This review has WAY to few views!

Some people might say in the grand scheme of things, HDR doesn't really matter to them or whatever. No big deal. But I agree with you it's beside the point. It's the practice. The point is the ethics and the honesty, or lack thereof, being shown by Asus. This is the kind of practice that a company could, and probably should, get sued for. Laptops ain't cheap. You better be getting what you're paying for. False advertising to me = theft.

I can't imagine the frustration you went through with this BS but you did a good job calmly and logically explaining it all.

My gut feeling tells me that Asus will just be more careful next time and sell worse laptops in regions where there aren't that many non-paid independent reviewers - countries where there aren't enough voice to cause any issues.

In Asus' site you can actually tell which model has IPS vs Mini LED ROG Strix SCAR 16 (2023) G634 G634JZ-N4003W -> IPS Screen (N4003) G634JZ-NM041W -> Mini LED (NM041)

I heard the coil whine is in the other strix/scars also. Very common for a line that costs over $5k aud.. think my option is either to splash more w8th razer or settle for less with alienware for the 18" size I'm looking for

Always check the NITS brightness specs, because they'll be different. 1100 NITS means miniLED monitor. 500 NITS means regular IPS display. Nebula marketing ploy is shady for sure, because they're purposefully calling all their 2023 displays 'Nebula' to mislead consumers. But they cant lie about the actual specs of the machine inside the box

Regarding the coil whine, I have heard that some current gen GPU's are pretty bad in that regard and my ancient 980 Ti in my desktop does it as well, but I never witnessed a card that is THIS loud lol. I can hear the 3080 Ti in my Zephyrus M16 too, but it's very quiet. Definitely a not acceptable defect.

I was thinking of getting the Scar 16 (living in The Netherlands EU), but after this statement I'm not sure it's the best choice with all the cons... Do you have any other recommendations for the same amount of money up till €4K max???

I don't quite understand but feeling calm from the waves

i just received my first gaming laptop today. When I was shopping around, I noticed that it was confusing. So many variations. What I learned was that I had to pay attention to the full model number and check the specs at the Asus Rog site. There, I would see exactly what I was getting. I would blame the seller for describing it incorrectly cause its really not that difficult to search the model number and see exactly what youre getting. The seller probably did that on purpose, to increase sales.

I have been scammed as well with the same issue. But thank you for bringing this up.

It's very common that when we buy what we see online, our orders aren't always as what the ads show.

In my country Amazon has that webpage saying Mini LED but when I checked the details page in Flipkart they said it is IPS, however the same thing in the computer images said Mini LED.

Does the Asus Strix laptop have that rubberized coating on the area where you rust your hands? My old Lenovo had that rubberized coating that started to scratch off.

Back in 2007 I bought ASUS parts for a new PC I was building, because I heard good theings about ASUS. I even went and bought a 17" ASUS laptop to game on when I travelled. All those parts and the laptop were great and they lasted me so many years without problems. In 2020 I bought an ASUS A15 from a guy and wondered why he hadn't kept the laptop longer than a few months. Then I saw the screen and saw how just awful it is. I kept the laptop but gamed mostly on my main PC anyway. Later I moved and needed a new laptop and bought a 2022 A15 and noticed that the build quality had become even worse than the 2020 A15. The new screen was much much better though and the specs were ok, so I kept it. After 4 months of light gaming the screen just turned off while I was typing on the laptop. Hard reset didn't help so now I have packaged it up and sending it in for repair, but after seeing your video, I am now afraid I will only get it back next year! Writing this in August 2023. Bought the laptop in April... Military grade build quality as ASUS write? Yeah right!

What I see online is lots of different specs on what is labeled the same model to give the consumer options, all of which are different pricepoints. Did you check that you ordered the same version as what the content creator had?

