Every Single Frame Counts Folks!
The Asus TUF Gaming A15 combines AMD’s Zen 2-based Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs alongside Nvidia RTX graphics to outperform its competitors in the market, particularly in gaming.
The Specs Offered By Asus TUF Gaming A15
For those who are curious about the all in all specs, take a look at the table given below:
Battery | 90 Whr |
Camera | 720p |
CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 4800H |
Dimensions (WxDxH) | 14.5 x 10.1 x 1 inches (368 x 254 x 25.4mm) |
Display | 15.6-inch IPS, 1920 x 1080 resolution, 144 Hz, G-Sync |
Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 2060 (6GB GDDR6) integrated Radeon Graphics |
Memory | 16GB DDR4-3200 |
Networking | 802.11ac (2×2), Bluetooth 5.0 |
Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
Ports | 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, USB 2.0 (Type-A), USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (supports DisplayPort 1.4), HDMI 2.0b, 3.5mm headphone/mic jack |
Power Adapter | 230W |
Price (as configured) | $1,200 |
Storage | 1TB PCIe-NVMe M.2 SSD |
Weight | 5.1 pounds (2.3 kg) |
Asus TUF Gaming A15: Design and Build
Gaming laptops possess an image for being massive clunkers which are both bulky and hefty. The TUF Gaming A15 is 14.5×10.1×1 inches in size, comparable to equivalently priced 15-inch Dell G5 15 SE and XPG Xenia 15. The Xenia 15 and the Dell are both in the identical weight division, weighing 5.1 and 5.5 pounds, respectively, although the Xenia 15 notably is slimmer, 4.2 pounds to be precise.
The Asus TUF Gaming A15, however, appears to be much slicker than both of the above-mentioned computers. Asus paid close attention to architecture, shrinking the TUF Gaming A15’s predecessor’s size whilst also integrating a bigger battery – for longer battery life.
Angles appear all across the layout. The lid does not help hide the whole upper part of the laptop, conversely leaving room to display the TUF Gaming logo on the deck, which is encircled by elegant textures. Vertical lines begin at the backbone of the machine and move across to the undersurface of the laptop before actually bursting into something like a honeycomb layout that is supposed to aid in gripping. Copper-orange spurts emerge from the spine’s ducts, providing a pleasant splash of color.
The AC connector, Ethernet jack, HDMI 2.0b output, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, and a USB-C port are located on the right side of the TUF Gaming A15’s deck. This is a nice port party, yet one can feel excluded: Except for a USB 2.0 connector, the left side is empty.
Whenever your TUF Gaming A15’s lid cover is raised, the screen seems to hover. The display is surrounded by a broad border having a brushed surface as well as an Asus emblem that is large but fades into the black bezel mildly. There is still a lot of space between both the top of the deck as well as the function row, yet diagonal lines and a power button that looks like it belongs on a starship, prevent it from appearing lifeless and barren.
Speaking about unusual inputs, the space bar seems to have a distinctive structure which makes it simpler for your thumb to reach. It also adds to the aesthetic, as do the more dramatic fonts. The brushed coating on the deck also provides resistance, preventing your wrists from sliding off.
We almost forgot about the RGB lighting on the keyboard’s single zone. This is, due to the fact that even though RGB fans, we must acknowledge that perhaps the keyboard looks way better without it. The combination of the white buttons is sufficient to stick out.
The TUF Gaming A15 is far from inexpensive, from its robust plastic base to the deck’s apparent and tactile brushed finishes. However, we would have loved the display to be less wobbly. Asus tested the computer to military-grade endurance evaluation which included drops, severe temperatures, tremors, and dampness.
Asus TUF Gaming A15: Performance Of Gaming
Shop Carmel’s review configuration of the TUF Gaming A15, which includes an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card and an octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 4800H Processor, can run major video games at full tilt and can sometimes conduct ray tracing support in compatible games.
Frame rates, however, consistently stayed at 63 frames per second when we played Battlefield V with extreme settings and ray tracing turned off, occasionally dipping to 53 frames per second during intense action and peaking at 79 frames per second. When ray tracing was enabled, the game frame rate decreased to around 45 frames per second. During massive explosions, this plummeted to as far as 37 frames per second and reached as top as 52 frames per second.
During our benchmark test, this setup of ASUS Gaming A15 performed Shadow of the Tomb Raider with 77 frames per second. That puts it much higher than the Dell G5 15 SE, which has an AMD Radeon RX 5600M GPU, as well as the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 having RTX 2060 GPU, and Xenia 15 with Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GPU.
GTA V also performed quite nicely around 65 frames per second. This is a tad faster than that of the Xenia 15’s fps and a bit quicker than the G5 15 SE’s. The Zephyrus G14, on the other hand, blasted this benchmark, and hence the TUF Gaming A15 out of the water.
