Are you wondering if you should buy the Asus Scar 2 or you should go for the next generation, the Scar 3? That’s good you ask and if you’re already here, stay at the end of the article, because this knowledge can save you from a bad purchase. We have received many requests to compare these laptops, so we decided to make this comparison, and to be honest, we were very surprised by the results.
General Info
| Asus Scar II | Asus Scar III | |
| Series | ROG Strix Scar II | ROG Strix Scar III |
| Brand | Asus | Asus |
| Model | ROG HERO II GL504 | ROG Strix Scar III G531GV |
| Weight | 2.39 kg | 2.57 kg |
| OS | Windows 10 Home | Windows 10 Home |
| Display | 15.6 Inch | 15.6 Inch |
| Type | Laptop | Laptop |
Let’s start with the design which has been changed with the new generation. Scar 3 has the same metal lid with brushed aluminum texture and backlit ROG logo but on the back, you can find an extended exhaust section which makes the laptop slightly bigger. The deck and bottom are made of plastic that feels light but also a little bit flimsy. As same as the previous generation, Scar 3 has a carbon fiber pattern on the deck without more skin on it this time. On the front and on the sides you can find one large light bar that looks great and makes the laptop look like it’s hovering above the ground.
Scar 2 has a slightly smaller footprint, it feels more premium to the touch and in our opinion, it looks better. You have the same metal the top panel and the ROG logo that you can light up with RGB colors. The rest of the body is made of polycarbonate that feels very solid. On the deck, you can find the carbon fiber pattern and moro skin on one half. You can also find a light bar on the front but it’s not that thick and wide as in Scar 3. As we mentioned before the Scar 2 is slightly smaller but the weight is about the same for both laptops.
Display
| Asus Scar II | Asus Scar III | |
| Display Type | IPS | IPS |
| Display Size | 15.6 Inches | 15.6 Inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 Pixels | 1920 x 1080 Pixel |
| Dimensions | 360 x 261 x 25.4 mm | 360 x 274 x 25.4 mm |
| Display Touchscreen | No | No |
One of the most hyped features of Scar 3 is 240Hz display and we believe it’s buttery smooth but we’ve got the unit with 1080p 144Hz 3ms response IPS pannel which is not worse at all. Despite it doesn’t support G-Sync it’s the smoothest 144Hz display that we’ve tested, which in combination with powerful hardware allows you to take advantage of the fast refresh rate. The same applies to the Scar 2 – Our guess is that it’s equipped with exactly the same 144Hz panel since the specs are identical. The color accuracy in both laptops is pretty much the same and we couldn’t see any difference testing both of them.
Specification
| Asus Scar II | Asus Scar III | |
| Processor Name | Intel Core i7-8750H | Intel Core i7-9750H |
| Chipset | NVIDIA | Intel HM370 |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 |
| RAM | 16GB DDR4 | 16 GB DDR4 RAM |
| Storage | 512 SSD | 1 TB SSD |
| SSD Capacity | 512 SSD | 1 TB SSD |
Performance
| Asus Scar II | Asus Scar III | ||
| Clockspeed | 3.9 Ghz | 4.5 Ghz | |
| Graphic Processor | GeForce | GeForce | |
| Processor | RTX 2060 | RTX 2060 | |
| Graphic Ram | 6 GB | 6 GB |
Multimedia
| Asus Scar II | Asus Scar III | ||
| Web-cam | HD 720P Webcam | HD 720P Webcam | |
| Speakers | Dual Speakers | Dual Speakers | |
| Microphone Jack | Yes | Yes | |
| Wireless Lan | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac | 802.11b/n/ac | |
| Bluetooth | v5.0 | v5.0 | |
| Memory Slots | 2 Slots | 2 Slots |
In terms of sound there’s no winner too. Again we think that they both come with the same speakers that are great. The sound is outstanding compared to other gaming laptops. There’s a lot of bass, mids and highs are just on point and they are loud enough. Gaming without headphones sounds great, every shot and every explosion in-game sounds full and punchy thanks to strong bass. You can use the sound presets and equalize the sound in Sonic Studio 3 software.
Battery
| Asus Scar II | Asus Scar III | |
| Battery Type | Lithium-Ion Polymer | Lithium-Ion Polymer |
| Battery Life | Up to 3 Hrs | Up to 5 hours |
As for the battery life we managed to use Scar 2 for 4.5 up to 5h when browsing the web and doing light productivity work. When the gaming battery died after 1.5h hours. Scar 3 was slightly better – it reached from 5 to 5.5 hours for light work and 1.5 hours for gaming.
Which is better!
Alright, it seems to be everything that you need to know to wisely choose one of these laptops but before we finish let us share our closing thoughts. So if it comes to the Asus Scar 2 we think that this is the laptop for those who are looking for solid performance at low temperatures. It has a great cooling system which is one of the best among 15″ laptops. The display in Scar is the fastest and smoothest 144Hz panel that we’ve seen so far. It has good color reproduction, remarkable speakers, and a useful keyboard with additional keys. The advantage of Scar II is for sure a good price to performance and quality ratio – it’s not the cheapest out there but in our opinion, it’s worth that price since Asus made no compromises in terms of performance and overall quality of this laptop.
On the other hand, we have Scar 3 which we guess is not what most of us expected from the new generation. It runs hot, customization of the lighting in-app was not ready in time, they decided to remove the webcam and change the MiniDisplay port and SD card slot for pretty much useless keystone. Nonetheless, there are a few good things about it that we can’t deny. You can get it with a 240Hz display and up to 8-core i9 CPU. The keyboard with 2mm key travel feels good and besides the app issues, the lighting on this laptop is on another level. It has also outstanding speakers and a very smooth 144Hz display with good color accuracy. The battery life has also been slightly improved and if it comes to performance, with undervolting it does the job well. However, if we had to choose we would go for Scar 2 which is cheaper and in our opinion.
Asus Scar III