Thanks for the heads up on this, but can the same be said for the rog scar 18?

man , its so true. I brought ROGFlow z13 . two times motherboard replaced. forced bios induced power throttling of 22w, other part also changed. took around 15 services request in 1 year

I had this same issue with the Acer Helios 18, even in the online store page it says mini LED screen, so u click buy, and when you receive it, it’s a standard IPS panel! Never triggered a return so fast 💨

Thx for sharing this. It does help a lot. 👍 Screen is a big issue but man that fan sound...i could not use that for music/audio recording in general

I used to be 'almost' Asus exclusive, for PC components, and if in the market, I probably would have been into their Laptops too. (Thank god Lenovo had a sale when I was buying my Legion5 ) Then, out of the blue. I switched to MSI, for my last build, and all of a sudden all of the ASUS issues started popping up. I still think Asus makes the best physical stuff, it's just their handling of problems, and fibbing over details like the details in their displays. Got to give them credit , Consistency between Asus and Asus ROG (technically separate companies)

Yes the Coil whine you can hear cleary.

thanks for this, my MSI laptop is 6 years old now, and I was thinking of making the leap to ASUS, I liked the performance and specs of the 18" but the fact the screen has that issue, no thank you. I'm curious what laptop you ended up going with. I might just wait for the 5000 series of nvid cards to come out before pulling the trigger on one.

This might help but I heard you need to use the other charger and not the usb-c if you're looking for maximum performance. Still very upsetting to hear since I was looking into getting this model in Canada

Yeah it's easily hearable. I fully agree working whole day with such an annoying sound whole day long - this would a nightmare.

yes, it's happen in indonesia too, they send mini led screen to reviewer but only sell regular ips panel. in G14 also there's problem for the highest spec they only have black color, but reviewer have white color with highest spec

I also bought an entry level asus g14 that listed the Rog Nebula display and returned it when I learned that only the Rog Nebula HDR is the mini led. Confusing feature naming.

Totally agree with you. Their website is full of contradictory specs. On one page they mention 2.8k oled panel, sometimes buying option only shows 1080p. They advertise oled withthis that processor and buying options doesnt even shows that spec. which confuses buyer. Recently I have just ordered zenbook 14 with 4k oled panel as advertised and end up getting 2.8k oled(which is great panel but not what I had ordered).

Im from Estonia (EU) and the stores selling x16 have nebula hdr displays (4060). Asus page for this model says "ROG Nebula Display - 16" Mini LED 240Hz 16:10"

About a year ago I bought an Asus ROG Flow x16 (2022 model, with 3070ti). Asus had promised USB4 by December 2022, and I bought it with that understanding in the hopes of getting a USB4 dock to connect everything. They _still_ have not released it for the 2022 model. They have an older beta BIOS for it, and have had for a long time, but still no official support. The two times I've tried to contact them about it I've received no response. Edit: American customer here - they don't have any problem lying to us either

Always check the model number. G634JZ-N4040W for you. G6 16" Gaming, 34 i9 13980HX(it would be 14 if it was i7), JZ 4080 GPU(JU 4050, JI 4060, JV 4070), N stands for Nebula(if it had M after N it would be Nebula Miniled for example G634JZ-NM032), W is for windows and other numbers are for SSD, keyboard layout etc. This information is what I figurred out when I was buying my Scar 16. Asus web site has all configurations. So when you are gonna buy a PC always check from there. Don't trust retailers.

All company do that, most of budget laptop use IPS-LEVEL monitor turn out its just TN monitor. IPS-LEVEL is not IPS Panel

Hey, I am seriously considering the Asus P16 ProArt however I am reading everywhere their support is terrible in regards to warrenty issues should something go wrong. Is this true from New Zealand also or is this just an issue with the US? I would be buying either direct from ASUS if possible or from PBT . Thank you kindly in advance.

I did a lot of research into this laptop before I bought it, I noticed some irregularities in that I couldn't find the hdr 4090 version anywhere in the uk and ended up getting it shipped from America, the only issue now being I have an American keyboard that has a few buttons in different for example the @ sign is on the number 2 instead of just above the right shift key and it has a $ sign and no pound sign, in my opinion not a major turn off, it does take some getting used to though. Edit: I forgot to mention that I had the laptop for 4 days before it developed a major fault (a boot loop) I sent it to the repair centre in the uk and it had a dodgy motherboard, received it back about 2.5 weeks later, now works perfectly.

Is not just ASUS, all Brands have problems with the new scrape Products!

that "depends on a region" makes me so mad. Same story was with keyboard backlighting and type c port on my Dell G3 3579. All reviews had them, even promo photos on the page I ordered it from had them, and the laptop I ordered didn't have them.

