If you are considering ASUS TUF Gaming A14 this time This year, you might start your back-to-school shopping early. Or maybe you need something as compact as a MacBook Used for work but wanted to play some games. The trick is to find something Easy to carry, with enough power to tackle “hard tasks” like coding or 3D modeling, while still being able to sneak in a few rounds Valuation When no one is looking.
The ASUS TUF Gaming A14 has a slim profile and simple design, but it’s a powerful device. new AMD Ryzen 9 AI HX 370 chip Easily beating out Intel’s Meteor Lake series from earlier this year. It suffers from a lack of upgradeability and limited spec options, but it makes up for it with smooth operation. It feels more like an ultrabook than a gaming laptop. It weighs just over 3 pounds, and while the keyboard backlight is bright, it’s not noticeable. It runs quietly even under stress and can still play graphics-intensive games at a fair frame rate.
ASUS TUF Gaming A14
At $1,500, this is a sophisticated yet powerful gaming laptop that won’t break the bank. Its only drawbacks are short battery life and limited memory.
advantage
- Low-key design still gives people a solid feeling
- Strong performance in benchmarks and games
shortcoming
- Battery life is limited to 4 hours when not gaming
- The screen could be brighter
- RAM is not upgradeable, feels low, maxes out at 16 GB
This laptop starts at $1,400 and has an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU with a less powerful neural processor, but you’ll pay $100 more for that AI-centric chip. This goes beyond its “budget” nature, especially without the usual gaming gear. ASUS own 14-inch ROG Zephiras G14 Pricing starts at $1,600 with an OLED display, or you can spend closer to $2,000 for 32 GB of RAM and an RTX 4070.
Asus claims in its press materials that the A14 It’s possible to have up to 32 GB of RAM, although my review unit included the standard 16 GB. A version with more RAM is only available through ANT for a suggested retail price of $1,800 (currently on sale for $1,650). The crux is You cannot upgrade the memory of this unit. You are limited to 16 GB of base memory. This is enough for most tasks and games, but I imagine there are many situations where you’ll want more.
ASUS TUF Gaming A14 review: Design and display
Smooth, stealthy operator
As the name suggests, this is a solid little laptop. Despite the pressure on my hands and fingers, the aluminum frame doesn’t bend or buckle much. The palm rest is sturdy and doesn’t get too hot even under pressure. This is a laptop that feels like it can be used perfectly even if it suffers scratches and scratches.
It weighs 3.2 pounds and is compact, making it easy to carry around or pack into a small bag. And it still looks beautiful after treatment. My grubby hands left a lot of marks on the inside of the case, but I was surprised that the outer shell had never been so damaged.
For a relatively cheap laptop, I was surprised by the feel of the keys on the keyboard. It doesn’t fool you into thinking you’re using a mechanical keyboard, but there’s enough travel to be present when you press the keys. Also, the trackpad is great. This is not an ice rink or a gravel park. At least I had very few issues with palm rejection for my average-sized hands. This laptop-sized port is large enough for everyday use, making it suitable for work or gaming. You get two USB-A, two USB-C (only one supports power), an HDMI 2.1, and an additional microSD card slot.
The PC is quiet on performance settings, but switching to Turbo mode is loud enough to raise some eyebrows in a quiet room. It never gets too hot on the surface, but when gaming, the fan will blow most of the heat off the bottom of the computer, which might make you feel it if you want to play in bed with the laptop on your lap. uncomfortable.
This 14-inch laptop is equipped with an IPS LCD with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz. It’s definitely good enough, but at 2560 x 1600 you’re not going to get any better visual quality than you’d get from a laptop hundreds of dollars more expensive.
The display reaches a peak brightness of 236 nits when the screen is occupied at 25%. It’s not unbelievable, but I don’t expect much from a budget laptop. It’s bright enough for most tasks, and as long as you’re not in direct sunlight with the sun looking directly at the screen, it should work well enough.
The only problem with this design is its lack of upgradeability. RAM is bundled with the unit, but you can swap out the 1 TB SSD for a larger one if you’re worried about running out of memory. The computer comes with two SSD slots.
