The Asus TUF Gaming F15 is a master at delivering elegant styling and powerful gaming performance at the right price, all in a chassis that won’t weigh you down when you need to go somewhere. Additionally, it has some of the longest battery life in a gaming laptop today.
Gaming laptops like the Asus TUF Gaming F15, the ones with mid-range oomph inside thin and light bodies, are kind of the best deal you can snag when your budget just wont stretch to the really high-end kind of stuff, like a Razer Blade 15 or a ROG Strix Scar 15. Still, with a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, the TUF Gaming F15 pretty much handles the newest AAA games fine, you know, at 1080p no drama.
But, having strong parts under the hood doesnt automatically mean the rest is all perfect, like the webcam, the touchpad , and the audio should be flawless all the time. In practice, however, the Asus TUF Gaming F15 stays a solid choice for smooth unlimited 1080p gameplay compared with a bunch of other mid-range options.
And outside of gaming , it also does well as a work focused tool, so yes, this laptop can easily keep up with some of the better gaming laptops out there.
Specifications
CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060
RAM: 16GB DDR5
Display: 15-inch IPS 1080p, 300Hz
Memory: 1TB SSD
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.2
Operating system: Windows 11 Home
Weight: 4.41lbs (2.0kg)
Dimensions: 13.94 x 9.88 x 0.98 inches
A New Design, Suave On TUF
The Asus TUF Gaming F15 features a dark gray design, a purposeful approach to creating a laptop that easily blends in with any professional or casual environment, and it succeeds. Unlike competing gaming laptops, this special edition of the Gaming F15 comes with a reduced design that develops on the lid, including a streamlined design with a TUF shield in the center.
Measuring 13.94 x 9.88 x 0.98 inches, and weighing 4.85 pounds, this machine kind of sits in the same box as the MSI Pulse GL66, which comes in at 14.13 x 1-0.20 x 0 .94 inches and 4.63 pounds, and then the Asus ROG Strix Scar 15, that one measures 13.94 x 10.2 x 1.07 (pounds ? no wait, it’s dimensions) and weighs 5.07 pounds.
When you pop the lid, there’s this little notch on the top bezel that cradles a 720p webcam, something that was missing from its predecessor, since last year. The left side holds the power adapter, Ethernet port, HDMI 2.0 port, USB 3.2 Type-A port, 3.5mm jack, one USB 3.2 Type-C, and one Thunderbolt 4 port. Right side though, there’s only a single USB 3.2 Type-A port, nothing else really.
Nvidia RTX 3060 , With New Intel Silicones
Our review unit of the Asus TUF Gaming F15 model ( FX507ZM-ES74 ) uses an Intel Core i7-12700H chip, kinda teamed up with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060. The graphics card, 6GB GDDR6 included, plus up to 140W of max graphics power, acts like the main driving force behind the Gaming F15’s solid 1080p play. You’ll also run into some direct rivals, like the Acer AN517-54-79L1 (RTX 3050 Ti , 4GB) and the Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-54-760S (RTX 3060, 6GB).
In Hitman 3, on ultra high settings at 1080p , everything felt pretty smooth and it held a stable pace near 56 fps , which is pretty close to what other laptops can manage when they’re also built around an RTX 3060 tier graphics card.
For the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark at 1080p, top settings, the Asus TUF Gaming F15 pulled in an average of 76 fps. Around that time the MSI Pulse GL66 with an RTX 3060 landed at roughly 68 fps , and meanwhile the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 15, with the RTX 3070 Ti, bumped it up to about 93 fps. The Acer Predator Helios 300 (also RTX 3060) came in at around 73 fps, for second place i guess, in that small group.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, which is a faster variant of the RTX 3050 Ti mobile card and is based on the GA106 Ampere chip. This GPU has 3840 CUDA, with an increased number of Ray Tracing and Tensor cores. Therefore, if you are looking for a cost-effective way to enter the world of Ray-Tracing and DLSS, you cannot easily get a better deal than this Gaming F15.
Since the RTX 3060 here is built on Nvidia’s Ampere architecture, it’s easy to carry around with a second-generation implementation of ray tracing technology. Performance really gets a big boost, especially in games that can do it. Like for the Metro Exodus, on Ultra settings it averaged about 59 fps with no ray tracing. Once that was enabled though thanks to Nvidia’s DLSS tech, it showed around 68 fps, which is kinda noticeable.
That’s the ideal 60 fps you might expect, but at Ultra settings, it’s more than just playable. Considering you’re getting that performance in a computer that can easily fit in your backpack, we consider it a win.
As a highlight, the FX507ZM-ES74 is one of the first to come with an Intel i7-12700H Alder Lake CPU. Announced in January, the series of chips are specifically designed for ultraportable laptops, as they can operate at TDPs from 35W to 45W. The Asus TUF Gaming F15 model in this review combines a 12th Gen CPU with a 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD and 16GB DDR5 4800MHz RAM.
