Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop Review: Truly NextGen Gaming Laptop

Asus TUF DASH F15 Specifications

• CPU: Intel Core i7-11370H
• Display: 15.5-inch IPS FHD 1920x1080, 240Hz 
• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3070 Mobile
• Memory: 16GB DDR4 3200MHz
• Storage: 1TB PCIe SSD
• Battery: 76 WHr
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit

 

Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop Design: Part Metal, Part Plastic

The company has wisely chosen materials for the Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop, as the top lid of the laptop is made using metal, while the rest of the part is made using plastic, a high-quality hard plastic, unlike the 2020's TUF A15.

Last year, when I reviewed the TUF A15, I complained about the sub-par build quality, where parts of the laptop felt flimsy, but that is not at all the case with the Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop. This machine feels sturdy and definitely a good machine for those, who want a gaming laptop without a good amount of performance.

Even when it comes to I/O, the laptop has plenty of ports, including three full-sized USB Type-A ports, a USB Type-C port with PD charging support, a full-sized HDMI port, an RJ54 port, and a 3,5mm headphone jack. This is one of the few high-end gaming laptops, capable of supporting up to 100W of USB PD charging, which is a good option, for those who travel and don't wish a carry a bulky charger with them.

As this is a 15-inch laptop, it offers an ample amount of space for your palms while tying and it also has three LEF buttons, indicating the condition of the battery. There is no microSD card slot on the TUF DASH F15, and there is no biometric authentication support, which are some of the drawbacks of this device.

Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop Display: Bright And Vivid IPS Panel

The Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop has a 15.6-inch IPS LCD grade screen with 1920 x 1080p resolution. The screen has thin bezels on three sides, and there is no web camera at the top, which is a bummer. This is a high refresh-rate panel, which offers a 240Hz refresh rate with 3ms response time, and it also covers 100 percent sRGB color space, making it a color-accurate panel.

This 8bit panel gets fairly bright and is definitely a color-accurate panel, which is good to see on a laptop in this segment. Besides gaming, I also enjoyed this display while watching IPL and some of the newly released movies and web series on platforms like Prime Video and Netflix.

Speaking of the gaming aspects, there are a few games like the rocket league that can offer 240fps gameplay on the Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop. Most games that we played on the Asus TUF DASH F15 offered over 90fps even with the highest graphics settings, which is definitely good for a laptop that costs less than Rs. 1,50,000.

Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop Keyboard And Trackpad

The Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop has an excellent keyboard with a good amount of space between each key. This keyboard does not have a dedicated num pad, which was not an issue for me. However, if you are also considering this laptop for your work, which involves punching a lot of numbers, then, it is best to invest in an external keyboard.

This is a backlit keyboard (single color and no fancy RGB here), and the WASD keys have a transparent look, which further improves the overall look and feel of this laptop. This design choice also proves that the Asus TUF DASH F15 is a gaming laptop, engineered by keeping the gamers in mind.

The laptop even has a large trackpad that can track the movement accurately. However, while testing this laptop, I always used an external wired mouse, as it is almost impossible to play games like GTA: V or even the latest Cyberpunk 2077 without having a proper mouse. No matter if it's work or play, the keyboard and the trackpad combo on the Asus TUF DASH F15 are great, which also makes this laptop great for normal day-to-day usage.

Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop CPU Performance

The Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop is one of the first laptops to launch in the country with the 11th Gen H series processor. This model is powered by the Intel Core i7-11370H, which is a quad-core eight-thread processor with a 12MB cache and a max turbo boost frequency of 4.8GHz.

This processor is based on 10nm SuperFin fabrication from Intel, which makes it a power-efficient processor when compared to the 10th gen H series processor build on top of 14nm fabrication. The processor comes with up to 35W TDP, which can be configured down to 28W if required. Overall, it offered much better power efficiency when compared to a 10th Gen H series processor.

The performance of the Intel Core i7-11370H isn't that different from a processor like the Core i7-10875H, which was the flagship processor for laptops, the Intel Core i7-11370H outperforms it in single-core performance. When it comes to multi-core performance, the Core i7-11370H isn't as fast, as it has just half the number of cores when compared to the 8-core Core i7-10875H.

On Geekbench 5, the Asus TUF DASH F15 scored 1531 points on single-core and 5171 points on multi-core performance. On CPU-Z, the device scored 551.8 points on single-core and 2874.8 on multi-core CPU performance. Lastly, the laptop scored 1306 points on 6602 points on single-core and multi-core performance on Cinebench R23.

The Asus TUF DASH F15 does offer better single-core performance, even when compared to the devices like the Lenovo Legion 7i, which is a much more expensive laptop when compared to the Asus TUF DASH F15. Overall, the device does have a great CPU, capable of handling all sorts of CPU needs. However, if your workload has heavy rendering tasks, then, it is best to go with a CPU with either six or eight cores.

Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop GPU Performance

The Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop comes with the NVIDIA RTX 3070 Mobile GPU, which is the second most powerful graphics card for a laptop. Yes, the RTX 3070 mobile is not as powerful as the desktop version of the RTX 3070. However, given this is a laptop GPU, you can expect a performance similar to the RTX 3060 desktop GPU.

Do note that, the laptop comes with a 200W power adapter, which indicates that the power requirements of the RTX 3070 have been toned down to bring down the overall TDP and also to keep the size and shape of the laptop in check. The RTX 3070 comes with 8GB GDDR6 video memory, which should be more than enough for most users.

I tested GTA: V with the default graphics settings, and the laptop easily offered over 90fps without any issue. However, on Cyberpunk 2077, the laptop offered an average fps of around 60 with max ray-traced settings at 1080p. So, the laptop can easily handle most games, offering at least 60fps without any issue.

With the continued gameplay, the device did get hot (nothing alarming) and the device became cool to touch in just a couple of minutes. Overall, the Asus TUF DASH F15 is a highly capable gaming machine of 2021.

Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop Battery Life

The Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop comes with a 76Whr battery life, which is an average-sized battery. The laptop comes with a 200W power adapter, and it also supports up to 100W USB-PD charging, offering two options to charge this machine.

With regular usage, the laptop did offer a great battery life of around five to six hours without any issue. However, with gaming, the device usually lasted for around an hour. It also charges slowly via the USB Type-C port, while the 200W can quickly refill the battery.

If you are gaming, make sure that the laptop is connected to the 200W charger to get the best possible graphics and gaming experience. Given this is a gaming laptop, I was thoroughly satisfied with the overall battery life.

Verdict

The Asus TUF DASH F15 Gaming Laptop is a good machine, that costs Rs. 1,40,990. Though this is one of the most expensive TUF-branded laptops, Asus has not made many compromises, thus it offers a great gaming experience, thanks to the 11th Gen Intel CPU and RTX 3070 GPU.

If you are looking for a laptop and want something that offered the latest CPU and GPU, a great build quality, a good keyboard, and average battery life, then, the Asus TUF DASH F15 is a great machine for sure. Yes, it does have a few drawbacks like the missing web camera, missing SD card slot, and no biometric sensor, but the device does a great job of managing all the other things.

If you have a budget of around Rs. 1,30,000 to Rs. 1,50,000, the Asus TUF DASH F15 is the laptop consider in India, and it does not get any better than this. The product is available via both online and offline retail stores across the country.