Asus’s ROG Strix G18 2026 Gets a Brighter Screen and a Bigger Bill

Asus has refreshed the ROG Strix G18 for 2026 around its screen, not its chip, and priced the top configuration close to Scar 18 flagship money. The 24-core Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus carries over almost unchanged from the Scar 18 launched earlier this year. The real movement is in the display options, the port selection, and increasingly, the price tag.

Asus calls the redesign a refinement, pointing to chamfered edges and a new Mini LED display option with roughly 2,000 local dimming zones. The processor gain is real but small. The price gain, particularly at the top of the range, is not small at all.

One Chip, Three Laptops in a Year

The Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus now powers three separate ROG laptops released in 2026: the Strix G16, the Strix G18 and the flagship Scar 18. All three launched within a few months of each other, and all three lean on the same processor pitch.

Asus’s own exceptional multi threaded power language for the chip has barely changed between announcements. The spec sheet backs up the raw numbers: 24 cores, 24 threads, a 36MB cache and a boost clock up to 5.5GHz, according to Asus’s official listing for the new G18.

According to the outlet’s own hands on testing, the 2026 Strix G18 posts only marginally higher CPU scores than last year’s review unit despite the processor swap. That tracks with what showed up in a Scar 18 review running the identical chip: Tom’s Hardware measured the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus averaged 4.59 GHz on its P-cores under load, solid for an HX-class chip but not a generational leap over the 275HX it replaces.

The Display Is Where 2026 Actually Shows Up

Refresh rate is the one number Asus actually moved. The standard 2.5K panel now runs at 300Hz by default on several SKUs, up from the 240Hz ceiling on last year’s cheaper configurations.

Higher trims swap in a Mini LED panel instead. It keeps the same 2.5K, 2560 by 1600 resolution as the base screen, but adds roughly 2,000 local dimming zones and pushes peak brightness to 1,200 nits. That panel runs at 240Hz by default, with 300Hz available only after setting the GPU mode to Ultimate inside Armoury Crate, according to Asus’s own footnote on the product page.

Reaching for Ultimate mode is not free. It is the laptop’s highest power draw setting, which means the fastest refresh rate on the nicer screen also demands the most from the fans and the battery.

Eight SKUs and a Widening Price Ladder

Asus confirmed the G18 2026 would ship in eight configurations back in March, months before any pricing appeared. Now that pricing exists, the gap between the cheapest and priciest version has widened considerably.

The entry configuration pairs a GeForce RTX 5060 with a single Thunderbolt 4 port for CAD 3,099 in Canada and €2,699 in the Eurozone. Step up to a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and the laptop gains a second Thunderbolt 5 port, along with a steeper bill across every market Asus sells it in.

That is not a small step between tiers. It is a pattern gaming laptop shoppers have run into before with other hardware, where a faster sibling sits so close in price to the one below it that the cheaper option stops making sense, an issue that dogged AMD’s Ryzen 7 7700X3D pricing next to its faster sibling earlier this year.

So Does the G18 Now Cost Scar Money?

Here is the number worth sitting with. The Strix G18’s top Mini LED configuration runs £3,699 in the UK, which converts to roughly $4,795. The Scar 18, Asus’s actual flagship, currently lists for $4,299 on Amazon in the US.

That comparison crosses currencies and tax systems, since the UK figure includes VAT that the US listing does not, so it is not a perfectly clean read. But even accounting for that, the gap between what used to be a clearly cheaper laptop and Asus’s actual flagship has narrowed to almost nothing.

What the extra Scar 18 money buys is real: a 4K Mini LED panel instead of 2.5K, 1,600 nits of peak brightness instead of 1,200, and a ceiling of a GeForce RTX 5090 instead of the 5080. Within the UK market alone, stepping from the RTX 5070 Ti to the RTX 5080 Mini LED configuration adds over 25 percent to the price, a jump of roughly 27.6 percent by Asus’s own listed figures.

RAM Prices Are Having Their Own Crisis

None of this pricing is happening in a stable memory market. DDR5 has gone through one of its worst stretches in years, and every laptop maker is absorbing it somehow.

• $374.97: the cheapest 32GB DDR5 kit available in the US as of early June, according to Tom’s Hardware’s own RAM price tracker, versus $80 to $120 for the same capacity a year earlier.
• 20%: the share of global DRAM wafer capacity TrendForce estimates AI workloads will consume in 2026, capacity that used to go toward consumer memory like the RAM in gaming laptops.
• 50%: how much Framework raised DDR5 upgrade pricing on its DIY laptops this year, one of several device makers that has said so publicly.

Tom’s Hardware’s own tracker put it plainly, noting that DDR5 memory prices have exploded over the last trimester, with some capacities seeing triple or quadruple increases. Analysts covering the shortage have gone further still, with one widely cited forecast warning of a 130 percent memory cost surge across 2026.

Asus has not said memory costs shaped the G18’s pricing. But the timing lines up with an industry wide squeeze that is already showing up at the cheap end of the laptop market too, where the memory shortage squeezing cheap laptops has forced tighter RAM configurations on machines that used to offer more for less.

Chamfered Edges, Same Battery, Same Numberpad

Away from the chip and the price ladder, the G18 2026 is a familiar machine wearing a slightly sharper suit.

• Chassis: chamfered edges replace the softer corners of last year’s model, part of what Asus calls a refined design language.
• Weight: the chassis still weighs over 3 kg, with Asus’s own March preview specs listing it as heavy as 3.5 kg.
• Battery: the 90 Wh cell is unchanged from the previous generation.
• Input: a built in numberpad, a mechanical trackpad and a per-key RGB backlit keyboard all return.
• Upgrades: Asus kept the tool-less chassis design, so RAM and SSD swaps still do not require a screwdriver.

None of those changes cost Asus much to keep. They also are not what most buyers are paying extra for this year, which remains the screen and the GPU tier sitting behind it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does the ROG Strix G18 2026 cost in the US?

Asus has not published a base US price for the entry configuration. The clearest US figure available is $3,299 for the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti configuration, while the top RTX 5080 Mini LED trim converts to roughly $4,795 from its UK listing of £3,699.

What is the difference between the ROG Strix G18 and the Scar 18 in 2026?

Both share the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, but the Scar 18 tops out at a GeForce RTX 5090 instead of the G18’s RTX 5080 ceiling. The Scar 18’s Mini LED panel also hits 4K resolution and 1,600 nits of brightness, versus 2.5K and 1,200 nits on the G18’s Mini LED option.

How do you enable 300Hz on the Mini LED display?

Owners need to open Armoury Crate and switch the GPU mode to Ultimate. The panel defaults to 240Hz in Standard, Eco and Optimized modes, and Ultimate mode also draws more power than the other profiles.

Can you upgrade the RAM and SSD yourself?

Yes. Asus kept the tool-less access design from last generation, with spring loaded tabs covering the DDR5 memory slots and dual M.2 2280 storage bays instead of small screws.

Does the ROG Strix G18 2026 support Thunderbolt 5?

Only on the higher configurations. The entry GeForce RTX 5060 model ships with a single Thunderbolt 4 port, while the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5080 configurations both add a second Thunderbolt 5 port.