Design and Features
Logitech has erred on the side of caution when it comes to the design of the G435. Following the general design of the G series headsets that have enjoyed massive fanfare across gaming platforms, with design cues and features that are alike. The Logitech G435 features soft memory foam cups, that, in my opinion, are the perfect combination of lightweight and breathable while blocking out enough ambient noise when using it in a personal environment. One of the truly unique aspects of the G435 is the extremely lightweight design, and with a frame that can easily be forgotten that it is even on your head, makes the G435 a great headset if you need to wear it for extended periods of time. The medium-sized earcups can not only slide up and down on the frame, allowing for a snug fit for nearly all but there is even a hint of a swivel which is not often seen in headsets that are designed like these. The headband does offer very little in the sense of padding but when the headset weighs a mere 165g then you don't need much padding to feel like it's floating on top of your head.
The Logitech G435 features two ways to connect to your favorite device, be it a mobile device, PC or console. First up is the legendary Logitech lightspeed wireless technology that offers a low-latency connection to any device that is compatible with the USB dongle. The second option is to connect via Bluetooth, which is great for consoles and mobile phones, and tablets.
When it comes to the audio, the Logitech G435 is fitted with 40mm drivers, which might seem on the smaller side, but thanks to Logitech and their great tuning, punches way above its actual weight and delivers solid and strong mids and highs while maybe sounding slightly weak on the bass tones, having more dense earcups might help give the bass some more kick. A new feature of Logitech headsets is the inclusion of beamforming microphones. fitted to the left earcup the beamforming microphones are not quite in the league of the Blue voice boom mic that the G Pro X headsets are fitted with but they do a respectable job nonetheless. The microphones that are fitted within the earcups do an admirable job of picking up the wearer's voice even in partially noisy environments.
On the outside, the Logitech G435 features an embossed G435 on the right ear and the expected Logitech logo on the left. Furthermore, all the controls are on the left ear. Working from the top of the left rear earcup rim, we have LED to indicate power status as well as power on or off. Right below the LED is the actual power button that, when pushed gives you an audio tone to show that it is on or off. Moving further down is the volume up and down controls which do take control of your device's main volume when adjusted. Last but not the least, there is a mute button which, when pressed and held, also activates an ear protection mode which ensures that the G435 max volume is limited to a point where no hearing damage can be caused when used for extensive periods of time. The Logitech G435 charges via a USB-C cable and Logitech claims that battery life should be good for a respectable 18 hours of use.
The Logitech G435 is extremely lightweight and that is wonderful for those who plan to wear it extensively. But it comes with a flipside. Being light generally causes the item to feel less durable. Logitech has proven that their products are very capable of standing the test of time and torture. The G435 does feel more fragile than some other headsets but if treated correctly I don't see it falling apart without some heavy-handedness.
Performance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2x2zLgSi6Y Coming from my personal G Pro X headset, it took some time to get used to the extremely light G435. After some time I had to feel and check if the headset was still there. It is extremely light and the clamping force is near perfect making you feel like you are not even wearing a headset. I spent significant time watching series on Netflix and playing Life is Strange: True Colours as well as some fast-paced shooter action in the form of Warzone. The Logitech G435 handled most audio situations really well. When watching quieter scenes from movies and series the voices would carry really well while the low bass would not muddy the crystal clear mids and highs. Life is Strange is already an extremely engaging game and thanks to great audio it pushes the immersion even further.
When I was playing Warzone by myself I found myself actually hearing the other players better with the default audio settings of the G435. As it is aimed at mobile and ease of access across platforms the G435 does not utilize the GHUB in any way, so what you get out of the box is what you get. Fortunately, that is still very good. What I really appreciated about the G435 is how even though it only boasts a 40mm driver it is able to distinguish between explosions and gunfire without losing some of the quality and becoming very muddy. The microphone while clear, does bleed a little bit of background noise but nothing to be concerned about. My teammates did say I sounded significantly further away from my mic when speaking, although comparing it to the Blue voice microphone on my G Pro X is not a fair competition. The Logitech G435 does not come with any form of surround sound technology which is no problem, many games are designed to give directional audio even when using a stereo headset so it is no deal-breaker! The Lightspeed wireless is as always top-notch, with great range and easy connection, and even walking to the room next door to take a much-needed restroom break, the G435 never skipped a beat! Bluetooth is just as reliable and has a really strong connection which I never had a problem with.
