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Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (2024)
Editor’s choice
The Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 is clearly a gaming laptop with its LED accents and space-age styling. It doesn’t fall short of that promise, however, packing great hardware and delivering excellent performance for modern games. Its gorgeous mini-LED display also shines, offering a peak brightness of 1,100 nits and putting it ahead of the competition.
Pros
- Excellent specs for gaming and more
- Gorgeous mini-LED 16:10 display
- Appealing design
- Great keyboard and touchpad
Cons
- Mostly plastic
- More expensive
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Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9
Great alternative
With a 14th Gen HX Core CPU and RTX 40-series GPU, the Legion Pro 7i is a powerhouse gaming laptop. We also love its understated design and partially metal construction, which makes it feel very sturdy yet not unbearably heavy. However, despite very similar performance, the IPS display falls short of the mini-LED panel of the ROG Strix Scar 16.
Pros
- Powerful hardware
- Sturdy build
- Understated aesthetic
- 16:10 display
Cons
- Display needs an upgrade
- No major improvements over Gen 8
Laptop gamers are spoiled for choice right now. Makers like Lenovo and Asus are cranking out some fantastic mobile battle stations while mobile GPUs get better and better. Two of the latest examples of this are the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i and Asus ROG Strix Scar 16, two gorgeous 16-inch laptops that the brands revealed at this year’s CES.
Both laptops have just hit the market, and considering their hardware is similar, they occupy the same price and performance bracket. That means it’s time to do an in-depth comparison of the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i and Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 and see which one is more deserving of your money.
Price, specs & availability
The Lenovo Legion Pro and Asus ROG Strix Scar are two long-running gaming laptop series, both of which got a refresh that was revealed at CES 2024. Current retail pricing starts at $2,700 for the 2024 Legion Pro 7i and $2,900 for the ROG Strix Scar 16. Stock is hit-or-miss right now since the laptops only recently hit the market, but they’re available through their respective brand websites and third-party retailers like Best Buy and Amazon.
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Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (2024) Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 CPU Intel 14th gen Core i9-14900HX Intel Core i9-14900HX, 24 cores, 32 threads GPU Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop Display (Size, Resolution) 16-inch, QHD+ (2560×1600), Mini LED, 240Hz, 3ms, 100% DCI-P3, 1100 nits. 16-inch QHD+ RAM 32GB DDR5 5600MHz Up to 32GB DDR5 5600 MT/s Storage 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 Up to 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD Battery 90Whrs 99.99Whr Operating System Windows 11 Pro Windows 11 Home Dimensions 13.94 x 10.39 x 1.20 inches (354.07 x 263.90 x 30.4 mm) 363.5 x 262.1 x 25.9 mm (14.31 x 10.32 x 1.02 inches) Weight 5.84 pounds (2.65kg) 2.62 kg (5.78 lbs) Speakers 4-speaker system with Smart Amplifier Technology 2x 2W Harman stereo speakers
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Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (2024) review: Big on both performance and price
A powerful machine that looks unique with its semi-transparent design.
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Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 8 review: A gaming laptop that gets almost everything right
The Lenovo Legion 7i Pro is a premium gaming laptop that looks and feels the part in almost every way. If you can stomach the price, it’s phenomenal.
Design
Understated style vs. gamer aesthetics
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i follows the brand’s design language, maintaining an understated look that doesn’t scream “gaming laptop.” The only indications that this isn’t all business are the prominent Legion branding on the lid and the RGB keyboard lighting. The RGB lighting is optional, though, and offers per-key customization.
On the other hand, there’s no mistaking the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 for anything other than a gaming machine. It sports RGB LEDs on both the keyboard and the frame, with unmistakable gamer styling throughout the chassis. Nonetheless, it’s not garish, and looks sleek. The LEDs are also customizable, and you can turn them off completely.
Lenovo Legion laptops aren’t known for being thin and light, but the new Legion Pro 7i keeps the bulk within reasonable limits. It’s only 0.89 inch thick when closed and weighs 5.78 pounds. It’s still not a light laptop, but manageable for a gaming machine. The ROG Strix Scar 16 is slightly smaller in length and width, but thicker and slightly heavier at 1.2 inch thick and 5.84 pounds. That’s a little surprising, considering that the Asus laptop is more “plasticky,” whereas the Lenovo laptop features aluminum and magnesium. The Legion Pro feels a bit sturdier in comparison, as well.
