This extravagant gaming laptop computer may spoil different screens for you

My eyes have seen the PC gaming promised land, and it’s a superbly brilliant world with out a shred of blurriness. It’s heat, it appears to be like pretty, and it’s impeccably sharp. Also, it’s costly as hell.

I’ve dipped my toe on this world by testing a pre-production model of the upcoming Asus ROG Strix Scar 18, which was lately introduced forward of Computex 2026. It’s a big 18-inch gaming laptop computer that comes with a top-of-the-line 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX CPU and might be totally kitted out with an RTX 5090 Laptop GPU and 128GB of RAM. Asus despatched me a mannequin to check that’s maxed out on all specs besides storage (it’s received “just” 4TB). And in fact, the corporate isn’t asserting any pricing but — not even for a base RTX 5080 mannequin. We all know, because of RAMageddon, it’s going to be gut-punchingly costly.

But what makes the Strix Scar 18 particularly distinctive is its display: a 4K, 240Hz show with an anti-glare matte end and a particular characteristic referred to as Extreme Low Motion Blur (ELMB). The Mini LED panel has over 2,000 dimming zones and as much as 1,600 nits of peak brightness in HDR mode. It’s if you flip HDR mode off that the magic really occurs. This permits you to use ELMB and have all these dimming zones routinely cut up up the show into smaller horizontal bands of pixels, refreshing them row by row in a short time — form of like a conventional CRT.

The result’s an amazingly crisp image that exhibits nearly no movement blur throughout quick motion in video games. And it achieves this with out black body insertion — a extra frequent methodology to cut back movement blur that causes a flicker impact and may negatively have an effect on display brightness.

And as you’d anticipate, this factor is an absolute beast with regards to enjoying probably the most graphically demanding video games. I loaded up Cyberpunk 2077 in 4K on Ultra settings with ray tracing turned on and DLSS set to Balanced, and it maintained a decent (although lovely) 45fps. That boosted to about 70fps with DLSS turned to Ultra Performance, however you would simply throttle down another settings or have interaction body era for a lot greater body charges. A much less graphically demanding aggressive shooter like Counter-Strike 2 may run at excessive settings and preserve 180 to 200fps.

It’s the “frames win games” form of titles like Counter-Strike and even MOBAs like League of Legends that the ELMB show enhances probably the most. If you wish to have the quickest twitch-level response to what you see onscreen, you need the clearest image doable — and which means a fast-moving picture freed from movement blur. But even should you’re not an esports participant with god-tier reflexes, it’s fairly satisfying to play fast-action video games with this stage of sharpness and readability. And if you don’t want it, you’ll be able to swap off ELMB and activate HDR to get eye-searing ranges of brightness throughout extra cinematic video games.

ELMB’s smoothness could be very troublesome to seize in pictures or on video (although I attempted my greatest within the pictures beneath). But right here’s a easy, repeatable methodology you’ll be able to comply with together with. At the very least, you’ll be able to see how your monitor or laptop computer show handles the identical torture assessments and examine it to what I describe whereas doing the identical on the Strix Scar 18’s ELMB show.

(Disclaimer: These torture assessments characteristic colourful fast-moving graphics. If you’re vulnerable to movement illness this might make you a little bit queasy. User discretion, yada yada. Be cool. Don’t sue us.)

Can you comply with the motion throughout the display and clearly learn the character names on this scene from Dota 2? On a standard display, the movement is a blurry mess. But on the Scar’s ELMB panel, it’s all crystal clear. If I observe the motion throughout the display (earlier than giving myself a headache with these fast-scrolling speeds) I can learn names like Lion, Vengeful Spirit, and Dragon Knight with ease. I may also make out what stage every hero is and precisely what number of bars of well being they’re down. If I flip off ELMB to make use of different options like HDR, issues are nonetheless considerably legible however noticeably blurrier, even with the display’s 240Hz refresh charge. I can now not make out hero names, well being bars, and ranges as simply. I’ve to essentially focus my eyes and depend on my notion to assume, “Oh yeah, that looks like it says Sven.” And by the point I do, it’s off the display. The motion’s gone, and if this have been a aggressive on-line sport that in all probability means my response time can be barely slower too.

