The potent new gaming laptop from Asus, featuring a 240Hz Mini LED display, launches worldwide. – The simplest way to characterize the 2026 ROG Strix G18, which Asus has begun releasing worldwide, is as a somewhat subdued version of the absurd ROG Strix Scar 18. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU replaces the Scar’s RTX 5090, but it retains the same 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor. (via Notebookcheck)
The best balance is achieved with the Mini LED variant.
An 18-inch Mini LED display akin to the Scar 18 is included with the top-tier RTX 5080 setup. The panel delivers more than 2,000 local dimming zones, up to 1,200 nits of peak brightness, full DCI-P3 coverage, and a refresh rate of 240 Hz even if its resolution decreases from 4K to 2560 x 1600. Additionally, the RTX 5080 works well with the reduced resolution, allowing the GPU to run demanding games at high frame rates without sacrificing much sharpness on an 18-inch screen.
Lower-tier models, such as the RTX 5060 and RTX 5070 Ti, feature an 18-inch IPS-level screen with a refresh rate of 300 Hz and a resolution of 2560 x 1600. Although the quicker panel can be more appealing to competitive players, they forfeit the deeper blacks and greater HDR of Mini LED.
Although it is less expensive, it is still not inexpensive.
Asus hasn’t made many cooling reductions. Three fans, a full-width heatsink, liquid metal, and an end-to-end vapor chamber are used in the Strix G18. The laptop supports up to 64GB of RAM and two SSDs (one slot occupied), and upgrading RAM and storage is simple thanks to the tool-free bottom panel.
The RTX 5080 model has not yet been released in the US, although it is presently priced at £3,699 (~US$4,973) in the UK. There, Asus only offers a system with an RTX 5070 Ti, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 300Hz IPS-level display for $3,299.99. Although Asus hasn’t stated when it will be available, we anticipate the Mini LED model arriving in the US shortly.
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