If you’re hunting for a gaming laptop computer it’s tempting to presume your portable of option will be far too costly however that’s not the case with the Asus TUF Gaming A15 for 2023.
This year’s variation begins at only $1,199/ ₤ 1,049 and rises to a reasonable $1,399/ ₤ 1,499 so you won’t need to spend big money.
The design I’ve evaluated costs $1,399 in the United States but a more tasty ₤ 1,199 in the UK. That gets you an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU and a 144Hz, 1080p screen– the precise hardware you’ll require to run practically every video game smoothly for the next couple of years.
On paper, that’s excellent. But there’s more to success than elements. Let’s dig in.
Design & Build
Familiar military design and MIL-STD-810H screening
A solid port choice, albeit without some future-proofed choices
Slimmer and lighter than its crucial competitor
The Asus TUF range takes inspiration from military hardware, and this 2023 edition still looks like a supply cage. Make from that what you will.
Get beyond that– and the promotional sticker labels– and you’ll find a note pad with MIL-STD-810H screening to ensure it can hold up against shocks, drops, temperature level modifications and water spillages.
That stated, there’s significant movement in the screen, base and keyboard, so I ‘d still advise a protective sleeve if you regularly release the A15 out of the home.
More remarkably, the A15 weighs 2.2 kg and is 25mm thick, so it’s slimmer and lighter than the Acer Nitro 5. This is not a slim and light laptop computer in the grand, however it’s significantly much easier to manage.
There are full-size USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports on either side, however the USB 4 Type-C port, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C connector and the HDMI, audio and Ethernet outputs are all clustered on the left edge, which might not be handy for your cable-routing or for left-handed users.
The moves to USB 4 and HDMI 2.1 are the only upgrades from the 2022 A15, and the AMD chipset suggests no Thunderbolt. You’ll find that, and one extra USB port, on the Acer.
Somewhere else, the A15 has Wi-Fi 6 rather than 6E, a blurry 720p web cam with no Windows Hello sign-in and no finger print reader. There’s Gigabit Ethernet however not faster 2.5 Gbps. That’s anticipated for a budget-friendly video gaming notebook and it won’t hinder daily use– and the Acer suffers.
Keyboard & Trackpad
A great design with extra buttons and RGB LED lighting
A soft, squishy typing action that will not please lots of players
An irregular trackpad indicates you’ll be much better off with a mouse
The keyboard could use a little bit more refinement, too. The buttons might have 1.7 mm of travel, however they’re soft, without the snappy feel you’ll find on the best video gaming note pads.
It’s not a catastrophe; you can utilize the A15 for video gaming and typing. But if you desire a robust keyboard to hammer through frantic sessions, you will not get it here.
The trackpad is also soft and its buttons are irregular, with differing levels of force required across the pad.
Ergonomically the A15 is okay but not brilliant. The layout is better, with a numberpad, additional audio buttons and single-zone RGB lighting. There’s hardly any distinction between the Asus A15, the Asus A16, and the Acer– they’re all fine however not amazing.
Screen & Speakers
A 1080p IPS panel at 144Hz implies you’ve got the pixels and rate for mainstream games
A lack of brightness means outdoor play is a no-go
Mediocre speakers
There are no huge additions to the display screen on this year’s A15– the 1080p IPS panel with 144Hz revitalize rate comes back. You also get G-Sync assistance along with Nvidia Advanced Optimus and a MUX switch so it’s easy to use the laptop on mains and battery power.
That’s fine for mainstream gaming and esports, however this screen isn’t quickly enough for high-end competition. It doesn’t have the additional immersion you’ll obtain from 16:10 panels or screens with greater resolutions.
In regards to quality, there’s good and problem. Positively, the A15’s delta E of 1.46 methods colors are accurate and the contrast ratio of 935:1 is fine for video gaming– traditional video games will look good here.
