ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025) Reviews

They use their RTX 5090 SCAR 18 as a desk-bound workhorse for After Effects and Cinema 4D: much faster than a G16, but with almost no battery life and phone-quality speakers.

Their 2025 SCAR 18 with Core Ultra 9 275HX and RTX 5090 feels CPU power limited under combined loads and too heavy to carry to lectures daily, so they feel it was not worth the price.

Bought the 2025 model from Best Buy, hit freezes and USB disconnects with an external monitor with no fix, and returned it within days.

Used almost daily for several months and solid, but needed a repaste, removal of ASUS software, G-Helper and a lower CPU wattage to get there; the speakers are poor.

Has had zero issues with the 5090 model after removing the factory Windows install and putting on a lightweight version; it has been solid.

The 5080 model, bought new in October 2025 and used hard, began thermal throttling even at idle with the performance of a low-end chip.

Had the 5080 model with multiple problems, to the point that Best Buy took it back and they switched to another laptop.

Has used the 5090 model with Ultra 275 for about eight months and finds it great, with no issues using a cooling pad for long gaming sessions.

Calls the 5090 version one of the best laptops they have owned, keeping cool and quiet, with no issues after owning it for a while.

Has had the 5080 model for about a year and calls it great; temps are fine with undervolting and a cooling pad, though the liquid metal may need reapplying and the first unit had dead pixels.

Had the same hot-CPU problem from ASUS liquid metal on their Scar; after a PTM repaste the benchmark score rose from 31k to 39k and temps dropped to about 78-80C in games.

Five months with the 5080 model and still loves it: gorgeous mini LED display, strong performance with little heat or noise, tool-free upgrades; Armoury Crate is clunky.

Just received a new unit and noticed a tiny gap where the display panel meets the hinge cover, feeling not fully flush and slightly flexing under pressure.

Loves the 2025 model bought at Microcenter after coming from a headache-prone 4090 MSI; swapped the liquid metal for PTM7590 and it is rock steady.

Owns the 2025 Scar 18, returned a G18 after seeing the mini LED screen, and is very happy with its HDR gaming brightness.

Bought the 2025 model and returned it after a week because of grey screen crashes.

The 5090 unit crashed after two weeks and could no longer complete a Windows 11 install; it was returned for a refund.

Their Scar 18 works fine, but they are unhappy that it lacks good speakers.

Has used the 5090 model since October 2025 with no problems apart from USB devices disconnecting during games when many ports are in use; an externally powered hub fixes it.

Their unit runs fine for about an hour of gaming, then USB peripherals freeze and the keyboard stops responding, forcing a reboot, with or without a cooling pad.

Their unit also ran very hot, and they were told the liquid metal was applied wrongly.

Has played Battlefield 6 daily on the 5080 version since release and says it has gone well.

Bought an open-box unit and upgraded the RAM with no instability; likes the screen, keyboard and lighting, finds the speakers poor, and is very happy overall.

After a month with their 275HX and RTX 5080 SCAR 18 they are selling it to keep an MSI Titan with a better screen and keyboard, though they find the ASUS keyboard lighting brighter and more accurate.

First 5080 unit had a poor factory liquid metal application, throttling at about 50-60 W, so they returned it; the replacement 5090 unit has been great.

Bought the 5090 model at launch. Reports that the heavy screen wobbles and closes slowly by itself, so the hinges feel loose.

Owns the 5080 model; early BIOS and driver bugs are now stable, it hits 100 C in benchmarks, and early startup throttling appeared for a few days.

Loves the laptop; the speakers were weak at first but Dolby settings and a BIOS update made them sound as good as the 2024 models.

Bought the 5080 model, fixed a tweeter wiring problem themselves, and then loved it: strong performance, excellent screen and build, and an outstanding trackpad.

Just got the laptop and loves it on the April 30 GPU driver, believing earlier crashes and keyboard problems were caused by drivers.

Has had the laptop since early April, upgraded it, removed the bloatware and tuned it, with no problems at all.

They had stability issues on their RTX 5090 SCAR 18 until BIOS 315, and run a debloated clean Windows install with G-Helper instead of Armoury Crate.

Their RTX 5090 SCAR 18 kept crashing in games with black or grey screens and a screen that turned brown, so they returned it despite loving it when it worked.

Their 5090 unit suffered a sudden GPU hardware failure after three months, not driver related, and went to RMA for a motherboard replacement.

They bought the RTX 5090 SCAR 18 and it feels great after coming from a Zephyrus Duo 15; they think 4K on a laptop is unnecessary.

Just got the laptop and loves it, saying every game from Skyrim to Alan Wake 2 runs smoothly.

Their 5090 unit has constant crashes, black screens, GPU frame drops and USB problems even on the newest ASUS driver, and they plan to return it.

Owns the same model and cannot disable the undervolt protection, hoping a BIOS update helps.

Owns the 5090 variant, has had none of the issues from the post, and reports about 67 C GPU and 79 C CPU in Turbo mode.

Has the same model and finds the screen looks very blurry even at QHD; they are considering tweaking settings or returning it.