Verdict
The Logitech G435 is a modest entry to a mid-range wireless headset that has its eyes firmly set on being more lifestyle-friendly with a modest design and super lightweight allowing for extended use. The extreme lightweight does make the G435 very comfortable to wear but I would have liked to see slightly more padding around the earcup as well as the headband. The Logitech G435 does also come in three color options, the one we have is the black and neon yellow accents. There is also Off-white and Lilac and Blue and Raspberry. A modest price tag of around the R 1 499 mark makes it a fair bit cheaper than the likes of the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2. The Logitech G435 does lack a surround sound feature but it is more than capable of jumping from work to play and even a gaming session with friends, without skipping a beat. Very capable audio makes the G435 a very competitive all-around headset for someone who is looking for a headset that needs to be able to do it all!
Special thanks to Logitech South Africa for the review content
The Logitech G335 takes nearly everything that makes the G733 so wonderful and simply adds a cable and removes some RGB. This might sound terrible for those who love to have a rainbow radiating from their headset. Fortunately, Logitech replaces it with some very funky color options. For those who are not familiar with the wonderful wireless G733, just like the Logitech G335, the headset has a very bold design with very attractive oval-shaped earcups which has great curvature. The headband is something that truly made the G733 so comfortable and similarly, the G335 has a removable and adjustable headband strap. The headband makes the already lightweight G335 feel even lighter as it does not rest on only one or two places on your head but a wide, comfortable band across your whole head. This is a feature that I wish ALL headsets would adopt.
The earcups are still adjustable by means of a slider on the earcup itself which is discretely adorned with the very famous "G-symbol" as well as the G335 name slightly higher up. The boom microphone sits on the left earcup and is very easy to move down and adjust to a perfect position. Controls are also at a minimum with only a volume roller that is also situated on the rear side of the left earcup. The earcups are made from a very light and breathable foam which works great with the extremely lightweight and breathable G335.
Since the Logitech G335 is so extremely lightweight it is easy to think that the build quality might not be great. The G335 is made from very lightweight hard plastic and with a rather small frame it is easy to think that the G335 might not be able to withstand extensive and regular use. Fortunately, Logitech has become synonymous with sturdy and reliable products and the G335 is no different. The lightweight and flexible plastic that is used in the G335 actually allows for it to sit comfortably on nearly all head types. With just enough clamp force to sit comfortably but not hurt after long sessions. The earcups do not have the leatherette finish like the G Pro headsets. The extremely soft memory foam does a great job of creating comfort while not creating heat which can be a problem if you use leatherette earcups. The earcups are big enough to comfortably cover all types of ears and are deep enough to allow most ears to not touch the drivers. Since the Logitech G335 is near-identical to the already-lightweight G733, with only the wireless feature missing, the G335 comes in at a mere 240g. That is a staggering 38g lighter than the G733.
At a price of touch over R1 000 when it launches, and a design and build quality that is top quality, there must be something that had to take the back seat during the creation of the Logitech G335. Was it the audio quality? Well, that is a tricky one to answer, and here is why. The Logitech G335 is fitted with Logitech's 40mm drivers. Many of the higher-tier headsets are all fitted with the more powerful 50mm drivers. Due to this, the sound is not quite as punchy as you might expect from a bigger driver headset. Luckily, Logitech is great at tuning its audio drivers to fight against much bigger and more powerful drivers, and the G335's 40mm drivers are no different. The audio is very crisp and clear in the mids and highs. The bass is a little lacking but that is partly due to the lightweight plastic that is being used as much as Logitech needed to find a happy medium where the mix between highs, mids, and lows, often one of the three needs to be sacrificed.
On the feature side, the Logitech G335 is a little barer, but understandably so for a budget headset. The G335 does have a flippable microphone that can be muted by simply flipping it up since there is no mute button on the cable or headset.
Much like the internet, the look of routers has greatly changed, from the little box with a few lights flashing on it, to monsters that have beefier processors and specs than the computers of the past have. Not only have the internals changed tremendously but so too have their designs. The ASUS TUF AX5400 showcases the gaming-inspired design with a very aggressive design, that features many sharp lines and edges while having a spaceship-like look and many ventilation holes. Don't forget the six, yes six, external antennas that adorn the rear side of the router. The ASUS TUF AX5400 would not be "gaming-certified" without some form of RGB. That comes in the shape of the TUF logo, placed on the top of the router which can be controlled via the ASUS router app.
Apart from the TUF logo on the top, down the left side, there is TUF GAMING written in black, so as not to be too excessive with the branding. The standard router light indicators can be found right at the bottom front lip nearly tucked in underneath a fold of the router.
