With its well-made, potent gaming laptops, Asus has established a solid reputation in the PC gaming market over the years. The ideal term to describe Asus laptops is “choice”. From the premium ROG series to the more affordable TUF gaming laptops, the brand offers its customers a wide variety of gaming laptop configurations. Both in terms of features and cost, the TUF series has advanced significantly. The TUF F15, the most recent member of Asus’ TUF series, offers the most recent 12th-generation Intel Core i7 chipset and the highly regarded Nvidia RTX 3060 GPU for the best gaming experience.
Asus TUF Gaming F15 review: Design
The Asus TUF Gaming F15’s aesthetics haven’t altered all that much, so you can expect to still get a macho, gamer-esque visual flare from the gunmetal grey body, the faux screws on the lid, and the substantial, vent-filled chassis. That doesn’t mean it looks terrible per se; in comparison to its equally fierce gaming rivals, this one is a tad more tasteful. You will either love or hate it, but it is still a divisive style. Flipping it open reveals a bottom deck covered in plastic that feels less expensive than soft-touch materials like those on laptops like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, but this is just one of its cost-saving strategies to maximise the internals. Additionally, a full number keypad was added in addition to the standard five dedicated keys for volume control and launching ROG software after the keyboard deck was moved to the left and the speaker grills were moved upward. Given the size of this monster (13.9 x 9.9 x 0.9–1.0 inches), the F15’s 4.85-pound weight shouldn’t come as a surprise. Moving the speakers does make this slightly narrower than the ROG Zephyrus G15, but otherwise, Asus’ high-end gaming system outperforms the Alienware X14 (12.7 x 10.3 x 0.6 inches, 4.1 pounds) in all other regards.
Keyboard and touchpad
Since the previous TUF devices, the keyboard hasn’t changed much, but it doesn’t imply the devices aren’t good. Both typing and playing video games may be done at ease with this keyboard. The travel distance is reasonable and there is enough room between the keys. Four of the keys are distinct in colour from the others. These four white keys automatically shine out and are bright without the need for backlighting. This keyboard’s illumination regularly changes colours, giving it a lovely appearance. The keyboard’s brightness level can be changed to suit individual demands. The keycaps on this desktop-sized keyboard feel incredibly pleasant to the touch. The Trackpad/Numpad is a mid-sized device with two physical buttons on the left and right. While the trackpad is easy to use, you may also use a mouse if you like for gaming. Both Windows Precision Drivers and gesture navigation are supported. It is reasonable to use and located inside Trackpad.
Display
A 15.6-inch FHD or WQHD IPS display is an option for the new TUF Gaming F15 laptop. The WQHD version of our product has a 165Hz refresh rate and a 3ms response time. Additionally, the screen has a brightness of 300 nits, which is sufficient for a gaming laptop. Additionally, you receive complete DCI-P3 coverage for some content creation. The screen also offered excellent viewing angles and boasted accurate color reproduction. Additionally, Adaptive-Sync is supported by the display, which synchronizes the refresh rate with the GPU’s output to lessen lag, lessen stuttering, and eliminate visual tearing. If you choose the RTX 3060 card, the display on the new TUF gaming laptop is ideal in our opinion. The laptop is ideal for a gaming laptop because it not only has a sturdy gaming panel but also a creative workspace.
Asus TUF Gaming F15 review: Audio
Although the Asus TUF Gaming F15 boasts Dolby Atmos and high-res certification, we’d like something with a stronger two speaker audio system. One speaker is located above the keyboard, and a second is tucked away in the display’s bottom bezel. When it’s close enough, you can hear it clearly enough to pick up on even quiet sounds like footsteps while we were watching Moon Knight. But other laptops with Atmos support, like the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon, provide audio that is of a higher calibre. Although we had underestimated how well the speakers handled music, it was still inadequate. The Panama Plus song “Keisha From Belly” had good clarity when we listened to it. Kicks from the track, however, could hardly be heard over the speakers.
Graphic and gaming
Here we are at the big event. The gaming performance for the price is one thing I’m delighted the TUF Gaming F15 gets right, even though it makes several other mistakes. The $1,499 model we tested has an RTX 3060 GPU that pushes the visuals, and when combined with the other outstanding internals (more on those in the following section), the TUF Gaming F15 is capable of handling a variety of graphically demanding games. In all of our gaming benchmarks, the TUF Gaming F15 surpasses the Alienware X14, and in all 3DMark tests and games, it uncomfortably approaches the ROG Zephyrus G15. Of course, these figures are just “out of the box” calculations with all parameters set to default (the fairest way we know to evenly test gaming laptops). If you use Armoury Crate, you may raise those values by using Turbo Mode to increase the TDP and TGP and by directly connecting the GPU to the display using a MUX Switch (removing any CPU based roadblocks). also you can read our article on Asus TUF Gaming F15 review. As we saw in our tests, these can significantly raise frame rates across most games, but they can also significantly improve ray-tracing performance. It is clear from the massive 2x jump in our Shadow of the Tomb Raider test result how crucial the MUX Switch is to maximising those internals. Do not misunderstand us; this is not a top-tier powerhouse. You must lower some of the fidelity or scale back the ray tracing if you want to increase the refresh rate of that display. But for the price, this is a seriously impressive big rig that rivals the performance of its more expensive, more opulent sibling.
