The Asus TUF Gaming A15 is a favorite among bargain buyers, as it packs the latest components at a much lower price than you’ll see in the rest of the market. However, in doing that, it compromises build quality and skips any fancy extra features. No, you’re not getting the latest components from Intel, AMD, or Nvidia, but if all you need is a budget rig that will get you through the latest games at high framerates, you’re on to a good start here.
With a price well below a grand, this rig can easily convince you to steer clear of rigs in the $3K price tags, and for a good reason. Our review unit is the 2024 Asus TUF FA506NC-ES51, which features a 15.6-inch 144Hz display, AMD Ryzen 5 processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD storage. These are previous-generation components, but for the price, this Gaming A15 will deliver solid 1080p gaming performance without breaking the bank.
About the Asus TUF Gaming A15 (2024)
Our review model of the TUF Gaming A15 is the 2024 model; there are other variations of the same model with different processors, graphic cards, and memory options.
Here are the key specs on the FA506NC-ES51:
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS
- Memory: 8GB RAM
- Storage: 512GB SSD
- Display: 15.6-inch 1080p resolution at 144Hz
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
- Wireless: WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
- Weight: 5.1 pounds
- Dimensions: 14.13 x 0.9 x 10.08 inches
Of the different configurations available, the RTX 3050 in this review is the base model. The budget gaming laptops category is very competitive, with laptops like the Acer Predator Helios 300 and Acer Nitro 5 taking the honors, with newer hardware and competitive MSRP.
Design and Features
The Asus TUF Gaming A15 range always has this military-inspired design, and the 2024 version keeps that tradition: it has a molded lid that looks like it’s crafted to withstand all the shoves and pushes of daily use, and you’ll find edges with utilitarian air vents alongside numerous TUF logos. Some of us may find the military design immature, but it doesn’t look awful either.
Most of the TUF’s physical connectivity ports are on the left side. It comes with two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C ports with one handling DisplayPort, and the left panel also holds a full-size USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, an HDMI output, and the audio and Ethernet jacks. That’s decent connectivity, but faster USB ports would be better. On the inside, there’s dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, alongside a basic 720p webcam. There isn’t a fingerprint or card reader, however.
With a 15.6-inch body, the FA506NC-ES51 has room for a number pad, and the keyboard has fast response and quiet buttons. They’re good enough for eSports gaming and are firmer than the Acer Nitro 5’s soft keys. That’s not to say the TUF Gaming A15’s keyboard is perfect. The buttons are wobbly and the underlying plastic is soft – for the price, we expected a sturdier feel.
The key layout also needs some work: while you get a number pad and extra audio buttons, you’ll have to do with small cursor keys and a single-height Return button. Also, while it does offer RGB LEDs, it’s got single-zone lighting without much customization.
Below the keyboard is a touchpad that’s large enough, but its buttons are soft and uneven. A USB gaming mouse would be better if you’re gaming casually on this machine.
Display
The 15.6-inch IPS display pairs its 1920 x 1080 resolution with a decent 144Hz rate – both of those figures are an upgrade over last year’s model.
The display’s peak brightness of 300 nits is good enough to provide good levels of depth and punch, while the contrast ratio offers well-saturated and accurate colors. With 72% NTSC and 3ms response time add to the laptop’s impressive features for both gaming and productivity tasks.
Those are fantastic specs for a midrange gaming machine, and they mean your games will look excellent. The TUF Gaming A15’s panel is comfortably better than the Acer Nitro 5’s screen, which suffers from poor color quality and gamut coverage.
Perhaps the only issue here is the 300 nits level of peak brightness. While that’s fine for indoor use, it’s still not high enough for outdoor use. However, for eSports fans, that’s remedied by 300Hz, which is more than what you’d need for mainstream competitions.
The speakers have a surprising number of bass and volume, but the top end is fairly tinny. They’re acceptable if you have no other choices, but a headset will be better.
Gaming Performance
With an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card and AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS CPU, our review configuration of the Asus TUF Gaming A15 can handle most games at high settings, and can even do ray tracing in supported titles. The rest of the specification is reasonable: you get 8GB of dual-channel DDR5 memory and a 512GB SSD with fine everyday read and write speeds of 3,145MB/s and 2,072MB/s.
The TUF Gaming A15’s RTX 3050 has a higher power envelope than the same GPU inside the Nitro 5, so it delivers better gaming performance, scoring 49, 217 in 3D Mark Night Raid tests, while the Nitro was almost 10,000 points behind. The same is reflected in real-world gaming, where the A15 maintains the lead in Far Cry New Dawn, with its 1080p Ultra average of 78fps, while the Nitro 5 came at 72 fps on the same game.
At 1080p high settings, the Asus FA506NC-ES51 averages 93 fps on Forza Horizon 5, but it drops to 41fps in Ultra settings. It even runs Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with an impressive 48fps, which is great for a gaming laptop at this price range. If you activate ray-tracing and DLSS, gaming gets even smoother and you can even play at higher Ultra settings on select AAA games.
This machine will run any single-player game at 1080p, and you’ll have to dial back the quality levels in the toughest titles if you want to hit 60fps averages. This machine comes with extra performance modes, but they’re inconsistent. Turbo mode adds a couple of frames to benchmark results while creating loads of extra noise, so it’s worth using it with a headset.
Battery Life
Asus delivers surprisingly good battery results with the latest A15. On typical use with brightness reduced to 120 nits, the Asus lasts nine hours and it even cracks eleven hours of video playback.
If you decide to push the hardware harder or increase screen brightness, then expect those figures to decline, but you can use this laptop for a full working day in moderation. For gaming, don’t expect anything over three hours, which is typical for most gaming laptops.
Asus TUF Gaming A15 (FA506NC-ES51) Review: Verdict
The Asus TUF Gaming A15 is a no-brainer for anyone looking for a gaming laptop within its price point. It achieves what it sets out to do; it’s very affordable for a gaming laptop, it’s extremely functional and it can handle games and low-level content creation like a pro. If you’re looking for a machine to run modern titles at very high framerates or one that can handle rendering and other higher-spec tasks, however, you might want to look elsewhere.
If you’re on a higher budget, you also might want to look at the version with a higher-res screen, but all in all the Asus TUF Gaming A15 (FA506NC-ES51) is a very solid, very functional, affordable gaming laptop that should be able to handle most of what you throw at it.
Recommended Configuration
ASUS TUF Gaming A15 (2024) Gaming Laptop, 15.6” FHD 144Hz Display, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3050, AMD Ryzen™ 5 7535HS, 8GB DDR5, 512GB PCIe® Gen4 NVMe™ SSD, Wi-Fi 6, Windows 11, FA506NC-ES51
$649.99 in stock
6 used from $513.49
The Review
Asus TUF Gaming A15
The Asus TUF Gaming A15 (FA506NC-ES51) is an affordable gaming laptop that’s ideal for 1080p gameplay. If you’re a budget-minded gamer, this is what you should be looking at.
PROS
- Solid gaming, productivity for the price
- Day-long battery life
- Satisfying keyboard feel
CONS
- Dull screen
- No Thunderbolt 4
Review Breakdown
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ARS RATING
