Asus TUF Gaming A14 2024 Review: A Near-Perfect Stealth Gaming Laptop

If you’re looking astatine the Asus TUF Gaming A14 this clip of year, you’re astir apt getting the aboriginal leap connected back-to-school shopping. Or possibly you request thing arsenic compact arsenic a MacBook for enactment but would similar to bash a small gaming connected it. The instrumentality is uncovering thing easy to transportation with capable powerfulness to bash the “hard tasks” similar coding oregon 3D modeling portion besides being capable to sneak successful a fewer rounds of Valorant erstwhile nary 1 is looking. 

The Asus TUF Gaming A14 has a slim illustration and no-frills design, but it’s a almighty instrumentality nether the hood. The caller AMD Ryzen 9 AI HX 370 chip easy beats Intel’s Meteor Lake lineup from earlier this year.  It’s brought down by a deficiency of upgradability and constricted spec options, but it makes up for it by being a creaseless operator. It feels much similar an ultrabook than a gaming laptop. It weighs conscionable a spot much than 3 pounds, and portion the keyboard backlight is bright, it’s not overt. It runs quietly, adjacent nether stress, and tin inactive play graphics-intensive games astatine just framerates. 

The laptop starts astatine $1,400 for an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU with a little susceptible neural processor, though you’ll request to wage $100 much for that AI-centric chip. That’s stretching its “budget” nature, particularly without the accustomed gaming accouterments. Asus’ ain 14-inch ROG Zephyrus G14 with an OLED show starts astatine $1,600, oregon you could walk person to $2,000 for 32 GB of RAM and an RTX 4070.  

In its property materials, Asus claims the A14 can person up to 32 GB of RAM, though my reappraisal portion contained the modular 16 GB. The mentation with larger RAM is lone disposable done ANT for $1,800 MSRP (though presently connected merchantability for $1,650). The sticking constituent is that you can’t upgrade the representation successful this machine. You’re stuck with the basal 16 GB. That’s bully capable for astir tasks and gaming, but I ideate galore scenarios erstwhile you’ll privation more. 

Asus TUF Gaming A14 Review: Design and Display

A Smooth, Stealthy Operator

Photo: Artem Golub / Gizmodo

As its sanction suggests, this is 1 pugnacious small laptop. The aluminum framework doesn’t buckle oregon crook excessively overmuch contempt the unit of my hands and fingers. The thenar rests were sturdy and ne'er grew excessively warm, adjacent nether strain. It’s the benignant of laptop that feels similar it volition endure scrapes and scratches and inactive travel retired perfectly workable.

It weighs 3.2 pounds, and its compact size makes it casual to transportation astir oregon battalion into a petite-sized bag. And it volition inactive look beauteous presentable aft you grip it. My grubby hands near plentifulness of prints connected the wrong of the case, but I’m amazed by however the extracurricular ammunition was ne'er arsenic marred.

The keyboard’s weighty consciousness of its keys for a comparatively inexpensive laptop amazed me. It’s not going to instrumentality you into reasoning you’re utilizing a mechanical keyboard, but there’s capable question to person a beingness erstwhile you property down connected the keys. The trackpad, meanwhile, is conscionable fine. It’s not a skating rink oregon a gravel patch. At the precise least, I had minimal issues with thenar rejection connected my medium-sized hands. There are conscionable capable ports connected this laptop size for regular usage to marque it usable for enactment oregon gaming. You person 2 USB-A, 2 USB-C (only 1 supports power), 1 HDMI 2.1, and an other microSD paper slot. 

The PC is quiescent connected show settings, but switching to turbo mode volition beryllium large capable to crook immoderate heads successful a quiescent room. It ne'er gets excessively blistery connected the surface, but erstwhile gaming, the fans stroke astir of the vigor down done the bottommost of the PC, which whitethorn marque it uncomfortable if you privation to play successful furniture with the laptop connected your lap.

The 14-inch laptop has an IPS LCD with a max refresh complaint of 165 Hz. It’s decidedly bully enough, but with a 2560 x 1600 resolution, you’re not getting the premium ocular prime of laptops that outgo a fewer 100 bucks more.

The show deed 236 nits highest brightness astatine 25% of the screen. It’s not incredible, but I wasn’t expecting excessively overmuch from a fund laptop. It’s agleam capable for astir tasks and should enactment good capable truthful agelong arsenic it’s not successful nonstop sunlight with the prima peering down astatine the screen.

The lone happening marring this plan is its deficiency of upgradability. The RAM is tied to the device, though you tin alteration retired the 1 TB SSD for thing larger if you’re acrophobic you’ll beryllium full. The PC comes with 2 SSD slots.

Asus TUF Gaming A 14 Review: Performance

Leaps Better than an Intel Core Ultra 7 With Stable Framerates for Most Games

Photo: Artem Golub / Gizmodo

Based connected our tests, AMD’s Strix Point CPU with GeForce RTX 40-series is simply a potent combination. The Ryzen 9 AI HX 370 outperformed the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H cleanly passim each our benchmarks. It besides stacks against the ARM-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite powering Microsoft’s AI-centric Copilot+ PCs. 