Performance
The TUF Gaming F15 (2022) has a 12th Gen Intel Core i7 -12700H CPU for performance, along with up to 1TB of NVMe SSD storage and 16GB of DDR5 RAM. The laptop has a discrete Nvidia RTX 3060 laptop GPU with up to 140W of power or Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics. PCIe Gen 4 also enables faster SSD storage. For the best visuals to frame rate ratio, we tested every game on the TUF gaming laptop on high settings. The TUF laptop averaged 145 frames per second in Overwatch and 130 frames per second in Apex Legends. Another multiplayer game put to the test was Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, where the system consistently averaged 105 frames per second. Battlefield V achieved an average frame rate of 85. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy played without a hitch in Quality mode, and we also gave Horizon Zero Dawn a brief try in Ultra settings. It’s important to note that all of these games were tested in 1440p resolution; for faster frame rates, we suggest switching to Full HD resolution. To get the most of the QHD display, single-player games should be played in 1440p resolution. The new MUX switch can also be used directly in the software, which improves performance in games by about 5%. The new Intel Core i7 CPU earned a single-core score of 1580 points and a multi-core score of 11038 points, according to various benchmarks. The CPU achieved 11297 points in the multi-core test and 1677 points in the 10-minute Throttling Test of Cinebench R23. The single-core score in the standard Cinebench R23 test stayed largely same, but the multi-core score reached 14044, which was greater than the 12505 points obtained by the Legion 7 with the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU. In Turbo Mode, the CPU could reach temperatures of up to 95 degrees, while the GPU typically reached temperatures of 70 to 80 degrees. And even though the TUF Gaming F15 (2022) laptop gets hot when under stress, it makes sure that the heat never even comes close to the surface. The new cooling system is made to perform at its peak while keeping heat away from your hands. The Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU combination in this system is, in my opinion, a good one for both gamers and content producers.
Asus TUF Gaming F15 review: Battery life
The TUF F15 from a year ago had excellent battery life, but this model outperformed it by one hour at 7:35 while the screen was operating at 165Hz. When we reduced the frequency in our Battery Informant test for non-gaming, the runtime increased to 8:34. With an extra 14 minutes of life (8:48), the Zephyrus G15 edged it out, but the X14 was completely destroyed. Of course, this device can be quickly depleted while gaming, as shown by the 1:26 PCMark 10 result, which is slower than the Zephyrus (1:45) but faster than the Alienware. Overall, though, it’s been great using a gaming laptop for regular work without worrying about running out of battery life.
Heat
When running the Metro Exodus stress test, we examined the Asus TUF Gaming F15 to check how hot it became to the touch. The laptop’s Centre reached 49.5 degrees Celsius (121.01 degrees Fahrenheit), but it wasn’t too hot to touch or comfortably type on. The fan wasn’t very loud, but it was noticeable when it turned on. The keyboard measured the same temperature as the bottom, which is typically the hottest part of the device, and the touchpad remained cooler at 28.8 Celsius (83.84 Fahrenheit). you will check our article on Asus TUF Gaming F15 review.
Configuration options
The TUF F15 we tested costs $1,499 and features a 1080p, 300Hz display, an Intel Core i7-12700H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. For the amount of horsepower you receive, that is a pretty darn good offer. For comparison, that is $50 less than the MSI GL76 and $440 less than an Alienware x14 with a comparable configuration. If you’re looking for entry-level gaming laptops, there are, of course, less expensive ones with inferior internals. See our ranking of the Best RTX 30 series laptop discounts for those. However, the F15 is solely focused on improving that price-to-performance ratio. This will be contrasted with the more expensive Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 to help illustrate our point.
Conclusion
The TUF F15 gaming laptop is a great device all things considered. Other than the build quality, there isn’t anything to criticize. The TUF F15 (2022) maintains a good battery life and provides a good selection of ports while providing excellent performance, a vibrant display, a comfortable keyboard, and strong audio. With its aluminum lid and military-grade certification, it is still fairly sturdy even though the construction is not of the highest caliber.