The days of trying to hide your routers out of sight and mind are long gone, with elaborate designs such as the ASUS TUF AX5400, they are clearly made to be seen.
The ASUS TUF AX5400 features a 1.5GHz tri-core CPU and 512MB of RAM. This is more powerful than my first PC come to think of it... This power allows the ASUS TUF AX5400 to be able to perform well even on congested networks. The Dual-Band WIFI 6 radio can manage speeds of up to wifi6 with ease. The ASUS TUF AX5400 features one of its four LAN ports as a dedicated gaming port. This port will take priority over all the traffic going through the ASUS TUF AX5400 router. This means, simply plug in your gaming platform of choice and connect it to that LAN port, and no one else in the house will be able to hog your bandwidth. ASUS has also decided, much like their more expensive motherboards, to use metal-shielded ports, not only does this improve stability it also reduces interference across ports.
The USB port that is on the ASUS TUF AX5400 is not only for the usual firmware updates. No, it can also be used for file sharing via WiFi, printer sharing, and even USB 4G modems can be plugged into it and used via the ASUS TUF AX5400 router. And for all those MacOS users, TimeMachine backups can be done through the ASUS TUF AX5400.
As the design, and plethora of antennas suggest, the ASUS TUF AX5400 is a gaming router, therefore it should have gaming features, right? Right! If you are a fan of mobile gaming, and you might need to squeeze a little more out of your connection, the ASUS TUF AX5400 features a mobile game booster via the ASUS Router App. When this is active the router will prioritize and optimize the connection for the connected phone. This will mean reduced ping and better stability, hopefully, meaning more Wins for you! If you are a PC gamer then the AdaptiveQoS is the profile you want to be using. It will, like the other settings mentioned above, help to optimize connection and latency for gaming connections specifically. Don't fret or fear console users, the ASUS TUF AX5400 features an OpenNAT feature that will definitely make many console users smile. OpenNAT type is often a thorn in many console gamers' sides but thanks to ASUS, those strict NAT type days are over!
The Razer Opus X certainly has a more down-to-earth design with its circumaural earcups, minimal design ars that allow the earcups to swivel. Being made from plastic with a top headband made from protein leather, the Razer Opus X certainly does come in extremely light, weighing a mere 270g. With 270g on your head, you will hardly notice the lightweight Razer Opus X on your head which makes them perfect for long sessions of wearing. The headband is not very broad but is wide enough to provide a solid build and feel while having nine notches of size to accommodate even the biggest of heads. The very soft and comfortable protein leather earcups sit extremely comfortably and even though the earcups themselves seem rather small, they fit surprisingly comfortably and long sessions are actually effortless.
The Razer Opus X, earcups are deep enough that most users won't have any problems with ears touching the drivers, which is a problem that many headsets face when they try and be as sleek and slimline as possible. These earcups house the 40mm drivers that might not be tuned for audiophiles like its older and more expensive brother, the Razer Opus is, but what it also lacks, unlike the Opus is a hefty price tag. The Razer Opus X is for the person who is looking for good noise-canceling headphones without breaking the bank, and still, looks stylish while doing so. The Razer Opus X features four microphones in total, two are used for active noise canceling, the other two are for voice chat. The chat microphones on the Razer Opus X are acceptable, but they are by no means a replacement for a headset that features a dedicated boom or retractable microphone.
The Razer Opus X has all of its controls limited to the right earcup. Along the edge, you will be met with four marginally protruding buttons. These are volume up, the multifunction button in the middle, and volume down next to that. The power button is separated from the other buttons by a small LED indicator. The Razer Opus X is charged by USB-C which is located on the same earcup but more forward-facing. The power button doubles as the ANC toggle, when pressing the power button a voice will tell you ANC on, ANC off, or ambient on.
The Razer Opus X being fully Bluetooth 5.0, has another nifty feature in the form of QAM which, with a press of a button, allows you to filter in outside ambient sounds allowing you to hear what is happening around you. Always handy if your significant other is calling you to fetch your gaming snacks. Razer has also included a low latency gaming mode into the Opus X which did not make the cut into the normal Opus. Gaming mode gives you better gaming latency of a mere 60ms.
One of the big issues that many people have with wireless headsets is, often, bad battery life. The Razer Opus X can give a very solid 30 hours of battery life with ANC on, and get to 40 hours with ANC turned off.