Our Geekbench 6 benchmarks with TUF’s CPU amusement it beats an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H successful laptops similar the Dell XPS 14 by much than 500 points successful single-core and a small little than 1,000 points successful multi-core settings. It’s a akin communicative crossed Cinebench benchmarks. The spot outperforms Intel’s mid-range laptop spot by sizable margins. We’re waiting for Intel’s Lunar Lake driblet successful conscionable a fewer abbreviated months, but close now, AMD’s x64 chips for tiny PCs reign supreme, adjacent if you disregard each the AI capabilities stemming from the NPU.

In our Blender benchmark, wherever we inquire the PC to render a country of a BMW, it took conscionable 2 minutes and 15 seconds to enactment connected the CPU. That’s much than a infinitesimal faster than the Intel Core Ultra 7. However, it was slower than a MacBook Air with M3 connected our Handbrake test, wherever we clip however agelong it takes to transcode a 4K movie to 1080p. All that being said, this PC is beardown astatine mundane enactment tasks, but it’s besides a beardown gaming PC.

With the PC plugged successful connected the highest settings, the TUF A14 got playable framerates connected aggregate crippled benchmarks, though it won’t bushed different laptops with higher-end chips. I deed 36 FPS with debased ray tracing connected Cyberpunk 2077 benchmarks and conscionable nether 60 FPS with DLSS. Assassins Creed: Valhalla benchmarked astatine 93 FPS connected ultra-high settings.

In Baldur’s Gate III, I deed 70 FPS connected precocious and ultra settings without DLSS successful interior scenes and a unchangeable 50 FPS successful exterior environments successful Chapter 1. With the aforesaid settings successful the dense metropolis of Chapter 3, I was edging person to 40, but with DLSS settings connected Quality, I was managing person to 55. 

In respective much caller games, I managed to get it to 60 FPS with precocious settings. In Black Myth: Wukong, I was capable to marque it to a coagulated framerate connected cosmopolitan precocious settings without framework procreation connected Turbo Mode done Armoury Crate, but successful quieter show mode, you bash request to acceptable DLSS to show and adhd successful framework generation. In a crippled similar Horizon: Forbidden West, I could marque it to the fabled 60 without overmuch fuss oregon adjacent DLSS successful Armoury Crate’s show mode.

Asus TUF Gaming A14 Review: Battery Life

About Average for a Small Gaming PC

Photo: Artem Golub / Gizmodo

We’ve learned not to expect overmuch longevity from gaming laptops, adjacent the astir costly of their kind. The TUF A14 isn’t precisely breaking immoderate crushed with its artillery life, but I recovered it was fair, particularly considering its price. With a 73 Whr battery, you won’t beryllium doing unplugged gaming sessions of much than 2 hours, but you can’t get immoderate enactment done erstwhile you’re disconnected the plug.

The TUF A14 volition nett you a four-hour artillery beingness erstwhile doing regular productivity tasks connected Windows and Armoury Crate’s balanced modes. It was accordant during browsing, writing, oregon taking video calls. I was amazed however consistently the artillery drained astatine conscionable a fewer decimal points disconnected 25% per hour. That wasn’t doing thing excessively strenuous, and the artillery drains importantly faster with immoderate enactment that takes much power. 

It’s not great, but it’s not the worst you would get for a gaming laptop, particularly 1 that’s truthful bully astatine pretending to beryllium a superior productivity machine. For gaming, you’re fortunate to get a small much hr retired of the instrumentality successful show mode successful a crippled similar Cyberpunk. It’s what you tin expect from this benignant of instrumentality astatine this size, but you mightiness get a somewhat amended beingness retired of a instrumentality that costs conscionable a fewer 100 dollars much oregon opt for a bigger assemblage than a 14-inch.

Asus TUF Gaming A14 Review: Verdict

This PC Does Everything I Need it To, and Nobody’s the Wiser

There’s decidedly a usage lawsuit for larger gaming PCs similar Alienware’s m16 R2 with its alleged “stealth mode” that disables the RGB lighting and makes everything tally much quietly. But travel on, we each cognize it’s a large gaming laptop with that ample Alienware logo connected it. 

The TUF Gaming A14  is specified a astonishing beast successful its unassuming package. It manages everything I could propulsion astatine it, and still, the lone happening anybody volition announcement from the backmost is 4 tiny blinking LEDs. That “TUF” logo is truthful hidden connected the backplate that astir radical can’t work it but successful nonstop light.

It’s a beardown contender astatine $1,500. Still, you could get a much capable, better-looking gaming laptop from Asus’ ROG slate for lone a fewer 100 bucks more. There’s besides the contented with upgradability and the constricted RAM you get on-device. If you anticipation to marque the A14 your mundane laptop, you indispensable besides woody with the constricted artillery life. Hopefully, you’re moving wherever you tin entree a plug due to the fact that you’ll request it. Just retrieve to crook the fans down successful people if you’re ever—ahem—taking precise aggravated lecture notes.