ROG Strix GL504 Scar II

When it comes to gaming laptops, I’m personally not a stranger with the offerings ASUSRepublic of Gamers line has since I’ve been given the opportunity to see first hand their gaming laptops, and I own one myself. With that said, I’ve also given the opportunity to experience the ROG Strix GL504 Scar II edition from the Taiwanese brand for a few weeks. During that time, I was able to play around with some of the laptop’s features and I was pretty impressed with the experience.

Here’s some of the things that I really enjoyed with the gaming laptop.

Screen

The first and most obvious feature I loved with the GL504 Scar II is the narrow border 144Hz IPS full HD monitor display it has. Being accustomed to laptops that have a wider set of borders, it’s refreshing to have a Gaming laptop screen that has very narrow borders, or at least a narrow set of borders for the side and top portions of the screen.

As you can see in the design, since we’re used to having the installed web camera smack dab in the middle of the screen, the design for the GL504 Scar II has the webcam installed in the lower right version of the screen. I was weirded out at first since I got used to the center webcam placement, but eventually got used to the new camera placement as I was experiencing the laptop.

Since the screen is a full HD IPS 144Hz monitor, it’s pretty expected that shooter games such as Overwatch, PUBG, and even Paladins ran as smooth as a babies butt and the 3ms response rate is just the icing on the cake. While the 3ms response rate isn’t something to write home about since we’re already getting monitors with 1ms, it’s still nice to have a 3ms response rate for a gaming laptop.

Sound

The next laptop feature of the GL504 Scar II edition that really jumped at me, is the laptop’s audio.

Since the GL504 Scar II edition has FPS shooters in mind. I was mildly surprised that the laptop has a decent set of cans. This is pretty important especially for FPS games that requires positional audio. The Sonic Radar III software helps with with positional audio. Though this is going to be frowned upon when you’re aiming to go for the big leagues, you can turn this feature off whenever you want to.

The laptop’s built-in 2 x speaker with Smart AMP technology is able to provide decent sounds even for casual listening. This is surprising since the audios of ASUS‘ laptops have been a hit or miss for me, The GL504 Scar II‘s were able to impress me a bit. Providing solid audio, with not too much bass but the sounds come out whole enough that it’s enjoyable to just have music play on it on closed areas like a car or in your room.

Keyboard

If there’s one thing that I was never impressed with the ASUS ROG laptop lines is their choice of using chiclet keyboards for their laptops. And the GL504 Scar II is no different. While I appreciate that the keyboard itself is backlit and that the WASD are marked, I really wish that ASUS could’ve opted for a mechanical keyboard instead. Though that decision may already bump up the price of the laptop which is already within the 129k php range.

It’s still nice to see that ASUS ROG has been pretty consistent with the inclusion of their Aura Sync Technology so that you can at least manage to customize how the keyboard looks to suit your taste and mood.

Build and Weight

The GL504 Scar II was built to be feel sturdy on your hands. I like the metallic finish of the cover that it’s low-key when it comes to looking like a gaming laptop. This gives off the impression of professionalism even though there’s the signature trapezoidal logo of Republic of Gamers.  It’s weight is set around the 2.4kg so it’s lighter than your usual gaming laptop. This is a good thing since most of the available gaming laptops out right now are weighted to such extremes that you won’t even want to bring them out during travels.

Sporting M.2 NVMe PCIes SSD that can be raised up to 512 GB and a 1TB SSHD. The GL504 Scar II isn’t wanting when it comes to hard disk space. The Scar II edition also carries the 8th gen, Intel Core i7 (or i5) so there’s no worries when it comes to the laptop’s computing power. The laptop also contains a GTX 1070 graphics card so you won’t also have to worry if it can run the latest games on at least the high setting.

Conclusion

My overall experience with the ASUS ROG Strix GL504 Scar II edition has been satisfactory to say the least. The portability and the computing power on both the processor and the graphics card on such a light frame makes this laptop one of the better gaming laptops I’ve experienced. Of course the battery life leaves something to be desired that you can only max it out at 2 hours 25 even if I’m just using the unit for normal media consumption or even office work.

Lightweight, but packs a punch, The GL504 Scar II edition is a gaming laptop that can compete with the res. Just as long as you can get past the hefty price tag.

Price Point
80
Build
90
Satisfaction
80
Reader Rating0 Votes
0
The Good
Premium Feel
A light gaming laptop (Not the lightest)
The Bad
Price Point
83