We put the Razer Opus X through its paces with a few shows on Netflix and a host of playlists on Spotify. Straight out of the box, the Razer Opus X equalizer settings were pretty decent with the bass being punchy enough while not having the mids become muddy or losing the highs. I was also impressed that during mostly dialogue sections of series or movies the Razer Opus X kept the voices to the front and clear and when the action erupted it never felt that the voices got lost or overwhelmed.
If the standard settings don't quite suit your ears, Razer has an Audio app that you can download that allows for the equalizers to be adjusted to your heart's content. The app also allows you to toggle the ANC on and off without having to finger around to find the correct buttons on the headset itself.
The Logitech G923 is the successor to the extremely popular and capable G29/G920. If you are a owner of the G29 or G920 it is understandable that you might be skeptical of making the move from your current setup for something, that at face value, doesnt seem that much different. On the outside the Logitech G923 features all the same premium quality materials. The extremely plush leather in which the steering is wrapped, the strong, sturdy and perfectly sized metal paddleshifters, the buttons are pefectly spaced while the inlay of the wheel is mostly brushed metal with some plastic inlay. The flat bottom steering wheel is a nod to many sportier car brands and gives you a wonderful feel of being fast, accurate and true.
Apart from the wheel and paddleshifters, the wheel also features the standard YBAX buttons for Xbox, LSB and RSB buttons are placed on eith side of the centre of the wheel and they feel much like the "NOS buttons" that are so popular in the Fast & Furious franchise. + and - keys are placed on the left bottom and the return button, with dial around the outside, to the right. These two round buttons feel like they take quite alot of inspiration from a very popular german car brand, which is never a bad thing. When turned on the new Logitech G923 also features a LED rev indicator which is a nice touch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bMzOxkW-yU
The Logitech G923 wheel can be attached to a counter or rig with a suprisingly strong clamp that can be clamped and then tightened and fits nearly all, reasonably shaped, tables or desks. The cables that go to the foot peddles, as well as the gearshifter, are all loose and enters a neatly routed area where they can be fitted and closed up tight.
The racing peddles are big and solid, which is what you need, as they might take some serious beating during the course of a really intense race. Consisting of a large, rubberized base with all three of the pedals, not only a stop and go like non-purists use. These pedals are fully metal with rubber blobs on them to keep your favourite racing slipper ( see what I did there) from from slipping off the brake or accelerator at the worst possible time. Aesthetically, the pedals are identical to the G29/920 that came before it except this time around, the brake pedal now has a progressive spring that will get firmer the harder you slam on the brakes.
The only slight drawback is that all of this vibrations do make a slight racket. And a second fallback, not of the Logitech G923's own making, is the lack of TrueForce support at this time. GT Sport, Assetto Corsa Competizione, Grid and Dirt 2.0 is some of the very few titles to currently support TrueForce.
I found the pedals to be equisite! The clutch felt great and although I did prefer to not use it I found the fact that the clutch would take differently on different cars to be a wonderful touch, both from the wheel and Dirt 2.0. The throttle peddle, much like expected provides the least of feedback through the actual but is the cause for nearly all the feedback throughout the rest of the Logitech G923. The real magic comes in the brake pedal with a progressive spring that stiffens as you put more weight on it, much like the hydraulic force that builds on a real brake pedal. This was once again evident when I took the Ford Escort or Mini for a few spins from the classic era of racing.
Once again, Logitech, with its GHUB partners wonderfully capable hardware with a very robust software. The Logitech GHUB is very easy to to understand and setup, and the features of the Logitech G923 can easily be adjusted within it. Keybinds can be changed and other features like TrueForce can be turned off.
With any item that is co-created and designed by a brand as renowned as Porsche Design, the Porsche Design AOC Agon PD27 instantly has your attention drawn to the very unique stand. Made from metal, and carrying quite a hefty weight, Porsche Design and AOC wanted the stand to remind us of a roll cage that is fitted to racing cars. While the stand, which is permanently fixed to the monitor, which means no mounting the Porsche Design AOC Agon PD27 to a VESA mount, is wonderful and a joy to look at, it does take up substantial space on a desk with a deep footprint of over 30cms.
The rest of the monitor has a brushed finish and is proudly adorned with the Porsche Design logo on the front. The bezels of the Porsche Design AOC Agon PD27 are a mere 8mm. On the rear at the right, there is a single joystick that is the single control for all the features and settings that can be found on the monitor.
