During the IFA 2017 technology show in Berlin, Asus showcased a huge lineup of laptops, displays, motherboards, and desktops shoved under its Republic of Gamers banner. Most of these were already revealed earlier this year during Computex, such as the ROG Zephyrus, the ROG Strix GL702ZC, and the ROG Strix GL702VI laptops. The ROG Swift PG27VQ monitor was even revealed before then, in April.
Given this, we weeded through the Asus ROG lineup and surfaced with two previously unannounced products: the ROG Chimera laptop, and the ROG Strix XG35VQ display. At the time of this publication, we know very little about these two products save for what was provided in the press release. That means we also don’t know when they will launch, or their price.
According to Asus, the ROG Chimera will be the world’s first laptop sporting a 17.3-inch screen with 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, a seven-millisecond response time, and a 144Hz refresh rate. This screen will be backed by Nvidia’s G-Sync technology, which will synchronize the refresh rate of the display with the frames-per-second output of an installed GeForce discrete graphics chip.
While we don’t have the laptop’s full specifications, Asus says the laptop will include Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1080 graphics chip. With this GPU and the display’s G-Sync component, you likely won’t see the annoying screen tearing or stuttering when the GPU is outputting frames at a different rate than how the screen is rendering them.
The upcoming ROG Chimera laptop will rely on Intel’s seventh-generation Core i7-7820HK processor. This is a quad-core chip built for laptops, with a base speed of 2.90GHz, and a maximum turbo speed of 3.90GHz. It can support up to 64GB of DDR4 memory clocked at 2,400MHz, and includes an integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 component.
What’s interesting about this laptop is that it includes Xbox Wireless. If you own an Xbox One controller or related Xbox Wireless peripheral, you can connect up to eight of these devices simultaneously using Microsoft’s proprietary 2.4GHz wireless connection. There’s no need for USB-based dongles, and no need to rely on Bluetooth. Xbox Wireless partners include Astro, HyperX, Mad Catz, PDP, Plantronics, SteelSeries, Turtle Beach, and more.
In addition to the ROG Chimera laptop, Asus also introduced the ROG Strix XG35VQ curved monitor. The details are scarce, but Asus says the panel has a 35-inch screen with 3,440 x 1,440 resolution, and a 100Hz refresh rate. The curvature is unknown.
The only other feature Asus revealed was that the panel supports Aura Sync. That means the curved panel includes customizable RGB lighting that can be synchronized with Aura Sync-enabled PC components, peripherals, and accessories — like Razer’s Chroma. You can also synchronize the lighting system with in-game audio.
Again, we don’t know when these products will be made available, nor do we know their price. Perhaps we will know more information shortly after the show.