Here’s another to attempt, the traditional UFO test:

On the ELMB show, I can simply make out the alien’s three eyes. I may even see that every purple panel of the UFO has three distinct vertical traces. It’s all clear as day. When I have a look at the identical take a look at on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 laptop computer I only in the near past reviewed, which has a wonderful 2880 x 1800 / 120Hz OLED show, the alien’s eyes and white panel traces of the spaceship are all blurred. My eyes can’t separate them from one another, even on the G14’s pretty quick 120Hz. Does that imply the Zephyrus is horrible at fast-action gaming? No, however the ROG Strix Scar 18’s ELMB show is healthier at these things. The G14 is a jack-of-all-trades show, whereas the Strix Scar is purpose-built.

The ELMB Strix Scar 18 can outclass different OLEDs within the movement blur division, too — even speedier ones. I used to be shocked to seek out I couldn’t make out the alien’s three eyes on a 27-inch Asus ROG Swift PG27UCDM, which is an excellent 4K / 240Hz gaming monitor. An HP Omen Max 16 with a 2560 x 1600 / 240Hz 16-inch OLED got here nearer to the ELMB. The Dota 2 take a look at seemed fairly crisp on it, with textual content nearly as legible as on the Strix Scar 18. But for the UFO take a look at, the alien’s three eyes and the white traces on its spacecraft remained a bit blurry, regardless that they didn’t totally soften collectively.

Most individuals are not going to note these things whereas enjoying video games, not except they’d a straightforward side-by-side comparability. If your sport nights encompass socializing along with your buddies over good friend slop, none of this issues. Even should you’re a reasonably sweaty Marathon participant, a pleasant OLED on a extra down-to-earth laptop computer will deal with you simply tremendous. Asus is bending over backward to squeeze each drop of efficiency out of a Mini LED panel for the kind of individuals who have a really particular eye for the tiniest particulars.

The purpose it’s a must to accept Mini LED on an 18-inch gaming laptop computer within the first place is definitely fairly easy: No show provider makes an 18-inch OLED. Asus, Razer, Alienware, and many others. all use some type of LCD of their 18-inch gaming laptops as a result of corporations like LG Display and Samsung Display don’t supply an OLED in that dimension. Instead, you get various levels of additional nice-to-have options, just like the dual-mode display of the Razer Blade 18 that goes from 4K / 240Hz to 1200p / 440Hz, the native 300Hz of the Alienware 18 Area-51, and now the ROG Strix Scar 18’s ELMB. There may very well be extra blur-free laptop computer LCDs on the horizon if Nvidia’s comparable G-Sync Pulsar tech ultimately makes its method over to smaller panels, however for now it’s solely accessible on a number of 27-inch 2.5K / 360Hz desktop displays.

The Strix Scar 18, then again, will arrive someday quickly and it’s full 4K. But like all over-the-top gaming laptops, it’s solely going to be for probably the most hardcore sect of probably the most deep-pocketed avid gamers. I shudder to assume what it should price after the ROG Zephyrus G14 and ROG Zephyrus Duo already debuted at their respective financial savings account-draining costs. RAMageddon is hitting every thing onerous, and Asus is simply posting by it. Last yr’s ROG Strix Scar 18 with an RTX 5090, Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB SSD nonetheless costs $4,500 — and that’s with an ELMB-less 2.5K Mini LED.

I wouldn’t be shocked if this new totally kitted-out 18-inch ELMB mannequin I’m testing will price $6,000 to $7,000. But that’s the form of price you’ll should anticipate now if you wish to be on the leading edge. Especially if that leading edge is most seen in tiny particulars, like a little bit alien flying by in a UFO.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge