ASUS TUF Gaming F16 Review – A Powerful Gaming Device With A Reasonable Price

The ASUS TUF Gaming laptop series has long been known for its cost-effectiveness, providing high specs for a relatively lower price than full-blown gaming setups. And this appears to still hold for the ASUS TUF Gaming F16, boasting high-refresh-rate displays with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 laptop GPU, while keeping the price starting from RM 5,999. Now for this review, we will be testing the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 and see how it actually performs.

Design

The ASUS TUF Gaming F16 maintains a simple and clean look, retaining its classic TUF styling while bringing the classic color of Mecha Gray. Furthermore, the Mecha Gray variant also sports an embossed TUF logo. Four small triangles frame the corner of the lid, and subtle TUF references also appear on the keyboard deck and trackpad.

With a 16:10 screen, the whole design of the laptop is quite comfortable for people who need to stay on the laptop for an extended period, such as editing and writing. While the large screen means that the keyboard is maintained in a bit more of a center position, this does not affect the overall usage experience for the laptop. The trackpad for the laptop is also normal and smooth, great for general usage when you don’t have a mouse equipped.

For its size, the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 laptop comes in at 354.9 x 251.9 x 22.1mm (W x D x H) and weighs in at 2.27kg. Now for a gaming laptop, this kind of weight is rather normal. But when coupled with its 100W Type C PD charger, the laptop would be a bit too heavy to carry around all day.

However, since the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 laptop is a gaming laptop at the end of the day, which means not many people will be bringing it all over the place, which makes it a perfect fit for those who like to lay on the sofa and play.

Display

For display, The ASUS TUF Gaming F16 boasts a 16-inch screen, with a resolution of 1920 x 1200, WUXGA, this allows the laptop to support up to 165 Hz refresh rate on a 16:10 ratio screen.

I personally had a great experience with the 165Hz display with G-SYNC, as the display provides incredible gaming visuals regardless of whether it is a slower adventure game or a faster-paced shooter, especially for an Apex Legends player like myself.

The slim bezels with a 90% screen-to-body ratio also satisfied me, as it allowed me to just focus on the game without getting distracted by the body of the laptop itself. Overall, the display for the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 is excellent for almost every gaming experience, but especially for FPS gaming, as you often need to look at the borders during gameplay.

Furthermore, the laptop also provides a bright and charming color screen, featuring 100% sRGB and brightness of up to 250 nits. While it feels a bit dark compared to some high-end laptops, it is still suitable for watching YouTube Lives and social media videos.

And of course, the laptop also comes with a webcam that supports 720p on the top bezel. If you need a camera to present yourself during online meetings or study groups, the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 has you covered.

To sum it up, the display is excellent and offers a great experience both for gaming and general usage, while the brightness can only go up to 250nits, the limit on brightness can also be argued as an advantage as it allows us to use the computer comfortably for an extended period, which in turn, allows us to enjoy the display as much as possible.

Audio Quality

Now with the visuals of the laptop covered, let’s move on to the audio side.

The ASUS TUF Gaming F16 features a Hi-Res certified dual speaker setup that comes with DOLBY ATMOS™ support, which allows any audio from the computer to clearly go through, especially when I am listening to music or watching live streams. Thanks to the DOLBY ATMOS™ support, the audio system is surprisingly clear with a strong bass, further enhancing my audio experience with the laptop.

Keyboard and Trackpad

The ASUS TUF Gaming F16 has a standard keyboard design for gaming laptops, with the keys spanning across most of the laptop, and also the side numpad for calculations or maybe key mapping for certain games.

For the keyboard deck, the laptop features a large 128.9 x 76mm glass trackpad, and a 1.7mm travel distance keyboard with 4 independent hot keys accompanied by an indicator LED light on the upper center of the deck. The keyboard has a 1-Zone RGN lighting, which is keyboard RGB that utilizes Mini LEDs for a brighter, more uniform, and more power-efficient result.

My personal favorite for the keyboard is the 4 hotkeys on the top left, which includes volume up and down, mic off, and the ASUS Armoury Crate. The placement of the hotkeys, coupled with how often I use these features, adds a layer of flexibility for me both when I’m working or gaming, as I always know where I can find the feature, instead of scrambling to find it among the other keys.

The 1.7mm key travel distance also allows for a more comfortable and responsive typing experience. Even when playing games that require quick reflexes such as Apex Legends, the travel distance prevents me from misclicking on the wrong keys. So it’s a nice bonus for those who like FPS games.

As for the trackpad, the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 now features a big TUF word on the trackpad, in contrast to previous models which only have a small logo on the top right. The size of the trackpad is 128.9 x 76 mm, with a smooth touch to response experience, making it great for general usage.

Battery

Boasting a large 90 Whr battery, the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 can be charged by either the included adapter, the conventional DC plug, or the 100W PD charge-enabled Type-C port. As for battery life, we tested it by simultaneously watching a YouTube Livestream while also downloading games from GOG, in which the laptop was able to last for up to 3 hours without charging, which is a respectable amount of time for everyday purposes. If the battery ever does run out, the chargers do come with fast charging, which allows us to get the laptop back to full charge in just over an hour.

I/O Port

As a gaming laptop, the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 of course features all the essential I/O features you need to turn your setup into a true battlestation. For the right side of the laptop, we have a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A and a Kensington® lock, Now for the other side of the laptop, which is where most of the I/O port lies, we have:

• Thunderbolt4 (40Gbps) with DP 1.4 (iGPU) x 1
• USB3.2 Gen2 Type-C with x 1
• G-Sync®,USB3.2 Gen1 Type-A x 1
• RJ45 x 1, HDMI 2.1 FRL x 1
• Audio Combo Jack x 1
• 1G Lan Jack x 1

Much like the previous model, the port layout remains practically the same, with the same amount and the same types of I/O ports available.

Specifications

Now here comes the main factor that sets the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 apart from its predecessors, its specifications.

The ASUS TUF Gaming F16 comes equipped with Windows 11 with the Intel® Core™ i7-13650HX processor and up to an NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4060 Laptop GPU with support for NVIDIA® Advanced Optimus. The 2024 TUF Gaming F16 also sports high-speed DDR5-4800MHz RAM and dual PCIe Gen 4×4 M.2 SSD slots, with all slots easily accessible for future upgrades and expansion.

Starting from the processor, the Intel® Core™ i7-13650HX processor is based on Intel® 7 process (10nm) and features Intel® new hybrid architecture with Performance and Efficiency Cores.  As the HX processors have a bigger cache, it allows the processor to draw more power and clock higher than its H series counterparts.

Now comes the NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4060, which does not need further explanations, being powerful enough for us to experience smooth gameplay even when using the laptop to play games with 1920 x 1200 and 165 Hz settings, the AI-powered DLSS 3 enables lifelike virtual worlds with support from full ray tracing. Furthermore, the NVIDIA Max-Q, which is an advanced suite of AI-powered technologies that optimizes your system for peak efficiency, enables blazing-fast laptops that are thin, quiet, and have amazing battery life.

For memory, the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 supports up to 64GB of DDR5 5600MHz memory in dual channel configuration, and up to 2x16GB DDR5 5600 is included out of the box. 2 slots of M.2 NVMe PCle 4.0 are available for any future upgrades, but the laptop itself comes with a 1TB PCle 4.0 NVME M.2 SSD.

With such powerful specs, the laptop must be equipped with a good cooling system to ensure that it won’t overheat. For that, the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 is equipped with 84-blade Arc Flow Fans at the same time has a variable thickness design, down to 0.1mm at the tip. The approach they took for the cooling system reduces resonance and turbulence, allowing up to 13% more airflow compared to 83-blade designs.

Performance

With high specs for both its processor and graphic cards, the performance of the laptop must be put to the test as well. As such we ran some games on the laptop, as well as running 2 benchmark tests which are Cyberpunk 2077 and Returnal. Based on the specs of this laptop, we played all the games in high quality which includes DLSS, while also comparing it to medium quality with no DLSS.

Helldivers 2

For the first test, I ran Helldivers 2 in Ultra settings with 1920 x 1200. Even with those settings, the game still runs the game smoothly, averaging 65-70 Frames Per Seconds (FPS), even when having a bunch of enemies the game still keeps a stable FPS. Sometimes when heavy explosives rain down, the FPS may drop slightly, but overall the FPS will maintain around 60-65.

With such a result, I would say the performance is stable and good enough for a player to play Helldivers 2 on the ASUS TUF Gaming 16. Even though the temperature of the laptop can rise pretty high during gameplay, the great cooling system makes the heat barely noticeable.

Apex Legends

For the second test, I tried the popular FPS game, Apex Legends, which to no one’s surprise, ran smoothly on the ASUS TUF Gaming F16. Even with the game running at Ultra settings, the average FPS was still maintained at around 150 – 160 FPS.

Some fancy ultimate effects like fuse and horizon will lower the FPS to 120, but it won’t affect the game experience much. This solidifies the notion that the laptop is excellent for first-person shooter fans.

The Last of Us Part 1

For the third game, I chose The Last of Us Part 1, running the game in ultra settings plus DLSS with 1920 x 1200. As you can see, the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 provides beautiful visuals for the game, with even the bloom effects being stunning. The average FPS is around 90-95 FPS, and when tested on medium settings with the same 1920 x 1200, the FPS can reach up to 100-105 FPS. Overall the gameplay experience is smooth, and the temperature did not rise too high during gameplay.

Finally, I tested the laptop with Cyberpunk 2077, which is known to be an open-world game that demands strong specifications from the device. At first, I tested the in ultra settings plus DLSS with 1920 x 1200, which allowed the game to run at around 70-75 FPS in some low light areas and not very detailed scenes. But places such as cities that are highly detailed will tank the FPS down to 50-55 FPS, which was a significant drop for the NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4060. Afterward, I tried the game on medium settings with the 1920 x 1200, and the game fps then ran at around 120-125 FPS, with it even sometimes reaching up to 131 FPS, which is a great result coming from a laptop.

Here are the scores of the benchmark tests I performed on it:

• PCMARK 10: 8107
  
• 3D MARK: 11355
• Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra Settings)
  • Min FPS: 59.65
  • Max FPS: 143.28
    
  • Average FPS: 112.33
• Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra with Ray Tracing)
  • Min FPS: 32.58
    
  • Max FPS: 66.82
    
  • Average FPS: 56.80
• Returnal (Epic Settings)
  • Min FPS: 55
    
  • Max FPS: 165
    
  • Average FPS: 126
    

Conclusion

As a conclusion, The ASUS TUF Gaming F16 is a very good laptop for gamers. For a laptop boasting NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 with a starting price of RM 5,999, the laptop is very cost-efficient for what it offers. While I won’t say that it is low budget, the price-to-performance ratio certainly makes the laptop worth considering.

I will also personally recommend this laptop for first-person shooter gamers or those who need a laptop for a casual gaming experience. For those looking for top-of-the-line specs with 2K or higher hertz when playing games will need to check out other, higher-spec laptops.

Combining the great features of the laptop such as the large 16-inch screen, strong processor, and GeForce RTX 40 Series graphic card (which is the latest you can get), coupled with the great cooling system allows players to run most games available on the market.

The 2024 TUF Gaming includes a free 90-day subscription to PC Game Pass, which offers unlimited access to over 100 high-quality PC games.

The ASUS TUF Gaming F16 is available starting from 5,999, and only comes in one colour, Mecha Gray. 

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