Not only does the chrome-plated stand provide much of the eye-candy factor of the Porsche Design AOC Agon PD27, but it also allows gives it a strong base to stand on. The stand allows for great ergonomics. The monitor is able to move up and down within a range of 15 cm. The monitor is also able to tilt 23degrees while swiveling 150 degrees. What makes these movements more impressive is exact, and the perfect amount of resistance these movements offer. I have yet to find a monitor that is as perfectly weighted as the Porsche Design AOC Agon PD27.
To many gamers' delight, the Porsche Design AOC Agon PD27 even features some RGB. Around the pivot of the monitor, there is RGB lighting as well as a Porsche Design logo that is projected down between the feet of the stand. Naturally, the RGB can all be customized via the onboard settings.
Much like the Porsche cars, the Porsche Design AOC Agon PD27 has some serious tech under the "hood". It boasts a 1440p VA Panel that is good for 240Hz, is capable of a 3000:1 contrast ratio, Adaptive-Sync, and HDR. If that mouthful doesn't impress you then maybe the very aggressive 1000R curve and a 0.5ms response time, will. The Porsche Design AOC Agon PD27 comes with two Display Port 1.4 and two HDMI 2.0 ports. The HDMI's will only give you up to 144Hz as is standard for HDMI 2.0 and if you want to take the full function of the 240Hz goodness you will need to connect via DP1.4. The HDR10 and blur reduction are also only supported over the DP1.4 ports and will be good for up to 240Hz. The Porsche Design AOC Agon PD27 also features a 3.5mm audio jack as well as five USB 3.2 ports, one for upstream and the other 4 for down. As if all of that is not enough there are also two, rather powerful, 5W DTS-tuned speakers built into the Porsche Design AOC Agon PD27 monitor. Although I am sure these will hardly ever be used.
With VA panels you are guaranteed to get great colors and brightness but often at the expense of overly bright blacks, with the Porsche Design AOC Agon PD27, this is not the case. During our time spent, we played quite a bit of fast-paced games such as Rocket League, Warzone, and Biomutant, as well as other, more gritty and dark titles like Escape From Tarkov and Days Gone.
Compared to many of the other monitors we have reviewed in the past, the Porsche Design AOC Agon PD27 is the only one that comes to mind, where when turning on the HDR, that we did not want to, or have to change any settings. Normally we would need to play around with some of the settings to get it to the way we like, but the Porsche Design AOC Agon PD27 has its settings perfectly dialed in, to our liking at least.
Colorful games such as Biomutant and the vibrant and fast-paced Rocket League look splendid with the rich contrast really making games look stunning. The strong curve of the 1000R panel does wonders for immersion. This is boosted more by the fairly capable 5W speakers and an extremely robust equalizer accessible via the OSD. Thanks to the DTS tuning the speakers are able to create a fuller sound and thanks to some phase effects, even surround sound approximation sounded decent with plenty of bass while keeping voices crystal clear.
AOC implemented a feature called backlight strobing which should help with smearing especially when it comes to fast-paced titles and running them at 240Hz. We had to research this whole idea a bit before we attempted it and what we found was that at lower refresh rates, basically everything below 200Hz the MBR feature did a great job of keeping things crisp and clear but moving toward the 240Hz there was noticeable smearing happening.
The packaging is as expected for ASUS ROG, utterly premium. Inside the box, you will naturally find the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero motherboard with a host of many other goodies. Apart from the needed documentation and driver CD, there is the newly designed WIFI antennas, 6 SATA cables, a large ROG sticker, Q-connector to make the pesky case IO plugs more bearable to plug in, extension cables for both RGB strips, as well as addressable LEDs, a really good looking coaster because we all need refreshments while gaming, a package with a few screws for your M.2 drives and last but not least, a ROG Thank you, Card.
Taking a closer look at the newly refreshed ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero, we do notice a few changes, albeit very subtle and slight, they do give the latest version a very classy and refined update. Small changes have been brought to the new ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero like the heatsinks now are ribbed and the beautifully brushed black is centered by the ROG logo that lights up with RGB from behind. The IO heatsink now also has ROG on it which also lights up with RGB. The IO shield, which is usually loose and often a nightmare to get aligned or even worse when you realize you forgot to install it, is now fixed into place. Even when running in "stealth mode" as ASUS calls it, with no RGB, the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero fits perfectly into nearly any build that does not favor a white build.