ASUS TUF Gaming A 14 review: Performance
Beyond Intel Core Ultra 7, stable frame rates for most games
According to our testing, AMD’s Strix Point CPUs and the GeForce RTX 40 series are a powerful combination. The Ryzen 9 AI HX 370 performed significantly better than the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H in all of our benchmark tests. It’s also on par with the ARM-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, which powers Microsoft’s AI-centric Copilot+ PC.
Our Geekbench 6 benchmark test using the TUF CPU showed it beating the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H among laptops Dell XPS 14 The single-core setting is over 500 points, and the multi-core setting is just under 1,000 points. The situation is similar in the Cinebench benchmark. The chip’s performance is significantly better than Intel’s mid-range laptop chips. We’re waiting for Intel Lunar Lake to arrive in just a few months, but for now, even if you ignore all the AI capabilities that NPUs bring, AMD’s small PC x64 chips still dominate.
In our Blender benchmark, we asked the PC to render a BMW scene, and the CPU completed the job in just 2 minutes and 15 seconds. That’s more than a minute faster than the Intel Core Ultra 7. That being said, this computer does a great job at day-to-day work tasks, but it’s also a powerful gaming computer.
The TUF A14 achieved playable frame rates in multiple gaming benchmarks when the PC was plugged in at its highest settings, although it couldn’t beat other laptops with higher-end chips. I achieved 36 FPS with low ray tracing turned on Cyberpunk 2077 The benchmark results for DLSS were just under 60 FPS. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla The benchmark at Ultra settings was 93 FPS.
exist Baldur’s Gate III, In Chapter 1’s indoor scenes, I achieved 70 FPS on High and Ultra settings without DLSS, and a solid 50 FPS in external environments. I’m close to 40, but quality-wise with the DLSS setting turned on, I’m close to 55.
In the last few games I’ve managed to hit 60 FPS on high settings. exist Black Myth: WukongI was able to achieve a stable frame rate on Universal High settings without having to generate frames in Turbo mode via Armory Crate, but in the quieter performance mode you do need to set DLSS to Performance and add frame generation . In a game like this Horizon: Forbidden West, I could hit the legendary 60 without any trouble, even using DLSS in Armory Crate’s performance mode.
ASUS TUF Gaming A14 review: Battery life
About the average small gaming PC
We’ve learned not to expect a long life from a gaming laptop, even the most expensive in its class. The TUF A14’s battery life isn’t anything groundbreaking, but I found it to be fair, especially considering its price. With a 73-watt-hour battery, you won’t be able to play games for more than two hours without plugging in, but you won’t be able to get some work done when unplugged.
The TUF A14 has a battery life of up to 4 hours when performing regular productivity tasks in Balanced mode on Windows and Armory Crate. It’s consistent while browsing, writing, or on a video call. To my surprise, the battery drained only 25% per hour. This doesn’t do anything too strenuous, and the battery will drain faster during any activity that requires more power.
That’s not great, but it’s not the worst for a gaming laptop, especially one that’s very good at pretending to be a major productivity machine. For gaming, you’re lucky to be able to get more time in performance mode in games like this cyberpunk. That’s what you’d expect from a machine of this size, but you might get slightly better longevity from a machine that costs just a few hundred dollars more, or opt for a larger body than the 14-incher.
ASUS TUF Gaming A14 review: Conclusion
This computer does everything I need and no one knows
There’s definitely a use case for larger gaming PCs, e.g. Alienware m16 R2 Its so-called “stealth mode” disables the RGB lighting, making everything operate even quieter. But come on, we all know this is a big gaming laptop with a giant Alienware logo on it.
The TUF Gaming A14 surprises with its understated packaging. It handles everything I can throw at it, but the only thing people will notice from the back are four little blinking LEDs. The “TUF” logo is hidden on the back panel and cannot be read by most people except in direct light.
At $1,500, it’s a strong contender. However, for just a few hundred dollars more, you can get a more powerful and better-looking gaming laptop from Asus’ ROG Tablet. There are also issues of upgradability and limited RAM on the device. If you want to use the A14 as an everyday laptop, you’ll also have to contend with limited battery life. Hopefully you work somewhere where you can use a plug because you need it. If you’ve ever — ahem — taken really intense class notes, remember to turn off the fan during class.