Far Cry New Dawn, on the other hand, operated at a steady 75 frames per second, although the Xenia 15 outperformed it.
The TUF Gaming A15 achieved 38.5 frames per second on the Red Dead Redemption 2 game test. This beats the Dell as well as Zephyrus, yet it ties with the Xenia.
We then subjected the TUF Gaming A15 to a gaming endurance assessment. It loops the Metro Exodus 1080p RTX benchmark fifteen times to mimic Thirty minutes of game time. The laptop achieved 44.2 frames per second in this test. Throughout that period, the RTX 2060 on the system worked at an overall clock frequency of 1.5 GHz as well as a temperature of 74.4℃. At an average temperature of 92.4°C, the Ryzen 7 4800H obtained an overall clock frequency of 3.6 GHz.
Asus TUF Gaming A15: Productivity Performance
The Asus TUF Gaming A15 setup we tried is powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 4800H Central processing unit with 8 CPU cores as well as Sixteen threads, 16GB DDR4-3200 RAM, as well as a 1TB PCIe-NVMe SSD. That’s sufficient to run 20 Chrome Browser windows, including one which was streaming “Friends” on Netflix, a worksheet, and Discord. The movie never lags, although fast skipping then rewinding caused a three-second lag. When We switched between Chrome pages there was always a 1-second lag now and then, but We could still browse across websites swiftly.
In the Geek bench 5.1 total efficiency benchmark, the TUF Gaming A15 setup achieved 7,731 across all eight cores. That is indeed higher than that of the Xenia 15’s performance with a hexa-core Intel Core i7-9750H as well as 32GB of DDR4 RAM, though not sufficient to outperform the Dell G5 15 SE, which has the identical Processor and RAM specifications as our tested model. The TUF Gaming A15 trailed the Zephyrus G14, which also had DDR4-3200 RAM and a more sophisticated Processor in the form of the octa-core AMD Ryzen 4900HS.
We conducted our file transfer test, which had each laptop move 4.97GB of data, to see how fast the Asus TUF Gaming A15’s memory was. Our evaluation unit completed the task at a speed of 508.9 Megabits per second, which is 84.8 Megabits per second faster than that of the G5 15 SE. Furthermore, the Zephyrus G12 and Xenia 15 outperformed the TUF Gaming A15.
Each system trans-codes a movie from 4K resolution to 1080p in the Handbrake video editing test. The Asus TUF Gaming A15 completed the test in Six minutes and forty-four seconds. That speed is close to the G5 15 SE and perhaps significantly quicker than that of the ROG Zephyrus G14. The Xenia 15 had difficulty keeping pace with the majority of sample batch laptops.
Asus TUF Gaming A15: Display Features
The battle takes place on the TUF Gaming A15’s 15-inch IPS display which has a refresh rate of 144 Hertz. This response time is quick enough to match the top gaming displays on the market. In addition, G-Sync is used to avoid display tearing. With the difficult Battlefield V game configured to ultra-graphics and ray tracing enabled, choppiness was quite minimal, as well as We didn’t have any display tearing in Battlefield V or even during crazy Overwatch situations.
The screen attained an overall maximum brightness of 260 nits with our light meter, although we prefer to view closer to 300 nits, like the Xenia 15 and G5 15 SE did. Meanwhile, the ROG Zephyrus G14 is a beautiful vibrant laptop.
As feared, there isn’t much color here. Only 44.2 percent of the DCI-P3 color spectrum is covered by the display. That is only a fraction of the overall color range provided by the G5 15 SE at 76.6 percent, Zephyrus G14 at 82.9 percent, and Xenia 15 at 78.5 percent. Hence, there are better choices if you want your gameplay to be colorful and bright.
Asus TUF Gaming A15: Touchpad and Keyboard
The chiclet keyboard on the TUF Gaming A15 is easy to operate. There’s enough motion for such a keyboard — 2 millimeters for each key, as well as the arrow buttons, are spaced, therefore We didn’t have to glance down to find them. In addition, Asus suggests that all individual keys will survive approximately 20 million keystrokes.
These buttons are flatter as we want for lengthy typing, however, they spring up into place fast, so fatigue is not a concern. Every chiclet seems to have a delicate feel that does not become sticky over intense game sessions. Because of its broad form, the spacebar, just like arrow buttons, is easy to find when you’re bound to look constantly at the screen while gaming.
Only the TUF A15’s touchpad is pleasant but not greasy, giving you just the proper level of precision. The left and right-click buttons are more stunning. They are constructed of smooth plastic and feature a great amount of movement for a superior experience and reliable input.