Winner: Lenovo Legion Pro 7i
Display
16-inch laptops are here to stay
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i and Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 feature 16-inch 2560×1600 displays with a 240Hz refresh rate. Such 16:10 panels are now the norm for high-end gaming laptops and may (hopefully) replace 16:9 screens altogether in the coming years. Both displays are bright and vibrant, with a 3ms response time, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, and HDR support.
The buttery smooth 240Hz refresh rate also delivers good performance for gaming at higher framerates. However, the ROG Strix Scar’s mini-LED panel has the edge over the Legion Pro 7i’s IPS screen. That mini-LED display is capable of 1,100 nits of peak brightness in contrast to the IPS display’s 500 nits. Neither display is likely to disappoint, but the ROG Strix Scar is just a bit better.
Winner: Asus ROG Strix Scar 16
Performance
These warhorses are neck and neck
Source: Lenovo
These high-end gaming laptops come with one of Intel’s newer 14th Gen HX series CPUs and Nvidia RTX 40-series mobile GPUs. The only GPU option available on Lenovo’s website for the Legion Pro 7i is the GeForce RTX 4090, although RTX 4080 versions are listed elsewhere. The ROG Strix Scar 16 is configurable with either the RTX 4080 or RTX 4090. Both machines pack 32GB of 5600MHz DDR5 RAM, as well. On paper, at least, you can expect nearly identical hardware performance between the two.
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Intel announces its entire 14th-gen lineup, from mobile to desktop
Intel has rolled out the rest of its Raptor Lake Refresh processors along with some more Meteor Lake U-series chips.
The Legion Pro 7i and ROG Strix Scar 16 employ the Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU, part of the high-end Gen HX series. The 14900HX features a boosted clock speed of up to 5.8 GHz, 24 cores (eight performance and 16 efficiency cores), and 32 threads. It’s a performer, to be sure, but the heart of any good gaming laptop is the graphics card.
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 and 4090 mobile GPUs are among the best gaming laptop graphics cards in 2024. We need to spend more time with the Legion Pro 7i, but the ROG Strix Scar 16 performed beautifully in all our benchmark tests. It also had no problem playing the latest triple-A games at 1600p and 60 fps or higher. Given the nearly identical horsepower, we expect a similar showing from Lenovo’s laptop.
Winner: Tie
Connectivity and battery life
Everything you need
Both gaming laptops sport an impressive battery of ports, allowing you to hook up all sorts of peripherals, from gaming accessories to external displays. They’re powerful enough and offer enough connections to do duty as a desktop PC. If you plan to do that, you should consider grabbing a good docking station so you’re not constantly fiddling with a bunch of cables.
The port arrays are, again, very similar but not identical. Both laptops have a 3.5mm combo audio jack, HDMI 2.1 port, ethernet LAN connection, two USB-C 3.2 ports, and Thunderbolt 4 support (with support for DisplayPort output and Nvidia G-Sync if you’re using an external display). The Legion Pro 7i has four USB Type-A ports, in contrast to the ROG Strix Scar’s two USB-A connections. That’s not likely to clinch the final decision between the two laptops, but it’s worth noting for those with numerous USB-A peripherals and who don’t want to buy a docking station.
The ROG Strix Scar 16 features a 90-watt-hour battery, whereas the Legion Pro 7i has an 80Wh or 99.9Wh battery, depending on configuration. Both include 330-watt chargers and support USB-C fast-charging. Admittedly, battery life isn’t the most important spec of a gaming laptop. You’ll be playing games while plugged in, as gaming on battery power hampers hardware performance and eats up energy quickly. In our time with it, we noted that the ROG Strix Scar doesn’t offer great longevity, giving us about three hours in balanced mode. That’s simply the price you pay for performance.
Winner: Tie
Overall Winner: Asus ROG Strix Scar 16
There’s no denying that Lenovo Legion Pro 7i and Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 are both awesome gaming laptops. If you’re on the hunt for a high-end mobile gaming machine, you can’t go wrong with either. Nevertheless, we think the ROG Strix Scar inches ahead of the Legion Pro, thanks entirely to its gorgeous mini-LED display. It’s very close, though. Other than the displays, the two laptops are pretty much even.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (2024)
Editor’s choice
The Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 takes the trophy here, thanks entirely to its superb display. The mini-LED panel is nothing short of gorgeous, putting it ahead of the Legion Pro 7i. The Strix Scar 16 also looks slick (provided you don’t mind the gaming PC aesthetic), and its next-gen hardware easily tackles triple-A gaming.