This laptop is for someone who wants a laptop to take around and do productive work on and also play modern games at high settings. There are others with faster GPUS, but hardly any that can claim 6-9 hours of battery life like this one. There are tons of battery saving features, like a dedicated key to change what power profile to use. The 144hz screen auto sets to 60hz on battery so save battery life. Gaming on a AAA game at high settings, 30 fps, I get around 2-3 hours of battery life. Less demanding games can go more. Other contemporary laptops i've used can really only game for an hour or so while on battery. You can also set the battery life to be capped at 80% or 60% to extend it's usable life. I usually keep it on 80% and still have long battery life. And it comes in at a hell of a competitive price.
#CPU
The cpu is a bit lacking when compared to other 6-8+ core laptops, but it's a good tradeoff for the lower TDP (and less power consumption). It is more than capable for most peoples work though. It cannot be undervolted like any new intel chip, which I did not know until researching it.
#GPU
The 3050ti has been able to run any game I throw at it on high settings, and older games can be ran easily on my 4k monitor and the native 4k resolution.
It can get fairly loud when gaming at high performance for awhile, I game with headphones so I don't notice it when i take them off. But this will be an issue for really any gaming laptop, especially one this thin.
#Ports
Thunderbolt 4 can be connected to external docks and external GPUS. Allows 100w usb c charging so you can run laptop off one cable, but keep in mind this is less than the 180wpower brick, and if you are gaming at high performance, it will slowly drain the battery unless you also have the power cable connected. I also got a 50$ external 20000 mah battery with 65w usb charging which can bring the laptop from 10-80%. Nice!
It is annoying how the ports are all at least half way down the machine, as the top half is for the fan outputs.
I am able to drive two 4k at 60hz monitors, an external HDD, mouse and keyboard, and charge the device all from a single cable. For those whose primarily use a laptop at a desk setup like me, and occasionally like to take it off to go work on the couch or bed or something, this makes it super easy just having the one cable.
#Upgradeability
There are 8gbs of ram soldered onto the board, and an additional slot, which I throw a 16gb stick in for 24gb. There is an additional m.2 slot which I put another 512gb ssd in. Speaking of which, the SSD is crazy fast. While looking up benchmarks for other laptops, this one easily beat them all. I don't remember exact numbers but it's there.
#Display
1080p, 144hz. Good color reproduction, and clear sharp images. Does not look washed out or anything. Not the brightest for working in sunlight though, but it's usable.
The screen cannot tilt back 180 degrees, more like 140 ish? I use a laptop stand so I cant have it as vertically tilted as I like, but for 99% of people this is a non issue. The hinges feel solid and don't seem like they will crap out or break off like other.
#Keyboard & Trackpad
The backlit keyboard (one color, changeable brightness with keyboard keys or using software, also has different modes like breathing) is solid. Key travel is not shallow and has a good click. I do not notice a difference in quality with my Mx master key keyboard.
The trackpad is average. Not glass, but precise and not an annoying texture. Not much to say on it. It gets the job done.
#Design and build
It is marketed as a 'tough' laptop and while it doesn't feel much different from a normal laptop (and isn't metal, it's some sort of hard plastic polymer), I have had 0 damage in the year i've owned it.
The Tuf Dash f15 is solid, yet lightweight and not annoying to lug around. It is thin and not too heavy, and has similar dimensions and weight of most high powered ultrabooks. It has an attractive design that reminds me of a razer or macbook, I wish it didn't have the 'TUF' on the lid though it is very subtle coloring thankfully
#Bugs Glitches & Software
This is the first laptop i've had where I have not encountered really any bugs or glitches. I have had BSOD but I am almost postive these are from the Dell TB16 thunderbolt dock i'm using. Even these have only happened 2 times in 3 months.
The laptop is ran off of Asus Armory Crate service, which has features such as profile switching, game optimziation, system tweaking and more. It can be accessed via a dedicated key. It is not super lightweight of a program, but not overly consuming either. You can close the program in task manager and the laptop will not have any issues, just some features are closed off.
| Standing screen display size | 15.6 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 Pixels |
| Processor | 4.8 GHz core_i7 |
| RAM | 8 GB DDR4 |
| Memory Speed | 3200 MHz |
| Hard Drive | 512 GB SSD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti |
| Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
| Card Description | RTX 3050 Ti |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 4 GB |
| Wireless Type | Bluetooth, 802.11ax |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 4 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 16.6 Hours |