Recently bought one, and I have a question: Which monitor version is QHD+?

I sadly have to agree. Bought one and they had an issue with the battery back swelling. Refused to fix it or replace it so I ended up with a laptop that has to be plugged constantly.

God it’s so confusing. I want a this laptop but I want the one with the transparent key caps, the touch pad numpad and the mini led hdr display. Does this combination of features even exist or is it just a complete luck of the draw?

Damn man, you're living the dream, nice car and views. Nice vibes man, also thank you for the information, very helpful to know. Much success to you.

The mini led has to be bought from the asus website in America we also have the other one from best buy and else where doesn’t have the mini led

I was thinking of buying one and it has a nebula display, can someone explain to me in simple English, what is wrong with it? will it look bad?

I just bought this in America us and it only says 240hz qhd am I likely to have same result?

Thank you for the review. Your are totally right. There would be many people that got scammed Hope this video raise awareness to Asus and maybe other companies as well.

I've been into Asus for years and about to get a laptop... What brand do you think has the best screen and quality?

This is so atrocious and absolutely unacceptable. People earn and save money so that they can get their dream setup, and then they realize that they have been scammed!

can you suggest a good laptop upto $2000 in the US? Looking for a full keyboard, killer performance and good battery life

Needed to triple check and maybe more the exact specs with the Sales Manager, Advertisement , Official Company. locally... and not...

In the US, models marked Rog Nebula HDR are mini LED versions 4080/4090 rtx, also available in other European Union markets.

Thanks for making the video What laptop did you end up buying instead?

Its pretty simple going to the manufacturer website for your region and looking at specifications for the model you want. Its all there.

Same with 2022 ROG Flow X16. All shops said MiniLED but models with lower-end graphics often came without the minLED screen and I got a lot of questions by customers about that topic. Wow the coil whine is unreal or whatever this is, as is the backlight bleed. :o Other companies suffer from other problems but everyone is producing more sh** than anything. Tried to return a Lenovo but I was in another country for several month and they just stopped answering me not taking the computer back, just some days after I got it.

What game is that at 5:22 ?

Thanks a lot! Was going to buy this laptop and was sure than I'm gonna get mini-LED. Now will choose something else.

You can go for the Lenovo legion 7 or Acer predator triton 17x or Alienware m16 but also keep in mind that these laptops also have their cons.

You could also talk about the failure rate of ROG laptops because they're using components which are a fraction of a cent cheaper than higher quality ones. Ask Northridgefix about his experiences with ASUS lappies.

Looks like asus competing for scumbag award. First motherboard and now this.

here in the netherlands, the rog flow x16 does have a ips lcd and a more expesive mini led model

In just a month, my Rog Strix G16 ran into problems, and despite my efforts to get it replaced, Asus is turning down my request. It's been incredibly frustrating, leading me to the decision of not choosing Asus for any future purchases. I really wish I had come across your video before making this purchase.

They did the old “bait and switch”.

It's just a matter of being very attentive to the specific model number they're very transparent about it on their website and they offer to compare in their website.

Thank god i saw this video before paying 2000$ for the strix g16 I was about to buy it today!

Thanks for sharing the experience. I've actually bought a different model (rog strix g713) and I'm hearing the electric noise as well but the customer service is telling me that the noise level is within their specifications. (The noise level is not as extreme as the video shown, but I can hear it..) I've been using the rog model laptop for almost 7yrs. This is the first time I feel like it's time to switch to other models.

Sorry for your issues. I got a US one and it is excellent. I have made multiple reviews as well. Too bad yours had issues. Good luck!

wow, this crazy as im just about to buy it . What did u buy instead??

What company would you recommend?

The Sticker that came with the laptop says Nebula display on the bigger font but I think Asus made a mistake showing Nebula HDR QR code imprinted on the promotion sticker with the laptop. Anyways these coil whine and issues are totally unacceptable for a product that costs this much ASUS should at least be having premium testing and quality control ensured so that these kinds of issues don't happen out of the box

if its anything like Telstra Corp the left spoke on the corporate wheel is not in tune with the Right spoke. One area does what its manager decides so he/she keeps a yearly bonus but makes another area harder to do business. then the silence when you complain to your manager . They dont discuss problems with you , you do as they say

That is disappointing to hear. If you have different models for different regions that is one thing. At least advertise that on your website. Don’t fool people into believing that they’re buying a completely high end machine when in reality you have literally pulled a bait and switch on them. I purchased the Alienware M18 R1 instead fully kitted out, mostly because I think Dell’s customer service is top notch in the tech space. But also all the other laptops like the Scar 18, MSI Titan, and others were really overpriced and I didn’t think their customer service could be trusted. Great Vid buddy

Damn. Great info. Did you manage to find a non-asus laptop that suits your needs? Which one did you get and why?

