When it comes to gaming-centric laptops, ASUS is undoubtedly best known for it’s impressive ROG gaming line that offers some of the finest and innovative gaming machines till date, like the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 GX550 (Review) and ASUS ROG Flow X13.
As such, it’s easy to recommend these laptops to anyone who’re looking for a solid and reliable gaming machine if they have plenty of budget to invest in one. But for young gamers who’re generally on a tighter budget, these high-ticket gaming companions are probably beyond their means, and that’s when ASUS TUF gaming line comes in.
The TUF-branded laptops offer gamers an opportunity to experience a top-notch gaming experience at a comparatively more accessible price tag by cutting back on some non-essential aspects that wouldn’t affect the overall gaming experience.
The recently announced ASUS TUF Dash F15 is one of these laptops that impress with it’s unparalleled performance, while keeping it’s price modest at just S$2,198 (US$1,635). Having spent more than two weeks with the ASUS TUF Dash F15, we’d rounded up some of our favorite features of this machine!
*Review model: ASUS TUF Dash F15 FX516PE-RTX3050Ti
Sleek & Simplistic Design
On the outside, the ASUS TUF Dash F15 looks quite unlike any of the gaming-centric laptops that are usually donned with those electrifying RGB lightings that are constantly screaming for attention.
Instead, the TUF Dash F15 settles with a more understated design for it’s Gunmetal Grey variant that still looks cool, especially with the stripe of ”TUF” lettering that run vertically across it’s outer lid.
As compared to those overly flashy gaming laptops, it’s relatively more subtle design could be seen as another benefit, in the sense that the laptop is suited for more occasions as it wouldn’t cause you any unwanted attention.
The key highlight of it’s design however, lies in how slim the ASUS TUF Dash F15 is with a thin profile measuring just 19.9mm in thickness. This makes the TUF Dash F15 one of the sleekest gaming laptop in the market, with a thickness of just two smartphones stacked upon each other.
Therefore, portability is something that the TUF Dash F15 clearly possess, and you can pretty much slot it into any medium-sized backpack without any hassle. Most importantly, the weight is also manageable at just 2kg.
Similarly, it’s also worth highlighting about the superb build quality of the laptop which feels premium and robust all around. In fact, the ASUS TUF Dash F15 is actually known for it’s military-grade toughness that’s well capable of withstanding accidental drops (from a certain height) as well as vigorous vibration when commuting.
Well-designed, Ergonomic Keyboard
As mentioned in my past ASUS laptop reviews, ASUS laptops offer one of the most pleasant typing experience thanks to it’s well-engineered keyboard that put forward a comfortable spread of keys.
Each individual key comes with a right amount of key travel accompanied by good tactile feedback that make the keyboard ideal even for extended typing session. Also, the surface of the keys ain’t too slicky – so it’s unlikely for your fingers to slip off the keys when gaming.
Just like some of the ROG laptops, for instance the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15 (Review), there’s also a separate row of shortcuts along the upper-left corner of the deck that include some of the most frequently used functions like the Volume Up and Down keys, Mic Mute/ Unmute key, as well as a shortcut to access the Armory Crate app.
To spice things up a little, the keyboard actually has a mint-green backlit that looks delightful, amidst a little less pumped up than those with RGB backlit. Still, the adoption of transparent caps for the ”WASD” keys certainly makes the whole keyboard pops.
Below the keyboard, there’s also ample of space for your palm to rest comfortably on as well. Therefore, there isn’t really much we can nitpick on in this aspect.
Immersive Display For Entertainment
For gaming and productivity, the ASUS TUF Dash F15 relies on a 15.6” IPS LCD display that comes along with sharp Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) screen resolution that offers crisp details on the screen when browsing images or streaming videos.
Furthermore, it’s 100% sRGB color gamut coverage also ensures accurate color reproduction, allowing you to see exactly what the developer (of the game) intended you to see. This not only leads you to a more immersive gameplay, but also makes an image or a video footage appear more realistic onscreen.
Likewise, it’s decently-fast 144Hz adaptive refresh rate also ensures the screen is able to keep up with fast-paced game titles, delivering a much smoother and enjoyable gameplay for it’s users.
Similar to most other gaming laptops, the screen features a matte anti-glare coating that promises a wide viewing angle. In most occasions, the display does have sufficient brightness to ensure the screen remain visible in outdoor environment.
Amazing Performance
Sitting at the heart of the laptop is a 10nm Intel i7-11370H quad-core processor (based on Tiger Lake H35) that’s capable of hitting a maximum turbo frequency of up to 4.80 GHz. On the graphical side of things, it will be assisted by a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics with 4GB GDDR6 VRAM.
This hefty setup pans out well in real life, delivering a smooth and consistence performance for fast-paced games like PUBG and Valorant under moderate game settings. Quite expectedly, it also excels in various graphic intensive tasks like video editing as well.
Though we can’t possibly compares it with other gaming laptops that are priced above the S$3,000 mark, but it’s overall performance is certainly impressive considering it’s price point.
Let’s not forget that the ASUS TUF Dash F15 is also equipped with 16GB DDR4 RAM and 1TB SSD storage in the memory department which I believe is more than sufficient for most mainstream gamers or users.
Respectable Battery Life & Charging Speed
To power the ASUS TUF Dash F15 through the day, there’s a respectable 76WHrs battery under the hood which can easily support around 7 hours to 9 hours usage (with 50% screen brightness). This is pretty decent bearing in mind how slim the laptop is.
For charging, the it’s bundled 200W power adapter that’s capable of filling up a completely flat battery to it’s brim in less than two hours. Otherwise, you can also relies on it’s 100W USB-PD charging via it’s Thunderbolt 4 port. Do note however, that the USB-PD power adapter isn’t included in the box – so you’ll need to purchase it separately.
Verdict
The ASUS TUF Dash F15 is a laptop with plenty to love about, from it’s super sleek exterior design to it’s highly-capable internals which not only allow it to function as a deadly gaming machine, but also serves as a reliable workhorse for productivity.
For those who’re interested, the ASUS TUF Dash F15 FX516PE is available for purchase at S$2,198 via ASUS Official Store.