Negatively, though, the optimum brightness of just 290 nits is low enough for outdoor use. And it’s constantly quite irritating when other specifications aren’t offered– the 2022 model might often be discovered with 1440p panels and 300Hz refresh rates however there’s no sign of that this year.
Unsurprisingly, you get mediocre speakers on this system, with non-existent bass and a tinny top-end. Utilize a headset rather and you’ll have a far better time.
Specs & Performance
AMD Ryzen 7 or Ryzen 9 processors
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050, 4060 or 4070 graphics
16GB DDR5 memory and 512GB SSD
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU has 8GB of memory and a TDP of 140W, which is right at the top of the GPU’s thermal envelope. Asus has actually deployed an AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS processor with 8 multi-threaded cores and an increase speed of 4.75 GHz.
You’ll find that processor in the TUF A16, too, however it’s odd when most other video gaming laptops– including the Acer Nitro 5– consist of Intel chips.
You have enough rate to handle any top single-player game for the next couple of years
The A15 has 16GB of dual-channel memory and a 512GB SSD. That memory is great, however the SSD is small considering the size of contemporary games. Thankfully there’s a second SSD slot inside.
The Asus played CyberPunk 2077 at Ultra settings with an 88fps average, and returned a still-playable outcome of 55fps with Ray Tracing and DLSS. A 1080p average of 85fps in Far Cry: New Dawn and a mighty 247fps lead to Rainbow Six Siege continued the A15’s great form.
You have enough pace to manage any top single-player video game for the next few years, especially if you do not wish to run the top settings. There’s quickly sufficient speed for any eSports video game too.
In 3D Mark Time Spy, the A15 scored 10,020 points– nearly 1,000 beyond the RX 7600S inside the A16. That result rose by 600 points in Turbo mode. That’s as great as it gets for the laptop version of the RTX 4060.
AMD’s processor does a decent job versus Intel’s chips. In PCMark 10 the AMD CPU scored 7,132, which exceeds the 6,926 scored by the i5-12500H in the Acer and the i7-12700H, which has in fact shown a little slower in PCMark 10. The i5-13500H and i7-13700H do not make a big distinction here, either.
In Cinebench R20’s single- and multi-threaded tests, the A15 scored 579 and 5,241, with the previous behind Intel and the latter ahead.
The Ryzen chip’s Geekbench 5 rating of 9,291 has to do with 3,000 points shy of the Core i7-12700H and not far beyond the i5-12500H. Its Geekbench 6 outcome of 10,120 sits behind the i7, which is more than 1,000 points much better in that test.
For daily surfing, photo-editing, multi-tasking and office jobs the AMD chip is great, but if you want true content creation ability you ‘d be better off with Intel i7-12700H.
More positively the Asus never ever showed too hot or loud. Its fans only produced a tiny whirr in everyday Performance Mode and the noise wasn’t far more intrusive in Turbo Mode.
You even get decent battery life. I got two hours of gaming from the TUF A15– twice as much as the Nitro 5. Incredibly, the A15 lasted for almost nine hours when working with the screen at full brightness and twelve hours when running a film with the brightness minimized to our normal test setting.
The A16 displayed likewise lengthy results, so there’s plainly something excellent occurring in the 90Wh power pack and this is a laptop computer that’s definitely usable for a complete working day.
Rate & Availability
In the US and UK, the TUF A15 includes RTX 4050, RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 graphics. The very first two GPUs come with the Ryzen 7 7735HS processor, while the RTX 4070 is coupled with a Ryzen 9 7940HS.
The RTX 4050 version costs $1,199 and ₤ 1,049, the RTX 4060 design costs $1,499 and ₤ 1,199, and the RTX 4070 rig comes to ₤ 1,499 however isn’t readily available in the US at the time of writing.
In the United States, you’ll find the A15 at Walmart, Newegg and in the Asus Store at varying rates, and in the UK, head to Amazon, Box, Currys and the Asus UK Store.