I have similar problems with my rog strix g 15. The coil whine noise appears when I play audio files. It is very loud and annoying. In addition, ips bleeding is terrible. I have been sending mails for 20 days because their agency in my country refused to admit it is a problem. Asus has poor quality control and poor service.

u bought the g16 instead of the scar 16 I think, they are 2 different variants one is trash and one has the mini led

I’m getting suspicious about this. I wanted to get this laptop so badly.

5:20 sounds like the graphics card is cooking an egg

My Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo has the coil wine as well...

Thank you for your calm breakdown experience of this device. I am getting skeptical of asus QA as well lately just my personal experience i have a TUF laptop and the thing broke down twice before the warranty 1. The screen started glitching on 144 Hz 2. It suddenly shut down even on idle states fast forward. the warranty expired, exactly a week the laptop wouldn't turn on, its dead had to service it and pay it with my own money since i dont really want to buy in the current laptop market (overpriced and neglible raw performance uplift) even if the screen is terrible i bear with it as it is my travel laptop for work and entertainment. oh btw i have an ROG pugio 2 mouse too. imagine a mouse costing 80 USD and the first thing i never expected to break was the 2.4Ghz dongle. First time ever that thing broke for me after owning a ton of expensive logitechs and random mouse brands

Hi Niberspace, maybe I have material for you too. I am just experiencing the same problem with ASUS. I‘ve ordered a M16 Zephyrus, whenever I‘ve shutdown the system I‘ve got some fatal error reports - it seemed a hardware problem by RAM. So I‘ve sent it back and received my money, but since I gave them a second chance and ordered the similar system. Now it’s an issue again, I‘ve ordered it by their own website/store, but received the system in a damaged box. After opening it, the inside was very cold and started to humidify cause of my room temperature. Also signs of usage like a bad wiped screen and touchpad is visible. I am very frustrated right now, have contacted the company and forwarded the issue with footage as videos. I hope they have got the right solution this time.

You are right about what you say in the video about ASUS... I mean i bought the ROG strix g16 and there were two keyboard keys arent working properly when i press them it removes the key from its position so i had warranty and they replaced the whole keyboard for me with a new one and that solved the problem for me.... but one thing is that... Who said that the nebula non-HDR version display is bad... I mean i have it and it is high quality display with reasonable price and not that expensive and if you want the nebula HDR version it is much more expensive than the nebula so.... This is just my opinion

when did asus advertise mini led for non scar products?

there is two skus in each country for this. in uk there are 2 versions and the cheaper one is IPS and the more expensive is mini led

about the noise its an easy fix. Dont tilt your laptop many times up and down. and overclock it while shaking puts it also at the right place. Well this doesnt always work you can also open it up and restore them by hands.

Nope. We got screwed here in America as well. The only reason why I'm keeping mine is because I got it for $1,700 at Best Buy. Open Box sale during the Thanksgiving Christmas holidays and the Laptop was in mint condition. My power brick still had the plastic on it and no screen bleed. The screen is NOT HDR. Only Dolby Vision for media viewing. Not games. I had no idea when purchasing due to the advertising. To make things worse I installed a 4tb secondary Nvme drive along with 64gb of 5600mhz DDR5 and found out about the screen afterwards. LOL! That's my fault but I was still bummed. Right now I'm searching for a MOD that can emulate HDR for non HDR screens. The 4080 is nice but I wish my screen colors popped more with better black levels.

Where are you In New Zealand? North Island or South ? I am guessing you purchased from JB Hi Fi ?

i think the zephyrus m16 also had the mini led... i also have heard that the nebula display without mini led is ACC pretty okay... i was thinking about the asus strix g18, I'm going to America and gonna pick it up while there, but I saw some reviews complaining about coil whine and glow, but hopefully by now they have fixed those issues or if they didn't then hopefully I don't have a model with those issues...

