It has been a fantastic year for the gaming industry. There has been plenty of action on the acquisition front among video game developers, arrival of new gaming rigs (though released late last year) as well as a slew of great gaming laptops, one of which is the Asus TUF A15. Asus, in fact, has made tremendous progress with gaming laptops that look snazzy, work effortlessly and offer good battery life. The machine we have is powered by AMD Ryzen 7 5800H (with Radeon graphics) and that makes a big difference on the performance front.

Trip the light fantastic

Weighing 2.3kg, it is obviously not the lightest of laptops but given the 15.6-inch FHD 144Hz screen, it doesn’t look unwieldy. Though this is not a machine to edit videos on but you can give it a shot because there is enough processing power as well as a good display panel to work with, though Photoshop for professional photography is not something we would recommend.

The machine shines when it comes to the keyboard. There is a separate power button, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally pressing it. The keys have good travel and there is a satisfying click while typing documents. It’s a backlit keyboard with three levels of brightness and all the keys get illuminated. I enjoyed the uniform RGB backlighting that have options like Colour Cycle, Strobing, Static and Breathing; all of them look fantastic in the dark. Another good addition are the transparent AWSD keys. The touchpad is the perfect size and there are physical left and right click buttons, which I personally like. Asus even took care of a few minor details, one being status LEDs on the back, which are visible even when the lid is shut.

The keyboard has three levels of lighting

Gaming powerhouse

AMD Ryzen 7 5800H turns in great performance in its class for majority of workloads — productivity or gaming — while benchmark figures have been kind to the processor. Be it Asphalt 9: Legends, Tomb Raider or Forza Horizon 4 (our review unit had come in before the release of Forza Horizon 5), everything gets handled smoothly.

There are some air vents above the keyboard, the back and also on the right side (most of the ports are on the left). Most of the time, the fans remained sober and even if you change the setting in the Armoury Crate (between silent, balanced and turbo), you won’t hear much of the fan.

In way of speaker, it’s above average and even when you listen to music with the volume cranked up, there is zero distortion and you get a good soundstage.

Battery life is decent, giving you around 6-6.5 hours if you only watch films but a mix of browsing, typing and watching films will, of course, make the battery last longer. As far as gaming, it depends on how far you are pushing the machine.

The only disappointment is that the USB-C port cannot be used for charging, which means you have to carry the charger with you, adding to the weight.

Should you buy it?

There is some room for upgrading if required, like sizing up your RAM and SSD are easy. Simply unscrew the back of the laptop to access memory slots and storage bays, while a special pop-open nut lifts one side of the panel. Asus has got most of the things right with this machine, which is sturdy and is perfect for gaming and multitasking. And the deal-breaker is AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, which should hold you in good stead for a long time. Asus TUF A15 spews power and is a great companion for any gamer.

At a glance

All the ports you need are on the laptop

Device: Asus TUF A15

Price: Rs 109,990

High notes

l AMD Ryzen 7 5800H is a very capable processor

l Good cooling system

l Ease of typing

Muffled notes

l No USB-C charging