Average FPS ( Higher is better) - 149 FPS
In true ASUS ROG fashion, even the way the z590 board is packaged is of the highest quality and with a few extra goodies crammed in for good measure. The user manual is accompanied by a set of stickers which has a vast assortment of sticker options to suit anyone's needs. A clever SATA cable indicator sticker is perfect if you have many SATA devices and are not sure which one is for which. Nice touch! A CD with drivers is also included, although we wonder how many people actually still have disc drives in their PCs these days. ASUS clearly expects you to have a beefy GPU to go with your new beefy motherboard, and that is why a ROG branded GPU stand is also included! ASUS even includes four SATA cables, two of which are 90-degree connectors. These always come in handy if you are trying your very best to build neatly, but four SATA cables for a motherboard that can take six, strange.
You will also be greeted by a 40mm fan, no this is not a mistake, it is an extra fan that can be attached to your ASUS ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WIFI board to assist with some extra cooling, we preferred to leave it in the box. The WIFI antennas, which do not need to be connected if you can get decent enough reception from where you are situated, have been cleverly designed. With the new design, it does not need to sit on top of your case or stand on your desk. It can now neatly sit at the back of your case and hardly be noticed if you so desire.
Having a Z390 board in my personal gaming rig, the biggest gripe I had with it the fact that the second 6-pin connector is situated just below the CPU slot which means there is no "neat" way of feeding the cable to it. With the ASUS ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WIFI board, and I expect with all newer generation boards, both the power plugs, which is now an 8-pin and 4-pin, are situated nicely at the left top of the motherboard. I would personally suggest plugging them in before installing the board into your case, especially if you have a smaller case as they are tough to get to once installed, but they work wonders if you want to build neatly. Next to them, you will find a fan header for the 40mm VRAM fan that we mentioned earlier
Moving to the right-hand side there are two more fan headers, a CPU OV jumper that can be used if you are a brave builder and want to overvolt your brand new CPU. Next to that, there is the standard addressable RGB header that is part of the AURA setup. Moving down the right-hand side of the ASUS ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WIFI board the standard 24-pin ATX power plug is where it usually is. It is partnered by two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 for your case front-end needs. Although the ASUS ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WIFI board comes with a plethora of USB ports at the back it is very handy to have high-speed USB capabilities at the front of your case. Further down there are the six SATA ports that we mentioned earlier as well as a couple of fan headers. As always, in the corner is the brain-meltingly frustrating front IO plugs. With some other models of ASUS ROG boards, they provide a connector so you can plug the fiddly pins in where you can see them and then plug that connector into the motherboard. This should be a damn industry standard! There is also a W_PUMP+ header for all your liquid cooling pump needs. Two USB2.0 headers have seen a new lease on life in recent times due to so many RGB systems using those headers. Two more headers for RGB strips can also be found at the bottom.
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 looks on the outside much like it does on the inside, futuristic and immensely capable. Before we take a look at the actual laptop, even the packaging that I come in just screams that it means business. Taking it out of the box you are met with a large imposing laptop. on the lid, a large part of it has been given a dot matrix design which is both aesthetically pleasing while certainly providing much-needed cooling to the display. The other half of the lid has a fingerprint-resistant matte black finish with a shiny ROG logo adorning it. Moving down to the hinge section, on the part that does not have dot matrix on it, you will find ROG inscribed in it, just in case you didn't know that it is an ASUS ROG laptop. Even the dot matrix design, if you look at it at the right angle, says ROG!
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 loves to flaunt all it has and hence all the aggressive designs. Along the side, you will find a myriad of vents to cool the colossus of a computer lurking inside. In the box, you will also find end caps that you can place on the hinge that read "ROG" if you want to customize your ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 somewhat more. Opening the lid of the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 greets you with a rather contrast inside. The one side continues with the matte black design while the other does remind me a bit of when semi-transparent gaming consoles or controllers were popular. The semi-transparent cover does give the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 a very industrial feel with a few rivets that can be seen directly under the plastic.
As we all know, ASUS ROG STRIX is not shy to give their products RGB, and the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 is no different. There is a light strip at the bottom of the laptop, unless you get more eye-level with the Scar 17 you will not see it directly but that is the whole point. The RGB strip is bright enough to create the much-wanted Aura effect ( see what I did there ASUS ;) ). When testing it on a polished surface or any reflective surface the effect is wonderful, but even on less shiny counters it still did its job really well. The RGB does not stop there with some RGB positioned closer towards the hinge as well as that shiny ROG sign that sits on the lid, yes that bad boy is fully RGB infused!
