ASUS ROG's 320W Strix Scar 18 Monster Gaming Laptop Is Up For Preorder
ASUS is now accepting preorders for its beastly and fully-loaded ROG Strix Scar 18 gaming laptop in two configurations, one with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 mobile GPU for $4,299.99 and a flagship setup with a GeForce RTX 5090 delivering up to 320W of sustained maximum total system power for $4,999.99. Both are basically desktop replacements.
It's certainly a pricey laptop, there is no getting around that fact. But it's also a premium system for those who can afford to spend several thousand dollars on such a machine. We reviewed a version of the ROG Strix Scar 18 last month and came away smitten with its build quality, overall performance, excellent display, and easy access to its RAM and solid state drive (SSD) storage. It ended up earning our Editor's Choice award.
Living up to its desktop replacement status (and model name), the ROG Strix Scar 18 features a big and bright 18-inch 4K resolution (3840x2400, 16:10 aspect ratio) 'Nebula' display with a fast 240Hz refresh rate, 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, and mini LED backlighting. It is also Pantone validated. ASUS bills the display as the world's first 4K 240Hz mini LED laptop panel.
The configurations that are up for preorder go all-out with Intel's flagship Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor based on Arrow Lake, or unofficially Arrow Lake Refresh (we've seen Intel attach the Refresh monitor to its Arrow Lake-S chips on the desktop, but not on mobile).
Call it whatever you want, the Core Ultra 9 290HX is a high-end chip with 24 cores, including 8 performance cores clocked at 2.7GHz to 5.5GHz and 16 efficient cores clocked at 1.8GHz to 4.7GHz. It also boasts 40MB of L2 cache and 36MB of Intel Smart Cache (L3), and an onboard neural processing unit (NPU) that flexes up to 13 TOPS.
Both models that are up for preorder come with 32GB of DDR5-6400 memory (two SO-DIMM slots) that can be upgraded up to 128GB and, less impressively, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. At the asking price, we'd like to see 2TB or more of included storage, though we understand this is a unique time.
Connectivity options include a pair of Thunderbolt 5 ports, a 2.5Gbps LAN port, HDMI 2.1 FRL, Wi-Fi 7, a trio of USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (10Gbps), and a 3.5mm combo audio jack.
"With up to 320W of total system power—a massive increase from last year's 255W—and a maximum 175W TGP for the GPU, the Strix SCAR 18 is built for everything from open-world AAA gaming and competitive e-sports to content creation, 3D rendering, video workflows, and local AI development," ASUS says.
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18 is with a Core Ultra 9 290HX and GeForce RTX 5080 or 5090 is available to preorder direct from ASUS and is estimated to ship on July 6, 2026. Alternatively, you can find toned-down configurations on Amazon starting at $2,049.99.
