Tuesday, March 19, 2024
HomeUncategorizedAsus TUF A15 FA506IV Review: Affordable Gaming Laptop

Asus TUF A15 FA506IV Review: Affordable Gaming Laptop

Asus has been in the gaming computer space for a long time and they have known what is that works and the kind of price people are ready to pay for heavy specification gaming machines. Asus has been already successful with the ROG line series of laptops and accessories and to Fill the Gap in the budget segment Asus has introduced the TUF series. Which we can definitely say the laptop are rough and tough usage. Recently ASUS had sent us a review sample of the newly launched TUF A15 to us for review and here’s what we have to say about the gaming laptop.

Design

Asus has specifically focused on the design of this laptop. The laptop has been built with the military-grade materials for preventing it from getting dent and damage from usage. The gamers can take out their rage on it. The downside of this is laptop weighs 2.3 Kgs. The laptop has passed the MIL-STD-810H test.

The laptop’s chassis is built of Hard plastic and keeps everything well in place, it does feel sturdy as the company claims it to be. This laptop sports a 15.6 inch full HD panel with a refresh rate of 144hz. The bezels are very thin on the laptop and there’s a space below the display for cooling and airflow purposes.

One design feature that you can appreciate is the honeycomb design and the vents for airflow in-between the two hinges. Both of these helped keep the laptop cool even during heavy use.

Another feature in TUF A15 I liked the most is Asus giving extra slots for upgrading the specs of the laptop. The laptop has an extra slot for RAM and SSD upgrade which helps you becoming future proof if you are intending to run more memory and storage-intensive games. I appreciate Asus for this when most manufacturers are closing the options for upgrading the laptop, Asus has opened up the possibility for Gamers to build the device as per their requirement. Although, I don’t feel the need to upgrade the preconfigured laptop because of already great specs that ASUS has provided.

Display and Audio

The main highlight of this TUF A15 is the 144hz refresh rate and support for Adaptive Sync, which ensures a smooth gaming experience. The laptop was able to deliver the frame rate as promised, however, the response times are a bit lower than what you would expect from such a heavy speed display. This leads to ghosting effects when playing aggressively in competitive games. Moreover, the display is rated for 45 percent sRGB colors, which means you should avoid getting this laptop if your work depends heavily on color-related activity. Content creators won’t be very happy with this as the display is neither very bright nor capable of full sRGB color reproduction.

The brightness of the laptop is amazing, It gets problematic when it is at 30% or below. I felt that at 30% and below that the laptop had the same brightness levels and it only after 30% and above I was able to see the visible difference in the brightness.

Asus has paired up this laptop with DTS X Ultra and there are some visible changes in the Audio. The audio has now had more depth effect in it. The laptop audio sounds clear and crisp when on a wooden surface and the same goes for a toss when you use the laptop on a bed or similar surfaces. This is due to bottom-firing speakers which get muffled. This isn’t a big issue since most content creators and gamers have a headset on and rarely use the system speakers for audio.

Performance

The model which I received for review was a top of the line TUF Gaming Series product. It came with Ryzen 7 4800H processor, 32 GB of RAM in dual-channel, an M.2 PCIe x4 SSD for storage, and dual graphics, with the overclocked, 90W version of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 6GB chip, alongside the updated Radeon Vega 8 GPU within the AMD APU.

All things considered, the TUF Gaming A15 and Zephyrus G14 shares a lot of similarities except that the G14 comes with higher power-efficient chips such as the R7-4800HS and RTX 2060 Max-Q. In other words, the TUF Gaming A15 has better-performing components at the cost of thermal performance and battery life which we will cover at the latter part of this review.

I had tried playing multiple games on the unit and I was surprised to see that most of the titles were able to play on maximum settings without loss of any frames. The downside of the laptop is thermal control. The laptop obviously releases too much heat and often there’s a fan noise from the rear coming which can be easily heard even from distance. The laptop heats up pretty quickly and touches the bar of 80 degrees plus once you are into the game. Leaving the thermal issue aside there’s nothing to complain about. I wish Asus had provided more vents on the bottom side in the honeycomb design so that heat could be managed more efficiently.

Even having such high specifications, Asus has provided with the option to upgrade RAM, and Storage in the laptop so that you never run out of space and memory and kind makes you futureproof with the upgrades.

Mouse and Keyboard

On TUF A15 the trackpad has a huge area covered and you can use all the windows gesture that windows offer and The key are separated from the trackpad. There are separate keys for clicking. Initially, I had some issues using the mouse pad but once you are comfortable with it, You would definitely like the keys and trackpad.

The keyboard is neatly designed with a Gaming button having a transparent color. The keyboard has good travel space between the keys and I was able to type easily and pretty quickly as well. The keyboard is well responsive and it’s a joy using it. There’s even a Numpad for anyone who needs it, and there are full-size arrow keys instead of those compact arrow keys you’ll find on some laptops.

Battery

The Battery life on the machine is not that great on this machine. A single full charge can only last me about 2 hours and 30 minutes of normal daily usage – Google Chrome web browsing, lightweight photoshop, YouTube video watching, and Spotify music playback. I would never use this machine without a charger since removing the charger also has an effect on performance as well and you can run the laptop in turbo mode.

I didn’t try gaming on the laptop without AC power, but that’s not something you’ll likely be doing either. The point is, if you’re thinking of using this laptop as a work and play laptop, you will need to carry your charger to your college, or office.

Asus TUF A15 FA506IV Review
  • Design
  • Display
  • Performance
  • Battery
3.1

To Buy or Not to Buy

Asus TUF A15 is one of the top tier laptops from the A15 Series and offers great performance and speed while allowing to game at max settings in most of the title but it also has thermal issues and displays issues as well. The laptop is able to handle almost all the tasks with ease and without any hiccups but if you are a content creator like us or want to do editing on this laptop, Better get an external display and then go for it. As far as Gaming is concerned it’s perfect for it.

Sachin Agarwal
Sachin Agarwalhttps://www.indiantechguys.com
Meet Sachin Agarwal, a passionate social media enthusiast and a self-proclaimed geek with an unbreakable bond with technology. Currently serving as a Senior Manager in On-Demand Delivery at Reliance Jiobp, Sachin's fascination with technology remains unwavering while others his age may have experienced numerous breakups. Throughout his journey, Sachin has earned countless treats from friends who sought his expertise in resolving laptop and computer issues. Technology runs in his veins, making him the go-to Tech Advisor for everyone fortunate enough to know him. Now, with Indian Tech Guys as his platform, Sachin aims to share his vast knowledge and insightful reviews with the world, establishing himself as the "Sachin of Technology." Join him on this exciting venture as he explores and embraces all things tech.
RELATED ARTICLES
- Advertisment -

Most Popular

- Advertisment -