That, right there, is enough to keep up to 17 Google Chrome tabs running, with a tab for streaming TV shows, Spotify, and the Epic Games launcher. The final tabs will excite fans for a few seconds, but they’re not too loud to drown out the sound.
ASUS TUF Gaming F15 Gaming Laptop, 15.6″ 144Hz FHD IPS-Type Display, Intel Core i5-10300H Processor, GeForce GTX 1650, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB PCIe SSD, Wi-Fi 6, Windows 11 Home, FX506LH-AS51: Buy it now
ASUS TUF Gaming F15 Gaming Laptop, 15.6” 144Hz FHD IPS-Type Display, Intel Core i7-11800H Processor, GeForce RTX 3060, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD, Wi-Fi 6, Windows 10 Home, TUF506HM-ES76: Buy it now
ASUS TUF Gaming F15 Gaming Laptop, FX506LH-AS51 & Chromebook Flip C433 2 in 1 Laptop, 14″ Touchscreen FHD NanoEdge Display, Intel Core m3-8100Y Processor, Silver: Buy it now
ASUS TUF Gaming F15 (2022) Gaming Laptop, 15.6” 300Hz FHD Display, Intel Core i7-12700H, GeForce RTX 3060, 16GB DDR5, 1TB PCIe SSD, Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6, Windows 11 Home, Mecha Gray, FX507ZM-ES74: Buy it now
ASUS TUF Gaming F15 Gaming Laptop, 15.6″ 144Hz FHD Display, Intel Core i7-11800H, GeForce RTX 3050, 16GB DDR4, 512GB PCIe SSD, RGB Keyboard, Windows 10: Buy it now
Topping Out At 300Hz
The display is a 15-inch FHD 1920 x 1080 display, with a 300hz refresh rate, making it a big deal for e-sports, especially in conjunction with the RTX 3060. At 324 nits and averaging 110% of the sRGB spectrum, the display is also bright and colorful enough for single-player tracks.
The bezels around the screen aren’t the thinnest we’ve seen and certainly aren’t thick enough to distract from your gaming experience. We’re glad Asus has finally reintroduced the webcam that was missing from its previous models.
Asus offers a good keyboard, overall; and the Gaming F15 keyboard is no exception. It’s comfortable to type on, with plenty of key travel, considering the laptop’s slim build. The separate keys are reasonably spaced, although we would have liked the lighting to be slightly different.
It doesn’t have RGB lighting, again, another compromise on price. Instead, you just get a blue backlight, and it’s not the most attractive color in the world, and it looks worse around the WASD keys.
As for the trackpad, it’s fine. It’s big enough to use gestures, and the click mechanism is solid enough, but for a gaming laptop, you really should be using a gaming mouse.
Battery life
Gaming laptops have the problem of having short battery life, although we’ve seen noticeable improvements lately. Most notably in early 2020, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 comes out with AMD Ryzen 4000 and RTX 2060 processors, through which we see an incredible 8 hours of battery life.
The Asus FX507ZM-ES74 is even better, with nearly 10 hours of battery life, an even more powerful GPU, and a faster 300GHz display. This means that this gaming laptop is completely free of any problems to get you through a full workday.
Identify
Asus again pulls off a portable, good-looking, kind of super-powerful mid-range gaming laptop that won’t smack your budget too hard. The Asus TUF Gaming F15 sort of nails that balance between performance, everyday practicality, and value. Also, this time its Alder Lake Core i7 processor brings more performance cores than the earlier version ,so you get a bigger push for modern AAA games, especially once it’s paired with a mobile GPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060. The Asus TUF Gaming F15 is also very inherently practical, with a comfortable keyboard and solid battery life.
That said, its gaming performance is just the status quo with last-generation gaming laptops as its GPU is downplayed to low power, from what we saw in the early days, Not all RTX 3060 laptops are created equal. At least this runs relatively cool and quiet.
The FX507ZM-ES74 will play the latest titles at high settings, but Asus has yet to fully solve the performance conundrum of a slim gaming laptop with the Gaming F15. It performs similarly to the Acer Predator Helios 300 with an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia’s RTX 3060 graphics card. So the Gaming F15 offers good gaming performance in the price range; it’s just not much of an upgrade over previous generation machines.
But if you’re looking for a lightweight laptop with a premium display and components that can handle high-end gaming with decent frame rates at a price, the Asus TUF Gaming F15 is for you.
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Tech Reviewer & Product Analyst
Định Bia has spent over 10 years testing consumer electronics with a focus on smart technology. He work as a product advisor at Biareview where he helped customers find the right devices for their needs. He personally tests every product featured on this site using a consistent evaluation framework covering quality, durability, and value. All reviews are based on experience, not influenced by the manufacturer.