The gaming laptop space is at a very interesting inflection point right now. On the one hand, the technology used in these devices has become so powerful that it rivals desktops in performance, but at the same time, there is a gap between laptops with such advanced performance and affordable devices Significant differences. In the case of Asus, the Strix Scar series will cost you an arm and a leg but deliver huge performance, while some TUF Gaming systems are designed to deliver good performance but at a price point that won’t require you to remortgage your home. How I know this is because I’ve been testing the TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition for the past few weeks.
This laptop has a range of powerful hardware components, but it’s not top-tier, which means it won’t be able to play the latest games at their maximum visual impact and still deliver smooth frame rates. However, you can pick up one of these laptops for around £1,200, which, trust me, is real value for money when you consider this device.
The device I’ve been testing is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor, with eight cores clocked at 4001 MHz. Apart from this, it has an AMD Radeon RX 7600S GPU, along with 16 GB of DDR5 RAM clocked at 4800 MHz. Pair that with a QHD panel that’s capable of up to 240 Hz, all on top of a 90 WHr battery. So, this is a very, very powerful laptop.
I found that the TUF Gaming A16 was capable of playing most modern games at around 30 fps at Ultra settings at 2K quality. But again, this laptop isn’t primarily designed to do that, no, this is a system better suited to higher frame rate 1080p gaming. It does this extremely well. You can run the latest games at the most demanding speeds at lower resolutions and really push the monitor’s refresh rate to its limits. Since this is a pure AMD system, by looking to take advantage of FSR technology, you can get better performance out of this system without having to work harder. This is demonstrated below using frame rate data from the game played at 2K quality.
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Baldur’s Gate III
Low: 75 frames/second
Ultra: 47 frames/second
Ultra-fast FSR: 88 frames/second
Overwatch 2
Low: 90 frames/second
Ultra: 172 frames/second
Ultra-fast FSR: 155 frames/second
Remnant II
Low: 41 frames/second
Ultra: 25 frames/second
Ultra-fast FSR: 53 frames/second
Rollerdrome： Screen refresh rate capabilities go far beyond all three categories.
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Immortals of Aveum
Low: 63 frames/second
Ultra: 55 frames/second
Ultraband FSR: 68 frames/second
F1 23
Low: 146 frames/second
Ultra: 25 frames/second
I did find that some of the latest games put a lot of stress on this laptop and really took a toll on performance. Remnant II, for example, really struggled at times and made gameplay choppy, while F1 23 was nearly unplayable when the settings were maxed out. But, again, this laptop excels at lower resolution and lower graphics quality gameplay, and you can see how well it performs in this regard in the data above.
However, one area where the TUF Gaming A16 does seem to be lacking is its cooling. This isn’t a particularly quiet laptop, in fact, even the smallest amount of pressure will cause the fans to spin up and overwhelm almost any additional audio being output. Sure, the aggressive fans do keep the laptop cool, but they’re anything but subtle and make the Dolby Atmos speakers less efficient.
On a more positive note, the build quality of this laptop is very good. It’s made from high-quality metal and plastic and has an interesting yet subtle design. I’m not a big fan of gaming laptops that look like they’re from the year 2050, and while the TUF Gaming A16 does have a backlit keyboard and plenty of big vents, it’s not a system that immediately grabs attention upon entering a room. However, it is very heavy. There’s a lot of tech under the hood, which means this isn’t the kind of device you’d want to carry around with you all day.
Quickly getting back to the display, while it does have a 90% screen-to-body ratio, which means there’s not a lot of empty space, Asus made sure there’s room for a webcam built into the bezel. As far as panels go, you can’t ask for more from this price point. It’s a clear and vibrant panel that achieves QHD quality at a high refresh rate and low response time (3ms). So no, it’s not OLED or anything like that, but you can’t get something of this quality without spending a lot of extra cash.
Finally, as I mentioned before, it does come with a 90 WHr battery, which will provide plenty of usage time, although that’s assuming you’re not gaming. When put under stress, like most gaming laptops these days, you need to be connected to a power source, otherwise the battery will melt and you’ll notice a drop in performance.
But all in all, there’s not much to say against the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition. Sure, the cooling could be better and being lighter would benefit everyone, but in this day and age of the gaming laptop market, for a very affordable £1,200 you’re getting a bright display, tons of power under the hood Powerful components that deliver top-notch performance, a stylish chassis, and a huge battery to boot. If you’re looking to game at 1080p quality on the go without breaking the bank, you won’t find much better options.
