix Hero II highlights the QWER keys for MOBA-oriented gaming, while the FSP-oriented Strix SCAR II marks WASD instead," ASUS explains.
Both are sleek looking laptops featuring an Intel Core i7-8750H or Core i5-8300H processor, up to 32GB of DDR4-2666 RAM, and up to 512GB of M.2 NVMe SSD storage paired with either a 1TB HDD or 1TB SSHD. Connectivity options include a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port, mini DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0 outputs, an Ethernet jack, an SD card reader, and a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo port.
To keep all that hardware goodness cool, ASUS equipped both laptops with heatpipes to transfer thermal energy from the CPU and GPU to radiators on the perimeter of the chassis. Metal heatspreaders are also found on the graphics memory and VRMs. Dual blowers running on 12V power force air over the radiators and out of the chassis, with dust tunnels on each blower to prevent dust bunnies from setting up shop.
The ROG Strix Hero II and ROG Strix SCAR II are both available now starting at $1,699 and $1,999, respectively.
