Today, Asus’ gaming arm Republic of Gamers (ROG) debuted its 2021-ready gaming gear and devices at its CES keynote. Featured in an interactive experience centre called the ROG Citadel XV (available to download free on Steam), the lineup consists of gaming laptops, monitors and peripherals all wrapped in distinctive ROG branding.
There’s the wonderfully wacky ROG Flow X13 gaming laptop, equipped with an XG Mobile external GPU, an updated dual-display monster called the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE, and an all-new Strix Scar 17 that’s got a mind-blowing 360Hz display attached.
Let’s check out some of the kit announced today.
ROG Flow X13
The smallest of the bunch, Asus’ ROG Flow X13 is a 13in an ultraportable gaming laptop with a twist. Instead of cramming a powerful GPU into the small chassis, it’s got a mediocre GPU and the ability to run the XG Mobile external GPU.
It’s powered by up to an AMD Ryzen 9 5980HS CPU and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card. The display is either a 120 Hz FHD or 4K Corning Gorilla glass panel that is touch-sensitive. To make it more nimble, its design allows the screen to be flipped 360°. This, paired with stylus capability, makes the Flow X13 a useful machine for creators and designers. Both displays come Adaptive Sync-ready and are Pantone validated.
The Flow X13 can be paired with XG Mobile — an external GPU with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card. This turns the small portable into the equivalent of a full gaming rig. Of course, this makes it slightly less portable, but everyone’s gaming at home right now, so it kinda makes sense.
ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE
Remember the wacky dual-display gaming beast we saw last year? Yeah, this is the follow-up of that one. The Zephyrus Duo 15 SE comes with the trusty ROG ScreenPad Plus, with some updated software features to make it somewhat more useful.
And this time, it’s even smaller. It’s powered by up to an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU and GeForce RTX 3080 graphics. You can opt for either a 120Hz 4K display or 300Hz FHD display with 3ms response time, fancy RGB, Adaptive Sync and Pantone validation
The Screenpad Plus is obviously ROG’s big selling point here, and we’ll admit it’s a super useful hardware feature for content creators and designers. Gamers will likely prefer a full-sized second display.
ROG Strix Scar 17
On to the ROG Strix SCAR 17 — this is the first commercial gaming laptop that boasts a 360Hz FHD display. It can also be specced up to a GeForce RTX 3080 graphics and an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU. Couple that with up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR-3200 RAM and you’ve got yourself a laptop ready to take on full gaming rigs.
The SCAR 17 offers a 3 ms response time on that super-fast display. You can, however, opt for the 165Hz WQHD panel that features a DCI-P3 colour gamut. Both the 165Hz and 360Hz screens also feature Adaptive Synch tech.
The SCAR is fitted with an optical-mechanical keyboard set up with per-key RGB lighting, 1.9 mm of key travel and zero debounce delay, which makes for speedy inputs.
Other goodies
Asus ROG has also announced a 32in ROG Swift PG32UQ 4K 144Hz gaming monitor that supports HDMI 2.1 — this monitor is apparently perfect for both current-gen console and PC gaming. There’s also the ROG Claymore II gaming keyboard and the ROG Gladius III Wireless gaming mouse.
Through the entire lineup of laptops, Asus has introduced some intriguing updates to most of its hardware, including the introduction of liquid metal thermal compound and AMD CPUs in its main range of products.
All of the notebooks and peripherals announced today will be available to purchase in South Africa from this month. We’re still awaiting local pricing, but these should have costs attached to ’em soon enough.
