Today we have a laptop with a mouthful of a name – the ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732. This is essentially a 17-inch top-of-the-line model, which actually won’t break your shoulder if you decide to carry it in a bag. One of its most significant perks is undoubtedly the hardware. It comes with the best mobile chip Intel has on offer – the Core i9-10980HK, as well as the best dGPU NVIDIA, has up to this moment – the GeForce RTX 2080 Super.
Interestingly, despite this beast combination, the laptop looks reasonably slim, unlike the Alienware Area-51m, or the MSI GT76 Titan, both of which have more volume than a Mini-ITX desktop PC.
In addition to that, the device is offered with two IPS panels. The “base” one is a 144Hz unit, while the arguably more capable solution, comes in the face of a 300Hz display. Ultimately, this is a device for the hard-core gamer. The one that wants max settings not only on 1440p but perhaps at 4K resolution. However, this device only comes with 1080p screens, so you will need an external monitor to get the maximum of this package.
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-rog-strix-scar-17-g732/
Contents
Specs Sheet
ASUS ROG STRIX SCAR 17 (G732) - Specs
All ASUS ROG STRIX SCAR 17 (G732) configurations
What’s in the box?
Inside the package, we found a huge 280W power brick, as well as some paper manuals and a weird little box. When you look inside, you’ll see something that looks like a keychain. Its actual name is the Keystone II – appropriately matched, and it holds an item that unlocks private settings, some “Shadow Drive” storage, and more.
Design and construction
There is no doubt that the ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732 is a premium device. Its body is made out of a combination of aluminum and plastic – basically, the lid and the base are metal, while the bottom panel and the accents on the back are plastic. This leaves the weight at 2.90 kg, while the profile stands at 27.9mm for the top-tier version. Honestly, these are pretty spectacular measurements for a 17-inch laptop of this caliber.
Expectedly, the lid can be opened with a single hand. The hinges are stable, but there is a bit of flex on the lid. Also, the display cannot be opened further than what looks like 120-degrees. Another interesting thing here is the thin bezels on the top and the sides, and the weird cutout to the bottom part of the display. In addition to that, you won’t be getting a camera with this unit, so you need to purchase an external one, should you want to stream content, or make yourself visible in a conference call.
Once you open the lid, you will see the keyboard. It features a NumberPad segment, and a total of five shortcut keys – three Multimedia ones, one that switches between the performance presets, and one that triggers the Armoury Crate. As far as the keyboard goes, it is a Per-Key RGB backlit unit. The overall experience it provides is decent, with medium key travel and somewhat clicky feedback. And there is only one downside we can describe – the Arrow keys. They are just pathetic guys. Actually, if it wasn’t for the Aura shortcuts they provide, we think it would have been better not to put Arrow keys, rather than providing their users with this thing.
As far as the touchpad goes, it is not the biggest out there, but we are pretty happy with the gliding and tracking experience. Also, it has its own dedicated buttons.
By the way, if you haven’t noticed, there is an LED strip that runs around the sides and the front of the notebook, and it is configurable through the Aura app. And on the bottom panel, there is the ventilation grill, while the speakers are firing sideways. By the way, the heat exhaust here happens from a total of four grills – two on the back and one on each side.
Ports
Most of the I/O here is located on the back. This includes the power plug, an RJ-45 connector, an HDMI 2.0b connector, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) (with DisplayPort support), and a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port. Then, on the left, you have two more USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, as well as an audio jack. Looking on the other side reveals the Keystone plug – it works via NFC.
Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance
11 Phillips-head screws are holding the bottom panel in place. Ultimately, the one at the bottom right corner remains attached to the plate and lifts it slightly, so you can start prying from there. Then, before you completely remove the panel, lift it gently and unplug the LED ribbon cables from the motherboard.
In terms of cooling, we have 6 heat pipes, and they cool, the CPU, the GPU, all VRMs, and the graphics memory. Not bad, whatsoever.
Upgradability-wise, there are two RAM SODIMM slots, that should be able to fit up to 64GB of DDR4 memory. Also, there are as many as three M.2 PCIe x4 slots with RAID 0 support.
And here, the battery is a relatively small 66Wh unit.
Display quality
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732 in the configuration we tested comes with a 300Hz Full HD IPS screen, model number Sharp LQ173M1JW03 (SHP14DC). Its diagonal is 17.3″ (43.94 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 127 ppi, their pitch – 0.1995 x 0.1995 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 69 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).
The viewing angles are excellent. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.
The maximum measured brightness is relatively high – 323 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and remains at the same 331 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of just 18%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6550K (average) – almost matching the 6500K optimum for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 62% Brightness (White level = 143 cd/m2, Black level = 0.12 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is good – 1200:1.
To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.
Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.
Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.
The yellow dotted line shows ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732’s color gamut coverage.
Its display covers 98% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.
Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.
We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.
Below you can compare the scores of ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).
The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.
The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.
Response time (Gaming capabilities)
We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.
We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 8 ms – super fast reaction time, typical for a 144 Hz.
The second graph shows the GtG (Gray to Gray) Response Times from 50% White to 80% White + 80% White to 50% White between the 10% and the 90% amplitudes.
Health impact – PWM / Blue Light
PWM (Screen flickering)
Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732’s display doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness levels. This renders it safe for use in prolonged gaming sessions, without the risk of further negatively affecting your health.
Blue light emissions
Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.
Conclusions
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732’s display has an IPS panel with a Full HD resolution and comfortable viewing angles. It covers 98% of the sRGB gamut, and its backlight doesn’t flicker. Interestingly, our Gaming and Web design profile helps it reach very high color accuracy, which makes it possible to use for professional design and retail needs. Of course, the 300Hz refresh rate is paired with fast pixel response times (although the difference with the 144Hz panels is negligible. On the downside, our unit was pretty ununiform in terms of luminance across the area of the screen.
Buy our profiles
Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732 configurations with 17.3″ Sharp LQ173M1JW03 (SHP14DC) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS.
*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected]
Read more about the profiles HERE.
In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.
Office Work
Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.
Design and Gaming
This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.
Health-Guard
THealth-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.
Sound
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732’s two 4.2W speakers have decent quality. However, there are deviations across the entire frequency range.
Drivers
All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://rog.asus.com/laptops/rog-strix/rog-strix-scar-17-series/helpdesk_download/
Battery
Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This unit’s 66Wh battery was able to deliver only an hour and 26 of Web browsing and an hour and 21 minutes of video playback.
In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.
For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.
We use F1 2017’s built-in benchmark on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.
CPU options
As far as we know, this notebook will come with 8-core/16-thread processors only. This includes the Core i7-10875H, Core i9-10880H, and the Core i9-10980HK.
Results are from the Cinebench 15 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)
ASUS ROG STRIX SCAR 17 (G732) CPU variants
Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the ASUS ROG STRIX SCAR 17 (G732) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which ASUS ROG STRIX SCAR 17 (G732) model is the best bang for your buck.
Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.
Results are from the Cinebench 15 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)
GPU options
While the graphics choices go from the RTX 2060 to the RTX 2070, RTX 2070 Super, and the flagship of the series – RTX 2080 Super.
Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
ASUS ROG STRIX SCAR 17 (G732) GPU variants
Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the ASUS ROG STRIX SCAR 17 (G732) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which ASUS ROG STRIX SCAR 17 (G732) model is the best bang for your buck.
Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.
Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Gaming tests
| Far Cry 5 | Full HD, Normal (Check settings) | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Ultra (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super | 140 fps | 129 fps | 121 fps |
| Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016) | Full HD, Medium (Check settings) | Full HD, Very High (Check settings) | Full HD, MAX (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super | 175 fps | 107 fps | 74 fps |
| Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Very High (Check settings) | Full HD, Ultra (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super | 112 fps | 98 fps | 65 fps |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) | Full HD, Medium (Check settings) | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Highest (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super | 135 fps | 134 fps | 86 fps |
Temperatures and comfort
Max CPU load
In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.
Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.
| Intel Core i9-10980HK (45W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732 | 3.93 GHz (B+64%) @ 93°C | 3.71 GHz (B+55%) @ 95°C | 3.17 GHz (B+32%) @ 79°C |
By the way, ASUS has applied liquid metal to the CPU, instead of the conventional thermal paste. This enables the 8-core CPU to work at 3.93 GHz on all cores with a power draw of 144W. However, we were more impressed by the results at the end, where the CPU was still working at above 3.00 GHz, with the temperature being 79C.
Real-life gaming
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min) | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min) | GPU frequency/ Core temp (Turbo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732 | 1626 MHz @ 77°C | 1597 MHz @ 82°C | 1663 MHz @ 80C |
Indeed, 150W of TGP is a high power limit. And this requires a beast of a cooling. Despite the relatively high temperatures we see here, we are very happy with what we see. Especially when you turn the Turbo mode on.
Gaming comfort
Thankfully, the laptop never gets too warm on the outside, even after 30 minutes of gameplay. However, the Turbo preset releases the fan demons and you will need headphones for this one.
Verdict
You are an eSports athlete? Do you need high fps and a stupidly fast refresh rate? The ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732 is something that will deliver. With its liquid metal CPU thermal compound and crazy fast performance, there is no title that can stand in your way. You also get three M.2 PCIe x4 slots for super-fast storage and RAID 0 support, as well as two RAM SODIMM slots for up to 64GB of DDR4 memory, making the laptop extremely capable in high-intensity workloads like 3D rendering, simulations, and much more.
Also, for the fans of RGB, the keyboard sports a Per-Key backlight, and there is an accent LED stripe on the bottom and an illuminated ROG logo on the top of the device.
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732’s display has an IPS panel with a Full HD resolution and comfortable viewing angles. It covers 98% of the sRGB gamut, and its backlight doesn’t flicker. Interestingly, our Gaming and Web design profile helps it reach very high color accuracy, which makes it possible to use for professional design and retail needs. Of course, the 300Hz refresh rate is paired with fast pixel response times (although the difference with the 144Hz panels is negligible. On the downside, our unit was pretty ununiform in terms of luminance across the area of the screen.
So, despite its relatively bulky appeal to ultrabook users, this notebook is actually pretty compact for a 17-inch gaming beast of this caliber. However, we found that the battery life has taken a toll. Whether it is because of the 300Hz display, or because of the hardware, we only got 86 minutes of Web browsing and 81 minutes of video playback. No matter the setting, nor preset. Moreover, the machine lacks Thunderbolt connectivity and an SD card reader, although it has Wi-Fi 6 certification.
Ultimately, if you want a capable gaming machine, that is able to do more than just play games on max settings, and even go into 1440p and 4K territory (external monitor only), the ROG Strix SCAR 17 G732 is a very good choice. However, there are devices that are even more compact and offer similar performance – the Lenovo Legion 7 (15) is a good option here.
Pros
- Loaded with RGB
- 300Hz IPS panel option
- Covers 98% of sRGB
- Doesn’t use PWM
- Accurate colors with the help of our Gaming and Web design profile
- One of the best hardware combinations up to this day
- Liquid metal thermal compund on the CPU
- Wi-Fi 6 support and three M.2 drives with RAID 0 support
Cons
- No Thunderbolt support
- No SD card reader
- Fans get really loud under load
- Tiny arrow keys
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-rog-strix-scar-17-g732/
Asus saying max ram is 32Gb, but your article saying it’s up to 64Gb. Have you actually tested this? If so, could you recommend specific model of ram which would work fine there?