The gaming arm of Asus – the Republic of Gamers – has unveiled a new powerhouse laptop at Gamescom in Germany. The 17.3 inch slim bezel display of the Strix SCAR II (GL704) has allowed engineers to cram the screen into a 15.7-inch laptop chassis, making the new Strix a tad more portable than other 17-inch gaming laptops on the market.
Asus worked with panel maker AUO to get the screen bezels of the laptop's 1080p anti-glare display down to 7.05 mm, allowing the Republic of Gamers (ROG) to pack everything into a smaller chassis. The refresh rate was also given some attention, with AUO managing 120 Hz before Merck upped that to 144 Hz with a custom liquid crystal structure and carrier liquid. Strix players can also look forward to a zippy 3 ms response time and support for 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut.
Inside the 39.98 x 27.35 x 2.49 - 2.64 cm (15.7 x 10.7 x 0.98 - 1.03 in), 2.9 kg (6.39 lb) GL704, the available 8th Gen Intel processing brain options max out at a Core i7-8750H, which boasts six cores and 12 threads and is said to make simultaneous live-streaming and game recording possible. There's Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics with 6 GB of video RAM, internal storage shapes up as both M.2 NVMe SSD (up to 512 GB) and a 1 TB hybrid SSD/HDD and system memory of up to 32 GB of 2,666 MHz DDR4 can be accommodated.
For cabling needs, there are USB C and Type A ports, mini DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0 – the Strix machine is VR ready too, supporting 3,840 x 2,160 resolution at 60 Hz over HDMI. Wireless needs are met with Bluetooth 5.0 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, with ROG including a RangeBoost feature that's reported to auto skip to additional antennas to extend Wi-Fi range and maintain the strongest connection.
The new Strix sports a desktop-style RGB backlit keyboard with keys designed to last, featuring switches rated for 20 million key presses to be exact. Asus has also included an overstroke feature, which actuates on half-press keystrokes for improved response times. There are LEDs to the front edge too, and the ROG logo lights up as well. And thanks to Aura-Sync technology, the mood lighting can be synced to compatible peripherals.
Something Asus is calling HyperCool Pro cooling technology helps keep the hardware from overheating, and is made up of three heatsinks and two fans. One heatsink is assigned exclusively to the GPU, while the other two look after other components (including the CPU).
And, though many players will opt to plug headphones into the laptop's 3.5 mm jack, the Strix does have two 3.5 W speakers driven by a smart amplifier "that lets users turn up the volume without fear of blowing the voice coils."
The RG Strix SCAR II (GL704) gaming laptop will go on sale next month, pricing has not been made available at this time.
Source: Asus Republic of Gamers
