We’ve discovered one of the most intriguing gaming laptops in recent memory with the Asus TUF A15. It’s not thrilling for the reasons that generally precede the release of a new gaming gadget.
It does not include the top-tier flagship parts that power the greatest gaming PCs. Furthermore, it lacks the flashiness found in Asus’ Zephyrus gaming laptops, which are actually quite powerful in their own right. In truth, the Asus TUF A15 seems to be a rather ordinary gaming laptop.
What will you see here?
Specs at a glance:
- 15.6″ FHD 1920 x 1080 IPS
- 144Hz
- Non-Touch Display
- Ports : 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1 1 x USB 2.0 1 HDMI 1 x RJ-45 LAN (10/100/1000), 1 x Headphone/microphone combo jack
- AMD Ryzen 7 processors
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20-series graphics cards are built on the Turing architecture.
- The backlit keyboard supports ASUS AURA RGB lighting.
- RGB Backlit Keyboard with Numeric Pad
- Stereo speakers Audio
Price and availability
The Asus TUF A15 is classified as an inexpensive gaming laptop. It isn’t as cheap as budget options, but it’s also not as pricey as high-end laptops geared at enthusiasts.
Still, if it comes to gaming laptops, ‘cheap’ still implies more money, and the Asus TUF A15 starts at $1,300. That’s obviously pricy, but it’s far more affordable than certain gaming laptops, like the Alienware m15. If you look at the pricing in the same category as the HP Omen 15 and Dell G3 15, both don’t have specs like Asus TUF a15.
Design
Moreover, it is a massive, hefty gadget that’s a long cry from Asus’ Zephyrus, but that’s part of the attraction. The Asus TUF A15, as the name implies, prioritizes build quality and endurance in its design.
This isn’t a tough laptop that you could drop from a great height and not care about. However, it’s a gaming laptop that you’d cheerfully throw in a backpack and go to friends’ houses and LAN parties. With Asus TUF A15 you don’t have to worry about like other ultra-thin laptops while taking it out from home.
It’s a design that doesn’t hide the fact that this is a gaming machine. However, it’s also not entirely overdone and if you want to give it even more gaming cred, the Asus TUF A15 comes with a sheet of decals to cover the laptop with. The chassis is available in two colors: Fortress Gray and Inferno Black.
The industrial design is definitely attractive, and it’s also useful. It provides further security for the laptop against knocks and bumps. It also has a hexagon design on the machine’s base, which protects the device from sliding about.
It’s a solid choice that should allow you to connect your preferred devices without the use of an adapter. The LAN port is extremely useful on a gaming laptop since it allows for quicker and more stable network connections.
Meanwhile, the screen is a good, spacious 15.6-inch 1080p panel with a 144Hz refresh rate. You may also obtain a variant with a refresh rate of up to 60Hz.
Performance
The Asus TUF A15 is powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 7 4800H processor. The AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS is the company’s flagship mobile chip, but it isn’t attempting to be a flagship laptop. Its goal is to be a system that provides a good balance of performance and profitability.
AMD’s Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs might alter gaming laptops, and the Asus TUF A15 is a wonderful illustration of this, with eight cores and 16 threads delivering power that we’d expect to see in much more costly laptops.
This is accompanied by an Nvidia RTX 2060 GPU. It’s not a flagship GPU, but it’s a fantastic 1080p performance, making it an excellent pick. It’s one of Nvidia’s more cheap GPUs, but it still provides very good performance, including contemporary ray-tracing capabilities, and with 6GB of GDDR6 memory, it’s a solid pick for a low-cost laptop.
The visually demanding Metro Exodus runs at 45fps (fps) at Ultra. With a little tinkering, you can get it to play at more than 60fps.
With less demanding titles, like Fortnite or CS: GO, you’ll be able to fully use the 144Hz screen for quick and responsive gaming.
So, while this isn’t a gaming laptop packed with cutting-edge technology, it does provide decent performance with recent games at a far lower price range than high-end gaming laptops. In our opinion, that’s a win.
One thing that bothered us was how loud the laptop became when playing games. When the fans on this contraption turn on, they turn on loudly. We’re used to noisy gaming laptop fans – they have to keep cool in some way – but the fans of the Asus TUF A15 are particularly annoying.
Battery life
When it comes to battery capacity, we’ve learned not to expect too much from a gaming laptop. However, the Asus TUF A15 doesn’t do bad.
That’s not bad for a gaming laptop, due in part to the AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, which really doesn’t deplete the battery as quickly as the more power-hungry Intel CPUs seen in these laptops.
The battery here is a massive 90Wh, which is far longer than you’d normally see on a gaming laptop (and not far off the maximum capacity you’re legally permitted to bring onto a plane), and it also explains the great 11 hours, 44 mins of uptime we observed in our looping 1080p video benchmark.
While playing a looping movie isn’t the most demanding of jobs, the TUF A15’s endurance is amazing. When it comes to gaming, though, the uptime lowers to roughly two hours, depending on the game. That’s still not awful, and it’ll carry you through a shortish train ride; nevertheless, like with other gaming laptops, you’ll want to plug this in while playing.
Conclusion
The Asus TUF A15 is a fantastic low-cost gaming laptop that strikes the perfect blend of performance and pricing. Its high 1080p performance, sturdy build quality, and wide range of ports will earn it many fans, particularly among professional esports, and a built-in LAN port for seamless connectivity.