Asus TUF Gaming A15: Audio Quality
The speakers on the deck’s left and right sides produce clear and precise sounds. Once We cranked up the laptop’s sound while playing Battlefield V, both bullets and conversation, even distant sounds, were sharp and realistic, however, the gunfire didn’t pound as fiercely or as frighteningly as they did on some other gaming machines
The noises of bursting grenades provided the appropriate ear-shattering effect but missed the hearty loudness and bass to truly involve us. We considered changing the Shooter sound style option in the bundled DTS:X Ultra software (which includes 7 predefined settings as well as an Equalizer), yet there were no noticeable improvements.
Thanks to DTS:X technology, the laptop also supports 7.1 virtual surround sound with stereo headphones. It may be a wonderful method to improve acoustics on a low-cost pair of headphones, yet several of the top gaming headphones have simulated surround audio support.
Asus TUF Gaming A15: Upgradeability
Asus, happily, embraces TUF Gaming A15 modifications. The back panel now has a pop-up bolt that does not fully open and ten extra Philips-headed bolts. We were able to peel off the backplate without using any tools once We disassembled everything.
You may update the RAM to up to 32GB once you go on the inside of the computer and remove the insulating film. After removing another Phillips-headed bolt, there is also room for a second M.2 SSD.
Asus TUF Gaming A15: Battery Life
The TUF Gaming A15 boasts a good battery life for a gaming laptop. It can survive a whole workday, clocking in at eight hours and thirty-four minutes on our battery test, which involves surfing the web, streaming video, and running browser-based OpenGL tests while connected to Wi-Fi and with the screen set to 150 nits. That’s more than an hour longer than the G5 15 SE’s battery life and 2 hours more than the Xenia 15’s battery capacity. However, the Zephyrus may assist you in pulling all-nighters.
Asus TUF Gaming A15: Heat
The A15 is cool in standard usage, however, it can get a little bit hot if you push it. The keyboard – particularly the enter button – was remarkably hot – after about 30 minutes of Battlefield V play with ray tracing enabled in ultra-configuration.
The TUF Gaming A15’s touchpad gauged 85.5 degrees Fahrenheit after 15 minutes of YouTube clips. The heat point between the G and H was 93.5 degrees and 95 degrees Fahrenheit. All of this is great for the laptop, which can easily pass the 100° threshold of these measures.
Asus’ cooling framework includes several heat pipes as well as 3 heat sinks. In addition, the manufacturer asserts that its revamped chassis layout allows for further air ducts, which improves the flow of air. This same cooling framework furthermore acts as a self-cleaning unit, which adds to its lifespan. What is the procedure for this? There are dust-catching tunnels along the sides of the fans. Dust particles make their way through the pipes and out through the rear of the device’s frame.
Asus TUF Gaming A15: Webcam
The 720p camera here seems to be underwhelming. Colors can be accurate in a room with enough sunlight. It is, regrettably, not crispy enough. The hairline, for instance, appears distorted, as well as the skin appears to be mildly blurry. However, the webcam, on the other hand, kept up with our quick movement patterns.
Asus TUF Gaming A15: Availability and Configurations
Our TUF A15 configuration is identified via the model designation FA506IV. You’ll acquire an AMD Ryzen 7 4800H CPU, RTX 2060 graphics, 1TB of M.2 PCIe Storage space, including 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM for that price
There is a 17-inch variant of this laptop (Asus TUF A17 Gaming) as well as four distinct SKUs too for the fifteen-inch variant. Assuming you prefer to continue with the Processor we have, users can get GTX 1660 TI graphics at $1,000 bucks right now. RAM remains at 16 Gigabytes, while space is reduced to 512Gigabytes.
For $929 bucks, you can get an even lower-end GTX 1650 Ti plus 512 Gigabytes of memory and then the same basic features as our test model.
This laptop also comes in a version with a lower-end Ryzen R5 CPU, although we have not seen it for purchase anywhere yet. Asus will release the TUF Gaming F15 later this year, which is effectively a similar system however with up to something like a 10th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU as well as GTX 1660 Ti.
Final Thoughts
The Asus TUF Gaming A15 delivers all of the entertainment and productivity capabilities that you demand from such a machine at this cost.
In all of our gaming benchmarks, Asus’ Ryzen machine outperformed the Dell G5 15 SE by just under 10 frames per second, although for devoted gamers each frame matters. Furthermore, the productivity of the two systems is equivalent.
The Asus TUF Gaming A15 is a fairly great pick, with a minor advantage in framerates in practically every game and a keyboard with decent travel.
Our Verdict
In our benchmarks, the Asus TUF Gaming A15 demonstrated that it can compete with the finest out there. Game frame rates often topped out somewhat more than the expensive PCs, but still, the laptop’s display made everything look flat.
What We Liked:
- → Day-long battery life
- → Satisfying keyboard feel
- → Solid gaming, productivity for the price
What We Didn’t Like:
- → Dull screen