When you think of Asus game computers, you probably think of ROG, but did you know that the company also makes a cheaper model? You get it from the TUF Gaming F15, and it accomplishes it so well that you may start to question whether or not ROG is really worth the extra cost. Asus calculated and compromised in order to optimize what the company believes is crucial to players, including a 12th Gen Intel CPU, RTX 30 series graphics, a massive 16:9 display with up to 360Hz refresh rate, and a monstrous on-board battery.
Asus TUF Gaming F17 Specs
| Laptop Class | Gaming |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-11400H |
| RAM | 8 GB |
| Boot Drive Type | SSD |
| Boot Drive Capacity | 512 GB |
| Screen Size | 17.3 inches |
| Native Display Resolution | 1920 by 1080 |
| Variable Refresh Support | Adaptive Sync |
| Screen Refresh Rate | 144 Hz |
| Weight | 5.73 lbs |
| OS | Windows 11 |
PROS
- Reasonable Cost
- Capable of handling most popular games with ease
- Extensive 144 Hz Display Strong Networking
- Modular memory and storage expansion
CONS
- The 8GB of RAM and the older Intel processor hinder performance.
- Poor quality plastic construction.
- Bulky and power-hungry, having a short lifespan
Design
The look of the Asus TUF Gaming F15 hasn’t changed much. It still has a gunmetal gray shell, fake screws on the lid, and a chunky, vent-filled frame, all of which give it a manly, gamer-like look. That doesn’t mean it looks bad, though.
Compared to other games that look just as scary, this one is a bit more polished. But it is still a style that people either like or dislike. When you open it up, the plastic on the bottom deck feels cheaper than the soft-touch plastic on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, but this is just one of the ways it saves money to put more money into the insides. Also, there are the usual five keys for controlling the volume and starting ROG software, but the keyboard deck has moved to the left and the speaker grills have moved up, making room for a full number pad (more on that later).
Keyboard
The Asus TUF Gaming A15’s 15.6-inch screen allows for a number pad, and the keyboard’s keys are responsive and silent. More responsive than the Nitro’s soft keys, they do the job for the vast majority of games. The structure is also not very appealing. The cursor keys are tiny, and the Return button is only one height, but you do get a numeric keypad and additional audio controls. It has RGB LEDs but only one illumination zone and limited customization options. The trackpad is of sufficient size, but the buttons are unresponsive and poorly placed. You should purchase a USB mouse even if you only occasionally play games.
Screen
The 15.6-inch IPS screen has a good refresh rate of 165 Hz and a resolution of 2560 x 1440, both of which are improvements over last year’s laptop. The display’s contrast ratio of 1283:1 is plenty high enough to give good depth and punch, and the colors are true. With a delta E of 0.7 and a color temperature of 6,450K, the screen did a great job of showing 95.7% of the sRGB range. The only problem is that the brightest point is only 308 nits. That works well inside, but it’s not high enough to use outside.
Also, if you’re a big fan of eSports, you’ll want a laptop with a 240 Hz or 360 Hz display. This machine’s 165 Hz rate is fine for general competition, but nothing more. Surprisingly, the speakers have a lot of bass and power, but the high end is very tinny. If you have no other choice, they will do, but a headset will be much better.
Performance
AMD’s new Ryzen 7 6800H has eight cores and a top speed of 4.7 GHz, which gives it a lot of processing power. The rest of the specs are fine. It has 16GB of dual-channel DDR5 memory and a 1TB SSD with good read and write speeds of 3,145MB/s and 2,072MB/s, respectively. The cheaper model has the same Ryzen 7 processor and 16GB of RAM, but the GPU is a lower-end RTX 3050 Ti, and the SSD is half as big at 512GB.
The RTX 3060 in the TUF has a higher power limit than the same GPU in the Acer, so it did better in benchmarks. In 3D Mark Night Raid, the Asus got 49,215 points, while the Nitro was 10,000 points behind. In the real world, the A15 was better at Far Cry New Dawn. It averaged 87 frames per second at 1080p Ultra, which was five frames better than its competitor
Battery Life
The battery life of last year’s TUF F15 was great, but this model beat it by an hour, lasting 7:35 while the screen ran at 165 Hz. In our non-game Battery Informant test, when we turned it down to 60 Hz, the runtime went up to 8:34. It came in second because the Zephyrus G15 had 14 more minutes of life (8:48), but it completely killed the X14 (5:32).
The 1:26 PCMark 10 score shows that you can use this thing up quickly while gaming. This is less than the Zephyrus (1:45) but more than the Alienware (1:23). But, all in all, it’s been great to use a game machine for real-world work without worrying about running down the battery.