Asus ROG Strix Scar Features a Slew of ‘AniMe’ Lights

Asus’ ROG brand has never been one to shy away from external lighting, but these latest laptops are getting closer to creating a full-on light show on their lids. The company’s latest Strix lineup, specifically the ROG Strix Scar, has more LED “AniMe” lights on its cover than on its recent back. ROG Phone 9. If the only thing you demand from gaming gear is a lot of light, then the new ROG Strix Scar 16 and 18 will be at the top of the pile.

However, if you don’t care about lighting, there’s still plenty to like. The Strix Scar 16 and 18 have an Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 laptop version up to a 175W max TGP and 24GB VRAM. As for its display, OLED hopefuls will have to settle for a 2560 by 1440 mini-LED screen with a 240 Hz refresh rate. At least Asus promises that this screen will be extra bright and will support Nvidia G-Sync and Dolby Vision HDR.

The AniMe backlighting array slashes the bottom right corner and you can set it to play several preset images or animations. At a briefing, I saw first-hand how the pre-installed system lets you add your own GIF to the backlight and adjust the RGB light bar around the chassis.

These are heavy laptops, clocking in at 6.28 pounds on the light end, but these desktop replacement devices can support up to 64 GB of DDR5 RAM and 2 TB of SSD storage. Even better, Asus has made it even easier to disassemble and replace these parts. The battery and RAM sticks are held in place with latches that take seconds to remove rather than requiring a special screwdriver.

ROG is also debuting its newly redesigned Flow Z13, a Windows-based gaming tablet with AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU. This chip will offer solid gaming performance from its large 2.5K (2560 by 1440) 180Hz tablet screen. Asus says it has a vapor chamber and arc flow fan to keep the tablet cool with a heavy laptop chip. And, of course, it comes with a foldout keyboard and looks just like your average iPad.

I’m still not sold on any but the most hardcore Genshin Impact Player on a gamer-specific tablet or phone. There are more options for pint-sized gaming, especially with all the great handhelds on offer come on’ ROG Ally X.

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