I'm watching this on a Scar 17 and when he tried putting the fan closer I literally couldn't hear it over the fan noise of my laptop. I'm only browsing youtube....

That's what spec sheets are for, on Asus website I see the configurations clearly laid out. There are codes for each configuration to differentiate them. This practice is super old and super common. As far as I understand Asus doesn't have eshops in most countries, they sell to third parties who sell to users. It is those third parties that choose the configuration to sell for their region, and it is those third parties that list the configurations on their website or store, not Asus. Most Laptop manufacturers do this. It sucks that you didn't get the configuration you wanted, but you are responsible to check what you are buying. With that said you are absolutely in your right to complain about sellers who don't list the correct specs or not the complete specs.

I got a rog zephyrus duo that has terrible screen issues and took almost a year to get it fixed without issue Also had keyboard and response time issues that was close to 5-10 seconds delay sometimes and was unusable There was a lot more issues but if anyone is curious just ask

Classic Asus moment

😯 So i spent/wasted two days trying to find the perfect laptop replacement for my aging msi, I decided on the asus flow x16 2023. Then I found this video while watching laptop reviews on it. It has a nebula hdr. I guess it's back to wasting another entire day(s) trying to find another laptop. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Living overseas (I'm a dual national) it's well know that the best stuff goes to the USA. When I lived in SE Asia for a while, I noticed all (and I mean 100%) of "new" items sold had defects, including and especially "new cars", which led me to believe that all the 'rejected' US goods were resold in developing countries. South Europe is similar, but the quality is much better. This place looks like northern Europe so I assume quality is higher still, but like Niberspace says, the best stuff seems to head to the USA.

Asus has sat in thier larels customer service has crapped out

lmao i got a faulty machine asus zephyrus g15 it took me a month to realize it cuz i never really had a laptop before so in short i've got my motherboard changed once now because of a series of problems that kept on increasing and increasing and now after a while problems are starting to rise up again and they refused me to have it sent it back after a month because of their return policy and now they still are stuck up on that. Just as you said they sell different models depending on the region which i didnt know before i honestly couldve went for lenovo 5i but i chose this cuz of the aesthetics and istg im regretting it so much

Asus clearly differentiate between Nebula HDR and regular Nebula dispays on their website. At least on the promo video i saw. And the regular Nebula is still a very decient screen. The HDR is fitted to the high end scar only while the regular Nebula is fitted to the midrange strix. I also seen lower end G laptops without the Nebula display. About the fan noise theres not much you can do about it. From what i hear all gaming laptops suffer from it. But all things taken into account i still think the 2023 Asus G is the most cost effective gaming laptop there is

Im in the U.S, I've returned 2 of the asus rog strix G18's.. first model had bad light bleed in the left top corner. It was so bad it washed out colors. So i returned it and got another.. the second unit was even worse all four corners had light bleed, and when attempting to download a game from steam it kept restarting.. i just gave up.. have an alienware m18 now and im very pleased, no complaints..

went to lenovo last year with the legion, no regrets

it is not limited to specific markets if you visit ROG Strix Scar 16 page for different countries you can see that some of them have up to four models 1. IPS with no OS 2. MiniLED with Windows Home 3. IPS with Windows Home 4. IPS with Windows Pro seems to me miniled versions were in limited supply to begin with, were sold out quick and the majority or these laptops are IPS it was pretty scammy for asus to market this laptop as a miniled laptop and nowhere did they mention that only some models have miniled given the hype no wonder everyone just assumes that strix scar 16 equals miniled just to be hugely disappointed later

Looking at the spec sheet on asus site now, I cannot see your model on there, at least in my country. However, two models with very same serial number right next to each, Scar 16, one had mini led hdr, and other was ips only. Coil whine is a known issue in Asus models, there has been a lot of talk on this in the gaming laptops sub-reddit. That is why I prefer Alienwares when going high end. QC of Asus and lenovo is just terrible,

That coil whine really seems quite loud. My Legion laptop has bit of coil whine in certain games, but one has to be in a quiet room and listen closely to hear it.

And here I thought their battery lives were excellent for a laptop smh