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 however does leave out the webcam from the wide arsenal that it does have. This can be forgiven as the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 is aimed at the gamer and to be the muscle behind a content creator's magic, and besides, onboard webcams are generally not that great and if you are a streamer, chances are you have a camera that you prefer anyway. The ports and ports layout is spread across the left and the back of the laptop. The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 comes with 3 x USB3.2 ports of which two are on the left and one is on the back. There is also one USB 3.2 type C port as well as an HDMI 2.0 connection and last but not least, an RJ45 ethernet port.
Towards the right front side of the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17, there is a curious little slot that caught my eye from the moment I opened the lid. After some reading and scratching through packaging, I found an interesting keystone. This keystone uses its RFID chip to lock or unlock certain drives that you might not want to be used or found when you are not with your laptop. By simply inserting the keystone these drives will become visible once more.
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 that landed on our desk was the FHD 360Hz version, which on a 17-inch display, would be the better choice in our opinion. Such a small screen surface makes even 1080p look amazing and with 360Hz this is a gamer's dream! It is necessary to mention that the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 screen brightness does not quite match a normal monitor but when turned up all the way we didn't find it to be too dark. During darker gameplay or videos the video did seem slightly washed out at times but for the most part, and especially during vibrant games such as Biomutant and Overwatch the display was fantastic and really made the game look vibrant and bright!
High framerate displays sell themselves to all those who are looking for an edge over the competition. Personally, I have been gaming on 144Hz for quite some time and when the 360Hz of the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 came around I had my doubts whether it would truly make that much of a difference. It is safe to say that if your hardware is capable, like in the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 then 360Hz will give you a sure edge and make games feel more engaging due to the fact that on-screen elements react so quickly and smoothly to your every input.
ASUS is clearly focusing on the esports player, current or aspiring with the Scar series of laptops. Apart from the eye-melting 360Hz display gamers and content creators alike always needs a top-tier keyboard that is responsive yet comfortable. ASUS easily addressed these demands by pairing the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 with an optical-mechanical keyboard that has a soft matte touch finish which is the perfect blend between crisp and responsive clicks while making it very pleasant to touch. The keys that are rated for 100 Million clicks have a response time of a blistering 0.2ms all thanks to the optical switches makes these keys breathtakingly fast considering that they are in a very flat laptop setup. The full travel distance on these optical-mechanical keys is still only 1.9mm to try and preserve as much of that lovely tactile feel.
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 keyboard also features a few media keys and a few function keys that are pre-assigned to adjust things like RGB styles and a few more nifty features. Moving over to the touchpad, for gaming, ANY trackpad is absolute rubbish and if you play games with a trackpad please excuse yourself now. But if you are doing some productivity or you need to do some content creation, the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 does have a very large touchpad that is less smooth than what I would expect. But after using it I realized that that is exactly what makes it so good, more friction means more control. Well played ASUS. Naturally, ASUS makes full use of the multi-touch functions for zoom and scrolling which makes using a touchpad a very pleasant experience.
Audio has always been a tricky thing to implement properly into a small form factor like a laptop. physics proves that to make a big sound you usually need big speakers, and small laptops do not allow for those. So when I turned on a Spotify playlist to put the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 through its paced with audio, I was very surprised with the wide audio stage as well as how punchy the mids and lows were that was emanating from this laptop. After the pleasant surprise, some closer investigation was needed. There are two bottom speakers that play downwards as well as two front-facing speakers that are cleverly hidden deep into the hinge mechanism and unless you listen for them you won't see them. These hinge-placed speakers are designed to include their own subwoofers giving the deep and punchy bass considering their size.
The audio that comes from the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 extremely good considering that it comes from a mere laptop, but it would be good to note that the sound, even when at max volume is not the loudest, but then again, if you are using onboard audio from a laptop you are not expecting it to be the music source of a house party. But that being said the audio, while not the loudest does allow all the small details to come through especially when I was playing games like Days Gone, the rustling of the wind, and the growls of far-off zombie hoards were distinctly, yet eerily heard.
When taking the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 into games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Metro Exodus, and Horizon Zero Dawn which are all very demanding games are easily handled by the extremely capable Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, its 8 cores and 16 threads that idle at 3.3GHz and boosts to a staggering 4.6GHz is almost unheard of when it comes to laptops and it effortlessly handles everything you throw at it. To put it into perspective a vast majority of PC CPUs are less powerful than this laptop processor and that, in all honesty, is very scary!
