As I mentioned in Choosing A New Laptop on July 30th, I tasked myself with the delicious job of choosing a new gaming laptop. This also coincided with a five-week trip to the UK, which explains why DCT hasn’t seen much of me recently. As I mentioned in the article, the prices for gaming laptops in Argentina are through the roof, which is why I decided to buy one in the UK, so after reading and watching numerous reviews, I went for an Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition – an all AMD machine.
Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition – Specifications
This laptop met all my needs and is generously equipped. I was especially pleased to see a 1TB NVMe when many laptops only have 512GB:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen™ 7435HS 8-Core Processor
- Memory: 16GB DDR5 5600Mhz RAM (max 32GB)
- Storage: 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD
- Screen: 16″ WUXGA 165Hz
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7700S 8GB
It’s also equipped with numerous USB ports, including Type C, a LAN port, and the usual Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 6.
Performance
Not surprisingly, the laptop plays all my games without breaking a sweat, however, it does need to be plugged in for extended gameplay. On battery power, I can manage two or three hours of gaming before recharging, and basic tasks like browsing will give me five or six hours. I’ve read that many reviewers were getting 11 hours of basic use before a recharge, but that hasn’t been my experience so far.
Software
Windows 11 Home is preinstalled, although I may upgrade to Pro later. I didn’t have a problem logging into my Microsoft account because I have an Office 365/OneDrive account for all my machines and the bundled software is mainly Asus Armory Crate and of course the hideous McAfee, which I nuked as soon as I saw it. Armory Crate has some useful power-saving features and I’ve noticed that a wired mouse uses a lot more juice than a wireless one, so I’m using a new Corsair Ironclaw RGB wireless mouse that I also bought in the UK.
The Radeon Adrenaline suite has foxed me because when not plugged in, the Record and Stream tab is missing and only appears when the laptop is charging, which I find very odd. Furthermore, when it does appear, none of the hotkeys for recording and screenshots work at all, so I may have to roll back the drivers.
Presumably connected with this oddity is that Turbo mode can’t be selected in Armory Crate unless the machine is plugged in, but then Turbo mode produces a lot of heat and noise, so I tend to avoid it because it’s not a desktop, which is something I have to keep reminding myself of.
Build Quality
I can’t fault the build quality and this particular model is deliberately understated because although the keyboard is backlit, it’s not RGB. There are plenty of vents for cooling, the screen is amazingly clear and sharp, and I like the weight of it which tends to indicate quality. But as with all laptops, it must be remembered that they are delicate devices, so I handle them with care and stow it in a foam zip-up case and then in a sturdy laptop shoulder bag.
I’m delighted that I bought it because there are many situations, in the kitchen for example, when you simply want to fire up a computer and play the odd game or maybe even get some work done for a change.
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I still run a Dell XPS, that my son and his wife gave to me. Had to buy a charging adapter and a new keyboard, it is now running W11 Home and Gentoo Linux.
Dell XPS were and still are great laptops, Daniel. Dell also bought Alienware, I believe.
Marc nice choice, are you treating this more as a desktop or a mixture of portability also?
What else were you looking at in laptops? Next year I’ll be replacing my wife’s Samsung Notebook 9 that’s about 6 years old now, still going strong but due for an upgrade.
My daily laptop is also an Asus. 15in. Vivobook X571GT, Intel Core i7-9750, Nvidia Geforce GTX 1650 16gb ram 256 PCIe Nvme SSD & 1tb SSD HDD Windows 11. I bought this laptop in Feb. 2020 and still going strong. So I would defiantly buy ASUS again.