Combine the 5900HX and 32Gb of DDR4 RAM clocked at 3200MHz and as if that was not scary enough all of that is topped off with an Nvidia RTX3080 laptop GPU that has a staggering 16Gbs of VRAM. If there were any doubts of what this monster is capable of the numbers and specs should send shivers through your spine. Time to put this beast to the test and see how the 360Hz monitor handles it. Let us take a look.
1080p, RTX on, DLSS on, DX12, Ultimate settings
FPS - 74FPS
1080p, Ultimate settings
FPS - 94 FPS
Although this is a small sample to test, these titles are all extremely demanding and for the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17 to be able to push out 60+ FPS on titles that are known to bring capable PCs to their knees is a testament in itself.
For those who are not aware, ASUS, whether it be ROG or TUF, has impeccable packaging, arguably the best I have ever experienced, and the ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX6800 OC edition is no different. Unlike the motherboards, graphics cards usually don't have many extra things inside the box apart from the card itself. Inside the box, you will find the card itself, some loose pamphlets, a trading card, which is a nifty trinket to have and flex with, and some ASUS branded cable straps that do come in handy.
The ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX6800 OC edition features the same beefy heatsink and three-fan design that most newer ASUS cards, be it Nvidia or AMD. Before we go any further it is important to note that ASUS calls this card a 2.9 slot card, but for all purposes, it is a three-slot monster that measures a whopping 320mm long. What this means that if you are a fan of compact builds or you are running a small mid-tower case you might struggle to squeeze this monster into your case if you have a front-mounted radiator, as we have.
With a card of this size and considerable weight, sagging is something to be expected. Fortunately, ASUS has come up with a solution. They have a metal frame that is located between the cooler shroud and the PCB to try combat gravity, and it does a rather good job of it. We prefer to use a small screw on the case to screw the card into the rear and providing some more support as to not hurt the stupidly gorgeous ASUS ROG Strix Crosshair VIII Dark Hero motherboard that we are also reviewing.
The triple fan configuration, just like we saw on the ASUS TUF RTX3080 we reviewed, has the center fan spinning in opposite direction to the outer fans to reduce turbulent airflow which provides better cooling while keeping noise levels at a minimum. Upon further inspection we found the ROG Strix fans to feature more fins on the fans compared to the TUF version. This makes for more air to be able to be pushed through the massive heatsink resulting in even better cooling performance. ASUS did have some fun with these cards. On the bottom of the card, there are coordinates printed, when searched these coordinates take you to the ASUS headquarters in Taiwan. A nifty nod to the factory for their hard work.
The side of the card has an RGB light strip that runs along the side of the card, facing outwards. There is a single ROG logo on a silver plaque in the center. The RGB strip is not too brash and bright but is bright enough to be noticed. Personally, I am not much of an RGB fan so the fact that the RGB can be turned off either in the armory crate software on in the BIOS is wonderful. Moving to the back-side of the ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX6800 OC edition we are met with the power connectors. The ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX6800 OC edition will need, at least, a 650W power supply and it will require two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX6800 OC edition is rather power-hungry with a rated TDP of a whopping 250W. Back to the front of the card, neatly tucked away is the dual bios switch allowing you to run the card in either Q mode ( quiet mode) or P mode (Performance mode). Naturally, this switch should stay in the P mode...
The overall look of this card when installed is wonderful, thanks to arguably the best-looking top plate, featuring the signature ROG emblem and the new open-back heatsink design allowing for massive cooling improvements while still keeping the ASUS ROG Strix sleek and attractive look that ASUS has become so renowned for. When it comes to the way to connect to the ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX6800 OC edition card the immediate omission would be the USB Type-C. This might be a bummer for some but fortunately, you will still get one HDMI 2.1 port and three Display Port 1.4 ports that should cover all your connection needs.
1080p - 154fps
1440p - 110fps
1440p (SAM) - 110fps
1080p - 170fps
1440p - 125fps
1440p (SAM) - 124fps
1440p (ray tracing on) - 64fps
1080p - 142fps
1440p - 91fps
1440p (SAM) - 99fps
1440p (ray tracing on) - 45fps
As can be seen above that in its current state, SAM does not make enough of an impact in gaming performance to warrant buying the new AMD cards purely for that, DLSS is still more superior and with varied results and no results in other titles, SAM is a step in the right direction and will, probably, very good in the near future. The ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX6800 OC edition as shown above is VERY capable at 1080p and 1440p delivering a touch under 100fps in extremely demanding titles like Metro Exodus and flying past the 100fps mark in other titles.